But did you know that he’s a bit obsessed by data? And by “data”, I mean personal data like how many emails he has sent, how many keystroke he has ever typed, phone calls he’s made, and even the number of steps he takes every day. And by “a bit,” I actually mean a lot. Like decades-worth of data:

One day I’m sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves. But because I’ve been interested in data for a very long time, I started doing this long ago. I actually assumed lots of other people were doing it too, but apparently they were not. And so now I have what is probably one of the world’s largest collections of personal data.

Every day—in an effort at “self awareness”—I have automated systems send me a few emails about the day before. But even though I’ve been accumulating data for years—and always meant to analyze it—I’ve never actually gotten around to doing it. But with Mathematica and the automated data analysis capabilities we just released in Wolfram|Alpha Pro, I thought now would be a good time to finally try taking a look—and to use myself as an experimental subject for studying what one might call “personal analytics”.

Let’s start off talking about email. I have a complete archive of all my email going back to 1989—a year after Mathematica was released, and two years after I founded Wolfram Research. Here’s a plot with a dot showing the time of each of the third of a million emails I’ve sent since 1989:

That white band is when Stephen is asleep (he changed his sleeping pattern in 2002)

Read more about Stephen’s personal analytics at his blog

Intelligent Automation developed the Multi-Arm Unmanned Ground Vehicle as a military robot to deal with bombs and such, but it may just have a hidden talent as a barber/hairdresser.

Here’s the Robot Hairdresser/Barber shaving a volunteer’s head to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity that raises money to find cures for childhood cancer.

Wally may be good at hiding from you and me, but can he hide from computers?  Stack Overflow user Heike used the power of Mathematica to come up with an algorithm that identifies the striped man, check out this article to find out more.

It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience. The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.
We’re psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone.

Some users are not happy about the acquisition, worried about Facebook’s ongoing privacy concerns. Whether or not those concerns will amount to anything remains to be seen.

What do you think about the acquisition? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Via Mashable