I have been fairly busy the past month. Planning "Introduction to informatics", working on practice materials for "Programming 1", doing science on the side.
Finally started practicing with the band - and had a few jam sessions with other friends as well. Since we have been practicing a few punk songs, I have started learning to play with the plectrum - not too hard but not as easy as I first hoped either.
Yesterday I had a seminar talk about the machine learning book alluded to in the aforementioned post. About half a third of the staff of the statistics faculty came to see the talk - which was somewhat surprising for me. They seemed to understand what I was talking about pretty well, though. Not sure whether the normal students did though... but Im hoping for the best.
Been together with L. for nearly two months now. We have had our problems but at the moment, things seem to be heading in a good direction. I miss her when she is away, which sadly happens for 2-3 days each week. Thankfully, I have plenty of work to distract me from that feeling :)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Mathematics as a language
I have been reading a Machine Learning textbook for the past 3 days. It uses a lot of probability theory, something I know the basics of (up to Probability theory II course). I managed to get the gist of what the book was trying to say, but am still somewhat struggling to understand how the proof of the main theorem works and what its implications are.
At some point, my roommate (who is a psychology major and very fond of languages as well) asked me to show her the proof I was reading.. and then instantly turned away when she saw the formulae. So I tried to explain to her what my problem was, in terms she could understand. And then I stumbled upon a pretty interesting and deep analogy:
Mathematics is just a set of symbols used to very precisely say things that would take a lot of plaintext to explain without the special notation. Just a means of precisely expressing yourself. Like the alphabet. However, each branch of mathematics has its own key concepts and terminology (the words) as well as diffent proof techniques (syntax). Different branches of mathematics can, in this sense, be likened to different languages. And different languages can be either very close to eachother (Statistics and Machine learning seem quite like Estonian and Finnish, for instance - they have quite a lot of common ground both in terms of key concepts and proof methods, but they are nevertheless quite distinct, with quite a few things having nearly opposite meaning)
My mother tongue in mathematics is Cryptology, with a slight accent from complexity theory. Reading a Machine Learning textbook for me is akin to reading something in a language I have studied a little (a few years, maybe) but which I am not comfortable in yet - I can make out the meaning of most that is said, but I do not grasp the nuances of the more complex words (ideas) and sometimes get their meaning completely wrong (which happens if you are forced to deduce their meaning just from the context). However, this is a pretty good way of learning the new language, as it forces you into a very deep mode of processing - you have to build up the abstract "big picture" as fast as possible and constantly try to deduce the missing details back from it. Hard, but quite enjoyable, as it makes me feel I am actually learning and very rapidly.
For those who find mathematics courses hard, this analogy might help understand what is going on: you are usually expected to learn the rudiments of a new language, often up to the point where you need to be able to not only understand it but actually "speak" it to a degree by the end. It is not harder than learning normal languages, and as with normal languages, the more different languages you learn, the easier it becomes to acquire a new one.
At some point, my roommate (who is a psychology major and very fond of languages as well) asked me to show her the proof I was reading.. and then instantly turned away when she saw the formulae. So I tried to explain to her what my problem was, in terms she could understand. And then I stumbled upon a pretty interesting and deep analogy:
Mathematics is just a set of symbols used to very precisely say things that would take a lot of plaintext to explain without the special notation. Just a means of precisely expressing yourself. Like the alphabet. However, each branch of mathematics has its own key concepts and terminology (the words) as well as diffent proof techniques (syntax). Different branches of mathematics can, in this sense, be likened to different languages. And different languages can be either very close to eachother (Statistics and Machine learning seem quite like Estonian and Finnish, for instance - they have quite a lot of common ground both in terms of key concepts and proof methods, but they are nevertheless quite distinct, with quite a few things having nearly opposite meaning)
My mother tongue in mathematics is Cryptology, with a slight accent from complexity theory. Reading a Machine Learning textbook for me is akin to reading something in a language I have studied a little (a few years, maybe) but which I am not comfortable in yet - I can make out the meaning of most that is said, but I do not grasp the nuances of the more complex words (ideas) and sometimes get their meaning completely wrong (which happens if you are forced to deduce their meaning just from the context). However, this is a pretty good way of learning the new language, as it forces you into a very deep mode of processing - you have to build up the abstract "big picture" as fast as possible and constantly try to deduce the missing details back from it. Hard, but quite enjoyable, as it makes me feel I am actually learning and very rapidly.
