Understanding modern IT-based technology
Modern movies use a lot of mathematics for their computer animations and CGI effects, one of them is what is known under the name fractals.
In this post, we will use this technique to create islands with coastlines that look extraordinarily realistic. If you want to do that yourself read on!
Continue reading “Create realistic-looking Islands with R”
By now you will know that it is a good tradition of this blog to explain stuff by rebuilding toy examples of it in R (see e.g. Understanding the Maths of Computed Tomography (CT) scans, So, what is AI really? or Google’s Eigenvector… or how a Random Surfer finds the most relevant Webpages). This time we will do the same for the hyped Blockchain technology, so read on!
Continue reading “Understanding Blockchain Technology by building one in R”
The two most disruptive political events of the last few years are undoubtedly the Brexit referendum to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump. Both are commonly associated with the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and a technique known as Microtargeting.
If you want to understand the data science behind the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data scandal and Microtargeting (i.e. LASSO regression) by building a toy example in R read on!
Continue reading “Cambridge Analytica: Microtargeting or How to catch voters with the LASSO”
Like most people, you will have used a search engine lately, like Google. But have you ever thought about how it manages to give you the most fitting results? How does it order the results so that the best are on top? Read on to find out!
Continue reading “Google’s Eigenvector… or: How a Random Surfer Finds the Most Relevant Webpages”
Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and ’tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
One of the topics that is totally hyped at the moment is obviously Artificial Intelligence or AI for short. There are many self-proclaimed experts running around trying to sell you the stuff they have been doing all along under this new label.
When you ask them what AI means you will normally get some convoluted explanations (which is a good sign that they don’t get it themselves) and some “success stories”. The truth is that many of those talking heads don’t really know what they are talking about, yet happen to have a friend who knows somebody who picked up a book at the local station bookshop… ok, that was nasty but unfortunately often not too far away from the truth.
So, what is AI really? This post tries to give some guidance, so read on!
Continue reading “So, what is AI really?“
Everything “neural” is (again) the latest craze in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Now what is the magic of artificial neural networks (ANNs)?
Continue reading “Understanding the Magic of Neural Networks”
Noseman is having a headache and as an old-school hypochondriac he goes to see his doctor. His doctor is quite worried and makes an appointment with a radiologist for Noseman to get a CT scan.
Continue reading “Understanding the Maths of Computed Tomography (CT) scans”
