OT: excellent book on information theory

P

Paul Rubin

I came across this while looking up some data compression info today.

David J.C. MacKay
Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms

Full text online:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/

It's a really excellent book, on the level of SICP but about
information theory, probability, error correcting codes, etc. Very
readable, and geeky (in a good way) at the same time. The writing
style is perhaps along the lines of "Numerical Recipes", though the
format is more conventional.

The whole text is online as a pdf, which is very nice. The printed
version is somewhat expensive, but according to the following analysis
it's a better bargain than "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone":

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/Potter.html
 
G

Grant Edwards

I came across this while looking up some data compression info today.

David J.C. MacKay
Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms

Full text online:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/

It's a really excellent book, on the level of SICP but about
information theory, probability, error correcting codes, etc. Very
readable, and geeky (in a good way) at the same time. The writing
style is perhaps along the lines of "Numerical Recipes", though the
format is more conventional.

The whole text is online as a pdf, which is very nice. The printed
version is somewhat expensive, but according to the following analysis
it's a better bargain than "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone":

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/Potter.html

That made me smile on a Monday morning (not an insignificant
accomplishment). I noticed in the one footnote that the H.P.
book had been "translated into American". I've always wondered
about that. I noticed several spots in the H.P. books where
the dialog seemed "wrong": the kids were using American rather
than British English. I thought it rather jarring.
 
A

Andrew Swallow

Grant Edwards wrote:
[snip]
That made me smile on a Monday morning (not an insignificant
accomplishment). I noticed in the one footnote that the H.P.
book had been "translated into American". I've always wondered
about that. I noticed several spots in the H.P. books where
the dialog seemed "wrong": the kids were using American rather
than British English. I thought it rather jarring.
In a bid for a US Government contract I had to rewrite British documents
to use the official American terms and words. Bill to be paid by the US
tax payer.

Andrew Swallow
 
P

Paul Rubin

Grant Edwards said:
That made me smile on a Monday morning (not an insignificant
accomplishment). I noticed in the one footnote that the H.P.
book had been "translated into American". I've always wondered
about that. I noticed several spots in the H.P. books where
the dialog seemed "wrong": the kids were using American rather
than British English. I thought it rather jarring.

The US edition even changed the title from "Philosopher's Stone" to
"Sorcerer's Stone". American schoolkids weren't expected to know what
a philosopher was (or anyway what the Philosopher's Stone was).
 
L

Luc The Perverse

Paul Rubin said:
The US edition even changed the title from "Philosopher's Stone" to
"Sorcerer's Stone". American schoolkids weren't expected to know what
a philosopher was (or anyway what the Philosopher's Stone was).

Which is downright annoying.

Children are capable of learning a word - and causing discongruence in
semantics causes a serious problem when making a movie
 
T

Terry Hancock

That made me smile on a Monday morning (not an
insignificant accomplishment). I noticed in the one
footnote that the H.P. book had been "translated into
American". I've always wondered about that. I noticed
several spots in the H.P. books where the dialog seemed
"wrong": the kids were using American rather than British
English. I thought it rather jarring.

"translated into American", I'm sure refers to the American
version of the book, which is titled "Harry Potter and the
Sourceror's Stone".

I find that bizarre. There is no mythological
basis for a "Sourceror's Stone", but the "Philosopher's
Stone", was of course the mythical Alchemists' goal of a
catalyst for converting lead into gold (it had other
properties, IIRC).

Apparently the publisher was of the opinion that American
children just aren't cultured enough to know about that,
even though I knew the reference when I was 12. I am
really, really insulted by that.

They even went so far as to shoot two versions of every
scene in the movie that referred to the stone so that it
would agree with the book. AFAICT, you cannot purchase
the original movie or book within the United States, and
due to the Evil Conspiracy of region-coding, I couldn't
watch the British DVD even if I were to import it (Well,
yeah I could, but it would be painful, and probably illegal,
do to that other Evil Conspiracy, the DMCA -- don't let
your country pass a law like this).

