Hack Night

Since we first announced there have been lots of discussions about the right way to have this meetup. Eventually after thinking about DataFest it was decided that we should do a 2-part meetup.

Part 1 consists of a workshop where we will interactively go through a dataset and figure some stuff out about it and build some basic classifiers.

Part 2 will occur one week later (May 14th) where you folks all come back and we see who has built the best classifier in a sort of show-and-tell complete with leaderboard.

Because Part 1 has an interactive software side, and I don't think I can handle a workshop with more than 30 to 35 people, there is a qualifying round to attend. You have to get R and scikit-learn installed on your computer.

How will I know you did this?

I have uploaded a subset of the data we will be exploring and two scripts that process in at https://www.dropbox.com/s/gf2qrh1md2wwhfi/hack_night.zip . These scripts each spit out a number, you must give me the sum of these numbers when you RSVP as it will be one of the questions I ask. I will periodically cancel your RSVP if the correct answer isn't present.

Note you will not need to do anything other than run these two scripts. There is no coding required.

The easiest way to get R installed is using rstudio ( http://www.rstudio.com/ )

The easiest way to get scikit-learn installed is likely Anaconda. You don't need to pay for Anaconda. The free version will suffice ( https://store.continuum.io/cshop/academicanaconda )

Feel free to use the discussion boards if you need help or get stuck.

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A note on the venue:

We will be meeting at Oversee.net's offices in Downtown LA, on the 44th floor of the Paul Hasting Building. Just tell the security guard you are going to a meeting at Oversee.net. See below for parking information.

They are located at 515 S. Flower St. on the 44th floor of the Paul Hastings Tower at City National Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles.

* You must bring a valid I.D. to check-in with the building security.

Parking

The best place to park is at the LA Central Library parking garage at 524 S Flower Street lot across the street (first come, first served); it's literally across the street from the office building. The rate after 4pm is $8 without validation. Also, here is a map of the meters and free spots after 6/7/8pm (please check all signs) - http://g.co/maps/873az

*Note: Do Not Park in the City National Parking parking structure downstairs at 500 S. Flower St. There is no validation provided there and per hour is more expensive than parking at the Library.