Posts by SmartphoneDesigner

Real talk: Machine learning is not there yet. Some assembly required

Getting up to speed with Deep Learning is a pain

Although I work in the medical sector, my original background is in software.

Just-for-fun I thought that I would dabble my toes in the Deep Learning waters.

I bought a new fast desktop PC with a stack of RAM and an Nvidia multiprocessor graphics card, and parked it in a quiet corner of the office.

I soon found that I had to use Linux not Windows. So I had to learn how to install and use Linux. I then had to install all the software bits & pieces to support AI running on the Nvidia card ... sheesh, a non-trivial exercise.

I then had to find a reasonable Deep Learning example to play with - again not easy.

Finally, after 3 months of tinkering, in spare moments between patient appointments, I got the flipping thing to run. I now have a real-time image classification program application using a webcam. Its amazing to see the system identify various objects & people in my office at around 10 FPS!

My conclusion? Firstly, developing - or even trying out - Deep Learning apps is currently not for the non-technical user ... although perhaps there are some super-duper easy-to-use development suites out there ... but I haven't seen any yet ..

Secondly, AI & Deep Learning apps are about to sweep the world ... I am still astonished at what my £700 computer can do. When this technology starts to be run on cheap hardware then our world will change drastically. BTW the first low cost AI 'run time' inference chips and boards will be available this year or next. We are essentially at Year Zero of Deep Learning adoption.

Bill Gates: Windows Phone strategy was 'a mistake'

Wot - no apps?

The MS mobile phone failed on Day One.

I worked on their very early 'Stinger' version of the OS way back in 2001 / 2002.

It was a good attempt ... BUT ... MS didn't seem to understand that it should be easy to write apps for.

At that time you couldn't take a simple standard desktop Windows app, tidy it up a bit, recook it and drop it on the phone ... the supporting code libraries were simply not there.

If you COULD have done that way back in 2001 then the world might look a different place today.

Zillions of apps would have appeared and MS would have owned the space ... but, no, we had to wait a further 10 years until other suppliers worked it out.

Looking back I'm really not sure what the problem was : the MS Smartphone developers & management at that time were VERY capable people. In fact almost all MS people I have ever worked with were scarily driven and bright! Oh well, whatever the reason, they missed their chance.

Trust the cloud with my PRECIOUS? You gotta be joking

I'm not sure what the problem is. I love Dropbox plus the Boxcryptor encryption system.

I have also installed many portable apps on Dropbox (unencrypted).

(Sadly some older apps are still tied to a specific PC .. but that's life)

So I now have several PCs at different sites .. each with a local copy of my files (encrypted). My files are also in the cloud (again encrypted). I use a complex layer of password managers to (hopefully) ensure that nothing can go wrong if I have a PC stolen. I also have a 500GB USB backup disk to backup the (encrypted) cloud.

So, if a PC fails or is stolen, no problem. If Dropbox or the links to it fail, no problem.

Also I no longer have to worry about losing USB memory sticks on which I have shoved a 'just in case' backup of some files or emails. In fact I rarely save stuff on memory sticks nowadays.

Each PC is essentially now a Windows system which is a Dropbox client.

Nothing private is held unencrypted on any PC. - but an encrypted volume of my world IS held on multiple PCs.

That leaves privacy issues : well, Google etc monitor almost everything I do on my PC so that battle has already been lost. All my (and probably your) emails pass through insecure external systems and so are already at risk.

Migrating to the cloud has also been beneficial in other ways : I have been forced to review all my files etc to see if they are worth keeping. I now have a much tidier folder structure and I can find all those photos from that holiday in 2001. They are no longer hidden on unbackedup PC #3 in a folder called p1.

The deduplication & tidying process was revealing ... I had ZILLIONS of duplicate files all over the place, some with differing names ... but now I have just one copy of each.

So for the first time in many decades I have control of my files ... and they are all tidy too!

Would I use the cloud etc if I was a copyright pirate or a drug dealer ... probably not.

However for 'ordinary' use I don't see any increased risk of using the cloud ... we are already spied on every second of every day.

Microsoft says Google trying to undermine Windows Phone

Learn From What They Do Not What They Say

OK, let's turn the clock back a fair way.

In 2000/2001 Microsoft started work on an MS Smartphone with a mobile phone manufacturer.

That was TWELVE years ago ... an eternity in high tech.

So do we see Windows Smartphones on every desk or in every home? I think not.

That might be telling us something ...