Here I relate some means of generating best-so-far plots within R using by(), apply(), melt(), and ggplot2.
( Esoteric crap hidden; only read if you care about R and EC )

Tags: evolutionary computation, phd, programming, r, school, tips
Current Mood: accomplished

I learned that not only is Dragon*Con not doing on site parade registrations, but that there also was a registration deadline. Which was two days ago. :-\

I sent an e-mail anyway on the off chances they'd remember me and wedge me in somehow; hopefully I'd be able to nonchalantly schelp in with them. I got a response!

Hi Mark!

I remember you. :) And nope, the Salute to History group isn't marching
but would love to have you and the bag pipes in the parade! Let me know
what costume types or fandoms you might fit into or want to march with and
we'll figure something out.

JP
Director, Dragon*Con Parade

w00t! Though I'm disappointed my old re-enactment buddies aren't going to be in this year's parade, I'm happy that I'll be able to participate after all.

Tags: dragoncon

So, anyone have a Dragon*Con hotel room that they're canceling? Because, if so, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.

Belay that. I just got a room at the Ellis Hotel. Thank FSM for cancelations! (And with added bonus that this is a "green" hotel. w00t!)

Tags: dragoncon

I spoke to an Allstate claims representative this morning. It seems that they want to give me a whopping $1700 for my storage unit contents. However, they'll compensate up to $9k total for each item I replace. That's all well and good except it's for a storage unit so most of the contents were irreplaceable, or I don't want to replace them. (Some examples from the latter category would include an old CRT monitor and an ancient 486 PC.)

Oh, well. I guess it's nice knowing that they'll pay for the REI tent replacement.

Tags: fire, money, urgh

Once again I find myself frantically finishing up a paper with a fast approaching submission deadline. To that end, I'm banging on ancient C++ to add new functionality to be exercised for the paper. As part and parcel of adding this functionality, there are associated new command line options:


./build/default/gecco11 : [-a string] [-v] -d # -g # -p # -c # -s # -l # -u # -z # [-o outfile]
[-a C4.5 arguments]
-p parents
-c children
-g generations
-T t|b for truncation survival selection vs. binary tournament survival selection
-L landscape [1-5]
1-5 : F1-F5
-l lower bound
-u upper bound
-E number of iterations for just evolutionary algorithm
-M number of iterations for just machine learning operator
-d delta generation pertubation value
-q number of generations to keep rules
-e epsilon, or selection pressure for rank rule selection
-r run number
-m gaussian mutation probability
-s gaussian mutation scale factor
-S mutation scale type <uniform|gaussian>
-P population hi/lo percentage
-o output file
-v verbose
-z genome length


The number of command line options is approaching that of the dreaded ls command with its impressive alphabet soup of command line switches. (Of which there are 66. I just counted.) Some of this complexity is hidden behind a set of scripts I use to kick off experiments; but the sheer number of command line arguments makes writing and maintaining these scripts cumbersome and error prone.

If I had this to do all over again, I'd go with parameter files. Not only would this encapsulate a large number of parameters, but would allow them to be easily documented. And they can be freely copied and re-used.

So a parameter file would look something like this:


# parameters for second ECTA 2011 experiment
genome_length = 5
fitness_landscape = spheroid
parents = 50
children = 50
lower_bound = -3
upper_bound = 4
EA_iterations = 0
ML_iterations = 1
hi_lo_percentage = 0.3


This is a near ubiquitous parameter file format. Comments are denoted by '#'s, and parameters with their respective values are simple "string, '=', value" triplets. Indeed, there exist a number of libraries for reading and writing these kinds of files if you're too lazy to roll your own.

I think the rule of thumb should be that if you can guarantee there'll be less than, say, five command line switches, and that they're not likely to change, go with that. If it's possible that there'll be more, and that the number of run parameters may grown monotonically over time, then prefer to use parameter files, instead.

Tags: programming, school, tips

I just got this e-mail:

Dear Mark,

Congratulations!

You have been voted in by your peers to be the Academic Delegate for Computer Science for 2011-2012.

