A Journeyman, I Am

I've been interested in machine learning for a while. I started learning on my own, through online resources, and by trying to implement algorithms that seemed interesting. Soon this wasn't enough. Just seeing algorithms work is great, but I NEEDED more, I needed to understand why and how, or a at least the basic logic behind. Where did I turn? MOOC's and textbooks.

I enjoyed taking MOOC's, they gave me nice, followable overviews of general topics. The problem was, they were often too general. Textbooks came to the rescue when I once again required a deeper view.

This here is a short, but genuine 'roadmap' as the website names it.
http://metacademy.org/roadmaps/cjrd/level-up-your-ml

I recommend anyone interested in learning more about Machine Learning to start by picking up a textbook. The listed books provide a nice place to get started with ML depending on your existing level of knowledge. Even if not from this list, pick a textbook and stick with it. You can learn so much by soaking in the knowledge down to the spine of the textbook. Turn to other books as you need deeper understanding of specific topics.

Me?

I'm currently at a journeyman level in this list. The textbook I've been going through over the last month was Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, and turns out the list would have given me the same book :D I will try the capstone project after getting a little more comfortable with the textbook contents, and have a little time to play around with what I learned.

Learn and play and learn more... No matter what the textbook is, thats a journey I'd like to continue.

The Hack-a-tude

Just working on something. Something, anything. And being utterly happy about it. It doesn't matter where your life is going, what age you are; you are a maker and you love it. That is being a hacker.

Perhaps I've been reading too much about the life of Nikola Tesla, or maybe have been wandering too much through DIY sites and Makezine challenges but I really find true beauty within bits and pieces everyday objects and what can be done with them. Transforming inanimate objects to interact with a person, give them life-like characteristics, its almost like magic. And being the one to see objects all around you with the potential they posses to change your life, it is hard not to feel like a magician.

A hacker does not need a problem to solve, problems which are perhaps not even thought about are solved on their own because of the curiosity of the hacker. What if I put this here and connected to that? How does that thing over there work? Wouldn't it be great if this could work like that as well? These are the questions that commonly pass through the mind of a hacker; the this-that are actual objects of course, and the process of thought can often be much much more complicated, however you get the idea. You get lost in doing stuff and the possibilities of what could be done. The results turn out to be very useful or even life changing every now and then. I'm not saying hacking cannot be done in a problem oriented manner, but that the nature of the hacker lies within the constant interaction of the mind with the environment.

Tesla in Colorado Spring Laboratory
(from http://www.teslasociety.com/nikolapic.jpg)

Just imagine Tesla thinking what if I add a resonant circuit to these coils? With the background he had he probably knew the answer, however that probably didn't stop him from being amused from the results of actually building a tesla coil. Being a hacker, you just have to make something, the theory isn't enough.

PS. I'm hoping to make a home-friendly version of the tesla coil, as soon as I can set up the proper grounding of course.

Geeky music?

Who doesn't love robots? I most definitely do. You know what else I like? Music!

I have too many mixed feelings about this at the moment. Fist of all I am jealous. Jealous of the people who made and currently have these robots, jealous that each and every one of them can play their instruments flawlessly, and jealous that even robots have a band. I bet even Mikkey Dee would want to have 4 arms and a head boy around to help him out, not that he needs them.

But then, I could make my own robots. Perhaps better ones... I take this as a personal challenge! I can also at least try to brush off my rustiness at playing the guitar. And, I could be in a band by collecting a bunch of music oriented friends.

Until I figure out exactly what to feel, I'll be browsing for other creations to make up my mind. I already found several...

I'm in Love

It seems to me that having problems connecting to the internet is enough to make a persons day miserable. I've been experiencing such problems during the past few days, and it was not pleasant. Considering how I live, spending the majority of my time with my laptop screen glaring right into my eyes, loosing internet connection does in fact feel like loosing the purpose of your life. Reading about dream connections as Google Fiber after such unfortunate events simply makes their features look even more heavenly.

So, ladies and gentlemen, here are those features which seem like a dream:

- 1000 Mbs, now that's the highlight that speaks for itself. Imagine what you could do. How much of the time you spend debating philosophical topics in your mind as you wait for that download to finish would be saved. Maybe you could start a new hobby, I highly suggest playing an instrument, with all the free time you may have. Or you could simply use more of the internet, you probably won't have to stop everything else online to run applications properly or to actually finish a download. What you can do really has no limits, you could even start a local internet cafe and earn money from it.

- A promotional terabyte cloud space, extra features such as several google boxes that seem pretty handy, a chromebook, and the nexus 7.

LET THE FIBER WATCH BEGIIIIIN!
Unfortunately Google Fiber is currently only offered in Kansas City, KS and MO.   :(
But Google is actively widening the area of their new service, maybe the next lucky city is yours!
Also, according to Google's official how-to video below, you can help yourself to receive the service.

Check out Google's website to see where they're headed next: https://fiber.google.com/cities

I believe love is the best description of my feelings toward Google at the moment. I am even thinking of ways to move to Kansas City, but I think the best I could do for now is to hope that this service will be successful and that Google will decide to go worldwide with it (my fingers are crossed). Even so, I am considering myself lucky, as I do have one of the best connections offered in my area, and have several friends living in the same area who have not even been able to connect properly for over two weeks now. Oh well, dreaming won't cause any harm (I hope not ;) ).

Hello World