“Every Breath You Take” rendered with a swing. Halfway through, I noticed I was snapping my fingers. The original song was fed through a Python script that stretches the first half of each beat, and shrinks the second half. It’s much more enjoyable when you know how the sausage gets made!
The Swinger (via Boing Boing)
Source: inothernewsSASI, a Semi-supervised Algorithm for Sarcasm Identification, can recognize sarcastic sentences in product reviews online with pretty astounding 77 percent precision. To create such an algorithm, the team scanned 66,000 Amazon.com product reviews, with three different human annotators tagging sentences for sarcasm. The team then identified certain sarcastic patterns that emerged in the reviews and created a classification algorithm that puts each statement into a sarcastic class.The algorithms were then trained on that seed set of 80 sentences from the collection of reviews. These annotated sentences helped the algorithm learn what sorts of words and patterns distinguish sarcastic remarks – those that mean the opposite of what they literally convey, or that convey a sentiment inconsistent with the literal reading.
They then turned the algorithm loose on an evaluation set. Pattern evaluation efficiency scored accurately 81 percent of the time, while the overall precision of the pattern recognition/sarcasm categorizing algorithm was accurate in 77 percent of instances. Not bad for a computer’s first shot at interpreting the human sense of humor.
(PopSci.com via Neatorama)
It’s possible to take Wii Fit data and extract it into a usable format! I was looking for this, so my data won’t be locked into a proprietary system (in case I decide to start tracking my weight in a different way) or in case I’d like to compute statistics with the data (which I will, eventually.) I’m sure I could handle the current level of commandline-foo required, but the author is planning on making it much easier:
huanix:My eventual goal will be to create an online parser where people can upload data.bin files from their wii fit save and have that data file converted into a csv that can be downloaded. Right now, this is a simple log of my sources – if you have ideas or other knowledge, please share it!
I haven’t run the code yet, but it doesn’t look like it extracts steps or waist size, which would be nice independent variables.
Just a quick note, GermanSex v1.5 has now been approved!
This version includes a learning algorithm to retrain words you get wrong during a session, as well as a new icon. Some of the framework is being laid for other features in 2.0, so stay tuned! Let me know if there are any features you think I should include in the next version, as well.
The aforementioned app GermanSex is now available from the iTunes App Store!
Want to add some excitement to your German studying? This app will quiz you on the gender of the 2,000 most popular nouns in German. Is “Gesundheit” der, die or das? With this app, you can learn the sex of German nouns anywhere, anytime (no Internet access required). Just pull out your iPhone and see a random German noun. Guess its gender and immediately see if you’re right. Much cheaper and more convenient than traditional flashcards. Take your German to the next level now!
Previous post: GermanSex
A new iPhone application, written by myself and Chuck Smith is now available! This was reason #393 that I went to Germany.
Want to add some excitement to your German studying? This app will quiz you on the gender of the 2,000 most popular nouns in German. Is “Gesundheit” der, die or das? With this app, you can learn the sex of German nouns anywhere, anytime (no Internet access required). Just pull out your iPhone and see a random German noun. Guess its gender and immediately see if you’re right. Much cheaper and more convenient than traditional flashcards. Take your German to the next level now!
Chuck’s notification here.
Link to GermanSex at iTunes App Store here.
