Comments on: When has a problem been solved? http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/27/when-has-a-problem-been-solved/ Daniel Lemire's blog is about life in academia, research in Computer Science, wondering how we can reconcile fast databases and algorithms with the informal and asemantic nature of the world around us. It is broadcasted from Montreal (Canada). Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:26:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: John Riedl http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/27/when-has-a-problem-been-solved/#comment-49591 John Riedl Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:10:46 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/27/when-has-a-problem-been-solved/#comment-49591 I like Daniel's high level perspective: researchers should focus on work that has room to have a big effect. Once we get down to the minor details it's hard for researchers to have much of an impact, because the actual environment in which the research is deployed may matter more than the algorithm/interface/whatever discovered by the researcher. OTOH, I'm not sure there's a "order of magnitude" definition that we're all going to agree to. I think it's very dependent on the domain, and the needs of users within that domain. To me the key question is: will this research, if it succeeds, change the user experience in a qualitative way? If so, I'm interested; if not, less so. John I like Daniel’s high level perspective: researchers should focus on work that has room to have a big effect. Once we get down to the minor details it’s hard for researchers to have much of an impact, because the actual environment in which the research is deployed may matter more than the algorithm/interface/whatever discovered by the researcher.

OTOH, I’m not sure there’s a “order of magnitude” definition that we’re all going to agree to. I think it’s very dependent on the domain, and the needs of users within that domain. To me the key question is: will this research, if it succeeds, change the user experience in a qualitative way? If so, I’m interested; if not, less so.

John

]]> By: Will http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/27/when-has-a-problem-been-solved/#comment-49588 Will Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:35:21 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/11/27/when-has-a-problem-been-solved/#comment-49588 Some notes: - I'd give a Nobel Prize to anyone who could reduce global warming/decrease cancer rates/improve worldwide health by 1%. - Spam will always have a precision/recall tradeoff, I think. I can stop your FP rate by blocking your access to mail. - Spammers will continue to improve, so an 'order of magnitude' improvement might just be to stay at a current annoyance level. - The definition of 'spam' will always fuzzy, as well. - I dislike your spam protection :) Some notes:

- I’d give a Nobel Prize to anyone who could reduce global warming/decrease cancer rates/improve worldwide health by 1%.

- Spam will always have a precision/recall tradeoff, I think. I can stop your FP rate by blocking your access to mail.

- Spammers will continue to improve, so an ‘order of magnitude’ improvement might just be to stay at a current annoyance level.

- The definition of ’spam’ will always fuzzy, as well.

- I dislike your spam protection :)

]]>