TITLE: StrangeLoop: This and That, Volume 3
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 12, 2013 11:27 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
<P ALIGN="right"><FONT SIZE="-1"><EM>
[My notes on StrangeLoop 2013:
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2013-09.html#e2013-09-22T10_27_50.htm">
   Table of Contents</A>]
</EM></FONT></P>

Six good talks a day is about my limit.  Seven for sure.  Each
creates so much mental activity that my brain soon loses the
ability to absorb more.  Then, I need a walk.

<P ALIGN="center"> ~~~~ </P>

After
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2013-09.html#e2013-09-22T15_51_52.htm">
   Jenny Finkel's talk</A>
on machine, someone asked if Prismatic's system had learned any
features or weights that she found surprising.  I thought her
answer was interesting.  I paraphrase:  "No.  As a scientist,
you should understand why the system is the way that it is, or
find the bug if it shouldn't be that way."

In a way, this missed the point.  I'm guessing the questioner
was looking to hear about a case that required them to dig in
because the answer was correct but they didn't know why yet,
or incorrect and the bug wasn't obvious.  But Finkel's answer
shows how matter-of-fact scientists can be about what they find.
The world is as it is, and scientists try to figure out why.
That's all.

<P ALIGN="center"> ~~~~ </P>

The most popular corporate swag this year was stickers to adorn
one's laptop case.  I don't put stickers on my gear, but I like
looking at other people's stickers.  My favorites were the ones
that did more than simply display the company name.  Among them
were <B>asynchrony</B>:

<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/conferences/strangeloop2013/asynchrony.jpg"
     ALT="asynchrony laptop sticker"
     WIDTH="300"
     ALIGN="center" />
</CENTER>

-- which is a company name but also a fun word in its own right
-- and <B>data-driven</B>:

<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/conferences/strangeloop2013/data-driven.jpg"
     ALT="O'Reilly laptop sticker"
     WIDTH="340"
     ALIGN="center" />
</CENTER>

-- by O'Reilly.  I also like the bound, graph-paper notebooks
that O'Reilly hands out.  Classy.

<P ALIGN="center"> ~~~~ </P>

In
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2013-09.html#e2013-09-28T12_17_34.htm">
   a previous miscellany</A>
I mentioned Double Multitasking Guy.  Not me, not this time.  I
carried no phone, as usual, and this time I left my laptop back
in the hotel room.  Not having any networked technology in hand
creates a different experience, if not a better one.

Foremost, having no laptop
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2013-09.html#e2013-09-22T10_27_50.htm">
   affects my blogging</A>.
I can't take notes as quickly, or as voluminously.  One of the
upsides of this is that it's harder for me to distract myself
by writing complete sentences or fact-checking vocabulary and
URLs.  Quick, what is the key idea here?  What do I need to look
up?  What do I need to learn next?

<P ALIGN="center"> ~~~~ </P>

With video recording now standard at tech conferences, and with
StrangeLoop releasing its videos so quickly now, a full
blow-by-blow report of each talk becomes somewhat less useful.
Some people find summary reports helpful, though, because they
don't want to watch the full talks or have the time to do so.
Short reports let these folks keep their pulse on the state of
the world.  Others are looking for some indication of whether
they want to invest the time to watch.

For me, the reports serve another useful purpose.  They let me do
a little light analysis and share my personal impressions of what
I hear and learn.  Fortunately, that sort of blog entry still finds
an audience.
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