My youngest son will be starting his first year of college in the fall and our family tradition is that I purchase him a laptop. My very first post for this blog contained my recommendation for my oldest daughter when she started college. When my youngest daughter headed to school, I followed my original advice and got the same brand of computer. When it came time for my oldest son to head to school, I had him help with the process and he decided on something else.
With my youngest son I am rethinking all of my decisions. My daughters really only need a computer for word processing and e-mail. My oldest son will finish up his Computer Science degree this April and his laptop decision was the correct one for him. My youngest son has already been accepted into the Mechanical Engineering department and so I am torn between a Windows laptop or another Mac computer. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I wound my way through Electrical Engineering school, Windows was the operating system of choice. A number of the software programs throughout the discipline relied on it and could not be found for the Mac. Now I am sure things have changed but it has me wondering what the laptop of choice will be.
One nice thing about the Mac is that it will also run Windows and do so quite well. Sure I may have to set up Boot Camp on the Mac, but that isn't really that difficult. However you still pay a premium for Apple computers and can get more for your money with other laptops.
Fortunately I have some time and don't have to make that decision right now. I want my son to talk with his academic advisor and see what the school recommends. I think I know the answer but would like to be pleasantly surprised. If my son and I do decide to go with a Windows laptop, then I will have to also figure out which manufacturer to buy. I'll keep you posted what I decide.
Showing posts with label Recommendations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommendations. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Online Recommendations
This afternoon I am working on a personal project related to a recommendation engine. I don't really want to go into too many details as there are plenty of examples that I can draw from without giving away any secrets. While I don't have a confidentiality agreement in place that prevents me from talking about it, I am working with friends and that bond is stronger than any signed legal document.
This example has nothing to do with the project but is something else I have been working on today as well and illustrates the project. I want to take my family on a vacation next autumn. We enjoy going in the month of October because the usual crowds associated with summer are long gone. However we can't do the usual summer things nor can we do the winter activities either. Shoulder seasons can be tough but I am looking for a good recommendation on where to go. There are some important criteria to take into account:
Now I travel almost every week of the year and so I have a very good understanding of destinations that are easy to get to vs. ones that are difficult. I also understand that it might be a coin toss for certain destinations because of things like hurricane season in the Caribbean or early snow for places like Alaska.
So how does one distill all of the information into a helpful recommendation engine? If you look at how Amazon does it, they ask you to start with something and then show you what other things people have also looked at, starting with the most popular. In the case of a vacation, I might look at hotels in Hawaii and Amazon would also show me places like Mexico or Tahiti. It would then be up to me to weed out the best choice based on my criteria.
If you look at how online forums handle this issue, I would simply provide a posting with the criteria listed above and then leave it to other actual humans to give recommendations based on their previous experiences. The problem with this approach is that someone may have gone to Alaska at this time of year and had a wonderful time. However a freak snowstorm during my proposed dates could severely impact the "Level of fun" in a negative way.
If you look at other online vendors like Backcountry.com, they employ human experts that you can ask via chat windows to get their opinions. This is better than the online forums because the experts should know enough to filter out the "Alaska" responses. The only problem is that it requires paying people to answer questions and provide recommendations.
The Google search engine has sort of combined all of these methods with some extra smarts to give you the results of your online searches. Theoretically if 100 people all enter the same search criteria, the links near the top of the results are the most popular ones that have been clicked. For the first 10 searchers, the results are not nearly as accurate. However as more and more people click results, the better answers rise to the top.
There are a number of recommendation engine algorithms and some of them work better than others. Unfortunately none of them are perfect and so it is a matter of figuring out how much effort to put into my next project. I have some ideas and will post the results as they come in.
This example has nothing to do with the project but is something else I have been working on today as well and illustrates the project. I want to take my family on a vacation next autumn. We enjoy going in the month of October because the usual crowds associated with summer are long gone. However we can't do the usual summer things nor can we do the winter activities either. Shoulder seasons can be tough but I am looking for a good recommendation on where to go. There are some important criteria to take into account:
- Price
- Ease of travel
- Level of fun
- Not needing a vacation after the vacation
- Flexibility to add one or two people
Now I travel almost every week of the year and so I have a very good understanding of destinations that are easy to get to vs. ones that are difficult. I also understand that it might be a coin toss for certain destinations because of things like hurricane season in the Caribbean or early snow for places like Alaska.
