<story><title>David J.C. MacKay, Machine Learning pioneer, dies</title><url>http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/appendix-three-correspondence-visitors.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mjg59</author><text>My first programming job was working in David&amp;#x27;s research group, helping transition Dasher (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;dasher&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;dasher&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) from a research project into one more generally useful for accessibility purposes. I still feel that that job was perhaps the most useful work I&amp;#x27;ve ever done - I had the opportunity to write code that in some cases literally made it practical for people to communicate, and that (along with David&amp;#x27;s strong views on social responsibility) ended up strongly shaping my perspective on what technology&amp;#x27;s role in society should be.&lt;p&gt;I saw David only rarely after leaving the group to do my PhD, and hadn&amp;#x27;t in years before I saw him at a group reunion last month. I&amp;#x27;m saddened that I passed on so many opportunities to learn more from him.</text></comment>
<story><title>David J.C. MacKay, Machine Learning pioneer, dies</title><url>http://itila.blogspot.com/2016/04/appendix-three-correspondence-visitors.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cannam</author><text>A British scientist and mathematician known for two fine books, both of which are available to read online.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sustainable Energy - without the hot air&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.withouthotair.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.withouthotair.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) does the sums on sources of sustainable energy, to try to establish whether they present a realistic alternative to fossil fuels. It might make sense to read this as a companion to Bret Victor&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;What can a technologist do about climate change?&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;worrydream.com&amp;#x2F;ClimateChange&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;worrydream.com&amp;#x2F;ClimateChange&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;), though MacKay&amp;#x27;s book mostly doesn&amp;#x27;t talk about climate change but about fuel exhaustion.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;mackay&amp;#x2F;itila&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;mackay&amp;#x2F;itila&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) is a readable and charming (but mathematical) book that touches on a lot of topics in information theory. A lot of it is over my head, but I most recently referred to it just a couple of weeks ago for its chapters about the mathematics of neural nets, including a chapter given to estimating the information capacity of a single neuron.&lt;p&gt;He was only 48 and had stomach cancer, which he wrote about on his blog (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itila.blogspot.co.uk&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itila.blogspot.co.uk&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;).</text></comment>