So I decided it’s finally time to learn what machine learning is all about. If my eGPU isn’t going to be any good for games, I might as well put it to use for something, and here we are.

I came across Google’s intro to ML stuff and got started on that. Turns out, according to Google all you need are:

  • A solid knowledge of Python
  • Basic programming skils

I’m not sure how you’d have the former without the latter, but I guess I consider myself close enough to both. I always imagined the requirements being more along the lines of:

  • Access to a bunch of noisy hot things in a data center
  • Strong programming skills
  • A solid grasp of linear algebra, maybe some sort of degree.

I have none of these, but at this point I’ve decided I usually have the most fun diving into something without any actual research, and hope to find out along the way.

It’s already paying off because I’ve finally installed and used Conda for the first time. At first I installed Anaconda, and learned that Anaconda is a whole suite of stuff I probably won’t be using any time soon, so I removed it and installed Miniconda instead. So far, as a single user with a very small development footprint, it hasn’t proven to be any different from my usual Python usage, except it’s conda install instead of pip install.