Readings at Feb 28, 2013

Taeuber's Paradox and the Life Expectancy Brick Wall by Kas Thomas

Simplicity is Wonderful, But Not a Requirement by James Hague

Yeah.  I knew a professor who always want to rewrite speech recognition systems such that is easier for research.   Ahh...... modern speech recognition systems are complex any way.   Not making mistakes is already very hard.   Not to say building a good research system which easy to use for everyone. (Remember, everyone has their different research goal.)

Arthur

On sh*tty job.

I read "Why Hating Your Shitty Job Only Makes It Worse",  there is something positive about the article but I can't completely agree with the authors.

Part of the dilemma at work in a traditional office space is that inevitably some kind of a*holes and bad system will appear in your life.   The question is whether you want to ignore it or not.   You should be keenly aware of your work condition and make rational decision of staying an leaving.

Arthur

61398

Chinese Army is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. 

A look on Sphinx3's initialization

I worked on Sphinx 3 a lot.  In these days, it was generally regarded as an "old-style" recognizer as compared to Sphinx 4 and PocketSphinx.   It is also not support officially by the SF's guys.

Coders of speech recognition think a little bit different.  They usually stick to a certain codebase which they feel comfortable with.   For me, it is not just a personal preference, it also reflects how much I know about a certain recognizer.  For example, I know quite a bit of how Sphinx 3 performs.   In these days, I tried to learn how Sphinx 4 fare as well.   So far, if you ask me to choose an accurate recognizer, I will still probably choose Sphinx 3, not because the search technology is better (Sphinx 4 is way superior), but because it can easily made to support several advanced modeling types.  This seems to be how the 2010 developer meeting concluded as well.

But that was just me. In fact, I am bullish on all Sphinx recognizers.  One thing I want to note is the power of Sphinx 4 in development.  There are many projects are based on Sphinx 4.  In these days, if you want to get a job on speech recognizer, knowing Sphinx 4 is probably a good ticket.  That's why I am quite keen on learning it more so hopefully I can write on both recognizers more.

In any case, this is a Sphinx 3's article.  I will probably write more on each components.   Feel free to comments.

How Sphinx3 is initialized:

Here is a listing of function used on how Sphinx 3 is initialized I got from Sphinx 3.0.8.  Essentially, there are 3 layers of initialization, kb_init, kbcore_init and s3_am_init.  Separating kb_init and kbcore_init probably starts very early in Sphinx 3.  Whereas separating s3_am_init from kbcore_init was probably from me. (So all blames on me.)  That is to support -hmmdir.

 kb_init  
     -> kbcore_init (*)  
     -> beam_init  
     -> pl_init  
     -> fe_init  
     -> feat_array  
     -> stat_init  
     -> adapt_am_init  
     -> set operation mode  
     -> srch_init  
 kbcore_init  
     -> Look for feat.params very early on.   
     -> logmath_init  
     -> feat_init  
     -> s3_am_init (*)  
     -> cmn_init  
     -> dict_init  
     -> misc. models init  
       mgau_init such as  
       -> subvq_init  
       -> gs_read  
     -> lmset_init  
     -> fillpen_init  
     -> dict2pid_build <- Should put into search  
 s3_am_init   
     -> read_lda  
     -> read in mdef.   
     -> depends on -senmgau type  
       .cont. mgau_init  
       .s2semi. s2_semi_mgau_init  
           if (-kdtree)  
           s2_semi_mgau_load_kdtree  
       .semi or .s3cont.   
           ms_mgau_init  
     -> tmat_init  
  

Note:

• -hmmdir override all other sub-parameters. 

Arthur

Toning down on Blogging......

Guess I was too confident again to build up this site.  Once again I feel work took me much time and couldn't work on this blog soon.

It also depends on whether my work are something camera-ready.   Currently I have couple of articles which are ready to hash out but need some refinement.

Let's see if I can come back for month a month later.  For now, you might see a lot of filler materials on this blog.

Arthur

Dumb Ways to Die

Can you stop loving this video?

Hamming's "You and Your Research"

The original link

Read it.  It doesn't just apply in research, it applies in any job.

Arthur

Readings at Feb 13, 2013

Productivity isn't by Vivek Halder

Readings at Feb 12, 2013

After couple of days of snow shoveling. Finally back to business

Computer program roots out ancestors of modern tongues 

Readings at Feb 6, 2013

Employees leave Manager Not Companies Well said.

Caffeine Jitters As a programmer, I found drinking any caffeinated drinks anti-productive.   In the short-term, coke, coffee or power drinks gave you a kick.  In long term, they are debilitating and cause you feel tired.  

I think Dave is the guy who taught me to drink tea at CMU, I haven't changed this habit since.

Arthur

Should we go to College?

Reading James Altucher's "I Was Blind But Now I See", he made a controversial point: don't send kids into college.   Before you throw stuffs, his point is sophisticated.   You would think you could refute him by saying "What about profession such as lawyer and doctor?" But then Altucher counters that to be a professional,  you just need to read the right book and ask the right question to the right people.   It is difficult to refute : say if you want to learn programming, taking a university course and getting credits don't really help that much.   Working on an open source project or an internship does.    On speech recognition, classes may be useful but at the end of the day, reading papers, or generally talking with experts in the field is the real help. 

So what is the meaning of University then?   Though I have many friends who have graduate degrees and I have a master myself,  I do appreciate Altucher's point.    Because what he said highlight some of my doubt about the college education system.   e.g. Is a person really smarter after 5 years of college education?   Do they learn better?   Does it worth the $50000 debt?    When I look at many of my friends,  for most of the time, the answer is no.    The truth is for many who want to learn, they will seek out college education after they have some experience.    They actively seek for knowledge they lack of.  On the other hand, when I look at many of my PhD friends, they either have no motivation to learn nor their duty gives them no time to learn.   It is a pity.   

I believe learning is a life-long issue and it should be independent to any institutions.   

Arthur

Collapse Video

It caught my eyes and made me think......

Arthur