I’ve been playing around with some more neural network algorithms lately, which has given me yet another chance to revisit a machine learning library. Since Java 8 is due later this month, I’ve decided it’s time to take the plunge and start using it. Overall, I don’t think I’m leveraging it whatsoever. I know it [...]
Repost: Godwin’s Law, expanded
Recently, I had a discussion with someone in which I took a position that is not representative of my actual thought on a matter, against a rather … energetic opposing point. In it, Godwin’s Law was in full evidence, along with some corollaries; partly inspired by the corollaries, I’d like to propose an addendum to [...]
Repost: Graduation rates in college football
Wouldn’t it be awesome if the contracts for college football coaches paid out at the graduation rate experienced by their players? It’d have to be tweaked, of course; it’d be unfair to punish an incoming coach for the poor graduation rates of his predecessor. But imagine: the first year, you might pay the coach 100% [...]
Repost: A brilliant new film idea
Inspired by the apparent congruence between the book World War Z and the film World War Z, I was struck by an imaginary conversation that led me to a very marketable idea. Here’s the conversation: “Let’s call it ‘Tom Sawyer.'” “But the main character’s named Philip MacGillicuddy, and it’s about an invasion of flying robotic [...]
Repost: Rocket Java: What is Map/Reduce?
Map/Reduce is a strategy by which one uses a divide-and-conquer approach to handling data. The division is normally provided along natural lines, and it can provide some really impressive performance gains. The way it does this is by limiting the selection of data for which processing applies. Here’s a good way to think of it, [...]
Repost: Geddy Lee’s weird bass is a Precision!
Today I read an article from Guitar Player, from 1980, where Geddy Lee solved a question I’ve had for years, about what kind of bass was featured in a number of pictures. See the bass immediately to his right? It looks like a teardrop. I’ve seen color pictures; it’s sort of a light blue gradient; [...]
Repost: Java sucks without semantic awareness
This is a short post from TheServerSide.com that I’d written way back in 2008. It was written in humor, which many who read it did not quite understand, but the point remains for those who wish to see it: A conversation with someone highlighted yet another problem with Java, a fatal one: Java’s lack of [...]
Repost: Seventeen seconds is all you get?
This statement really surprised me: 5. Refuse to interrupt. Recent research has indicated that the average individual listens for only seventeen seconds before interrupting and interjecting his own ideas… (from “The Five Love Languages Men’s Edition“, Gary Chapman, 2009) I don’t have a page number for that reference; I was reading via Kindle for Android. [...]
Repost: Open Source and football
My son has joined a local football team. I try to be an involved dad, so I’m trying my hand at helping to coach. He’s surprisingly good at defensive end; I’m very proud of him. However, in their most recent practice (Thursday), something stood out to me. We were running a half-line; basically the center, [...]
Repost: Review, Outies
I’m presently reading Jennifer Pournelle’s “Outies,” via Amazon’s Cloud Reader service. I’m a big fan of her father’s and Larry Niven’s Mote series (consisting of “The Mote in God’s Eye” and “The Gripping Hand“) and I was really looking forward to a new installment… if it lived up to the merit of its predecessors. It [...]