Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Deep-Fried Data

idlewords.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 149 posts

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#31

Post by eanzenberg »

gabrielgoh wrote: post #11
sdenton4 wrote: post #2

"...Dim witted grad student that you can't really trust..." Reminds me of the phrase "graduate student descent" for training neural networks... I've been noticing more casual dismissiveness towards grad students lately. They are certainly often treated as the grunt laborers of academia, in areas where career prospects are downright stupid. I generally feel it would be more productive to at least pretend that they're…

grad students are put in the same category as interns and teenagers, a naive type of person still in the making. i dont think there's any ill will intended.

You are dim witted.

No ill will intended.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#32

Post by munin »

sdenton4 wrote: post #2

"...Dim witted grad student that you can't really trust..." Reminds me of the phrase "graduate student descent" for training neural networks... I've been noticing more casual dismissiveness towards grad students lately. They are certainly often treated as the grunt laborers of academia, in areas where career prospects are downright stupid. I generally feel it would be more productive to at least pretend that they're…

looks like we found the grad student!

but seriously, as a grad student, absolutely no one gives us respect. not our peers, our bosses, or society. why would you expect some random on the internet to do better?

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#33

Post by leesalminen »

> For the generation growing up now, the Internet is their window on the world. They take it for granted. It’s only us, who have seen it take shape, and are aware of all the ways it could have been different, who understand that it's fragile, contingent. The coming years will decide to what extent the Internet be a medium for consumption, to what extent it will lift people up, and to what extent it will become a tool of social control.

I agree completely. This is something we should be cognizant of.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#34

Post by leesalminen »

pimlottc wrote: post #19

> Many [programmers] work jobs that are intellectually stimulating, but ultimately leave nothing behind. There is a large population of technical people who would enjoy contributing to something lasting. This hits pretty close to home.

Same here. I was just talking with a friend last night about how software developers should have a creed, like how doctors have the Hippocratic oath. We could potentially cause far more harm than doctors nowadays.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#35

Post by bthdonohue »

leesalminen wrote: post #34
pimlottc wrote: post #19

> Many [programmers] work jobs that are intellectually stimulating, but ultimately leave nothing behind. There is a large population of technical people who would enjoy contributing to something lasting. This hits pretty close to home.

Same here. I was just talking with a friend last night about how software developers should have a creed, like how doctors have the Hippocratic oath. We could potentially cause far more harm than doctors nowadays.

As part of my computer science program in college, we studied the ACM's Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, which in effect is what you describe. http://www.acm.org/about/se-code

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#36

Post by roel_v »

1024core wrote: post #3

"The names keep changing—it used to be unsupervised learning, now it’s called big data or deep learning or AI" Um, I'm sorry, but unsupervised learning and deep learning are not the same.

Technically sure, but outside of the world of statistics, nobody makes that distinction or cares.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#37

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

joshu wrote: post #30
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #25

>the Internet is a shopping mall. There are two big anchor stores, Facebook and Google, at either end. There’s an Apple store in the middle, along with a Sharper Image where they are trying to sell us the Internet of Things. A couple of punk kids hang out in the food court, but they don't really make trouble. This mall is well-policed and has security cameras everywhere. And you guys are the bookmobile in the parking…

"Needs to out a bit more" given the context is hilarious. I bet a cool $20 he is more widely traveled than you - both physically and digitally.

Indeed, as would I, on further reflection. I wrote a postscript at the bottom to this effect, more or less.

I write most of my HN comments in the spur of the moment. As a result, they're often inaccurate, idiosyncratic, poorly explained, or just weird. If anybody asks, I ususally try to clear up any confusion.

This isn't necessarily a good idea, but if I thought too much before I spoke, beyond a cursory look to see if I'm violating the rules, I'd be to afraid to post anything interesting, or anything at all beyond polite agreement with everybody, which is so very dull, don't you agree?

2933 votes and countless interesting discussions later, seems to have worked our okay for me.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#38

Post by fatbird »

joshu wrote: post #30
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #25

>the Internet is a shopping mall. There are two big anchor stores, Facebook and Google, at either end. There’s an Apple store in the middle, along with a Sharper Image where they are trying to sell us the Internet of Things. A couple of punk kids hang out in the food court, but they don't really make trouble. This mall is well-policed and has security cameras everywhere. And you guys are the bookmobile in the parking…

"Needs to out a bit more" given the context is hilarious. I bet a cool $20 he is more widely traveled than you - both physically and digitally.

The current blog entry on the idlewords front page is his trip report on visiting McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#39

Post by morecoffee »

Giving up control is harder than the author makes it seem. It isn't so much that you give it up, but that you give _to_ someone else. Picking that someone else is extremely difficult and a wrong choice will destroy your community.

Using machine learning on the other hand is a safe bet. It is much easier, I would assert, to write machine learning code to organize data than to curate a community of humans to organize data. The ML approach will do pretty good even if it isn't the best, which is why it's what everyone is switching to.

Keeping with the author's example, is it easier to organize erotic fanfic with a computer, or enable a community to do it without spiraling out of control?

Re: Deep-Fried Data

#40

Post by cmrx64 »

bthdonohue wrote: post #35
leesalminen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I was just talking with a friend last night about how software developers should have a creed, like how doctors have the Hippocratic oath. We could potentially cause far more harm than doctors nowadays.

As part of my computer science program in college, we studied the ACM's Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, which in effect is what you describe. http://www.acm.org/about/se-code

And as an aside, the ACM is currently collecting comments on revisions to their code of conduct. http://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/code-2018/
Post reply on HN