Learning classifier systems (LCS) and Genetics-Based Machine Learning (GBML) have been using the multiplexer problem as a toy problem because of its properties; among others, its dynamic dependencies based on the input values and the exponential nature of the required solution as a function of the number of inputs. There is a great introduction why the multiplexer is interesting for LCS and GBML systems at Wilson’s XCS field-defining paper. A simple definition [1] of the multiplexer is as follows: ...

Here we go! It has been a while. I finally got around getting rid of WordPress for this site. The amount of functionality and machinery required to just render a simple blog started to show its age. I just wanted a simple, easy to update, website. Eventually, I settled for Hugo, a fast framework to create websites. Moving out of WordPress required the following steps: Go to the managed WordPress installation and get an export of all posts and pages. Download all the files uploaded that are part of the site content. After multiple failed attempts, blog2md turned out to be the tool that got me the farther. It converted the export into a collection of markdown files for each post and page. It also output files for contents, but I discarded those since most of them were old ping backs. Then, quite a bit of manual clean up. Shortcodes for embedded content etc. needed to be converted to Hugo’s shortcodes. I could have automated, but the numbers were small and I also wanted to reread all the content. Move the uploads to the right place and make sure all markdown correctly links to it. At this point, I was able to create and bring up the Hugo development server locally using some random theme so I could see a working version of how the site would work. After this milestone, yes, a few more hours cleaning up content but now everything was quick to iterate. Once all the content was ready, time to move to the looks. ...

I finally put some of the large format photography work I’ve been doing up online at http://photography.xavierllora.net/

As I am getting more comfortable with film photography, it seems it helps me to write some experiences and thoughts down. I just wrote down the experience of taking a 4x5 view camera out for the first time. It is more than 7 months using mainly film and being able to touch every part of the process with my hands is more rewarding than digital so far… You can read more about it at “Action in 4x5 bites”. ...

I could not remember when was the last time I loaded a roll of film into a camera. As time moves forward, I walk backwards. That is what I thought when I enrolled in the photography course series where film was king. I had to scramble to get a film camera. The good news, black and white. The bad news, film, chemicals, dark rooms, lots of papers, and huge amounts of time invested. So I have decided to star writing about it a bit. I just hope that eventually it will make sense. I am writing these and more thoughts over at Medium. ...