For those who find mathematics courses hard, this analogy might help understand what is going on: you are usually expected to learn the rudiments of a new language, often up to the point where you need to be able to not only understand it but actually "speak" it to a degree by the end. It is not harder than learning normal languages, and as with normal languages, the more different languages you learn, the easier it becomes to acquire a new one.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Don't try this at home
Me and Riinu went to the countryside yesterday to visit her grandparents. Mostly a fun and relaxing trip.
When we got off the train at Valga, we got picked up by her grandfather. Riinu asked if he would drive us to go fetch a bike lock she had left somewhere about 15 km away around a post, when she had left in a hurry a few weeks back. I bet her (a beer) that it would not be there, since she had left it unlocked. However, when we got there, it had been moved a bit but was still there - so I got her a beer at the nearest gas station.
When we got to her grandparents house, we were greeted by their overly friendly dog Sammy. We had sandwiches for breakfast and then watched a few episodes from some TV shows from the laptop before heading out for mushrooms.
I had not went gathering mushrooms for over 10 years. It showed - she returned with her pail nearly full, while mine had maybe only a third of it filled. The forests were really full of shrooms though. Problem was, quite a few of them had worms inside already. Nevertheless, it was quite fun.
We then proceeded to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mushrooms with garlic, onion and sour cream. Delicious. I did most of the cooking. Me, Riinu and her grandma talked about cooking for nearly 2 hours.
There was also a 5-year old girl there whom I had a brief discussion with. She was very intelligent for her age - could add and subtract up to 10, could read pretty well and was already learning to write with handwriting letters - all that two years before going to the first grade. She was also pretty social and could keep up a fairly interesting conversation :=)
We then went to the other building and watched one more episode of "The Outer Limits" before heading to sauna. They have a very good one - which due to a lot of moisture is already quite strong at 65-70 C. Also, they had a nice pond nearby with cool water.
After a few rounds in the sauna, we decided to call it a day and she filled three pails with water - one cool, one warm and one near-boiling. Problem was, I did not know which one was which.. so I stuffed my hands into the one with near-boiling water. Not fun.
I quickly ran to the pond and held my hands in the cool water for a few minutes. I then returned to the sauna - only to discover that even the front room temperature (35 C maybe) was unbearable to my hands (so I had to water them down every now and then). This was just the beginning, however, as pretty soon all I could do was hold my hands in cool water. After about an hour, I finally decided to call Ma., who is a 5. year medical student. She said I should seek immediate medical help... so we woke up the grandfather and he drove us to the emergency room in valga where they tied my hands up. In the car, I held my hands out of the window most of the time for the pain to be bearable, but that was not an option while waiting in the emergency room, where even the room temperature felt like holding my hands inside a flame. And then they tied my arms up in fairly thick bandages that formed mits - so it got even warmer and even harder to bear. They told me that it was too early to tell how bad the damage was but that I should check back the next day.
We got back and then watched yet another episode of outer limits - on a bed in an unheated room with the door open with me holding my hands straight up above my head (to decrease circulation of warm blood there). Paracetamol was not helping much and it was still highly uncomfortable. I could not imagine how I could get to sleep.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be somewhat easier than first feared. Initially, it was just very cold - as I had to keep my arms out of the sleeping bag and I was essentially sleeping just next to the open door. At some point, however, pain started receeding and I could pull my arms inside the bag and close the door. Next thing I remember is waking up.
Morning went pretty slowly. I woke up Riinu, we had coffee and then just lounged around for a while. Then she made lunch after which we got dropped back to Valga for me to catch a train and for her to do some shopping.
