Re: Neural Nets

According to Matlab's requirements website, it does support linux. Trust me, USE MATLAB!

If you want to know why...

Once, a long time ago, I had a neural networks class similar to the one you discuss. The major project of the class was to implement a decision tree application. I spoke to the prof about implementing my own decision tree engine in perl instead of using the class default program, which was a win16 app running on NT4. (PAINFUL).

I implemented it in a rather short amount of time. I even added support to make it self-optimizing. My decision tree would re-balanced itself if you asked the same question in different locations to require the fewest number of questions of the user based on an average for all of the leafs. I implemented it 3 weeks ahead of schedule for everyone else to be done adding questions & answers to their trees. I got to show it off to the class, and she thought it was great.

Up until test time, I thought I was going to ace the class. However, I failed due to 90% of the questions on the midterm were not about neural networks, but how to use the tool that she had the rest of the class use.

Comment on Re: Neural Nets

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Re^2: Neural Nets by Tanktalus (Canon) on Apr 07, 2005 at 18:36 UTC
I know that this isn't anything to do with Neural Nets, but on the same topic of using the tool the professor suggests. In my fourth year (of 6 :-}), in a "C/C++" course (I use the term extremely loosely since the professor was completely out to lunch), we were told we had a choice of tools. We could use Borland C++ for DOS, or we could use GCC on HP to develop our software. What a joke - the project included talking to a proprietary device (D/A, A/D converter) on an I/O port. How the professor envisioned using an HP workstation to talk to this proprietary device is beyond me. And the project involved graphing the input to the screen (using Borland's APIs for graphics) - which is unlikely to work on HP (learning X at the same time as dealing with this professor was not really an option). Eventually, I told the professor how full of it he was, to his face, he gave me the highest mark allowed (9 in the stanine system), and told me not to show up again. Short version: use what the professor tells you - nothing else is likely to work. PS - I took a software project course in my last semester where the professor didn't even suggest a language. We used C++, most everyone else used Java. But the professor did not have any bias in languages. So it really didn't matter. (I got my only other 9 in my life in this course.) But when a professor "suggests" something, usually it's more of a "command" in the guise of being open-minded. Use Matlab. :-)	[reply]
Re^2: Neural Nets by QM (Parson) on Apr 07, 2005 at 15:33 UTC
However, I failed due to 90% of the questions on the midterm were not about neural networks, but how to use the tool that she had the rest of the class use. While that may be a good reason to use MatLab, that's a sign of a bad teacher. I'm assuming the class wasn't about MatLab, but about Neural Nets! The tools may go in and out of fashion, but the ideas should last much longer. -QM -- Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of	[reply]