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Musings on software development powering business



Too costly to train your neural net?





Looking for a way to train a model to recognize certain objects in a video motion detection system but lack enough training images to start from scratch? Try transfer learning.
With transfer learning you start with a pre-trained convolutional model, replace the last layer, then train it on the training images you do have. Results can be spectacular.

Training convolutional neural nets can be expensive and time consuming. With transfer learning businesses can add object detection capabilities to their software quickly and at low computing and data cost.

A good introduction to this technique is available at https://www.kaggle.com/dansbecker/transfer-learning



Who's your customer?





In order to compete in today's healthcare market, dentists running private practices need to also think of their practice as a business, know the channels by which their business obtains paying customers, then cultivate those channels.


For specialists like endodintists, the vast majority of their patients are referred to them by general dentists. Orienting their business focus towards improving their customer service to general dentists helps specialists build their primary sales channels and stand out in an increasingly competitive market.


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Software contractors and IP





Work made for hire agreements with your independent software contractors may not result in you having the rights you expect. An assignment can transfer "all rights, title, and interest", but going that far may not be necessary -- or ideal.


Licenses authorizing uses can in many cases give you all you need (and more) and won't exclude the contractor from continuing to use expressions of their intellect and knowledge to make a living. Best of all, they won't be restricted from giving you everything they've got.


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Blockchain: The real game changer





AI may (or may not) turn out to be an evolution, but won't be a revolution. Blockchain is the real game changer, and this article from MIT does a good job explaining why.


read MIT article

Do NoSQL databases have a place in your enterprise?





There's been a quite revolution going on in the world of databases. After dominating for years, the monopoly of relational databases is ending.


Loosely encompassing everything 'not SQL' -- read "not relational" -- No SQL databases began emerging in the 2000s, birthed in the convergence of cloud computing, web services, and big data. Led by pioneering work of Google, Amazon, and others to create databases that could scale to massive clusters of commodity computer hardware, NoSQL is now a loose term encompassing all databases that don't model and access data in the same way relational databases do.


While relational databases may continue to be a good fit for many enterprise apps, and NoSQL databases are appreciably more complex to develop and manage, No SQL databases can offer opportunities to enterprises needing to collect huge amounts of data. In fact, the trend is to collect as much data as possible -- even before knowing how it can be used -- to fuel future enterprise data mining and AI applications seeking competitive advantage. It's therefore prudent to prepare for NoSQL having a place alongside relational databases within your enterprise.


learn more about NoSQL

Up-front software design can make development more agile





Although the agile manifesto promotes the idea that "Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility", there's been a movement in agile project management away from up-front software design. Inadequate up-front design, however, can reduce agility, resulting in a mess that is increasingly expensive to correct as a project progresses.


Up-front design can go a long way to improve agility. Since it isn't popular at the moment, make sure it is happening in all your projects so you can stay nimble down the road.


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