Genetic Algorithms

I wanted to post a new blog here via Flock, but Flock and Blogger won't play together :-( this post is also available here.

I had a great time at the Tech MeetUp (@techmeetup) in Glasgow this week. If you want to meet up with other tech minded folk in Scotland, it's definitely worth checking out. See the details at the end of this post.

At the meeting this week, I got talking to a few folk (including John Gallagher who gave a great talk) about AI and Genetic Algorithms. This inspired me to dig out my old experimental code for doing GAs using C++ Templates. The code's very rough and ready, and it was written long before I discovered TDD or subversion, but it should be standards-compliant, and it compiles in the latest GCC (I can't vouch for other compilers, if you try it, let me know). As it's a source-code library, you'll have to compile it yourself, but if you don't know how to use a compiler, you're probably reading the wrong blog anyway. I will be tidying up the code and creating a wish list as I get the chance, but I'm throwing it out there in case it's useful to anyone.

If you're interested, check it out at the link below and let me know what you think.

Genetic Algorithm Templates


If you're interested in Tech MeetUp, you can see videos from previous talks at their website

The Tech MeetUp is the informal opportunity to meet other developers and tech companies, to showcase your hacks or projects, and to find out what's happening around us. Help build the tech community - set up a profile and come along to a Tech MeetUp.

Home - Techmeetup

You can find out about upcoming meetings on their mailing list

Description: An easily accessible and friendly community of tech minds, skills and startups around Scotland and Northern UK.

Tech Meetup | Google Groups

Genetic Algorithm Templates

I had a great time at the Tech MeetUp (@techmeetup) in Glasgow this week. If you want to meet up with other tech minded folk in Scotland, it's definitely worth checking out. See the details at the end of this post.

At the meeting this week, I got talking to a few folk (including John Gallagher who gave a great talk) about AI and Genetic Algorithms. This inspired me to dig out my old experimental code for doing GAs using C++ Templates. The code's very rough and ready, and it was written long before I discovered TDD or subversion, but it should be standards-compliant, and it compiles in the latest GCC (I can't vouch for other compilers, if you try it, let me know). As it's a source-code library, you'll have to compile it yourself, but if you don't know how to use a compiler, you're probably reading the wrong blog anyway. I will be tidying up the code and creating a wish list as I get the chance, but I'm throwing it out there in case it's useful to anyone.

If you're interested, check it out at the link below and let me know what you think.

Genetic Algorithm Templates


If you're interested in Tech MeetUp, you can see videos from previous talks at their website

The Tech MeetUp is the informal opportunity to meet other developers and tech companies, to showcase your hacks or projects, and to find out what's happening around us. Help build the tech community - set up a profile and come along to a Tech MeetUp.

Home - Techmeetup

You can find out about upcoming meetings on their mailing list

Description: An easily accessible and friendly community of tech minds, skills and startups around Scotland and Northern UK.

Tech Meetup | Google Groups

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Testing BlogIt

BlogIt allows me to update all my blogs from my Facebook page. Interesting idea.

Alternative blogs

I'm trying out an alternative blog at http://craignicol.wordpress.com to see how the two platforms compare. Flock seems happy enough with either, but I'll see which one wins out in the long term. For now, I can cross-post anything important.

take a good, hard look at your first revision and just say to yourself, "gloves."

I've lost count of the number of times I've stumbled upon the coffee-room solution to a big problem. I'm sure most people recognise the feeling. You're sitting at the computer with a big problem staring you in the face, and you've been battling it for a couple of hours trying to find a solution. Then you decide to pack it in and go get a coffee, and after 2 minutes away from the computer, before the coffee's even poured, you've figured out a one-line solution that means you can throw away all the baggage from the last two hours and get on with the next task.



This link is to a story for people who don't have their coffee-room solution.



So remember, next time you've been staring at a problem for a couple of hours, go grab yourself a coffee and see if there's any gloves.



C.



The Complicator's Gloves - The Daily WTF (-)

take a good, hard look at your first revision and just say to yourself, "gloves."

Technorati Tags: programming, wtf, thedailywtf, lifehacks, timeout

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Amnesty

As a scientist, freedom of speech is very important to me, which is why I've given the Amnesty International banner a prominent placing above. Once speech gets shut down, thought can quickly follow.

I'm still working on getting my own speech out there. I'll post details of papers and software soon.

Google Code Search vs Krugle

I'm sure a lot of people have seen and tried Google Code Search by now, so I've had a look and compared it with my favorite code search at Krugle which has saved me hours of work on many occasions. The interface of Krugle is clearly modelled on Eclipse, but it handles plenty of languages alongside Java and covers a few extremely useful bases which Google doesn't. The two I find most useful are thye API/TechDocs searches which allow you to find easily how something works, and the function search which allows you to quickly find the definition of a particular function. They are incredibly useful for finding your way round a new project, especially where the documentation is still in flux.

My impression of the Google Code Search is that it works as a standard Google search over the domain of software, so it doesn't take advantage of the domain knowledge offered within the source code and related documentation. I have a feeling this may be a trend to come. Specialised searches within a domain can exploit knowledge and connections that are hard to generalise to other domains. Krugle is a great example of how this extra knowledge can really make searching easier and more powerful. The generic Google PageRank just can't cut it, at least not on the basis of what I've seen.

Official Google Blog: More developer love with Google Code Search