So how does one distill all of the information into a helpful recommendation engine? If you look at how Amazon does it, they ask you to start with something and then show you what other things people have also looked at, starting with the most popular. In the case of a vacation, I might look at hotels in Hawaii and Amazon would also show me places like Mexico or Tahiti. It would then be up to me to weed out the best choice based on my criteria.
If you look at how online forums handle this issue, I would simply provide a posting with the criteria listed above and then leave it to other actual humans to give recommendations based on their previous experiences. The problem with this approach is that someone may have gone to Alaska at this time of year and had a wonderful time. However a freak snowstorm during my proposed dates could severely impact the "Level of fun" in a negative way.
If you look at other online vendors like Backcountry.com, they employ human experts that you can ask via chat windows to get their opinions. This is better than the online forums because the experts should know enough to filter out the "Alaska" responses. The only problem is that it requires paying people to answer questions and provide recommendations.
The Google search engine has sort of combined all of these methods with some extra smarts to give you the results of your online searches. Theoretically if 100 people all enter the same search criteria, the links near the top of the results are the most popular ones that have been clicked. For the first 10 searchers, the results are not nearly as accurate. However as more and more people click results, the better answers rise to the top.
There are a number of recommendation engine algorithms and some of them work better than others. Unfortunately none of them are perfect and so it is a matter of figuring out how much effort to put into my next project. I have some ideas and will post the results as they come in.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Preventative Maintenance
Today I took my car into the shop for some regularly scheduled maintenance. I have a 2001 BMW 540i with only 67,000 miles on it. It has so few miles on it because I never drive it in the snow and there is a lot of snow in Utah. I also try to take very good care of it and so as part of the maintenance I had the mechanic perform an inspection. There are two items he suggested I perform as preventative maintenance. Since it is for a BMW, the work won't be cheap and adds up to about $1000.
One important thing I want to point out is that I trust my mechanic. There are a number of mechanics I have gone to through the years and would not trust their recommendations. The difference between them and my current mechanic is that I have had the chance to see my mechanic's work over the past number of years. He also knows how much I take care of my car and knows that I want it to last for a long time.
Unfortunately my mechanic has been working out of his home garage for the past decade and just now put up a shop. There are no reviews to check and an online search would turn up very little information. In other words, a careful Internet search would keep a number of people from using him. So if you are looking for a trustworthy mechanic in the Salt Lake area, give Kevin a call and he will take care of you.
On Monday I will take my car back and let Kevin work on it while I am in the Bay Area. There is probably a lot I can add about preventative maintenance with your computer equipment but let's be honest: Computers are cheap compared to cars and you can replace them for a lot less than your car. So if you have the choice of buying a new tablet computer or doing a lube/oil/filter on your car, spend the money on your car. It will save you a lot more money later down the road (no pun intended).
One important thing I want to point out is that I trust my mechanic. There are a number of mechanics I have gone to through the years and would not trust their recommendations. The difference between them and my current mechanic is that I have had the chance to see my mechanic's work over the past number of years. He also knows how much I take care of my car and knows that I want it to last for a long time.
Unfortunately my mechanic has been working out of his home garage for the past decade and just now put up a shop. There are no reviews to check and an online search would turn up very little information. In other words, a careful Internet search would keep a number of people from using him. So if you are looking for a trustworthy mechanic in the Salt Lake area, give Kevin a call and he will take care of you.
On Monday I will take my car back and let Kevin work on it while I am in the Bay Area. There is probably a lot I can add about preventative maintenance with your computer equipment but let's be honest: Computers are cheap compared to cars and you can replace them for a lot less than your car. So if you have the choice of buying a new tablet computer or doing a lube/oil/filter on your car, spend the money on your car. It will save you a lot more money later down the road (no pun intended).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
