Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to my blog.
verbose=on: I tend to be verbose in most of my posts. Many of my friends will likely paraphrase my verbose posts down to one or two sentences.
snakeoil=off: I will not publicly present opinions or debate issues that I believe I have not taken the time to learn thoroughly. If the subject is one that is of interest to me and I'm underinformed, I'll gladly state this fact and ask for direction from the readership.
pontification=on: I tend to get up on the soapbox and speak from a position of authority. If I don't belong there, please kindly ask me to step down so that I can become better acquainted with the topic.
humanIntelligence=off: I'm a proponent of AI, particularly weak-form AI in Genetic Programming with all of its fragility. I'm also a proponent of the application of adaptive systems to "difficult" problems. I hope to cover a great deal of material on this topic, both for the novice who needs a gentle introduction and for the academic/advanced who may or may not share in my views.
I'm typically a private person, so this blog runs counter to my personal code of conduct. I have worked in capital markets for part of my career where the mantra is "Never let them see you coming". But I also believe that to find and collaborate with one's peers or to acquire new friendships and disciplines, one must communicate. Hence this blog. Furthermore, against my better judgement and against the advice of friends, I've done fine-grain categorization of my entries by interests. Since the interests are diverse and I'll likely not find others with the "same footprint", I feel that these categories help for specialized feeds. Please let me know if they are a help or a hindrance.
Quick backgrounder:
I love mathematics in (almost) all of its forms. I love the history of mathematics and learning of those who have contributed to this discipline. Number Theory, Graph Theory, Ramsey Theory, Algebras, The Theory of Computation and other areas are my interests. Hilbert, Gödel, Von Neumann, Cantor, Euler, Gauss, Erdös and others are the tip of the iceberg in my readings. I, at my best, am only a flailing, amateur mathematician.
As mentioned above, I've done work in AI dating back to 1993. This work is heavily based in the disciplines (in order of interest) of Genetic Programming, Emergent Computation, Artificial Life, Genetic Algorithms and Learning Classifier Systems. I've done work in Neural Networks, Bayesian Networks, Expert Systems, blah blah blah (for all of the strong-form AI) and have found either limited value or limited usage in these disciplines.
Cryptology is another area of interest. I have found that cryptanalysis is what I truly enjoy in this discipline. I find myself lacking the time to develop a significant competence in this area.
I am a .Net guy. I say .Net "guy", because I'm agnostic in matters of technology platform. Microsoft provides a low cost, comprehensive platform for software professionals. In recent times, I've done development in Visual C++, Visual Basic (4.0, 5.0, 6.0 please don't tell anyone), .Net C#, a bit of DirectX (3.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0), some of the new Longhorn/Whidbey technologies and a whole lotta BizTalk. I've worked in a lot of other .Net technologies and servers, but this isn't my resume. I have been a proponent of contract-first SOA (not everywhere in SOA, but in the appropriate layers) ever since BizTalk 2000 Beta showed me the way. Along with being a .Net guy, comes interests in SOA, AOP, Patterns and game development. I have misgivings about the state of current software design patterns and analysis patterns and their lack of mathematical foundations.
I'm a database developer. I have done significant work in SQL Server 2000, 7.0, 6.5, etc., Informix, Illustra and Postgres and Oracle. I BELIEVE THAT DATABASES ARE ABOUT RELATIONAL ALGEBRA AND (TUPLE) RELATIONAL CALCULUS FIRST AND FOREMOST. Graph theory and set theory are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of databases. PERIOD. Any other silly little studies of databases are just noise.
Finance is another discipline where I've done time. I've truly enjoyed my time in software consulting to asset management firms, hedge funds, investment banks and others in the capital markets. This time has been spent in the construction of front office and middle office software on many platforms in many financial disciplines.
I have an interest in Language, Philology and Linguistics. Most of my "upscale" friends speak more than three languages. I'm pitifully weak and am fluent in just one, American English. I've had exposure to and can read some Russian, German, Italian, Spanish and French. So, Slavonic, Germanic and Romance languages are the only exposure I've had. I'd love to find the time to become fluent in Russian, German or Italian. But my interests also lie beyond learning "foreign languages". I'm interested in linguistics, natural language processing and the "deep knowledge structure" that languages describe at the edge.
I have not had enough time to fill the void in my background in philosophy. I at heart am a Continental Rationalist, but I have empiricist tendencies. I have a significant amount of information to read and synthesize on this topic. I'll likely not address the topic of philosophy in this blog directly, but rather my philosophies will come to bear in my approach(es) to other disciplines.
Finally, I'm a single dad. I have a teenage daughter that constantly reminds me why life is both beautiful and complex. I love her dearly and she knows it.