personal blog related to technology, coding and publishing.
Chad Edge
The Chadedge.com Web site serves as a soapbox for Chad Edge to sound off about a multitude of topics: The Internet, technology in general, personal issues, work/career, and of course OSNAP.net. Beyond the occasional profanity, the content on Chadedge.com is acceptable work reading. I do my best to keep nudity and violence out of these pages as clients may often browse. :: Address 2619 1st Ave Apartment 514 Seattle, WA 98121 :: Phone (206) 852-4792 :: E-mail chadedge@gmail.com
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Posts by Chad Edge
What is Watson? I’m in frigging love
Jun 18th
Question-answering machines baffle my mind, and give me a huge nerd-on.
Watson, I.B.M’s latest creation in the field of question-answering machines, is blowing my mind with every article, study, and video I can find. Here’s a promo video from I.B.M:
I’ve been researching a Bayesian matching system for comparing and binding news stories from different sources, with the goal of being able to match using only two sources (totally breaking away from the base logic of a Bayesian match algorithm). A question-answering machine may be much better and figuring out small matches in strings and titles where a pure keyword-based match would fail.
Let’s hope the Jeopardy! tests go well as I.B.M has suggested that Watson could emerge in business uses in the next couple of years.
PS: Here’s a longer article by the NY Times (which I read last night and tweeted about)
At it, big time
May 17th
“Emmy’s Closet” (a paper-doll app), “Chicken Scratch” (urban chicken app), a yet-unnamed NPAA collaboration, and a photo-video app for local businesses (a template model).
This is getting crazy.
Something that chaps my ass
May 17th
I appreciate when a client hires a new developer to enhance their Web site. I appreciate when a new designer makes adjustments, further enhancing a design. Without those changes, a launched Web site will soon become stale, not adapting to market and user changes, etc.
What chaps my ass is when a designer/developer takes credit for a design that was not theirs – one that they have made adjustments to, while leaving the core design in-place. Further, when the core code lives on, with some adjustments, I also get a rash.
The case here is Muumuu Heaven, a Web site that a buddy of mine were hired to develop by an employer of ours. It was a rough time in our development lives – with difficulties in communication, slipping deadlines, design changes, underbidding, etc. A lot of the hardships were my fault, but in the end I was happy with the result. Not the best development in the world, but I applaud the designer I worked with for his color choices, images, etc.
It’s been a few years, the Web site has gone through some updates and changes – both in design elements and code, but much of my designer’s look/feel remain (meaning: the exact images he designed are still in-play; the scaffolding is the same); the code for navigating the site is the same.
On the footer of the Web site is a link for “Site Credits.” I had no supposition that Muumuu Heaven would credit the designer or myself, but I was surprised when the new designer and developer took credit for work that was (at best) half theirs.
This continued on the developer’s own Web site (which is where the following screenshot came from).
I’m not asking Muumuu Heaven to give us credit now, I’m just ranting about the ass-rash that things like this give me. I’ve contributed on many projects and do my best not to boast about being “the man.” If you’re going to claim ownership of a design or development, then make sure it really is YOUR design/development.
(end rant)
I made something
May 14th
Justine helped me tons, and my iPad book cover is done!
Of course, I had to ruin it by trying to cut a wake/sleep hole (dammit!), but beyond that: score!
Here’s some early photos:
And a brief video:
