Comment: Re:Much ado ... (Score 1) 78
Epsilon-greedy is one of the most well-known algorithms in machine learning. I'd heard of it before, but I didn't know how it works (I dropped AI after 2nd year), but I do now.
Comment: Re:Much ado ... (Score 1) 78
Clever, retort sir, however might I interest you in a long forgotten theory of economics that something bought or sold might possibly have greater value, than that of the mechanism by which it is sold.
Which is why advertising and marketing are such underfunded spheres of public endeavour....
Can Machine Learning Replace Focus Groups?->
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itwbennett
itwbennett writes "In a blog post, Steve Hanov explains how 20 lines of code can outperform A/B testing. Using an example from one of his own sites, Hanov reports a green button outperformed orange and white buttons. Why don't people use this method? Because most don't understand or trust machine learning algorithms, mainstream tools don't support it, and maybe because bad design will sometimes win."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
IT Desktop Support To Be Wiped Out Thanks To Cloud Computing-> 1
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Tech industry experts are saying that tech jobs with desktop support in the Information Technology department will be declining sharply thanks to cloud computing. Why is this happening? A large majority of companies and government agencies will rely on the cloud for more than half of their IT services by 2020, according to Gartner’s 2011 CIO Agenda Survey."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Do Headphones Help or Hurt Productivity?
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by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Derek Thompson writes that there is an excellent chance that right now you are wearing, or within arm's reach of, a pair of headphones or earbuds. To visit a modern office place is to walk into a room with a dozen songs playing simultaneously but to hear none of them and in survey after survey, office workers report with confidence that music makes us happier, better at concentrating, and more productive. But science says we're full of it writes Thompson. "Listening to music hurts our ability to recall other stimuli, and any pop song — loud or soft — reduces overall performance for both extraverts and introverts." So if headphones are so bad for productivity, why do so many people at work have headphones? The answer is that personal music creates a shield both for listeners and for those walking around us says Thompson. "I am here, but I am separate. In a wreck of people and activity, two plastic pieces connected by a wire create an aura of privacy." We assume that people wearing them are busy or oblivious, so now people wear them to appear busy or oblivious — even without music. Wearing soundless headphones is now a common solution to productivity blocks. "If music evolved as a social glue for the species — as a way to make groups and keep them together — headphones allow music to be enjoyed friendlessly — as a way to savor our privacy, in heightened solitude," concludes Thompson. "In a crowded world, real estate is the ultimate scarce resource, and a headphone is a small invisible fence around our minds — making space, creating separation, helping us listen to ourselves.""
Comment: Re:Wrong path? (Score 2) 27
by
Half-pint HAL
(#40157037)
Attached to: Researcher Develops Chemical Circuit Using Ion Transistors
It's funny that scientists try to create ion transistors and DNA-based computers. Nature has found other ways to process information, though. Trying to "replicate" electronic circuitry using biologic systems has all the drawbacks of both approaches and little if any of the benefits.
Science has come up with lots of interesting ideas that have been of no practical value in and of themselves that have turned out to be prerequisites for later innovations. For the most useless of the useless, take Prince Rupert's Drops -- beads of glass that are of no use beyond a simple party trick. And yet there's the possibility of making that if we ever start manufacturing things in space, we might be able to produce perfectly spherical Rupert Drops, practically indestructable ball-bearings.
Comment: Re:Very, very interesting - but.... (Score 1) 657
Your analogy is flawed. If you can't display your photos, you can't use them. It's likely saying it's my fault I got my wallet picked from my pocket because if I put it in a pocket (the best functional place for a wallet) then it's available to anyone who knows how to pick pockets, so I shouldn't expect legal protection.
Comment: Re:they are giving you credit now (Score 1) 657
Then don't leave it somewhere that anyone can pick up and use it.
Put a big friggin watermark over it, anything but posting the image online where it can be copied freely and infinitely at no cost.
Do you think that argument would work if I printed out the Coca-Cola label (available as an image on-line that can be copied freely and infinitely, remember) and stuck it on some cans of supermarket own-brand cola?
Comment: Re:they are giving you credit now (Score 1) 657
Now, this technically is copyright infringement, but when it's for personal use (this case doesn't exactly fit that, but many would argue non-profit use should be included in Fair Use) there is simply no harm to the copyright owner.
Not true. An image loses some of its impact when overused. The image in question is an exceptionally good photograph. If it was part of the brand imaging for one company, it would have a very high impact. If everyone in Houston was making Nya-cat videos with it is a backdrop and every Houston trader used it as their website background, it would lose that impact. With the loss of impact comes loss of value, and the copyright holder can be harmed by loss of earnings if he at any point seeks to monetise the IP assets, as is his right.
Comment: Re:Photographer should say "Go ahead" (Score 1) 657
He didn't fully automate -- he described it as a "cookie cutter process". Plus the DMCA route meant he had an unambiguous point of contact to deal with -- the ISP. It would have taken a lot of research to find the appropriate people within each company to write a "friendly letter" to.