Getting Started with Github

Git is a Distributed Source Management system.  

In order to understand the underlying ideas behind Git, please see Scott Chacon's excellent introductory video.

Below is hands-on tutorial on Getting Started with Github by AzamSharp.

To get started simply: (or see Roger Dudler's link) 

1. Establish a free account on Github.com
2. Install the local client software - Git
3. Create a new repository in the cloud
4. Create a local repository
5. Place a public key on both server and client
6. Learn 5 Git commands (init, add, commit, push, remote)

Simple Guide

Photoshop It!

Create a Drawing via Photoshop

And more tutorials:

• Retro Pop-Art
• Vexel Image
• 50 Web Designs
• B&W with Color Channels
• B&W with Partial Color (About.com)
• B&W from PictureCorrect
• B&W from PhotoDot
• ...And 30 more

Working with Microsoft WCF

In working with the Microsoft .NET WCF Services it does require a bit of a learning curve, along with trial and error.  Here are some of my notes on the topic:

• I found it works best to create my WCF Service stand-alone with a new WCF Service Library.  That way I could use the WcfSvcHost from F5 to unit test the Service before including it on my SilverLight application.
• I open the IIS manager and select the top level web site, then perform a right click "open" to locate the proper place to insert the clientaccessproxy.xml (which I test with a wide open version)
• I used the WCF Configuration Editor instead of editing the XML by hand.  However, for some reason the WCF Editor doesn't always appear in the right click context menu for the *.config file.  In those cases, I had to actually go to the "tools" menu and specifically select the WCF Editor, then simply close it.  Afterwards, it appears in the context menu (weird).
• I had to always remember to update the "Web Service Reference" frequently, as changes to the WCF Service aren't reflected in the Reference.vb/Reference.cs file until an update is performed.
• DNRTV.com has wonderful videos to help you learn the tricks and techniques for .NET development, including WCF and SilverLight.
• I would run the debugger from both the client side in the XAML code and on the server side with the .XAP and WCF code.
• For some reason the MIMETYPE for all the SilverLight file types need to be specified in the root web site.
• I used the EventViewer and IIS log files quite frequently for debugging.
• I used the commandline "aspnet_regiis" from the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework version folder to verify proper ASP.NET configuration.

I've run into many, many gotchas during my recent dive into the WCF/SilverLight world.

Some of these links help with examples and explainations:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818364?wa=wsignin1.0

https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Microsoft_.NET_Web_Services_Client_Examples

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xb5th1ba(v=vs.80).aspx

http://petarvucetin.me/blog/2008/06/7-hidden-gems-tools-everyday-wcf-wf-developers/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332338.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924407.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2010/05/11/getting-started-building-a-wcf-web-service.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347733.aspx

http://carvingcode.blogspot.com/2010/04/creating-wcf-web-service-with-vs2010.html

http://www.tugberkugurlu.com/archive/getting-started-with-asp-net-web-api-tutorials-videos-samples

 dgp

Equality

The subjective measure of income equality is indeed tough calculate.  The Gini Coefficient is one attempt used to compare income across countries.

Jodi Beggs or Jodicongirl does a nice  job of explaining the Gini Coefficient in one of her impressive number of econ videos.  

Good Reads

Book reading and reviewing.

Good Reads always you to setup your own book review site and build a community around your favorite subject or join other existing groups.  For example, you can join what-s-the-name-of-that-book or paranormal-kickass-chicks.  

If you have questions about a book, go to the Tomato Nation.

Photo Enhancements

Photo enhancement through technology.

His website is Stuck In Customs

Prediction

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins offers that the mind is a prediction machine.  We predict.  We predict more than you may think.  

Bayes' Theorem is Nate Silver's key to managing predictions.

Self Comes to Mind by Antonio Damasio talks about how homeostasis comes about and how predictions are essential.  The brain began to predict "good" by sensing the molecules like dopamine or oxytocin.  

Three very enlightening and enjoyable books

Twitter:
@numenta Jeff Hawkins of Numenta
Nate Silver @fivethirtyeight
Antonio Damasio

Man Vs Machine

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them."
  -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In the 1870's the legendary steel driver, John Henry, took on the machine in the form of a steam powered hammer.  He won, but at what cost.  Fast forward to the late 1990's where one Grand Master of Chess, Gary Kasparov takes on the culmination of hundreds of thousands of man hours in brain power are compressed into a single machine -- IBM's Deep Blue.

IBM's Deep Blue defeats Chess Champion Gary Kasparov.  Nate Silver has a wonderful discussion of the match in his book, The Signal and the Noise.  What do intelligent men do well, what do computers do well, where is one better than the other.

Brute force it what the computer does better than any man, yet is that enough to win at chess.  Yet, as pointed out in Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, the Chess Master isn't better at memorizing the individual pieces on a board, the Chess Master is memorized a huge collection of patterns.  And he know the significance of each pattern.

Twitter: Joshua Foer @joshuafoer Nate Silver @fivethirtyeight

Technology and Manufacturing

Bob Dylan thought "Times, they are a changing" back in the 60's.  If he were alive today, what would he think about the robotic technology in today's manufacturing.  Okay, so he is alive, but that's not the point.

Phrases like "3D Printing" are all the buzz now.   WorldSkills International hosts an Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies  contest to highlight the State-of-the-Arts in this field.

For an in-depth look, catch Russ Robert's interview with former Editor of Wired and current CEO of DIY Drones, Chris Anderson, on Makers and Manufacturing.

Twitter: Chris Anderson @chr1sa Russ Roberts @EconTalker World Skills @WorldSkills 

YQL for Web Data

The web is your own personal database.  All the information is out there, you simply need an efficient way to access it.  YQL is the Yahoo Query Language and goes a long way toward bring your data directly to you in a well structured format.

