A while back, I wrote about machine learning safety measures. I was thinking about how easy it is to accidentally make terrible models (e.g. training a support vector machine on unscaled data), or misuse good models (e.g. forgetting to scale data before making a prediction). I suggested that one solution might be to make tools...

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After almost 12 years of consulting, teaching, writing, and hacking, it’s time for Agile* to close its laptops for the last time. We’ll be shutting down at the end of September.When I quit my job and moved to Nova Scotia in 2010, I had no idea if Agile* was going to work at all. I...

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If you use Python on a regular basis, you might have noticed that Pandas is eating everything, not just things made out of bamboo.But one thing Pandas is not useful for is 2-D or 3-D (or more-D) seismic data. Its DataFrames are implicitly two-dimensional tables, and shine when the columns represent all sorts of different...

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Do you have an idea for an app?Or maybe a useful bit of code you want to share with others, but you’re not sure where to start?Lots of people come to our Geocomputing class — which is for outright beginners — saying, "I want to build an app". Most of them are thinking of a...

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One of the wonderful, but also baffling, things about machine learning is that there are so many ways to do it. At some very high level, most of them do something like this (highlighting some jargon):The human settles on a task (“Predict lithology”) and finds a bunch of data relevant to that task (say, some...

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There are several really nice comparisons between various algorithms in the Scikit-Learn documentation. The most famous, and useful, one is probably the classifier comparison: A comparison of classification algorithms. Each row is a different dataset; each column (except the first) is a different classifier, each trying to separate the blue and red points. The accuracy...

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There’s a teaching method originating in medicine known as “see one, do one, teach one”. I like it because it underscores hands-on practice and knowledge sharing as essential steps in developing a craft — and it works. Today, I want to urge you to take a challenge, then make one for others.First, what’s the challenge?...

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In the recent How deep are the presents? post, I mentioned that I got a telescope this year — and I encouraged you to get one, because I kind of wish I’d got mine years ago. Since the observing conditions aren’t great tonight and I’m indoors anyway, I thought I’d elaborate a bit.Not HubbleThe fun might not be obvious to all. Superficially, the experience is terrible — you read about some interesting object, noting its spectacular appearance…

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As December rolls around again, thoughts turn to the Advent of Code, I mean Christmas, Jul, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, ÅŒmisoka, Newtonmas, Solstice, Dongzhi, or whatever you like to celebrate at this time of year. The end of 2021 is arguably sufficient cause for celebration on its own. Just don’t let your guard down in 2022!Now, wherever you are, light the fire, chill out in the shade, pour yourself a glass of what you fancy, and check…

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Earlier this year AAPG and SPE announced that they are considering a merger.Read the PRESS RELEASE and FAQs about the AAPG and SPE merger considerations at: https://t.co/9tAQFKeERt. pic.twitter.com/2RwJCTjjnh— AAPG (@AAPG) May 25, 2021 There’s now a dedicated website to help members follow the developments, but it looks like no decisions will be made before next year, following a member vote on the issue.In a LinkedIn post from SEG President Anna Shaughnessy earlier this week, I…

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