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Earth
DETAILED WEATHER ON A GLOBAL SCALE.
earth.nullschool.netWeather apps are fairly ubiquitous at this point, but for the great majority
of us, we’re rarely looking beyond our own suburb, let alone city. This
website focuses much more on the macro and is completely mesmerising
as a result. You can view the entire planet, in a variety of different 2D or
3D views, and select a huge range of different data to overlay on top of it.
This ranges from the relatively simple wind and temperature
measurements to some more advanced metrics such as air particulates
and currently-occurring auroras. The data is taken from a number of
publicly available sources and is “forecast by supercomputers” and
updated on the map at regular intervals, depending on which particular
data-set is being used. When scanning the map, you can zoom in and
drop a pin anywhere you’d like, learning information about that specific
zone, or you can sit back and soak in the majesty of the whole shebang
and its overarching patterns.My Noise
THE MOST FULLY-FEATURED BACKGROUND NOISE AVAILABLE.
mynoise.netFor those that find a bit of background noise to be useful – from sleep
to study – this site has everything you could want and more. The site
is host to a database of sound-sets that are categorised into the
situation they’re most suited to. This could be for focussing, calming
down, meditation, inspiration, and even conditions such as ADHD
and tinnitus, the latter of which was very effective for a few of my
friends who suffer from the condition. When you’ve selected a set,
you can adjust the volume of a number of different elements of the
environment (the background chatter or clinking of glasses in a cafe,
for instance). It’s also possible to automate these adjustments so that
your environment is constantly (albeit subtly) evolving as you listen- a perfect remedy for those that can’t handle repetition in their
noises. It’s easy enough to find a sample of white noise on YouTube
and listen to that on repeat, but this site’s full feature-set makes for a
refreshing take on the service.
Nvidia AI Playground
HAVE SOME FUN WITH VISUAL AI ALGORITHMS.
nvidia-research-mingyuliu.comYou might know Nvidia for its dominance in the graphics card
field, but the company is also heavily invested in optimisation and
AI research. This site allows you to try out a few of its different
models, and this specific URL links to its GauGAN Beta.
Essentially, the tool allows you to sketch in environmental elements
on one page – sky, sea, snow, stone, mountains etc. – and have that
realised by AI on an adjacent panel. You can select a variety of
different variables to change the style of the machine translation,
some of which affect things such as lighting and scenery, and other
modifiers impart the style of a specific painting or sketch. The
results are far from perfect, as is the case with any AI beta at this
point, but it’s incredible to see what can be achieved nonetheless. It’s
worth noting that you’ll need to agree to the terms and conditions
at the foot of the page in order to use this service, which include
“agreeing that Nvidia may store, use, and redistribute the uploaded
file”.[ SPIFFY STUFF FROM AROUND THE WEB ]Site insight
OUR MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF THE WEB’S
MOST ILLUMINATING, USEFUL, OR
JUST-PLAIN-COOL WEBSITES.
[ HARRY DOMANSKI ]
DISCOVERSITEINSIGHT