In the emergency room in Tartu, they retied the bandages and told me to go see my family doctor on Wednesday. Since she is still in Tallinn, however, I plan to make due with Ma. and her friend S. who had plans to visit me on Tuesday evening anyway.
All in all - I am very grateful to have as good friends as I have. Riinu helped me out with quite a few things without even asking and Ma. was also very happy to come and retie my bandages Tuesday.
When we got off the train at Valga, we got picked up by her grandfather. Riinu asked if he would drive us to go fetch a bike lock she had left somewhere about 15 km away around a post, when she had left in a hurry a few weeks back. I bet her (a beer) that it would not be there, since she had left it unlocked. However, when we got there, it had been moved a bit but was still there - so I got her a beer at the nearest gas station.
When we got to her grandparents house, we were greeted by their overly friendly dog Sammy. We had sandwiches for breakfast and then watched a few episodes from some TV shows from the laptop before heading out for mushrooms.
I had not went gathering mushrooms for over 10 years. It showed - she returned with her pail nearly full, while mine had maybe only a third of it filled. The forests were really full of shrooms though. Problem was, quite a few of them had worms inside already. Nevertheless, it was quite fun.
We then proceeded to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mushrooms with garlic, onion and sour cream. Delicious. I did most of the cooking. Me, Riinu and her grandma talked about cooking for nearly 2 hours.
There was also a 5-year old girl there whom I had a brief discussion with. She was very intelligent for her age - could add and subtract up to 10, could read pretty well and was already learning to write with handwriting letters - all that two years before going to the first grade. She was also pretty social and could keep up a fairly interesting conversation :=)
We then went to the other building and watched one more episode of "The Outer Limits" before heading to sauna. They have a very good one - which due to a lot of moisture is already quite strong at 65-70 C. Also, they had a nice pond nearby with cool water.
After a few rounds in the sauna, we decided to call it a day and she filled three pails with water - one cool, one warm and one near-boiling. Problem was, I did not know which one was which.. so I stuffed my hands into the one with near-boiling water. Not fun.
I quickly ran to the pond and held my hands in the cool water for a few minutes. I then returned to the sauna - only to discover that even the front room temperature (35 C maybe) was unbearable to my hands (so I had to water them down every now and then). This was just the beginning, however, as pretty soon all I could do was hold my hands in cool water. After about an hour, I finally decided to call Ma., who is a 5. year medical student. She said I should seek immediate medical help... so we woke up the grandfather and he drove us to the emergency room in valga where they tied my hands up. In the car, I held my hands out of the window most of the time for the pain to be bearable, but that was not an option while waiting in the emergency room, where even the room temperature felt like holding my hands inside a flame. And then they tied my arms up in fairly thick bandages that formed mits - so it got even warmer and even harder to bear. They told me that it was too early to tell how bad the damage was but that I should check back the next day.
We got back and then watched yet another episode of outer limits - on a bed in an unheated room with the door open with me holding my hands straight up above my head (to decrease circulation of warm blood there). Paracetamol was not helping much and it was still highly uncomfortable. I could not imagine how I could get to sleep.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be somewhat easier than first feared. Initially, it was just very cold - as I had to keep my arms out of the sleeping bag and I was essentially sleeping just next to the open door. At some point, however, pain started receeding and I could pull my arms inside the bag and close the door. Next thing I remember is waking up.
Morning went pretty slowly. I woke up Riinu, we had coffee and then just lounged around for a while. Then she made lunch after which we got dropped back to Valga for me to catch a train and for her to do some shopping.
In the emergency room in Tartu, they retied the bandages and told me to go see my family doctor on Wednesday. Since she is still in Tallinn, however, I plan to make due with Ma. and her friend S. who had plans to visit me on Tuesday evening anyway.
All in all - I am very grateful to have as good friends as I have. Riinu helped me out with quite a few things without even asking and Ma. was also very happy to come and retie my bandages Tuesday.
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