Author Archives: wombat

Vote, As If That Goofy But Nice Person From High School Is Running

I grew up very disenfranchised. My family emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada when I was five and a half, and it took a long time for us to get used to life in the new country. My father started … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Comments Off on Vote, As If That Goofy But Nice Person From High School Is Running

Letter to a young artist (from mom)

Dear Young Artist, I was listening to the Sara Bareilles album based on her music for the Broadway show, “Waitress”, and remembering the movie by Adrienne Shelly, and the wonderful performance by Keri Russell, and suddenly I remembered a lot … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Music | Comments Off on Letter to a young artist (from mom)

Prerequisite 1: Machine Learning

To get into any subject, there is a lot of jargon to wade through. I love simplicity but precise terminology makes things much easier. In this post I’m going to establish basic definitions for these terms, which are necessary for deep … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Comments Off on Prerequisite 1: Machine Learning

PSA: What makes a good personal essay?

It’s college essay season again. As hard and annoying as they are to write, I’m a huge fan of the genre of which they are a sub: the personal essay. The personal essay, when well done, exploits tools of both … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Comments Off on PSA: What makes a good personal essay?

The Band Trip To Reno

When I was a junior I played second alto sax in Senior Jazz Band B, and we went to Reno, in February, with Senior Jazz Band A. We were excited, because for the first time on a band trip, we’d … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Comments Off on The Band Trip To Reno

My baseline hero

In 1976, a major earthquake struck in Tangshan, China. Because many of the buildings had not been built to withstand earthquakes, and because search and rescue infrastructure at the time was poor, the death toll was large: the official estimate … Continue reading

Posted in Data Science | Comments Off on My baseline hero

What is deep learning?

Deep learning is a buzz phrase that refers to a branches of machine learning that involve multiple, interactive layers of nonlinear data transformations. It’s deep because there are multiple layers, and it’s deep learning because the layers can communicate with … Continue reading

Posted in Data Science, Machine Learning, Software Engineering | Tagged , , | Comments Off on What is deep learning?

How I learned to stop worrying and love computer programming

This gallery contains 1 photo.

As a go-getting engineering student, I chose my first university elective to be Computer Science 101. I didn’t like it. The lectures put me right to sleep – and I’m a lecture lover. The exams were not a problem. But … Continue reading

More Galleries | Comments Off on How I learned to stop worrying and love computer programming

My brutish love of poetry, part 4

Poetry can be dangerous. Yes, it can be pretty, pithy, wise, amusing. But it’s gotten me and countless others into trouble. My web site here is a pretty safe place and I’ve quoted some pretty safe poems. There are many … Continue reading

More Galleries | Comments Off on My brutish love of poetry, part 4

My brutish love of poetry, part 3

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Another gift of Canada is exposure to French Canadian poetry. If you know even a little bit of french, you can poke around at the edges. I am a fan of Anne Hébert and of her cousin Hector de Saint-Denys … Continue reading

More Galleries | Comments Off on My brutish love of poetry, part 3