I came across this book browsing through Safari Books Online's titles, and was almost halfway through the book before I was able to get hold of an actual copy.
While the main focus of the book is on data mining (definitely not only recommendation algorithms, it also shows how Google's PageRank algorithm works, how to mine user data from Facebook and write matching algorithms etc.) it provides a good introduction to pattern recognition in general. It shows you how to write a simple neural network in Python, how to write a Bayes classifier for spam filtering, and even touches on Support Vector Machines (SVMs).
What I really love about the book is that everything is explained by means of code examples, with the actual math theory in an appendix for those of us more mathematically inclined. You can literally sit with the book next to the computer and reproduce the code as you go along.
Here in South Africa I haven't regarded cell phone calls as secure for quite some time. School kids figured out that if you dial the three-digit customer service number on your cell phone, and keep on waiting on the line a few minutes after the voice recording finishes, the following happens: It connects to (I presume) your local tower and you can hear the one side of random cell phone conversations. After a few minutes it switches over to another conversation. You can only hear one side of the conversation, but it proved quite entertaining for kids to listen in on conversations during school breaks (phoning customer service is a toll-free call). Luckily the cell phone company realized this and fixed the security hole after a few months.
Why only limit it to Australia? I think all students in the Southern Hemisphere should be allowed to participate. What about competent computer engineering students and computer science students in South Africa, Brazil etc.? Being a South African, I know that the required human resources are available.
And the Telkom problem is far from over! With our SNO (Second Network Operator) Neotel only starting to get WiMax infrastructure in place, Telkom is still overcharging us. A while back Telkom introduced "capping", where you are only allowed to download up to a certain maximum (your "cap"). For example, for about $138 per month, you are allowed a cap of 17GB, which included the amount uploading and downloading that you do. This still excludes line rental and all additional costs (about another $80/month).
According to South African law, local bandwidth is supposed to be free and you can only be capped on international bandwidth. This is not the case - Telkom has been sued by ICASA (our spineless regulator) but nothing has come of it yet.
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I came across this book browsing through Safari Books Online's titles, and was almost halfway through the book before I was able to get hold of an actual copy. While the main focus of the book is on data mining (definitely not only recommendation algorithms, it also shows how Google's PageRank algorithm works, how to mine user data from Facebook and write matching algorithms etc.) it provides a good introduction to pattern recognition in general. It shows you how to write a simple neural network in Python, how to write a Bayes classifier for spam filtering, and even touches on Support Vector Machines (SVMs). What I really love about the book is that everything is explained by means of code examples, with the actual math theory in an appendix for those of us more mathematically inclined. You can literally sit with the book next to the computer and reproduce the code as you go along.
Here in South Africa I haven't regarded cell phone calls as secure for quite some time. School kids figured out that if you dial the three-digit customer service number on your cell phone, and keep on waiting on the line a few minutes after the voice recording finishes, the following happens: It connects to (I presume) your local tower and you can hear the one side of random cell phone conversations. After a few minutes it switches over to another conversation. You can only hear one side of the conversation, but it proved quite entertaining for kids to listen in on conversations during school breaks (phoning customer service is a toll-free call). Luckily the cell phone company realized this and fixed the security hole after a few months.
Yeah, I had the exact same problem with my Game Boy. It would power up, but half the screen didn't work, so it was pretty much useless.
Why only limit it to Australia? I think all students in the Southern Hemisphere should be allowed to participate. What about competent computer engineering students and computer science students in South Africa, Brazil etc.? Being a South African, I know that the required human resources are available.
And the Telkom problem is far from over! With our SNO (Second Network Operator) Neotel only starting to get WiMax infrastructure in place, Telkom is still overcharging us. A while back Telkom introduced "capping", where you are only allowed to download up to a certain maximum (your "cap"). For example, for about $138 per month, you are allowed a cap of 17GB, which included the amount uploading and downloading that you do. This still excludes line rental and all additional costs (about another $80/month). According to South African law, local bandwidth is supposed to be free and you can only be capped on international bandwidth. This is not the case - Telkom has been sued by ICASA (our spineless regulator) but nothing has come of it yet.