http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/2008/language-barrier/ Weaving together Astronomy+Statistics+Computer Science+Engineering+Intrumentation, far beyond the growing borders Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:47:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/2008/language-barrier/comment-page-1/#comment-164 TomLoredo Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:07:25 +0000 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/2008/language-barrier/#comment-164 Hyunsook, good points. Although not the main topic of your post, your comment on the difference between density-based and distance-based clustering brings to mind the following tech report by Ian Davidson at SUNY Albany: <a href="http://www.cs.albany.edu/~davidson/courses/CSI635/UnderstandingK-MeansClustering.pdf" rel="nofollow">Understanding K-Means Non-hierarchical Clustering</a>. This is a short but insightful and readable discussion of some of the limitations of k-means clustering that every astronomer considering using k-means should read. Section 4.9 mentions the difference between density-based and distance-based clustering that Hyunsook alluded to. The Conclusion also briefly touches on the "model vs. truth" issue that is the topic of another recent Slog post by Hyunsook. Hyunsook, good points. Although not the main topic of your post, your comment on the difference between density-based and distance-based clustering brings to mind the following tech report by Ian Davidson at SUNY Albany: Understanding K-Means Non-hierarchical Clustering. This is a short but insightful and readable discussion of some of the limitations of k-means clustering that every astronomer considering using k-means should read. Section 4.9 mentions the difference between density-based and distance-based clustering that Hyunsook alluded to. The Conclusion also briefly touches on the “model vs. truth” issue that is the topic of another recent Slog post by Hyunsook.

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