aseembehl

There is a lot of play room in computing inflation numbers. For example, there are assumptions based on which input variables are smoothed out to reduce noise.

Came here to write exactly this. Berkshire is special

Like the Arab spring, this is an Indian monsoon.

Unfair to compare Iphone 5c with Moto G. Iphone 5c vs Moto X is a more meaningful comparison.

Yes, looks like they are going to start with their pilot course. I am specially excited about this as this is a step towards separation of learning and credentialing.

At first, I thought the article is about the soccer tournament. :)

In case one does not want to spend $29, the free HTML book [1] (currently in beta) is good enough. I have been following along the book, and can vouch for it. It is a great way to learn to code in C.

[1] http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/

EDIT: By posting the link to the book, I by no means meant that the videos are redundant. I would love it if more people en-roll for Zed's Udemy course and support him.

Wow! This is great news. I have finished 2 Coursera courses already and currently enrolled in 2. These classes have been the best education I have received till date. I will vouch for them any day.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard states in the film Star Trek: First Contact that "The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century. The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity."

Disclaimer: Copied from the comments on the original article.

"is Udacity concentrating on short, relatively easy classes for mass appeal and Coursera concentrating on more difficult and rigorous classes?"

Absolutely, your inference hit the nail on the head. Coursera is trying to fill a gap. Very few people across the globe have access to high quality higher education.

Udacity on the other hand, though noble in in their cause, have considerably watered down lectures/assignments for greater accessibility. I can understand the watered down programming class for greater accessibility, since even limited knowledge of programming is something which can greatly empower people who had no knowledge of it before. But advanced classes like robotics are pointless if they don't go into depth of the topic.

CS229A is a course taken by people from different backgrounds not just CS. It basically deals with the practical aspects of machine learning, implementation issues etc. In addition to the lectures and the assignments, stanford students also had an additional course project.

Prof. Ng's class wasn't watered down. CS229A(http://cs229a.stanford.edu/) is the Stanford equivalent of the online ml-class. Ng also teaches another machine learning course at stanford(CS229) which focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of ML.

That is precisely why udacity courses are gaining popularity. They give you a false sense of accomplishment when actually the learning is very superficial.

Exactly, Udacity courses have around 50 minutes of lectures per week and 6 weeks of lectures. In total just 5 hours of lectures for the whole duration of the course. I don't believe anything substantial can be taught in such a short duration. On the other hand, most of MITx, and Coursera courses run for 10-14 weeks with 2-3hrs of lectures per week with additional assigned readings for some courses.

I personally had pretty bad experience with Udacity's AI-class last year, IMHO their teaching material is mediocre at best. I don't plan to waste any of my time on their classes specially when there are so many other better options available.

PGM-class looks pretty hardcore. Well done Prof. Koller & Coursera team. Glad that Coursera and MITx are not watering down the material for any of their online courses.

Absolutely agree, it is a perfect example of how an online class should be executed. The amazing Dr. Widom had shown how it needs to be done.

AFAIK there hasn't been any delay announced for Udacity courses. Can you please cite the source, from where you got this info.

Not just the Machine Learning class. All Coursera courses from Stanford faculty have been delayed again. Coursera Courses by faculty from other universities are running on time.

They are offering MITx certificate for free for this pilot course because, I quote from their website "In this prototype version, MITx will not require that you be tested in a testing center or otherwise have your identity certified in order to receive this certificate." As I see it, this certificate will be more or less of equal value as the Stanford online course certificates, since their is no way to ensure authenticity of the student.

Their plan in (near)future is to charge a small fee and conduct tests at authorized testing centres(ETS centres for example) where ones identity can be confirmed. Since that way they can confirm that their is no foul play involved, the student will also be given course credits from MITx(Discussed here: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-faq-1219.html ). That for me is really exciting.

Could you please elaborate on how you reached such an interesting reasoning behind the launch of these classes.

No, not 261. Tim Roughgarden is breaking CS161, Design and Analysis of Algorithms what is usually a one-quarter into two five-week pieces offered initially in the winter and spring quarters, respectively. This also explains the 'I' after the course title in the current online offering.

Source: http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-Stanfords-new-online-courses-b...

Information Theory class is starting in March. Moreover, Design and Analysis of Algorithms II would also be offered in March.