8/8     Trying to make a list of interesting features languages have
        touted as this whole PL field comes around, trying to see if they
        have basis in the culture of the time: feel free to add some/dispute
        1970 C, "portability"
        1980 C++, classes, oop, iterators, streams, functors, templates
             expert systems
	...

10/6    If the technology for borgification was available, what would you do?
        I think it would be pretty cool to have some sort of 'mind's eye'
        display and an always-on network connection.  The other stuff like
        collective conciousness and major implantation I'm not so hot on.
        (I thought of this when seeing someone on their cell phone using a
         headset)
	...

8/19    Machine learning people: what would you recommend for a reference
        on pattern classification? It seems Duda & Hart is the classic,
        but it's 30 years old -- is it still relevant? Any other
        exceptional texts? Thanks.
        \_ Tom Mitchell's book Machine Learning?
        \_ I am told there aren't exceptional ML books.  Stuart used
	...

11/7    Anyone have a good intro (i'm in math54 atm) to bayesian analysis
        that a college sophomore could understand? i read that the new
        spamassassin uses it (like ifile) but cant find a good intro text on
        it other than:
        http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html
        (which was actually pretty good)
	...

4/9     i am working on modeling semiconductor devices and i need a
        curve-fitting tool to generate mathematical model of the devices.
        what are some of the free and commercial tools available?  thanks.
        \_ Get a book, copy the algorithms.
        \_ excel works quite good. thx anyways. -op
        \_ You can do curve fitting with neural nets -- a couple of lines of
	...

8/13    Is there such a thing as an algorithm that can output another
        algorithm? Kind of like self tuning, self evolving algorithm?
        \_ Yes. Not as glamorous as it sounds; see also: genetic algorithms,
           Remez algorithms, data-directed programming
        \_ bison, yacc, (f)lex, and many many more. not self tuning though.
        \_ There are algorithmns that can learn from data.  It's really not
	...