Would you like to see Encog Silverlight in action? Silverlight works quite a bit like flash. Except you can program it in C#, without having to learn Flash. There is a version of Encog for Silverlight. You can see several examples, in full GUI, here.

http://www.heatonresearch.com/encog/benchmark.html

The ebooks for Encog have been released. There is one for Java and another for C#. Both are on sale for $19.99. Paperback versions of each should be out in a few weeks.

Encog 2.3 for Java, .Net and Silverlight has been released. This update includes the following:

Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) Training
Greatly Enhanced Self Organizing Map (SOM) Support
Multithreading now on ALL propagation training methods

Also many bug fixes and smaller enhancements that I found necessary as I wrote a book about Encog. More on the book's availability coming soon. To download Encog visit:

http://www.heatonresearch.com/encog

I am not as active in Second Life as I used to be. However, the one project I created that I am always asked about is my Ferris Wheel. You can see the ferris wheel here.

Encog 2.3.0 for DotNet has been released as beta. All software is complete and HTML Help have been updated. The Java was released earlier. Encog 2.3 is the version that both books are to be released on. So Encog 2.3 will not go out of beta until both books have been released. At that point Encog 2.4 will begin.

Encog 2.3 has many exciting advances.

Scaled Conjugate Gradient (Levenberg-Marquardt) Training
Multi-Dimensional RBF Training
Cost-Based Genetic and Simulated Annealing
Normalization Improvements

The betas can be downloaded from the Encog download areas.

Given that we are now focusing more on neural network programming, than Second Life, we are scaling back our Second Life operations considerably. Heaton Research at one point had three islands in Second Life. We are dropping back to just a small area on "mainland" so that people can pick up the examples from our books. You can see the new Heaton Research home here.

You can access this area, and download any of our book examples, from the following URL.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Venn/96/86/29

Encog 2.3.0 for Java has been released as beta. All software is complete and javadocs have been updated. The C# version should follow in a few weeks. Encog 2.3 is the version that both books are to be released on. So Encog 2.3 will not go out of beta until both books have been released. At that point Encog 2.4 will begin. I do not expect any of the Encog 2.x releases to “break” the books. When there is an Encog release that will affect the books, and software based on Encog, this will be called Encog 3. Only a few vague plans for Encog 3, at this point.

We just added a new training technique. I really need to test this out more, but so far it outperforms RPROP on anything I've given it. We also have it fully multithreaded, so I really think this is going to become the training algorithm of choice for Encog. It is called Scaled Conjugate Gradient (Levenberg-Marquardt) Training. So far I am really impressed with it! It is quite easy to use.

Train train = new ScaledConjugateGradient(network, trainingSet);

Java only... for now... this will be part of the official 2.3 release which should come out in the Jan/Feb timeframe.