Now I don't suppose I should really get my nose all out
of joint over this sort of thing, but it's symbolic of
a lot of things that are wrong with the world right now.
 
A

Alex Martelli

Terry Hancock said:
due to the Evil Conspiracy of region-coding, I couldn't
watch the British DVD even if I were to import it (Well,
yeah I could, but it would be painful, and probably illegal,

I have a region-free DVD player here in CA -- considering that I brought
with me a hundred or more DVDs from the old country, and I get as many
more here in shops or via netflix, I really couldn't do without. I
legally ordered it on the web and it was legally delivered. What's
illegal about it?!


Alex
 
S

Steve Holden

Alex said:
I have a region-free DVD player here in CA -- considering that I brought
with me a hundred or more DVDs from the old country, and I get as many
more here in shops or via netflix, I really couldn't do without. I
legally ordered it on the web and it was legally delivered. What's
illegal about it?!
Nothing at all. But I still prefer tales of people who have hacked their
DVD players to be multi-region :)

Interestingly, when I made the converse move from America to Europe
several retailers were anxious to assure me that their products, while
single region, could easily be hacked into multi-region players using
information available from web sites which they would deny having told
me about.

regards
Steve
 
R

Rocco Moretti

Alex said:
I have a region-free DVD player here in CA --

N.B.: CA, in addition to being the postal abbreviation for the US state
of California, is also the the two-letter country code for Canada. In an
international forum such as this, confusion may result, especially as
"Legal in California" and "Legal in Canada" are slightly different.
 
A

Alex Martelli

Rocco Moretti said:
N.B.: CA, in addition to being the postal abbreviation for the US state
of California, is also the the two-letter country code for Canada. In an
international forum such as this, confusion may result, especially as
"Legal in California" and "Legal in Canada" are slightly different.

You're right - guess I'm going native!-) I did mean California.


Alex
 
T

Terry Hancock

Nothing at all. But I still prefer tales of people who
have hacked their DVD players to be multi-region :)

It isn't illegal in Canada anyway. And yes, it would be
possible for me to pay a very high price to get a
region-free player in the USA, but I'm certainly not going
to.

IMHO, region coding is an immoral abuse of the economy
-- the corporation that produces the video benefits from
cost-savings resulting from the globalization of the labor
market, but then uses cryptography to prevent the consumer
from benefitting from the same globalization.

If it were just a matter of breaking cryptography, though,
that wouldn't be such a big deal: they write it, we break
it. Tough cookies.

But the US has made that illegal -- even when it is a
practical necessity to exercise fair use rights on
legally-purchased media. I am disgusted by that.
 
T

Terry Hancock

Nothing at all. But I still prefer tales of people who
have hacked their DVD players to be multi-region :)

It isn't illegal in Canada anyway. And yes, it would be
possible for me to pay a very high price to get a
region-free player in the USA, but I'm certainly not going
to.

IMHO, region coding is an immoral abuse of the economy
-- the corporation that produces the video benefits from
cost-savings resulting from the globalization of the labor
market, but then uses cryptography to prevent the consumer
from benefitting from the same globalization.

If it were just a matter of breaking cryptography, though,
that wouldn't be such a big deal: they write it, we break
it. Tough cookies.

But the US has made that illegal -- even when it is a
practical necessity to exercise fair use rights on
legally-purchased media. I am disgusted by that.
 
A

Alex Martelli

Terry Hancock said:
It isn't illegal in Canada anyway. And yes, it would be
possible for me to pay a very high price to get a
region-free player in the USA, but I'm certainly not going
to.

Me neither! I got mine for about $50 from a well-rated web merchant, as
I recall -- is that what you mean by "a very high price"?


Alex
 
S

sjdevnull

Terry said:
I find that bizarre. There is no mythological
basis for a "Sourceror's Stone", but the "Philosopher's
Stone", was of course the mythical Alchemists' goal of a
catalyst for converting lead into gold (it had other
properties, IIRC).

As an American, I was somewhat mystified by the "Americani[zs]ed"
version of the title. Learning the real title was illuminating, since,
as you point out, philosopher's stone actually has mythological
meaning--even here in the USA.
 
