CS 446 - HW2 FAQ

1. • Q: Can I use [substitute the programming language of your choice here] for HW2?
   • A: You can use whatever programming language you want. Furthermore, you can use whatever libraries and numerical packages you want. However, don't use an existing Naive Bayes package or a Logistic Regression package; you have to implement these on your own.
2. • Q: When I test on the part where I random split the whole data set, shall I still test on the testing set given or test on the remaining portion from the split?
   • A: You will test on the remaining portion from the split.
3. • Q: My program is a win32 console application. How do I generate the log file?
   • A: Open a DOS box (command prompt). Run your program. Copy everything from the text buffer and paste it into a text file.
4. • Q: My program is a win32 application with GUI. How do I generate the log file?
   • A: Open Word. Type in every action you are doing when running your program. In each step, use Alt-PrtSc to capture your program window and paste into Word.
5. • Q: The formulas for smoothing do not seem right.
   • A: It turns out that I was confusing one way of smoothing with another. The formulas have been simplified now. You are free to use any legitimate way of smoothing.
6. • Q: What does the example with just a label but no features mean?
   • A: It represents an example of which the feature values are all 0.
7. • Q: When should the logistic regression algorithm stop?
   • A: You should keep iterating until the weight vector converges.
8. • Q: GMail seems to reject my zip file attachment.
   • A: Please do not include the executable files in your archive.