Snob (original) (raw)

Snob uses theMinimum Message Length(MML) principle to domixture modelling to inferMML finite mixture models.
Mixture modelling (or mixture modeling) concerns modelling a statistical distribution by a mixture (or weighted sum) of other distributions. Mixture modelling is also known as

numerical taxonomy

Name of program:
As per sec. 0.2.4, p535, footnote 113 in D. L. Dowe (2008), "Foreword re C. S. Wallace",Computer Journal,Vol. 51, No. 5 (Sept. 2008)[Christopher Stewart WALLACE (1933-2004) memorial special issue],pp523-560(andhere), the program was given the name ``Snob'' because of Chris Wallace's self-effacing joke that it (supposedly) makes ``arbitrary class distinctions''.

Minimum Message Length(MML) is a method of machine learning, statistical inference, inductive learning, "knowledge discovery" and "data mining" very much in line with the notions ofKolmogorov complexityand algorithmic information theory pioneered byR. J. Solomonoff, A. N. Kolmogorov andGreg Chaitin. See alsoWallace& Dowe (1999a), "Minimum Message Length and Kolmogorov complexity",Comp. J., Vol 42, No. 4,270-283[which is theComputer Journal's most downloaded ``full text as .pdf'' article - see, e.g.,here].

[Possibly see also Ray Solomonoff (1926-2009) 85th memorial conference (Wedn 30 Nov - Fri 2 Dec 2011),1st Call for Papersandconference proceedings.]

The original Snob paper was:Wallace, C. S.and Boulton, D.M. (1968), `An Information Measure for Classification',Computer Journal,Vol. 11, No. 2, 1968,pp.185-194. This is the same paper in whichMMLwas developed. (See also more recent Snobtheoryandapplicationpapers.)
See also D. L. Dowe (2008), "Foreword re C. S. Wallace",Computer Journal,Vol. 51, No. 5 (Sept. 2008)[Christopher Stewart WALLACE (1933-2004) memorial special issue],pp523-560(andhere) for a survey of all of Wallace's works - including all his MML work and his Snob MML mixture modelling work.

Snob currently deals withfinite mixture models(or a finite mixture model) of

missing data

Chris Wallaceextended Snob in1998 to deal with spatial correlation (and Markov fields), as occurs in images.
Gerhard Visser and David Dowe(2007,2009) endeavoured to extend Wallace (1998, above) with "G. Visser and D. Dowe" (2007) "Minimum Message Length Clustering Of Spatially-Correlated Data with Varying Inter-Class Penalties" and withG. Visser, D. L. Dowe and J. P. Uotila (2009) "[Enhancing MML Clustering using Context Data with Climate Applications](/~dld/Publications/2009/VisserDoweUotila2009EnhancingMMLClusteringUsin gContextDataWithClimateApplications.pdf)".

Russell Edwards and David Dowecreated a version of Snob (also in 1998) which deals with single Gaussian factor analysis in sequentially and spatially uncorrelated data. It uses total assignment. (Seepublications.)Yudi Agusta andDavid Dowehave also developedMML mixture modellingsoftware forother correlated Gaussians,t distributions(2002) andGamma distributions(2003,.pdf); and Jon Oliver and David Dowe published anote (1996) onMML mixture modellingof von Mises-Fisher spherical distributions.

A useful set of links on Snob is given in the next few lines immediately below:
Snob ReadMe,documentationand (data) sd1.rawfiles,.ps of Wallace and Dowe (1997)and.pdfofmore recent, 2000, paper:
Wallace, C.S.andD. L. Dowe(2000). MML clustering of multi-state, Poisson, von Mises circular
and Gaussian distributions,Statistics and Computing, Vol. 10, No. 1, Jan. 2000, pp73-83.
p73,p74,p75,p76,p77,p78,p79,p80,p81,p82,p83
http://www.wkap.nl/issuetoc.htm/0960-3174+10+1+2000
http://www.wkap.nl/sampletoc.htm?0960-3174+10+1+2000
See alsoWallace and Dowe (1994b) Wallace, C.S. andD.L. Dowe (1994b),Intrinsic classification by MML - the Snob program. Proc.7th Australian Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, UNE, Armidale, Australia, November 1994, pp37-44.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/Publications/1994/Wallace+Dowe1994.ref http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/Publications/1994/Wallace+Dowe1994_IntrinsicClassification_MML_AI94.Snob.pdf http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/Publications/1994/Wallace+Dowe1994_IntrinsicClassification_MML_AI94.Snob.ps(reference here) inC.S. Wallace publications and/orD.L. Dowe publications.

