Napkin Folding — camdp.com

Preface: This example is a (greatly modified) excerpt from the open-source book Bayesian Methods for Hackers, currently being developed on Github Adapted from an example by Ted Dunning of MapR Technologies The Multi-Armed Bandit Problem Suppose you are faced with \(N\) slot machines (colourfully called multi-armed bandits). Each bandit has an unknown probability of distributing a prize (assume for now the prizes are the same for each bandit, only the probabilities differ). Some bandits are very generous, others not so...

(originally posted on camdp.com) Preface: This example is a (greatly modified) excerpt from the open-source book Bayesian Methods for Hackers, currently being developed on Github ;) Why is sorting from "best" to "worst" so difficult? Consider ratings on online products: how often do you trust an average 5-star rating if there is only 1 reviewer? 2 reviewers? 3 reviewers? We implicitly understand that with such few reviewers that the average rating is not a good reflection of the true value...

(Originally on camdp.com) While designing my new apartment, I found a very cool use of machine learning. Yes, that's right, you can use machine learning in interior design. As crazy as it sounds, it is completely legitimate. The Problem I like to show off my collection of books. And with nice new bookshelves in my apartment, I wanted to display the book collection in an interesting way. I've seen organizing books by colour and gradient, a visual trick I find...