4 ms·

Here is the best PCA explanation I ever read on the web: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/2691/making-sense-of-principal-component-analysis-eigenvector

Here is the best PCA explanation I ever read on the web: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/2691/making-sense-of-principal-component-analysis-eigenvectors-eigenvalues/140579#140579 https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/2691/making-sense-...

saeranv 5y ago
Seconded. This is exactly the same stackexchange post I thought of as well.
knolan 5y ago
I’ve always like this example from the Matlab documentation: https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/biplot.html https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/biplot.html The use of car data and how it correlates is a good way of showing how PCA treats each variable. For example acceleration and weight are negatively correlated while displacement and horsepower are highly correlated.
- melling 5y ago
  Anyone using Matlab these days? Seems a bit niche. I used Octave in Andrew Ng’s ML class and wanted to learn more Matlab so I signed up for a Coursera course on it. It’s a nice tool.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - catillac 5y ago
    Matlab is great. I won’t hire anyone who only has experience in it though, like I might hire someone who only has python numerical analysis tools experience. It’s brittle and difficult to put into production in my experience.
  - ingqondo 5y ago
    I'm sure it's still very popular in engineering. It's still very much the lingua franca for numerical methods applied to engineering problems - there are decades of materials solving engineering problems written in MATLAB.
    - ur-whale 5y ago
      "The Cobbler's Kids Have No Shoes"
  - nxpnsv 5y ago
    Yes. We made a proof on concept thing on top of a closed source 2.4Ghz radio wave propagation simulator built in matlab. Interfacing to compiled matlab through hacky command line and .mat files is a pretty horrifying experience :)
  - knolan 5y ago
    The stack exchange post from the parent used Matlab which is why I replied with more Matlab. Matlab is very popular in engineering. It’s simple enough to get simple things done without needing to know too much CS.
  - asdff 5y ago
    It's used heavily in school still. I think statistics and data science in general have dropped it along with other relics like SAS (used today only by those people who haven't bothered learning anything other than SAS), and are sticking with R and python for functionality previously done in matlab.

saeranv 5y ago

Seconded. This is exactly the same stackexchange post I thought of as well.

knolan 5y ago

I’ve always like this example from the Matlab documentation: https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/biplot.html https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/biplot.html The use of car data and how it correlates is a good way of showing how PCA treats each variable. For example acceleration and weight are negatively correlated while displacement and horsepower are highly correlated.

melling 5y ago
Anyone using Matlab these days? Seems a bit niche. I used Octave in Andrew Ng’s ML class and wanted to learn more Matlab so I signed up for a Coursera course on it. It’s a nice tool.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- catillac 5y ago
  Matlab is great. I won’t hire anyone who only has experience in it though, like I might hire someone who only has python numerical analysis tools experience. It’s brittle and difficult to put into production in my experience.
- ingqondo 5y ago
  I'm sure it's still very popular in engineering. It's still very much the lingua franca for numerical methods applied to engineering problems - there are decades of materials solving engineering problems written in MATLAB.
  - ur-whale 5y ago
    "The Cobbler's Kids Have No Shoes"
- nxpnsv 5y ago
  Yes. We made a proof on concept thing on top of a closed source 2.4Ghz radio wave propagation simulator built in matlab. Interfacing to compiled matlab through hacky command line and .mat files is a pretty horrifying experience :)
- knolan 5y ago
  The stack exchange post from the parent used Matlab which is why I replied with more Matlab. Matlab is very popular in engineering. It’s simple enough to get simple things done without needing to know too much CS.
- asdff 5y ago
  It's used heavily in school still. I think statistics and data science in general have dropped it along with other relics like SAS (used today only by those people who haven't bothered learning anything other than SAS), and are sticking with R and python for functionality previously done in matlab.