U

(source: I worked on recommendation systems for several large cable/satellite TV companies for several years)

(continued...)
Additionally, you will always get that asshole exec that asks "why am I being recommended this piece of content?". To which the answer should never be "I don't know". So randomness doesn't help much there. In my experience, randomness has played most favorably in the ordering of items that come back, but that still makes it tougher to explain.

The short response to your comment is: there sometimes sort of is, but it's hard.

The way your implying how recommendation systems work seems like a tree structure, where if you start down one path of items it precludes you from another path. This isn't quite how things usually work (at least in my experience).

Typically recommendations are calculated using sparse matrices with users along one axis and items along another. This would make cell values a user's affinity for the item. You can then use ALS algorithms to help compute missing values and predict a user's affitinity. There's a lot I'm glossing over here, so if you're interested I recommend reading further on this.

One of the trickiest parts of any recommendation system is a cold start, what to do with a new user. Sometimes randomness does play a part here, but more often it's based on popularity or recency. And sophisticated recommendation systems will combine those along with data from other 3rd party sources.

It's OK. You're not alone. No one understands the Linux audio stack

This is where git commit squashing is your friend :)

I've had a mixed, mostly positive, experience with it. It's still fairly new and some things are broken/lacking (e.g. horizontal scrolling doesn't work in v < 1.9.0). I agree the documentation is kind of shitty, but the project is also entirely open source and the source code is actually fairly well documented and easy to understand. IMO it's pretty great what they've done so far and a hell of a lot less painful than the normal android development.

I guess I'm one of those people, but of the younger crowd. If you want to talk to me about some interesting tech, great! But I don't give a fuck about your job, talk to me about who you are as a person. If that doesn't make sense, start with why you like your job and go from there. The minutiae about your (and my) day-to-day is frankly boring to anyone that doesn't at least work in the same industry.

https://youtube.com/watch/...

Ask general questions, get general answers

Keeps hitting me at different times and in different severities. Last night when Given Up came on was kind of surreal. That song usually gets me hype, and IMO is one of Bennington's best vocal performances. I just kind of stood there as it was playing.

Those poor headphones. To be henceforth labeled "work headphones". A momentous day indeed

The fallacy is thinking that a girlfriend will make you happy

Oof, that's painful. I at least can take solace in the fact that, while I spend all day inside, it's a damn sauna outside.

First one I've seen that's distinctly *not* coding/development work. What's your current profession if you don't mind my asking? And what's holding you back from being an oncologist?

Quit. Being unemployed isn't the end of the world. Sure it's better to have another job lined up, but if this job is really causing you that much anguish, jettison that shit.

It always warms my heart to see double digit minor numbers on release versions. Fuck 2.0, give me 1.12

dude, Scyther kicks ass!

Can you drill through ceilings/floors? If so, grab a couple of these bad boys (http://deepsurplus.com/Network-Stru...), a coat hanger and you're in business

damn....sorry you have to go through that

Are you on wifi? I've experienced very similar problems. Came down to interference from other routers in the neighborhood. I spent some time and money and ran ethernet through the house. Haven't had a problem since

no coffee, no energy drinks, water all the way

*ducks*

@dfox I feel your pain. To be fair, I knew about these shortcomings from the beginning. But never expected to actually fall victim to them.

@jordinebot damn, I was really hoping you had frowny faces for your break points

I'm confused, so where is naked Emma Watson?

you beautiful agent of chaos, you

(ヘ･_･)ヘ┳━┳

linters are your friend. And there are many online for free

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

@CrankyOldDev is absolutely correct, but WP is still a pain in the ass and a poorly functioning time bomb in the hands of the wrong people. All the more reason to learn it I guess.

I've always said I learned more messing around on my own than from classes. Take care of your grades because some people do look at that, but the best thing you can do is find ways to challenge yourself. Small interesting projects that allow you to add tools to your toolbox