Dan Mayer's Blog

General Links

University of Colorado
Web2gether Project
L3D labs at CU
My code online

Machine Learning

MITs class page on Machine Learning
The Use of Java in Machine Learning
AI: a modern approach
Java Neural Networks

Text Categorization Links

Intelligent Information Retrieval
Tutorial on Text Mining
Open source spam filtering project
Yet Another Multipurpose Chunk Annotator

Weka Links

WEKA
Spam analysis

LSA/LSI Links

LSA @ CU
LSI @ UTK

SVM Links

Technical Paper Describing SVM classification
SVM Info / Lessons
Comprehensive List of SVM publications
Large Scale SVM Learning
SVM Spam Filter Research paper

SVM Tools:

SVDLIBC
SVMseq
Tiny SVM
SVM-Light

We get our news filtered and munipulated... So what we know is limited...

A great movie about TV news, Spin

This movie has been out for almost a decade, but has been mostly overlooked.

oh yeah guitars are neat... Shawn learn to play like this.

stop just using demos of winzip and winrar, this is a complete solution that is all open source and all good...

7 zip, better than winzip and better than winrar

Winzip used to be a must install once i got a system running, because it was so simple and useful, but now I will just install this every time. This and FileZilla which replaces any FTP program you may have used are pretty much essential installs for any machine. so grab that now as well:

FileZilla better than wsFtp

"Get busy living or get busy dieing..."
(Yes this is kind of a drama queen post, and yes I am OK with that.)
((No nothing is going wrong and I am very happy right now.))

I currently think some how I might have had a bit to much of both... working quickly towards a busy life, and headed towards to quick of a death. It seems lately I see mortality around me every where. I assume it is mostly just because I was really sick recently. Some health problems in my family are coming more to light. I think also just some of my own fears of death have been exaggerated lately.

With thoughts of death floating around through my head, it makes me wonder about life. An odd pair that always comes together life and death. I have been thinking about my life, what is important to me, what I want to accomplish, what mark I may or may not want to leave, what I should see, say, and do. The majority of my life is filled with positive things, people, and memories. As you have less time for everything in life what do you focus on, what do you strive to achieve, what goals do you pass on realizing they were a dream of the past that may no longer be practical or relevant?

I know the people that are truly important to me, and I do feel that they would all know how much they have meant to me, but is that enough? Sometimes those unspoken feelings should they be spoken just as a reminder. The I love yous to friends and family? Is that enough if the people around you know your thoughts?

If I died tomorrow would I feel like I didn't leave enough of what I truly feel is me and my thoughts behind? Would I feel that so many thoughts and unfinished projects, art, and writings would be lost? If I knew I was going to die would I do anything different? Would I prepare? Would I finish art pieces, letters, and projects?

I recently had a sudden urge to get rid of many of my things, get rid of my movies, video games, TV, old books, old computers, and anything I don't use. When I die, will I really wish I had spent more time watching movies I have already seen? Playing video games to say I beat them? I truly doubt it. There is something to be said for down time, relaxing, and just enjoying simple time to let your mind unwind and refresh. Is it OK to know you waste a certain amount on time, and that is just a part of living a happy life. You can't always be trying to make every moment count, because otherwise you will be to warn out to really give it all when you need to be there for a moment that really does count.

I guess all these fears and emotions lead back to if I did suddenly pass, would I look back on my life and overall be happy with the route it took and the accomplishments I made along the way?

Can you put a meaning on a life?

Is being happy good enough?

I unleash these thoughts after a slow and pleasant evening, looking at art, watching a movie, and preparing for bed. These are the thoughts that will turn in my mind as I lay my head on my pillow and slowly every so slowly drift off into sleep.

a good night I had spending it with friends, relaxing, and ending it with a cozy goodnight phonecall.

sweet dreams my friends.

I installed Ubuntu server on one of my machines, one of the nice things about it, is that it from install it configures a working LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) set up. Which is nice and saves lots of configuration. Unfortunately, I still need to get Subversion, Ruby, Tomcat, and other things installed and running on the system. Anyways since, I was going to have to set up a bunch of things and planned on using the system as a development machine I then installed Ubuntu desktop on the system as one of the aptitude scripts, which installs all the packages require for the desktop configuration. After that though, I realized that I was not able to complete any install with out causing an error in clvm, anything you install would cause a clvm error and make your install fail. So here is the fix if you install the Ubuntu server from CD and then install the desktop:

Ultimately this post by npcomplete2000, was the solution for me:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-186356.html

removing clvm caused no problems for me and was something I never thought I would need. After that I could install other applications with out problems.

More error information so those searching for error codes will find this post:
Starting Cluster LVM Daemon clvmd could not connect to cluster manager
Consult syslog for more information
invoke-rc.d: initscript clvm, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing clvm (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 3
Errors were encountered while processing:
clvm
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I got this gem error on Ubuntu 6.06 over and over then finally I followed these instructions to install Ruby on Rails,

Install Ruby on Rails on Ubuntu 6.06

and I changed one line:

sudo gem update --system IS WRONG!!!!

run:

sudo gem update

and thing all the sudo gem installs work perfectly fine for me. Why I have no idea. I hate computers sometimes, but at least ruby and rails now work for Ubuntu 6.06 on my system.

