Bookmarks for May 27th through July 28th

These are my links for May 27th through July 28th:

  • Statistical Modeling: The Two Cultures – There are two cultures in the use of statistical modeling to reach conclusions from data. One assumes that the data are generated by a given stochastic data model. The other uses algorithmic models and treats the data mechanism as unknown. The statistical community has been committed to the almost exclusive use of data models. This commitment<br />
    has led to irrelevant theory, questionable conclusions, and has kept statisticians from working on a large range of interesting current problems. Algorithmic modeling, both in theory and practice, has developed rapidly in fields outside statistics. It can be used both on large complex data sets and as a more accurate and informative alternative to data modeling on smaller data sets. If our goal as a field is to use data to solve problems, then we need to move away from exclusive dependence on data models and adopt a more diverse set of tools.
  • Brief history of data visualization – Data visualization is a pretty literal term that means, quite simply, the visual representation of quantitative data. In this course we’ll learn common techniques for visualizing data, as well as some strategies for managing information digitally. But first, a brief history.
  • S. Thompson. Motif-index of folk-literature – a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends.
  • What is data science? – O’Reilly Radar – We’ve all heard it: according to Hal Varian, statistics is the next sexy job. Five years ago, in What is Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly said that “data is the next Intel Inside.” But what does that statement mean? Why do we suddenly care about statistics and about data?<br />
    <br />
    In this post, I examine the many sides of data science — the technologies, the companies and the unique skill sets.
  • [1005.0437] A Unifying View of Multiple Kernel Learning – Recent research on multiple kernel learning has lead to a number of approaches for combining kernels in regularized risk minimization. The proposed approaches include different formulations of objectives and varying regularization strategies. In this paper we present a unifying general optimization criterion for multiple kernel learning and show how existing formulations are subsumed as special cases. We also derive the criterion’s dual representation, which is suitable for general smooth optimization algorithms. Finally, we evaluate multiple kernel learning in this framework analytically using a Rademacher complexity bound on the generalization error and empirically in a set of experiments.

Bookmarks for March 23rd through April 12th

These are my links for March 23rd through April 12th:

  • Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics – These pages attempt to show the first uses of various words used in mathematics. Research for these pages is ongoing, and a citation should not be assumed to be the earliest use unless it is indicated as such.
  • The Illustrated Road to Serfdom – by Friedrich A. Hayek
  • cp42252001.pdf (application/pdf Object) – This article discusses the concept of information and its intimate relationship with physics. After an introduction of all the necessary quantum mechanical and information theoretical concepts we analyse Landauer’ s principle which states that the erasure of information is inevitably accompanied by the generation of heat. We employ this principle to rederive a number of results in classical and quantum information theory whose rigorous mathematical derivations are difficult. This demonstrates the usefulness of Landauer’ s principle and provides an introduction to the physical theory of information.
  • Data Marketplace : Find, buy and sell data online – Data Marketplace makes it easy for people to find, buy and sell data online.<br />
    <br />
    Most data must be aggregated, cleaned, and analyzed to extract useful information. It doesn’t make sense that the same person should do all of these things. Data Marketplace connects people who need data with people who are good at collecting, cleaning, and analyzing it.<br />
    <br />
    People request data that they need. Providers upload data to Data Marketplace, provide descriptive metadata, and set a price. Stored metadata is used to help consumers find relevant data through traditional search engines and when browsing the marketplace.

Bookmarks for February 26th through March 2nd

These are my links for February 26th through March 2nd:

  • Practical Foundations of Mathematics – Although it is mainly concerned with a framework essentially equivalent to intuitionistic ZF, the book looks forward to more subtle bases in categorical type theory and the machine representation of mathematics. Each idea is illustrated by wide-ranging examples, and followed critically along its natural path, transcending disciplinary boundaries between universal algebra, type theory, category theory, set theory, sheaf theory, topology and programming.
  • Economics of Information Technology – This is an overview of economic phenomena that are important for high-technology industries. Topics covered include personalization of products and prices, versioning, bundling, switching costs, lock-in, economies of scale, network effects, standards, and systems effects.

    Most of these phenomena are present in conventional industries, but they are particular important for technology-intensive industries. I provide a survey and review of recent literature and examine some implications of these phenomena for corporate strategy and public policy.

  • Stack Overflow – Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers – regardless of platform or language. It's 100% free, no registration required.
  • Deluge of scientific data needs to be curated for long-term use – To those who would say publish it on a Web page and let Google cache the page for posterity, Palmer argues that businesses don't have the orientation necessary for curating and preserving information for the really long term – say, for hundreds of years.

    Research libraries, on the other hand, have this mission and always have been committed to this.

    "The common perception is that keeping information online keeps it alive," Palmer said. "But someone, somewhere, has to maintain it and make it accessible and usable for researchers. It's not wise to rely on publishers or other commercial entities that have never really been in the business of preservation. Businesses can go out of business, and they're driven by commercial interests."

