Neural Market Trends

In case you hadn't noticed, I started to tinker around with the theme of Neural Market Trends by changing it to something more simpler and removing Google Ads (as a test).  I'm doing this to help speed up my blog because a recent SEO checkup told me it was too slow, and possibly scaring off new readers.

Overall I want to make my existing and new reader experience more friendly so things may display weird or links might be temporarily broken as these changes roll out over the next few weeks.  Thanks for your patience!

My readers may or may not know but I maintain a professional profile on LinkedIn (you can find me at Thomas Ott). I really like LinkedIn and I’m always looking to network with good professionals in the engineering, data mining/modeling, and financial world. Please feel free to reach out to me because I would love to connect with you! 

But I do ask for a small favor in return…

If you are a reader of Neural Market Trends, and you enjoy my video tutorials and content, please take a moment to write a recommendation for the site. Your candid thoughts and recommendations are very important to the success of this blog and it allows me to grow this site by providing my readers with free Rapidminer tutorials.

The information I share on this site via my videos and tutorials is extremely valuable and free, there’s nothing like this available on the Internet that I know of. Please consider my above request, it would be greatly appreciated.

I've been updating my social media links for a new and improved roll out of Neural Market Trends over the next few months.  My first job was to create a Youtube channel for my new Rapidminer videos, which I anticipate to update on a weekly basis until I've redone all my previous tutorials and added some new ones. I expect that amount to be about 10 or so videos.

Next I created a Facebook Fan Page for my readers to join.  Please note, I usually don't add thousands of friends on FB so if you request me as a friend and I don't add you, please don't be angry or upset.  I'm just very protective and secretive with my inner circle.  Please, instead, join the Facebook Fan Page and interact with me there.

I'm also trying out the Google Friend Connect, which you see in the right sidebar, and I'm available via GTalk.  Please note, that I'm usually very busy from 7AM to 5PM Eastern Time, so chatting is limited to non-existent that time. If you catch me before or after that time, ask me questions, chat with me about Rapidminer ideas, or just say hello.

And finally, I'm still on Twitter but only use it to broadcast my blog posts.  It's too noisy for me.

2010 is going to rock!

It seems that my Rapidminer tutorials and videos are still the #1 draw to this website, even after 3 years.  I guess I know what I need to do.

Been sidetracked with a great online comic I discovered…

These are my links for January 12th through January 13th:

• http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/186786/google_attack_part_of_widespread_spying_effort.html – Google's decision Tuesday to risk walking away from the world's largest Internet market may have come as a shock, but security experts see it as the most public admission of a top IT problem for U.S. companies: ongoing corporate espionage originating from China. – MUST PROTECT INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL FROM CHINA. THEY JUST STEAL AND COPY.
• Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China – NYTimes.com – “Unless they turn themselves into a Chinese company, Google could not win,” she said. “The company has clearly put its foot down and said enough is enough.”
• http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/186786/google_attack_part_of_widespread_spying_effort.html – Google's decision Tuesday to risk walking away from the world's largest Internet market may have come as a shock, but security experts see it as the most public admission of a top IT problem for U.S. companies: ongoing corporate espionage originating from China. – MUST PROTECT INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL FROM CHINA. THEY JUST STEAL AND COPY.
• Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China – NYTimes.com – “Unless they turn themselves into a Chinese company, Google could not win,” she said. “The company has clearly put its foot down and said enough is enough.”
• Haitians Confront Devastation of Quake – NYTimes.com – The quake, with a magnitude estimated at 7.0, caused the collapse of the National Palace, leveled countless shantytown dwellings and brought more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone. – WOW. I FEEL BAD FOR THE HAITIANS
• Official Google Blog: A new approach to China – We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China. – WOW GOOGLE TAKING ON CHINA

These are my links for January 11th:

• LaHood: Auto bailouts were a good investment – MarketWatch – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off the Detroit auto show on Monday by telling reporters that the government's commitment to the car industry was "a good investment of taxpayer dollars." – UM, YEAH, RIGHT.
• Geithner Has Support of Obama, Democratic Lawmakers, Aides Say – Bloomberg.com – Asked yesterday for comment, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he stood by his earlier statements that the president had full confidence in Geithner. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said “Secretary Geithner enjoys the strong support of the Senate Democratic caucus.” – ATROCIOUS!
• Stocks, Commodities Advance as China Imports Soar; Dollar Falls – Bloomberg.com – “The market doesn’t actually care if more or less Americans have jobs, it’s watching for rate hike signals,” Bill Blain, the joint head of fixed income at Matrix Corporate Capital in London, wrote in a research note. “Other aspects, such as U.S. retail sales or this morning’s dramatic growth in China’s exports, are equally valid indicators of just how strongly the global economy is recovering.” – YES, THE MARKETS DON'T CARE ABOUT THE USA, IT JUST CARES ABOUT $$$$, LIKE IT SHOULD!
• Chavez Devalues Bolivar 50%, First Time Since 2005 (Update1) – Bloomberg.com – Chavez said the bolivar will be devalued to 4.3 per dollar from 2.15 per dollar for most imports. A second, subsidized peg of 2.60 bolivars per dollar will be used for importing food, medicine and machinery intended to boost the economy’s competitiveness. – HA! SOCIALISM = SUCKS.
• New York Seeks National Effort to Curb Salt in Food – NYTimes.com – The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years. – FOR A PALEO TYPE PERSON, TOO MUCH SALT IS DEADLY. I'M SURPRISED BY HOW MUCH SALT IS IN PROCESSED FOODS>
• Pimco move to sell gilts raises spectre of a UK sovereign debt crisis – Telegraph – The American investment group said it will be a net seller of UK Government bonds this year, at the very point when the Bank of England brings its £200bn programme of purchases to and end and the Treasury attempts to raise unprecedented sums through the capital markets. – I THINK WE'LL SEE EITHER A DEFAULT IN THE POUND STERLING OR THE USD.