Disqus - Latest Comments for sdbo

Re: Machine Learning: A Love Story

Joseph Abrahamson — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:57:59 -0000

I was joking a bit since there's a tendency for statistical techniques to become far more interesting and monetizable the moment you call it ML. In all honesty you're absolutely right; the sorts of probability calculi that were developed in statistical fields are an enormous boon to ML generating tons of models, providing a flexible framework to create new ones within, and even giving powerful interpretations of models that were generated without considering the probabilistic interpretation.

Any discriminator between the two fields is liable to misclassify heavily at the best of times and still be very non-robust.

Re: Machine Learning: A Love Story

Joseph Abrahamson — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:23:45 -0000

Whenever and wherever they still call it statistics!

Actually, more seriously, it took some big historical hits for being rather too optimistic and then taking 20 years to come through on a fraction of what was promised.

Re: //1/

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:20:57 -0000

Testing testing testing, god this font does not work for comments!

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/888563053

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:27:04 -0000

At the same time, it's an interesting world where they do not. So far as big institutions go, only academics and government rival corporation. As corporations strive to cut ties from government, academic board positions provide one option for cross-pollenation.

The article mentions outside influence and diversity. I can see a lot of it boiling down to the many positive externalities of network effects — even if the costs of network maintenance are high, the benefits are often numerous and difficult to replicate.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/885751993

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:58:02 -0000

Between that and the Pachabel Rant[1] you've got 45% of all songs written and 5 chords.

[1] Of course, http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/806794536

Joseph Abrahamson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:06:09 -0000

Hell — Handbasket

Saint Luey; Joplin, Missouri; Oklahoma City; Amarillo; Gallup, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona; Winona; Kingman; Barstow; San Bernandino; California, and (to) Get Your Kicks — Route 66

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/777639035

Joseph Abrahamson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:14:27 -0000

It's not about turning the keel. It's about getting on that other, classier ship that learned a whole lot from the 20s and 30s, right right?

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/762149763

Joseph Abrahamson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:17:02 -0000

Everyone gets a massive tax break and HAS to go on a two day vacation.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/762149763

Joseph Abrahamson — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:58:35 -0000

I respect the chutzpah, both on the part of Snoop Dog and, especially, on the part of — Lithuania.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/718844892

Joseph Abrahamson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:05:42 -0000

Katherine, watching this video is like when we were in AP Psychology and I spent a solid week while finishing my current read trying to get the tiniest shred of detail out of you about that book. Of course, Ishiguro is every bit as precise and particular as you grinning intoned.

So if someone doesn't understand the video, good, great, wonderful. Just wait.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/644599818

Joseph Abrahamson — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:44:19 -0000

Oops —

I try not to make a big deal about it. It is kind of a big deal, I honestly believe, but I also think it's important to not let it get me carried away in a post-rampant-consumerism-gadget-high.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/704892604

Joseph Abrahamson — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:26:07 -0000

I'm bouncing between Sleigh Bells' Treats when I feel crazy, Umoja Orchestra's Dinner at the Republic when I feel latin, and the new Band of Horses Infinite Arms when it's time to curl up in my mental log cabin and watch some stars.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/701437297

Joseph Abrahamson — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:55:57 -0000

The process pictures at the bottom are wonderful! More than just the finished designs, I love to see the path people walked along. Also that one with the CD is a little outdated today, but would have been PERFECT in the 90s.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/677259290

Joseph Abrahamson — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:22:52 -0000

Then again, what also blew me away while there is how quickly the buildings drop away once you cross the Pu. After you guys went down to Hangzhou, I visited Century Park and the Shanghai Science and Technology museum way out in the middle of nowhere a mere subway stop or two away from the Oriental Pearl Tower.

I'm always left speechless as I trying to gather my thoughts about that place.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/662850173

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:09:28 -0000

Then again, bureaucracies work via layers of "leadership".

Take a look at this essay that's makes some interesting if hyperbolic points: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2...

The gist of it is that in certain pathological bureaucratic circumstances you end up with unmotivated Losers who might actually have a drive to do something constructive but fail to because they don't have something Real to protect, the Clueless who act as middle "leadership" and promote the intentional sloth and waste of bureaucracies, and then the truly leading Sociopaths who have the drive, power, control, and dream that it takes to sacrifice a lot of yourself for the sake really moving the organization forward.

It's super fascinating.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/627247862

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:53:03 -0000

Maybe he's just trying to edge in on the lucrative begging market.

Actually on a train in Beijing it's a pretty common panhandling tactic to have some kind of disfigured person go around asking for money while another follows them singing. What's disgusting though is that more often than not the guy singing has some really nice audio equipment in his backpack. I one time saw a 6 channel preamp which is maybe 1400 yuan retail which I could have eaten out with for 3-or-so months.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/644599818

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:44:52 -0000

I bought my iPad explicitly for reading scientific papers. I cannot wait to see how that technology evolves.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/644674420

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:43:34 -0000

To add to the story of hiking, it's important to mention the Appalachian Trail culture where this sort of thing goes further. Along the AT, stretching from Georgia to Maine, are a number of (nice) wooden shelters built for through-hikers. Any time you stop at one of them in the afternoon in the right season you'll see them slowly transform into mountain parties where 10 or 30 strangers and friends spontaneously get together to talk after walking quietly all day.

There's got to be something to the combination of the shared trial of surviving a mountain hike and the relaxation that stems from it.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/644599818

Joseph Abrahamson — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:37:09 -0000

Typography is almost necessarily physical. We literally haven't gotten a screen dense enough to make real typography make any sense, so that's a great example.

I can read on my iPad for a few days without charging, but I do think there is one possibility for why a philosophical book is absolutely not translatable to a digital medium. Sometimes you just have to write in books.

Then again, now I just see a great opportunity for an iPad app.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/627013479

Joseph Abrahamson — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:07:17 -0000

Didn't that entire bridge collapse once by resonance? Tacoma Narrows.

I suppose in engineering we're always going to be fighting the Law of Unintended Consequences — you can only ever predict so far. Maybe another question is how do you ever know that you've pushed the design down to failing only on a specific car at a specific speed with a specific temperature?

Maybe I'm just glad I don't build bridges.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/627247862

Joseph Abrahamson — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:00:38 -0000

Who really thinks that closely of beggars? I'd believe that, especially in a place that isn't used to someone panhandling, they're just going to go into partial attentive avoidance mode.

Someone doesn't appear to have showered in a while in left perhipheral vision: STEER RIGHT STEER RIGHT!

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/612274318

Joseph Abrahamson — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:25:25 -0000

Have you done one of these? I think it's worth a trip to NYC!

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/601382888

Joseph Abrahamson — Sat, 15 May 2010 15:20:44 -0000

I'm now trying to decide if this guy doesn't have close to the perfect job.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/598739513

Joseph Abrahamson — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:02:25 -0000

"Not that you can go back" is the most interesting bit. I think it's also a part of not even being able to really stop going forward. Which brings to mind something like the situation in Speed, though I never actually saw that movie.

Maybe the trick is to just get out of the city, away from heavy, unmoving objects.

Re: http://thinlyspread.tumblr.com/post/597472540

Joseph Abrahamson — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:12:49 -0000

Contrary to the image, I found Beijing to be a very dark city after 11p and it become very easy to see the stars. Certain areas certainly don't fit that bill, but like any city that grows up so fast infrastructure like lights and such is not spread evenly throughout the burghs.