Bookmarks for January 18th through January 21st

These are my links for January 18th through January 21st:

  • How Likely Is Hyperinflation? — The American, A Magazine of Ideas – But does this mean that inflation may evolve into a hyperinflation in the United States? I believe not. Though it is true that budget deficits with government expenditures covered by 40 percent or more through credits have historically led to hyperinflation, it has been stressed in Monetary Regimes and Inflation that it is not only the size of these credits but also their composition that is important. .. the U.S. deficit, by far not all of the credits borrowed by the government were financed by the Fed. According to preliminary and rough estimates, not 40 percent but "only“ about 13 percent of U.S. expenditures are presently financed this way.
  • The truth about all those excess reserves | The Economist – ONE of the biggest challenges facing the Fed is widespread ignorance about how it actually operates. Inflation is falling, unemployment is 10%, yet some people think it’s running an inflationary policy because an extra $1 trillion of reserves are in the banking system.

    The misperception has only grown with yesterday’s announcement that the Fed would offer “term deposits” to banks as a way of draining some of the excess reserves its emergency operations have created. The move has been widely reported as aimed at keeping banks from lending the reserves out, which would spur inflation

  • Economagic: Economic Time Series Page – This page is meant to be a comprehensive site of free, easily available economic time series data useful for economic research, in particular economic forecasting. This site (set of web pages) was started in 1996 to help students in an Applied Forecasting class. The idea was to give students easy access to large amounts of data, and to be able to quickly get charts of that data. This is also useful during class, so that when we use the computer and overhead projector facility in class, we can quickly retrieve series and do manipulations in class.

    At this time, there are more than 200,000 time series for which data and custom charts can be retrieved. Though the greatest utility of this site is the vast number of economic time series, and the easily modified charts of that same data, an overlooked facility of great utility is the availability of Excel files for all series.

  • Elance | Hire experts to do your work: outsource to companies, consultants and freelance professionals. – Hire, manage and pay experts to do your work.
    Find work. Deliver results. Get paid.
  • Philosophical Methodologies.pdf (application/pdf Object) – Methodology is understood here to include methods, approaches, and styles, which are not always easy to separate. This article deals with all three, focusing on ones that have been influential in Australasia, or have developed there, through the efforts of thinkers who have either been born in Australasia, or trained or worked there for a significant period: conceptual analysis, reflective equilibrium, and naturalism

Bookmarks for December 14th from 10:36 to 10:53

These are my links for December 14th from 10:36 to 10:53:

  • The PhilPapers Surveys – The PhilPapers Survey was a survey of professional philosophers and others on their philosophical views, carried out in November 2009. The Survey was taken by 3226 respondents, including 1803 philosophy faculty members and/or PhDs and 829 philosophy graduate students.

    The PhilPapers Metasurvey was a concurrent survey of professional philosophers and other concerning their predictions of the results of the Survey. The Metasurvey was taken by 727 respondents including 438 professional philosophers and PhDs and 210 philosophy graduate students.

    Preliminary results and discussion are included below. Further results and analysis will be made available in coming months.

  • UC Davis Philosophy 102, Theory of Knowledge: Table of Contents for Lecture Notes – The subject of this course is what has come to be called "theory of knowledge" or "epistemology." The two names are interchangeable in common use. (A similar pair of terms for philosophical disciplines is 'theory of value' (or 'value theory') and the little-used 'axiology.') Until the nineteenth century, there had been no special term to indicate the study of knowledge as such, even though knowledge had been studied from the very beginning of Western philosophy . The word "epistemology" was coined by James Ferrier in his 1856 book Institutes of Metaphysics. The root word 'episteme' in Greek means 'knowledge,' while the '-ology' suffix signifies, roughly, 'study of.' Compare terms such as 'biology' (study of life), 'geology' (study of the earth), etc. Shortly after Ferrier, Eduard Zeller in 1862 introduced the German word 'Erkenntnistheorie' in Ueber Aufgabe und Bedeutung der Erkenntnistheorie. This word is translated into English as "theory of knowledge."
  • Human or Cylon? Group testing on Battlestar Galactica (application/pdf Object) – Does statistics have a place though in the world of science fiction? Because science fiction writers try to merge the sci-fi world with the real world in a believable way, one might think that statistics could make a significant contribution to solving sci-fi problems.

    In the hit Sci Fi Network television show, the new Battlestar Galactica (a re-imagined version of the 1970’s show), there is an attempt to use science to solve a very important problem. Due to the excessive amount of time the proposed solution would take to complete, it is deemed impractical and never implemented. This paper shows how the problem could have been solved instead using a statistical technique called “group testing.” Scientists use this technique to solve many real-world problems, including the screening of blood donations for diseases. When applied to the problem on Battlestar Galactica, it will be shown that group testing could have a made dramatic difference to the course of the show

  • The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas – Magazine – NYTimes.com – Once again, The Times Magazine looks back on the past year from our favored perch: ideas. Like a magpie building its nest, we have hunted eclectically, though not without discrimination, for noteworthy notions of 2009 — the twigs and sticks and shiny paper scraps of human ingenuity, which, when collected and woven together, form a sort of cognitive shelter, in which the curious mind can incubate, hatch and feather. Unlike birds, we can also alphabetize. And so we hereby present, from A to Z, the most clever, important, silly and just plain weird innovations we carried back from all corners of the thinking world. To offer a nonalphabetical option for navigating the entries, this year we have attached tags to each item indicating subject matter.