'As usual, we ought to leave the grand claims about “the way humans are” or “the way that it is best to live/work” to psychologists and preachers. Amongst ourselves, perhaps we should just say things like “I’ve been doing this one kind of fairly specific thing recently, and I’ve been surprised to find that X has been really helpful to me. Maybe it will help you too.”'

"…To cluster sets of histogram data, we propose to use Dynamic Clustering Algorithm, (based on adaptive squared Wasserstein distances) that is a k-means-like algorithm for clustering a set of individuals into K classes that are apriori fixed. The main aim of this research is to provide a tool for clustering histograms, emphasizing the different contributions of the histogram variables, and their components, to the definition of the clusters. We demonstrate that this can be achieved using adaptive distances.

Two kind of adaptive distances are considered: the first takes into account the variability of each component of each descriptor for the whole set of individuals; the second takes into account the variability of each component of each descriptor in each cluster. We furnish interpretative tools of the obtained partition based on an extension of the classical measures (indexes) to the use of adaptive distances in the clustering criterion function. Applications on synthetic and real-world data corroborate the proposed procedure."

"Biology presents many examples of planar distribution and structural networks having dense sets of closed loops. An archetype of this form of network organization is the vasculature of dicotyledonous leaves, which showcases a hierarchically-nested architecture containing closed loops at many different levels. Although a number of methods have been proposed to measure aspects of the structure of such networks, a robust metric to quantify their hierarchical organization is still lacking. We present an algorithmic framework, the hierarchical loop decomposition, that allows mapping loopy networks to binary trees, preserving in the connectivity of the trees the architecture of the original graph. We apply this framework to investigate computer generated graphs, such as artificial models and optimal distribution networks, as well as natural graphs extracted from digitized images of dicotyledonous leaves and vasculature of rat cerebral neocortex. We calculate various metrics based on the Asymmetry, the cumulative size distribution and the Strahler bifurcation ratios of the corresponding trees and discuss the relationship of these quantities to the architectural organization of the original graphs. This algorithmic framework decouples the geometric information (exact location of edges and nodes) from the metric topology (connectivity and edge weight) and it ultimately allows us to perform a quantitative statistical comparison between predictions of theoretical models and naturally occurring loopy graphs."

"Graham notes that funding, while easy to measure, isn't necessarily the best way to gauge the success of the program's startups. "Getting funded is not success. It's just something that makes success more likely." But if the standard measurement for success is value, and if value is measured by exits, then the 6 years of YC's existence isn't quite long enough to adequately assess this. Of the 300-plus startups, "just" 25 YC companies have been acquired, 5 of them for over $10 million, and Graham says that he's estimated the values of the rest of the companies based on these acquisition figures in order to gauge that the average value of companies Y Combinator has funded to be roughly $22 million.

But coming up with an adequate measurement for success isn't really the point, says Graham. "The real lesson here though is how long it takes to measure performance in this business. We're 6 years in, and we could easily be off by 3x in either direction. Startup outcomes are unpredictable, and the outcomes of their investors doubly so, because it's hard to say whether the big successes are repeatable, or if the investors just got lucky. Even 6 years in, all we can say is that the numbers look encouraging so far.""

"…In my reflective mood, I’m wonder- ing, was its advice correct at the time, is it still relevant, and do Istill believe that metrics are a must for any suc- cessful software development effort? My answers are no, no, and no."

"Many functions have been recently defined to assess the similarity among networks as tools for quantitative comparison. They stem from very different frameworks - and they are tuned for dealing with different situations. Here we show an overview of the spectral distances, highlighting their behavior in some basic cases of static and dynamic synthetic and real networks."

"As many of you likely know, the World Bank has opened up its World Development Indicators Data for everyone to play with. Matthew Russell has thrown together a nice simple tool to generate visualizations of the data. Fun stuff."

"This leads me to something else that I always find hard to articulate: the ROI of IndyHall, or even coworking in general.

We’ve been running IndyHall for nearly 3 years as a business for a reason, and a profitable one at that. But the metrics for ROI aren’t salient, since most of the investment has been in human, knowledge, and time capital, and the return doesn’t show up on our balance sheet. As such, Geoff and I don’t take a draw, at least not in terms of cash…because that’s not what’s we’ve invested. If there was a balance sheet for the social capital we’ve invested and seen in return, though, and we had metrics for it, we’d be able to far better express and share what we’ve accomplished."

"Pick up a document, turn it over and see what’s on the back. If you find diagrams, that suggest the need for clarity as people were drawing on it to explain things."

"The myth of the riskometer is alive and kicking. In spite of a large body of empirical evidence identifying the difficulties in measuring financial risk, policymakers and financial institutions alike continue to promote risk sensitivity.
The reasons may have to do with the fact that risk sensitivity is intuitively attractive, and the counter arguments complex. The crisis, however, shows us the folly of the riskometer. Let us hope that decision makers will rely on other methods."

"I want to focus on the metrics of the strategy trades. The performance statistics are below. I find them nothing less than stellar. The metrics that I found especially appealing are highlighted in green."

"Don’t expect it to last, though. As the brands recognize that they are being bilked – rather, that there is at best a tenuous link between consumption of their goods and consumption of the free content they are sponsoring, they will be less likely to foot the bill. For the beneficiaries of free content, the internet is unraveling this whole ecosystem with unwavering speed."

"Finally, which equation should be chosen and how should it be used?

• for basic / fast calculations, you can use dE76 but beware of its problems
• for graphics arts use we recommend dE94 and perhaps dE-CMC 2:1..."

If content is king, why is there so little of it on the web?

Consider using to cluster (or impose a metric upon) del.icio.us posts, blog posts, or other semantic tagged items. Taking into account time-density of topics and usage.