These are my links for June 17th through June 18th: Random Walk / Daniel A. Becker – RANDOM WALK asks this question and presents experiments in mathematics and physics, showing the mysterious interaction of chaos and order in randomness. The project RANDOM WALK simulates randomness in visualizations, which are easy to understand. In this way, it delivers insight into a phenomenon, which has so far remained unexplained. Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Typologies are Misleading (application/pdf Object) – In the following sections, we review Stevens’s taxonomy and provide definitions; many have used these terms without clarifying their exact meaning. We […]
Monthly Archives: June 2009
These are my links for June 17th from 11:55 to 14:14: Dataspora Blog – Big Data, open source analytics, and data visualization IrfanView – IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7. Hunch – At the core of Hunch is a question selection algorithm built by our small gaggle of MIT computer scientists with backgrounds in machine learning. The algorithm is always asking itself, "What can I ask you next which will lead to the best possible result for this […]
Herman Rubin has five commandments that he posted on UseNet from time to time: For the client: 1. Thou shalt know that thou must make assumptions. 2. Thou shalt not believe thy assumptions. For the consultant: 3. Thou shalt not make thy client’s assumptions for him. 4. Thou shalt inform thy client of the consequences of his assumptions. For the person who is both (e. g., a biostatistician or psychometrician): 5. Thou shalt keep thy roles distinct, lest thou violate some of the other commandments. From the comments over at Andrew Gelman’s Blog.
These are my links for June 17th from 11:29 to 11:31: An Introduction to MCMC for Machine Learning.pdf (application/pdf Object) – Abstract. This purpose of this introductory paper is threefold. First, it introduces the Monte Carlo method with emphasis on probabilistic machine learning. Second, it reviews the main building blocks of modern Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation, thereby providing and introduction to the remaining papers of this special issue. Lastly, it discusses new interesting research horizons. Abstract for “Probabilistic Inference using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods” – Blurb”In this review, I outline the role of probabilistic inference in artificial intelligence, […]
 “Management” means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folklore and superstition, and of cooperation for force. . .  Peter Drucker, People and Performance American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 – 2005) This is certainly a pleasant sentiment, but my experience has supported a Peter Principle type understanding of management in the real world.
A new Mersenne prime has been found with the assistance of distributed computing: A computer professional in Norway, with the help of an online computing project, has discovered a new Mersenne prime. This sought-after number represents the 47th Mersenne prime discovered since ancient Greek mathematicians first uncovered them. (See the NPR story for details) A Mersenne prime is a positive integer satisfying the following equation while also being prime: $$ M_n=2^n-1.\ $$ n must be prime too, as a matter of consequence. The new number is about 13 million digits long and would require 3,461 pages to display the number […]