chcleaves

That's a good question. Feature selection is a large field of research and is a bit too broad for me to summarize in an abbreviated fashion. I would look into "model selection", specifically into scores of models that weigh both complexity (the number of variables) and goodness of fit. A good score to look into first is the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) which is used, for instance, in model selection in neuroscience. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_information_criterion

One thing you might want to try is cross-validation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-validation_%28statistics%...). Cross-validation should help you determine if your model is overfitting, as it will perform significantly better on its training set than on the left out data.

A few years ago some SVM code was contributed to the Mahout project, but as of yet, it still doesn't appear to have a working implementation. It seems one can tweak existing Mahout functions a bit in order to accomplish the same sort of thing, but Mike went ahead and started working on an SVM implementation when he initially discovered it wasn't fully implemented. Given a package like sklearn (part of the Python scipy package), it's not so hard to implement a scheme similar to the one described in the blog once you know what to do.

Highest proliferation in emerging countries - Interesting to see where the US fell in those rankings.

Is there a coincidence with the Times being down yesterday and this??

such a load of BS

There are tons of distractions within the car - changing the radio, changing the song on your ipod, looking through your purse, eating some food - texting is only adding to the list. THe problem is there is too much for us to do and until all of those things get taken away accidents will continue to happen. Obviously texting is extremely bad because of the length it takes to read/write a message - but other than cars and phones having a sync to shut down phones within the car - there really isn't an alternative that will be able to stop this problem.

This list couldn't be more true.

Not if the information is already out there

I applaud you for not drinking around her - but you should have seen how long you could go without a drink. She knows she cannot and ultimately has forced will power behind her decision, but you should have seen if you could have done the same. It's so easy after a stressful day to have 1 beer or to wind down with something stronger - but I do believe it shows a lot of character for someone who's willing to 'suffer' with their significant other to show support.

I couldn't imagine not fitting into a company - it would be miserable past a certain point and when you get to that point everyone knows your work and effort start to diminish and most of the time it's definitely noticeable.

Agreed - I once worked for a startup that had been around for 9 years - definitely defeats the purpose. I can't figure out how they raised that much with all the other competitors in the market with much bigger brand awareness - i.e. Nike's fuelband - yes the products differ but in theory do the same.

This is still growing on me - Not sure how I feel about the change

Interesting project - just seems like it fell short on follow through.

We see this happening all the time with new techy things that come out - no surprise here.

If they weren't hard everyone would be doing it - but knowing that the risk is worth the reward at the end (both money and the idea of success) definitely makes the struggles and years without sleep worth it.

If you put forth a little bit of effort you can find any code on the Internet - it sets you apart from the shoppers who don't care and won't take the time to look for one (which is the majority of America) hence why retailers still consistently leak codes out there.

This article was already listed here yesterday with multiple talking points.

Love it!

CRM

Agreed - but up until now what has been able to compete with cab companies - and many people who don't live in a metropolitan area have yet to hear about uber or what makes them different from just a cab - or them thinking that it's someone's own private vehicle.

Who doesn't like to drive around in an uber? The premium aspect of this really sets it apart. Cabs are easier to come by, however for those special occasions where you want to show up in something a little fancier - an uber is definitely a requirement.

Agreed - some people who think they are good at public speaking are in fact just good at reciting their notes or slides verbatum (big pet peeve). It's one thing to say practice helps - its more of a consistency thing. You have to get used to it and get into a routine of speaking in front of DIFFERENT people.

agreed - obviously everyone thinks some sort of a different "change" needs to occur

completely agreed!

Yes - our CEO wrote the post. I'm an employee at the company and posted the link to the blog. Regardless of what service we sell, we thought that the points the article discussed were important and time appropriate with everything happening in the news.