So how do you get started in YQL and do you need to be a programmer?  Let's start here: try grabbing some stock quotes.  Sure, it looks a little imposing with angle brackets and keyword tags, but play around with it -- test it, give it a go.

Yes, the data is out there and someone might already have your data in a YQL table -- check it out.

The old way of downloading web information used what is called a screen scrapper or some other form of parsing the HTML from a web page.  The problem here, if the web page changes, the data access is broken.  Or you could grab a spreadsheet like format, like the Yahoo stock quotes in CSV format and use a programming environment like the Windows .NET framework to parse the data in a proprietary fashion.

Now you can get the stock data using a standard YQL approach.

Other sources of information:

• Gurchet-rai.net
• YQL on StackOverflow
• Andy Edinborough's Post
• Jarloo here and here.
• And the old way on CodeProject.

Statistics - Signal versus Noise

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
-- Niels Bohr


Just happen to be reading both The Signal and The Noise by Nate Silver and The Only Three Questions That Still Count by Ken Fisher and find the overlap on statistics quite serendipitous.

From Baseball to Investing to Earthquakes and TED Talks, statistics can be used as an effective tool to uncover the elusive.

Nate Silver, Ken Fisher and Sebastian Wernicke all use the science of learning from data with great success.  Nate Silver began his journey into data analysis as a young baseball fan.  Ken Fisher wanted to find out what no other investors knew.  And Sebastian Wernicke wanted the perfect TED Talk.

Twitter: @_wernicke @fivethirtyeight @fisherinvest

Behavioral Finance

Ken Fisher's book "The Only Three Questions that Still Count" discusses the behavioral aspects to finance.  Just as a Navy Seal needs to master fear in the extreme, investors have their own fear triggers to tame.

The Brain's Limbic System is responsible for the processing of emotions like fear and greed.  The amygdala is part of the old brain and central to emotional control.  The Cortex is the new logical brain, however it receives fear signals twice as slowly as the amygdala.  Controlling the amygdala is key to controlling emotions.

The Navy Seals take this Limbic training to the limits.  The techniques for dealing with fear are considered by Lieutenant Commander Eric Potterat as the Big Four:

1. Goal Setting - small steps itemized in advance
2. Mental Rehearsal - repeat a physical drill in the mind
3. Self Talk - 300-1,000 WPM on average (positive)
4. Arousal Control - breathing techniques, relax, focus

Behavioral Finance can take a page from this book.  Step one is the reason traders like Douglas Busch @chartmaster write out their Complete Game Plan on a daily basis.  

Fear and Greed in Finance Markets: A Clinical Study of Day Traders takes a scientific approach to researching the reactions of day trading on the brain.  Whole organizations are dedicated to the neuroscience of market psychology, companies like Market Sych LLC and publications such as The Journal Of Behavioral Finance.  Even Freakonomics is looks at the topic in an interview with MIT professor Andrew Lo.  TIME magazine list Professor Lo in The World's 100 Most Influential People.

@fisherinvest @MITSloan @chartsmarter

Children and Education

EconTalk with Russ Roberts had a wonderful interview with Paul Tough (@PaulTough) on his ideas about Education, Children and Success.  His book is How Children Succeed.

Some of the heros of the book include:

Angela Duckwort - Grit

Geoffrey Canada - Harlem Children's Zones

Elizabeth Spiegel - Chess

William Julius Wilson - Bad Neighborhoods

Terms: Curiosity, Conscientiousness, Grit and Self-confidence

Neurology of Memory

Dean Buonomano (Good Hand) discusses how the memory is structured -- Declarative and Procedural. The American Academy of Neurology hosts the podcast. The video covers his book, Brain Bugs.

MP3 of Podcast

Entire Neurology Podcast

American Academy of Neurology PSAs

Somatic Therapy

The Drive In: Body Talk - Dr Dave @shrinkrapradio interview Stanley Keleman on Body Therapy -- How the body makes emotions. 
#317 –Body Therapy and The Embodied Life with Stanley Keleman

Emotional Anatomy on Amazon

Stanley Keleman Bio at Center for Energetic Studies

What does the Wikipedia say about Somatic Psychology

This video is not Stanley Keleman, rather Peter A Levin, describing Somatic Therapy.

Neuroplasticity

"Thought changes structure"
  --Norman Doidge

In with the new, out with the old.  The idea that the brain forms in childhood, then that is the brain you have for the rest of your life -- this idea is on the way out.  Your thoughts can change your brain is the new buzz.  

Start your journey by following the Big Ideas link to Dr Norman Doidge on Brain Neuroplasticity.  The Brain Science Podcast, with host Dr. Ginger Campbell, has some wonderful interviews on the subject.

It could be claimed that the thought of brain plasticity goes back to William James in "Principles of Psychology".  However, until recent technological advances in neuroimaging, the science of Neuroplasticity was difficult to measure.  

The proof is in the pudding.  Read how Barbara Arrowsmith-Young Rebuilt Her Brain. 

Researchers in the field:

• Eric Kandel
• Dr Norman Doidge
• Barbara Arrowsmith-Young

Discovery Channel Medical Encyclopedia WhatIsNeuroPlasticity

Twitter:  @eatonarrowsmith 

Octopus Thinking

Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses How Does An Octopus Think on the Philospher's Zone.

Decision Making

Various Models

Opti Model

Decision Tree

Techniques

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Natalia Toro of Perimeter Institute in Waterloo gives a detailed overview of the work at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the physics behind it.

TVO Lecture
Podcast Feed of Lecture

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Bio

RIP Alan Saunders

What a shock to hear about the death of Alan Sauders, host of the Philosopher's Zone.  He was working on his radio show, got sick, went to the hospital and died the next day.