Today’s post is over on the USV blog: We are endorsing Hillary Clinton as a team. We explain why we are taking this unusual step. Here is my previous personal endorsement.

Today’s post is over on the USV blog: We are endorsing Hillary Clinton as a team. We explain why we are taking this unusual step. Here is my previous personal endorsement.

Today the team at Clarifai is releasing an amazing second version of their API that makes two breakthroughs available to every developer: custom training and fast visual search. The beauty of Clarifai’s API when it first launched was that you could be up and running in minutes and get great results with their models. But what if you wanted to train your own concepts? Well, if you were a bigger customer willing to pay, Clarifai would train a custom model for you. With the newly released versio...

Today the team at Clarifai is releasing an amazing second version of their API that makes two breakthroughs available to every developer: custom training and fast visual search. The beauty of Clarifai’s API when it first launched was that you could be up and running in minutes and get great results with their models. But what if you wanted to train your own concepts? Well, if you were a bigger customer willing to pay, Clarifai would train a custom model for you. With the newly released versio...

Today Uncertainty Wednesday continues with limits to observations. Limits to observations are — along with limits to explanations — the key sources of uncertainty that we face. Following the discussion of foundational limits to observations from last week, next up is observational resolution (this is a category I forgot in my initial list). Last year we went on an amazing trip to India. One of the many highlights was a visit to the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Right in the middle of the city are ...

Today Uncertainty Wednesday continues with limits to observations. Limits to observations are — along with limits to explanations — the key sources of uncertainty that we face. Following the discussion of foundational limits to observations from last week, next up is observational resolution (this is a category I forgot in my initial list). Last year we went on an amazing trip to India. One of the many highlights was a visit to the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Right in the middle of the city are ...

So far in Uncertainty Wednesday we have seen two different limits on observations: the foundational limit that all observation necessarily entails compression of reality and the further compression resulting from the resolution of measurement. Today we will look at measurement error as a limit on observation. Thanks to a tweet from a reader, I have the perfect opening example for today. The following is from a show call 99% Invisible, which had an episode called “On Average” that has the foll...

So far in Uncertainty Wednesday we have seen two different limits on observations: the foundational limit that all observation necessarily entails compression of reality and the further compression resulting from the resolution of measurement. Today we will look at measurement error as a limit on observation. Thanks to a tweet from a reader, I have the perfect opening example for today. The following is from a show call 99% Invisible, which had an episode called “On Average” that has the foll...

Yesterday evening, Allen Lau from Wattpad helped me organize a small casual dinner with other entrepreneurs and investors in Toronto. We have three existing investments in Toronto: Wattpad and Figure 1 in the city and Kik in Waterloo. Toronto has all the makings of a great ecosystem for tech startups and I am sure over time we will be finding more exciting companies here: 1. There are schools with excellent engineering programs, including the world renowned Waterloo and University of Toronto ...

Yesterday evening, Allen Lau from Wattpad helped me organize a small casual dinner with other entrepreneurs and investors in Toronto. We have three existing investments in Toronto: Wattpad and Figure 1 in the city and Kik in Waterloo. Toronto has all the makings of a great ecosystem for tech startups and I am sure over time we will be finding more exciting companies here: 1. There are schools with excellent engineering programs, including the world renowned Waterloo and University of Toronto ...

The 2016 Presidential race is not a typical election between two candidates based on the merits of their positions on key issues. Instead, it is a stark choice between Hillary Clinton, whose positions you may disagree with, but who is firmly grounded in the democratic and scientific tradition that has made America great, and Donald Trump, a candidate born from reality television who is an autocratic demagogue willfully ignoring science and intentionally trashing any rational discourse. At a t...

The 2016 Presidential race is not a typical election between two candidates based on the merits of their positions on key issues. Instead, it is a stark choice between Hillary Clinton, whose positions you may disagree with, but who is firmly grounded in the democratic and scientific tradition that has made America great, and Donald Trump, a candidate born from reality television who is an autocratic demagogue willfully ignoring science and intentionally trashing any rational discourse. At a t...

The IPO process is pre-Internet and that needs to change ASAP. With the tech IPO window open we are once again being treated to the maddening spectacle of the opening pop in which the first trade price is massively above the IPO price. All sorts of theories are proffered for why that is rational and the right thing to do. It isn’t. In the year 2016 here is how a company should go public. The company, with the help of banks, brokers and the exchange should build a complete buy and sell order b...

The IPO process is pre-Internet and that needs to change ASAP. With the tech IPO window open we are once again being treated to the maddening spectacle of the opening pop in which the first trade price is massively above the IPO price. All sorts of theories are proffered for why that is rational and the right thing to do. It isn’t. In the year 2016 here is how a company should go public. The company, with the help of banks, brokers and the exchange should build a complete buy and sell order b...

One of the key criteria for the longterm success of any computer system would seem to be stability. For instance, if there is an app that crashes your phone you will use it less or even uninstall it. While it is frustrating when this happens, it is quite amazing that computer systems have any stability at all given their complexity. Compared to most systems that humans had previously created, computers are by far the most complex, especially once you factor in the software that runs on them. ...

One of the key criteria for the longterm success of any computer system would seem to be stability. For instance, if there is an app that crashes your phone you will use it less or even uninstall it. While it is frustrating when this happens, it is quite amazing that computer systems have any stability at all given their complexity. Compared to most systems that humans had previously created, computers are by far the most complex, especially once you factor in the software that runs on them. ...

As a quick reminder for those who may have missed the beginning, Uncertainty Wednesday is a series about, well, uncertainty. We are in the middle of limits on observations. To understand why these matter and how they relate to uncertainty, you should go back to the initial post in the series which lays out a framework. So far we have covered the following limitations on observations: foundational, resolution and measurement error. Today we will cover the cost of observation. One reaction to t...

As a quick reminder for those who may have missed the beginning, Uncertainty Wednesday is a series about, well, uncertainty. We are in the middle of limits on observations. To understand why these matter and how they relate to uncertainty, you should go back to the initial post in the series which lays out a framework. So far we have covered the following limitations on observations: foundational, resolution and measurement error. Today we will cover the cost of observation. One reaction to t...

Yesterday evening Susan, our older son Michael and I had just returned from dinner at a nearby restaurant when we heard a very loud boom and it felt like the windows and floor briefly shook. My immediate thought was that this was an explosion. The sound of sirens shortly thereafter confirmed that something bad had happened. I quickly checked Twitter and searched for “explosion” – there were many other people from our neighborhood on Twitter already asking questions. I then stepped out into th...

Yesterday evening Susan, our older son Michael and I had just returned from dinner at a nearby restaurant when we heard a very loud boom and it felt like the windows and floor briefly shook. My immediate thought was that this was an explosion. The sound of sirens shortly thereafter confirmed that something bad had happened. I quickly checked Twitter and searched for “explosion” – there were many other people from our neighborhood on Twitter already asking questions. I then stepped out into th...