When using the Matlab “not equal” function (~= or ne) with vectors and matrices, one has to be careful. I found this out the hard way, playing with some m-code for a homework in my Introduction to Neural Networks course. The issue is that the ~= function evaluates matching pairs of vector/matrix elements one at …
Monthly Archive: October 2007
Oct
12
Jim Miller Talk
On Tuesday October 9th, Jim Miller from Microsft came to speak at UNH. Jim joined Microsoft in 1998, leading the program management team for the kernel of the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). His responsibility included garbage collection, metadata definition and file formats, intermediate language (IL) definition, IL-to-native code compilation, and remote objects. The talk …
Oct
10
What a joke: Global warming petition project
Yesterday I received a petition in the mail from the so-called Petition Project. The petition actually says this: “… there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” Seriously… Stop the nonsense! The petition came with a reprint of …
Oct
05
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis
Following up on Nate Purmort’s post on how congitive bias can lead to problems in research, I wanted to introduce the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor who discovered the importance of hygiene in preventing disease, specifically puerperal fever. You can read the story of Dr. Semmelweis’ life and work (where else?) in this …
Oct
01
Cognitive Biases & Scientific Research
One of the most important qualities of a good researcher is his/her ability to remain impartial in the work conducted. Unfortunately, basic human nature doesn’t always make this possible. Such intrinsic biases are called “cognitive biases” and affect decisions we all make daily. I am no expert in the subject and actually just learned of …