A

Alex Martelli

Steven D'Aprano said:
I mean, when you read "He sat on the chair" do you need
to look up the dictionary to discover that chairs can
have arm rests or not, they can be made of wood or
steel or uphostered springs, be on legs or coasters,
fixed or movable? If it mattered, a good author will
tell you, and if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

But if in their dialects of English "chair" strongly implies a hard,
straight-backed, no-arms sitting-device, they won't elaborate, even if
it DOES matter, exactly because it's already implied in the word they
used. Not sure if this is true of any dialect of English, today, but it
might be in Italian (for "sedia", the exact translation of "chair").

So, you've just learned that "He" chose to sit in a chair rather than a
sofa; depending on subtle nuances of the English dialect used (varying
with time and space), this may have very different implications in
defining the character and mood of this individual...


Alex
 
R

Roger Upole

Alex Martelli said:
But if in their dialects of English "chair" strongly implies a hard,
straight-backed, no-arms sitting-device, they won't elaborate, even if
it DOES matter, exactly because it's already implied in the word they
used. Not sure if this is true of any dialect of English, today, but it
might be in Italian (for "sedia", the exact translation of "chair").

So, you've just learned that "He" chose to sit in a chair rather than a
sofa; depending on subtle nuances of the English dialect used (varying
with time and space), this may have very different implications in
defining the character and mood of this individual...


Alex

Hmm, and what if your context for "chair" was that unless you were
to confess, you would be placed in a comfy one ? And furthermore,
what if you were told that while in this chair thing, you would be seeing
the sketch about the penguin on the telly ? Lets see, "sketch" means
a rough line drawing, and the only "telly" I know of is Telly Savalas,
but I'm fairly sure I know what a penguin is.
So while in this "chair" I am to be shown a crudely drawn picture
of a bald man with a fat flightless bird perched upon his overlarge head.
Torture indeed .....

Roger
(who has obviously had too much coffee)
 
S

Steve Holden

Roger said:
Hmm, and what if your context for "chair" was that unless you were
to confess, you would be placed in a comfy one ? And furthermore,
what if you were told that while in this chair thing, you would be seeing
the sketch about the penguin on the telly ? Lets see, "sketch" means
a rough line drawing, and the only "telly" I know of is Telly Savalas,
but I'm fairly sure I know what a penguin is.
So while in this "chair" I am to be shown a crudely drawn picture
of a bald man with a fat flightless bird perched upon his overlarge head.
Torture indeed .....
No, not the comfy chair!
 
B

Ben

Hi Paul,

Dr MacKay was my information studies lecturer and 4th year degree
project mentor at university, about 5 years ago, and I think that this
book is basically the course notes we used then!

He is an excellent lecturer, and if the book is as good as the course,
it should be very interesting, particularly the error correcting stuff.

Very off topic I know, but it's always interesting when two areas of
interest collide (my time at university, and my love of python!)

Cheers,
Ben
 
T

Terry Hancock

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 18:31:35 -0800
Me neither! I got mine for about $50 from a well-rated
web merchant, as I recall -- is that what you mean by "a
very high price"?

My information may be out of date, but while I certainly
feel there is nothing wrong with such a purchase, I think it
may in fact be illegal. It doesn't sound like the seller is
paying the royalty fees required to provide for all regions
(they would be guilty of patent infringement, AFAIK).

In many cases, these are actually after-market
modifications, which may be illegal.

Of course, you should rest assured that it is not *you* who
is breaking the law in this case. As with "pirated" tapes
and DVDs, it is the distributor, not the purchaser who can
be prosecuted.

There is also the point, that if the seller is not in the
USA, they may be outside the jurisdiction of such laws, yet
it may still be legal to import the products.

But, IANAL, and this is one of the stickiest areas of the
law, so I should hesitate even to speculate what the truth
is here.

It is also possible that the aforementioned royalty fees
have been reduced since I last checked into this stuff.

None of which changes my opinion that "region coding" is an
evil conspiracy or that the DMCA is just plain wrong.
 

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