If you have any questions about GAPSA or your role please feel free to contact me or our website, gapsa.gmu.edu.

Congratulations again on your position!


Best Regards,
Shoshonna Roberts
Interim Coordinator for Student Governance
George Mason University

Some good, though expected, news to go along with a bright, sunny day!

Tags: school

So, I have to move in a month, which is awkward as that is round the time of my PhD comprehensive exam and thesis proposal defense. Fortunately I was able to offset my move-out date a week after the current scheduled exam and defense date, though I fear there's a chance I may have to bump up the exam and defense date up a week to more adequately prepare.

In any case, because I'm frantically trying to finish my proposal and study for the exam, I don't have much disposable time to thoroughly search for an optimal home. Fortunately a few options have come my way, which I've summarized in the table below:

. Location Rent Size Bathroom Utilities Parking Pros Cons . Oak Knolls Apartments $895/mo efficiency yes included yes Off cue line. Have own place. Can easily bike to school. No need to pay for GMU parking. Near friends. Can place all furniture. Run down. Two vehicles? Top of price range. May not make minimum monthly salary. . MasonVale $860/mo room shared included sorta, truck will have to go in overnight parking On campus! Can walk everywhere. Unknown room-mate. Space for office? Sofa? TV? . MasonVale $882/mo master bedroom shared included sorta, truck will have to go in overnight parking On campus! Can walk everywhere. Closet is huge; large enough for office! Have own bathroom! Not available until 1/13. Unknown room-mate. Sofa? TV? . Cosmo ?? room? own? included? Two vehicles might be problem Cheap. Friend known quantity. Further from campus. . Caitlin $600/mo room Shared included Two vehicles might be problem Cheap. Friend known quantity. Landlord not known quantity. Further from campus. Landlord a neatnik. Ew, shared shower? What about my furniture? Office space?

I'm leaning towards the MasonVale apartment that becomes available on 12/4 as that's a week before my 12/11 move out date. So that gives me a week to pack and shuttle what I can carry myself before I have to get help to shift the heavy stuff.

I'm worried about the home office. I may have to put the desk in storage. And I'm also worried about my TV and sofa. I can't put the desk, tv, *and* sofa in storage!

At the very least I need to eyeball Cosmo's and Caitlin's options. I should stop by Caitlin's place tonight to talk to the land lord and look it over. I'll have to ping Cosmo about a good time to stop by to see the room and discuss details.

So, I'm looking for input here. Anyone have suggestions or comments?

"Google loves to characterize Android as open and iPhone as closed. We see this disingenuous and clouding the difference," - Steve Jobs

the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make" -- Andy Rubin, Developer lead Google Android

(h/t arensb)

The Fall semester officially starts this Monday. Unfortunately this means I need to ramp up my academic work. You see, I must become a Candidate this semester. To that end, I need to have a draft of my proposal to my committee by the end of September; I hope to pass my comprehensive exam and successfully defend my thesis proposal by the end of October.

I have a lot of work to do given the current state of my proposal. The implication here is that I will be ramping back on my extracurricular stuff until such time as I've been blessed by my committee as officially being ABD. I'll still be doing band related things and my current once-a-week standing social obligation --- but pretty much everything else is off the table. The new word in my personal lexicon is "NO" in bold 48 point glowing red font. Expect to get that as an answer for social invitations for the next couple months, at the very least.

Of course, given that I'm a reclusive introvert, most of you won't observe any discernible change. :P

Tags: academia, go away

From arensb:

An anonymous reader writes "Rice University researchers say new studies show that if you like what you're watching, you're less likely to notice the difference in video quality of the TV show, Internet video or mobile movie clip, putting a lie to some of the more extravagant marketing claims of electronics manufacturers. 'If you're at home watching and enjoying a movie, we found that you're probably not going to notice or even concern yourself with how many pixels the video is or if the data is being compressed,' said the lead researcher. 'This strong relationship holds across a wide range of encoding levels and movie content when that content is viewed under longer and more naturalistic viewing conditions.'"

arensb declares, "This seems to imply that Hollywood should be investing in writers."