We just released version 0.5 of the Encog Project. Encog is an open source framework for neural networks and HTTP bots. Currently we only have the Java side released. However, a C# version will be out in a few weeks. You can read more about this Encog release here.

Tracy, Lori and I just got back from Quebec City. They were celebrating the 400th anniversary of the city. We toured Quebec city. Quebec city still has its city walls and has a very distentive look. We saw parts of the city, and even a waterfall outside of the city. We also saw Les Miserables at a local theatre.  We saw les miserables in French!  Tracy had to help me understand some of the parts, because I do not speak French!  It was a fun trip!

[Pictures from Quebec]

Tracy and I just got back from a cruise. Neither of has ever been on one before, and it was great. I was amazed that I was able to use my AT&T air card, for free, from Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, since they were both US territories. We are total nerds, we brought along 2 iPhones, a Mac Air, an Amazon Kindle and an AT&T AirCard(for the Mac Air) for the trip. Of course we spent way more time doing cruise stuff than playing with our technology. But one does need to stay connected! You can see some of the pictures here.

Here are the new covers for my two upcoming books. You can read more about their release schedule here: http://www.heatonresearch.com/stories/twobooks.html .

For the past few months I've been working on a new book. Actually, its the second edition to one of my most popular books. Introduction to Neural Networks has been out since 2005, and its time for a second edition.

Tracy showed me a cute site that gives you a quick test and tells you what sort of dog you would be. We both took it, and as it turns out, we are both German Sheperds.

Its been out for awhile, but I just found this very cool site that allows you to upload a photo and automatically convert yourself into a Simpson. Here you see myself, my girlfriend Tracy and her sister Lori. Kind of fun![img_assist|nid=272|title=Jeff, Tracy and Lori as Simpsons|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=62]

[img_assist|nid=253|title=Chicago|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=100|height=75] Just got back from a trip to Chicago. We took a 6-hour train ride from St. Louis to Chicago on Amtrak. Amtrak provides outlets for laptops to be plugged into. I was able to use my Mac Air laptop much of the time there and back. This made the time go by considerably faster than air travel. While in Chicago we saw Wicked. The show was great.

While I was in Chicago, IL, they there were many St. Patrick's Day celebration activities going on. One of the most unusual was the green Chicago river. Every year, for St. Patrick's Day, the people of Chicago dye their river green! I had never heard of this tradition until we walked over the river the day before St. Patricks. I made a short YouTube video of it. You can see my YouTube video of it here.