

Probablistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers - cnivolle
http://camdavidsonpilon.github.io/Probabilistic-Programming-and-Bayesian-Methods-for-Hackers

======
3JPLW
I worked my way through the book a month ago. It's very practical and
understandable. The ipython notebook format makes it extremely easy to play
with the code without worrying about any setup at all. And having it on github
made it extremely easy to fix and clarify things as I went.

~~~
don_draper
Did you find a use for it at your job? One of the challenges is to make
something that is new and useful to other people.

~~~
jamesaguilar
I think whether it's applicable depends on your job. Two immediate ideas for
me were modeling query cost (I work on a high performance server at work, and
one of its responsibilities is to guarantee certain rates of queries to
certain users) and anomaly detection (for monitoring that server). In my
workplace we already have better tools for some of these things, but it's nice
to know I could whip up my own if I spent a little time to think about the
random variables.

------
nirvanatikku
FYI for those in Boston this weekend:
[http://pydata.org/bos2013/](http://pydata.org/bos2013/)

Cam (the author) will be presenting an overview:
[http://pydata.org/bos2013/abstracts/#46](http://pydata.org/bos2013/abstracts/#46)

------
level09
Strange, got a malware warning :

Danger: Malware Ahead! Google Chrome has blocked access to this page on
camdavidsonpilon.github.io. Content from ctan.yazd.ac.ir, a known malware
distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is
very likely to infect your Mac with malware.

~~~
zenburnmyface
Hmmm, is this still happening to you? Is it happening to anyone else?

~~~
janekk
Not to me. Perhaps a sign of a dodgy Chrome extension inserting content into
the DOM.

------
keithflower
Another interesting platform for working with probabilistic programming is
Bher/Church:

[http://projects.csail.mit.edu/church/wiki/Church](http://projects.csail.mit.edu/church/wiki/Church)

and Oleg's and Ken Shan's fantastic OCaml library Hansei:

[http://okmij.org/ftp/kakuritu/index.html](http://okmij.org/ftp/kakuritu/index.html)

Pedantic nit: _probablistic_ vs _probabilistic_....

~~~
tincholio
>Pedantic nit: probablistic vs probabilistic....

Your nit reminded me of this:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20080516195038/http://cs-
people.b...](http://web.archive.org/web/20080516195038/http://cs-
people.bu.edu/charlton/probpt.pdf)

"Lower Bounds for Probably-istic Polynomial Time" an extremely funny read :)

------
yid
Are there any plans at all for a dead-tree version, for us old timers? I love
what little I've read of this book, but reading on screens just doesn't work
for me.

~~~
zenburnmyface
Yes, there are plans. There is currently a PDF version, floating somewhere in
the Github repo. This version is out-of-date, and is only a draft. A more
physical book may be coming mid-fall though.

~~~
jmspring
I admire the approach and allowing anyone to contribute, but for me to delve
into things, I personally prefer something I can take offline and browse and
take some notes on...PDF really is the best bet and would be helpful for me in
this case...

------
0003
I have only had success with the stock Android browser for viewing ipython
notebooks on a mobile platform. However, for some reason the "A" in P(A) in
Chapter 1 does not display. Does anyone know why this would be happening?

------
Choronzon
This book also serves as excellent guide to ipython/matplotlib visualisation
so I would recommend it for this even if you are not interested in primary
subject matter.Very well done on all counts.

------
abrichr
Not that I have any complaints (the opposite is true), but why is the cover
art an illustration of the Toronto skyline?

~~~
zenburnmyface
A few reasons:

1\. I lived in Toronto when I started writing, plus the graphic designer
currently lives there.

2\. It's nice to see a Canadian connection ;)

3\. The results of Bayesian inference sorta look like a skyline, see
[http://i.imgur.com/bF4YrBQ.png](http://i.imgur.com/bF4YrBQ.png)

~~~
abrichr
Cool, thanks!

I've lived in Toronto for the past seven years, and I'm always happy to see it
mentioned in technology and entrepreneurship contexts.

------
rogerchucker
Does the author have any blog post or plan to write one about this part:
"After some recent success of Bayesian methods in machine-learning
competitions"? It will then be easier to translate Bayesian Inference to real
world problem for noobs like me. I was trained in mathematical Bayesian
Inference in an Econometrics class but I never did anything practical with it.

~~~
zenburnmyface
Hi, Author here. I don't have any plans to write that blog post, but I'll can
provide some resources:

1\. [http://timsalimans.com/observing-dark-
worlds/](http://timsalimans.com/observing-dark-worlds/) 2\.
[http://timsalimans.com/winning-the-dont-overfit-
competition/](http://timsalimans.com/winning-the-dont-overfit-competition/)

You mention: "trained in mathematical Bayesian Inference in an Econometrics
class but I never did anything practical with it" . This book tries to bridge
that, from theory to practice. The examples I provide tend to be very
practical.

~~~
gtani
Here's another (same comp, MCMC models took top 2)
[http://blog.kaggle.com/2012/12/19/a-bayesian-approach-to-
obs...](http://blog.kaggle.com/2012/12/19/a-bayesian-approach-to-observing-
dark-worlds/)

