Where are the big roofs for Solar? A mathematical look at pulling data from OpenStreetMap

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about solar and more renewable energy. In USA the recent IRA has provisions for extending solar and renewable energy, and the Florida governor last year supported Solar benefits which turn out to be helpful in many natural disasters, making an energy grid more easily self-sustainable after hurricanes that are common to that state. What if we could go over a map and see what buildings are the best candidates for solar generation? OpenStreetMap has not just street maps, but many other features, including building coordinates, which can give us polygons that can calculate areas for potential solar!

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ChatGPT is bad at math? Turns out, so is Microsoft’s assistant.

Recently it was noted, by Arstechnica and others, that ChatGPT doesn’t seem to be great at math questions – recent tests have found one can get wrong answers much more often than a calculator, and even apologize if you insist that it is wrong (suggesting it doesn’t know math after 2021… lol). but what about other similar assistants?

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NodeRed for Onstar access for GM/Chevy vehicle access

In recent years there has been a surge in popularity of Chevrolet vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt and, coming soon, the Equinox EV. There has also been increased popularity for Linux phones like the Librem phone, but unfortunately there has been no equivalent for the “myChevrolet” app for your own computer or Linux-phone… unless you know where to look.

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Knime conference coming up

Next week the KNIME fall conference will be happening, Nov 14-16. For mathematicians or anyone wanting to look at some useful AI/Machine learning tools, this should be an informative conference! I’ve seen some previous sessions with interesting demos and overviews of new features they add to this open-source tool. Virtual passes are free to the live-streamed event! If it is like past online lessons, it is likely they will also be available later from their Youtube channel page.

Update: Check the videos here!