TheSnob softwareis availablesubject to conditions.
Snob Method: Bayesian,Minimum Message Length(MML).Features: Deals with missing data.

Papers on theory behind Snobandpapers on applications of Snob.
Chris Wallace MML publications, 1968-1991 andChris Wallace MML publications, 1990- .
Chris Wallace MML applications, 1968-1996andChris Wallace MML applications, 1990- .

Fortran compiler
If you would like to download aLinux Fortran compiler, go tohttp://www.rpmfind.org/RPM/EByName.htmland look for "egcs-g77...".

C, C++, Java version(s)
A C version is currently under construction.

Link to Random number generation software
(Pseudo-)Random number generation software in Fortran :
uniform (for multinomial),Gaussian (Normal),von Mises (circular) andPoisson.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/research/mdmc/software/random.

Other links
Link to Lloyd Allison's Short note on Snob.
Link to K D Mine's S*i*ftware Snob notes, based on material supplied by D. Dowe and L. Allison.
Minimum Description Length(MDL) andcomparisonswith MML(onpp270-283and elsewhere) inComp. J., Vol 42, No. 4, 1999.

Bayesian networks usingMML,
clustering, mixture modelling and finite mixture models,
comparisons betweenMML and the subsequent Minimum Description Length principle,
data repositories,
decision trees anddecision graphsusing MML,
medical research,
"Minimum Message Length, MDL and Generalised Bayesian Networks with Asymmetric Languages", by J. W. Comley and D.L. Dowe;Chapter 11(pp265-294) in P. Grunwald, M. A. Pitt and I. J. Myung (eds.),Advances in Minimum Description Length: Theory and Applications, M.I.T. Press, April 2005, ISBN 0-262-07262-9. {This is about Generalised Bayesian nets, generalising MML Bayesian nets orMML Bayesian networks or MML Bayes nets (or Generalised directed graphical models, generalising MML directed graphical models); and it deals with a mix of both continuous and discrete variables. (See alsoComley and Dowe (2003),.pdf.)}
Minimum Message Length(MML),
Occam's razor(Ockham's razor),
a probabilistic sports prediction competition(and further reading on probabilistic scoring),
Snobtheory publications andapplications publications,
(econometric)time seriesusing MML,
Chris Wallace (1933-2004)(developer of MML in1968) andhis (2005) [posthumous]Book:Statistical and Inductive Inference by Minimum Message Length, Springer (Series: Information Science and Statistics), 2005, XVI, 432 pp., 22 illus., Hardcover, ISBN: 0-387-23795-X. (Link totable of contents,chapter headings andmore.)
Tribute to Chris Wallace: D. L. Dowe (2008), "Foreword re C. S. Wallace",Computer Journal,Vol. 51, No. 5 (Sept. 2008)[Christopher Stewart WALLACE (1933-2004) memorial special issue],pp523-560(andhere).

chess and game theory research,
Feeding the world(TheHungerSite),TheRainforestSite, and "do-goody"/"do-goody stuff, improving the world and saving the planet".

This Snob page was put together by
Dr David Dowe, Dept. of Computer Science, Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3168, Austra lia
e-mail:d l d at csse dot monash.edu.au (Fax: +61 3 9905-5146)
(and was started on Sat 8th Mar. 1997) and was last updated no earlier than Mon 3rd Mar. 1998.
Copyright David L. Dowe,Monash University, Australia, 8 Mar 1997, 3 Mar 1998, 7 May 1998, etc.
Copying is not permitted without expressed permission fromDavid L. Dowe.