Brush then floss or floss then brush?? After a little google research the answer to the questions seems to be you should floss first and then brush afterwards... that makes sense to me... so let the flossing begin.

Apparently I was born as a part of the Boomerang Generation, which means I should move back home, because the job market isn't as good as it used to be... Sweet I finally have a great excuse to be a slacker, my whole generation was a group of slackers, you can't blame me, it was the rough times in society man...

hehe I think I am doing OK and probably won't have to move home, but I did find this amusing.

I finally saw Body Worlds, which I have been trying to see for months, it was pretty incredible. It ends on July 23, the final weekend it is open for 64 hours straight. That is pretty cool. Rock on people of Denver for selling out the show for pretty much the entire time it was in Denver. Most of the time even with tickets the wait was over an hour... All the extended nights and weekends were added because it was doing so well, soon enough this city will get some sweet culture.

Body Worlds Hours

I highly recommend it if you haven't already seen it. It was pretty amazing to see some of the things. I also was shocked to see how fast a fetus grows in 8 weeks to already looking like a very tiny person.

A friend of mine is working on creating Imatong of Boulder, group dedicated to helping Sudanese Refugees. On July 22nd and 23rd they are holding Sudanese Women Refugee's Conference at the University of Colorado. I help build their website and realized I needed to get some links up to it so others could search and find this group. Imatong is currently mostly a student group, but will soon be expanding to Denver as well. Their first conference should have a number of speakers and hopefully a couple hundred refugees attending.

Imatong of Boulder

Long as I am mentioning projects I work on, Dom and Nicole are accepting donations for their wedding and honeymoon on the Fall Out Boy wedding website.

I just made a Thai Peanut sauce so spicy I am crying while eating it, oops I put way to many different chillies in this mix, but it is tasty. I mean I like Thai Peanut Stir fry, but wow this one was a kicker, I am afraid to touch my eyes. It definitely cleared my sinus though.

Note: Eating a banana helps cool your mouth down afterwards.

It reminds me of the time I made a way to hot and spicy stir fry, but Dom and I were determined to eat it, so we are both scooping it in with snot running out our noses and watered up eyes, and laughing about how spicy it was... Ahhh good times with hot sauces.

Current favorite song: Death Cab for Cutie: Marching Bands Of Manhattan

Today's lesson is about sriracha hot sauce one of my favorite hot sauces. It is the best Asain hot sauce out there. I did however learn that if you leave a bottle a little close to the stove while boiling water it heats up. When you open the bottle that it is heated up it will proceed to shoot hot sauce out the end. So today's lesson is never point Srirache hot sauce at your face as you open it or you will end up with chili sauce in your eyes. I learned this the hard way with a blast of chili sauce, but now you have been warned and can learn from my stupid, so very stupid, mistakes.

I still love you Sriracha hot sauce.

I hate Internet Explorer. I have spent about 2 hours trying to debug, a javascript error that only occurs in IE. It works fine in Firefox, and all other browsers. Anyways I was hoping to accomplish a lot more, but I guess at least I tried.

I am learning a lot of things... Like I have a great time trying to keep up with Erin's family but that they are all in far better shape than I am... Here we are at a peaks pass, during a 9 mile hike... at least I bought running / hiking shoes (trail joggers). Anyways good times, that remind me why I wish to work hard towards my own company and freedom is to enjoy times like this with my own family...

Dave This post is all for you, the days you don't have time for the full movie, here is the short version of the Big Lebowski. Even as I make this post I realize how many of my family members read my blog and wouldn't like this video, to them I say don't watch it... Sometimes you have to make a post for a man, the right man for the time, and we call that man, Inappropriate Dave.

Short version Big Lebowski

Also note it is Dave's Birthday today so happy birthday Dave. A good friend who will always lend an ear, even if that ear will only result in slightly inappropriate responses.

Apparently I made a silly comment on Dom and Nicole's and they decided to take it seriously, so I ended up with a green chili invitation to their wedding. I love my friends because our humor is beyond explanation.

So here is a picture it is the green stuff on the lefT:

I am in the Village Voice and so is Dave, rock on New York... Yippie soon I will be famous.

Dan and Dave in the news

Currently I am a busy little bee pushing 60ish hours last week... carrying two pagers, and not liking it very much.

UPDATE: Everyone grab some copies of the Westward that comes out this Wednesday I should be in it. I was supposed to have my picture on the cover, but I guess they liked some other cartoon thing better, but the story I am part of is still the cover story, fun stuff. Another step closer to being famous.

(Note I started this post 2 weeks ago, just finishing up way later)

I guess after my previous post, Get Busy, and Dave's post/response Impact, I feel I have more to say on this subject so I will continue the topic now.

While I know I would be missed by friends and family and those around me. I feel that nothing significant would really change. I have impacted plenty of people's lives and change who they are, as many people have change me and will always be a part of who I am as well. I guess I am feeling like if everyone in the world put some effort to leaving or changing the world in a positive way before their time was up we could make a difference.