Drone Racing League
Drones are cool. Racing drones are cooler. Since Christmas, I've been drooling over the Walkera Runner 250 racing drone. Although the drone itself is a reasonable $279, all the other crap you have to buy - $300+ googles, extra parts etc - really adds up. Plus, I don't even have a place to race this thing outdoors. For now, I can only watch the Drone Racing League video and dream.
Machine Learning for Data Science and Analytics
In the past year, I've taken several MOOCs offered on both EdX an Coursera platforms. I've been paying money to have my classes "verified" so I can obtain some shiny PDF certificates or Linked-In badges indicating that I actually completed a class. My most recent class is the Columbia University's Machine Learning for Data Science and Analytics course on Edx. In two days I need to decide if I want to shell out $99 to have this class "verified." Unfortunately, this class is not worth it.
Let me explain. To date, I've taken and paid for Georgia Tech's Computational Investing, Columbia U's Financial Engineering and Risk Management Part I, three data science courses from Johns Hopkins, MIT's Introduction to Computer Science using Python and Stanford's Machine Learning. Every single course cost $49 or less. The classes varied in length from 4 weeks to 10. All had moderate to significant amounts of coding or hand-written calculations. Basically, not only did you watch the lecture videos you had to do work to make sure you really understood the material.
The Machine Learning class is really short, 5 weeks long, requires the least amount of assignment work and costs twice as much as the MIT Intro to Comp Sci course. Not only that, the assignments are rather disjointed from the lecture material or requires only superficial understanding. There are quite a few complaints in the classes' discussion group about these gripes. In contrast, the MIT course was 10 weeks long, required answering quiz questions and actual programming assignments. When you completed the MIT class, you knew you learned something .... and it only cost $49!
Sorry Columbia, I think I will keep my $99.
Asus ZenPad C8
I've been using the Asus ZenPad S8 Z580CA-C1-BK as my main tablet for the last 4 months. It replaces my iPad Mini 2. Simply, the S8 is a great tablet with horrible, horrible battery life.
Its a really fast quad-core Intel-based Android tablet. All my apps run without lag. I have a micro SD card to store MOOC videos. Even the bloatware is tolerable. 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage for $299. Fantastic!
The only serious downside is the battery life. Under heavy use, it needs to be recharged over night. There is no way around it. Under similar usage my iPad Mini could last two days with out recharging.
The only other problem is the USB 3.1 C-type connector. The cables are really crazy expensive. The one I bought from Monoprice cost $9.99. Sheer robbery.
I just signed up for a free pass to the Robo Universe Conference and Expo in NYC on April 11-12, 2016. Although this event is aimed at commercial robotics for businesses, I am hoping there will be some interesting exhibits for the hobbyist. Their web page also promises "Robots, Drones, and The Internet of Everything." Thanks to the shit show known as O'Reilly Strata + Hadoop , its now seems every conference now needs to include drones and IoT.
Menu Maid working its magic.
Do you use a laptop? Do you install a lot of software? If you said yes to both questions, Inevitably your context menu for Windows Explorer is going to grow so tall that you can't even see all the items in a single screen scrolling. This is absolutely ridiculous!
Life Hacker has a review of a simple program - Menu Maid - that can solve this problem. Although the article is 5 years old and all the links are broken, I did find a copy on download.com. For the pasts few years, I've been avoiding download.com because CNET realized they could make money by requiring all apps to be downloaded using their stupid ad-laced "downloader. " Surprisingly, Menu Maid is a single executable that does not require the downloader which is great news.
Anyway, the app is easy to use. Just pick a tab, IE or Windows Explorer, then go deselect menu items you don't want and click "Close." Super fast. Super easy.
Take this XSeries program on edX: https://www.edx.org/xseries/data-science-analytics-context
Class is in session. Columbia's Machine Learning for Data Science started last week. After just one week, I have to say this class is very different from the many other MOOCs that I have taken before.
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For years, I used a Netgear WGPS606 to network my laser printer at home. Although my printer has Ethernet connectivity it didn't support WiFi. Since my router was located many rooms away, the WGPS606 was quite handy. I could print from any laptop in my home.
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I've always wanted an oscilloscope. Unfortunately, I don't have the desk space for a proper Rigol so I always found USB-based scopes interesting. However, we all know USB scopes are dicey because of limited transfers speeds, lack of resolution and lack of physical controls.
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