22 disgusting typos in the Russian translation of M.P.’s book. Deisenroth “Mathematics in Machine Learning”
Perhaps this will save someone from suicide. Its subtitle promised me exactly what I was looking for at the time: “the mathematical foundations of the basic concepts of machine learning…”.
There were two book options to choose from:
I was afraid of the overall complexity of the topic and chose the Russian version so as not to create even a small additional barrier. Which I later regretted.
The book turned out to be simply excellent.
But…
Alas, at some point, I began to notice that in the Russian translation there were inconsistencies in formulas that I could not explain. After comparing the text with the original, it became clear that these were ordinary typos made when rewriting formulas and redrawing graphs for the Russian edition. Typos in formulas and graphs. Around the fifth or seventh typo found, a desire arose to switch to the English original, but by the tenth it turned into a kind of competition.
I didn’t specifically look for typos: I recorded only what I found while digesting the material. There is no certainty that I found all the mistakes in the formulas and graphs, but, nevertheless, I think that it would be useful to testify to the truth and share what I found.
Errors, as a rule, were crossed out in red. This is not done for the sake of expression, but for ease of navigation. The correct options were usually outlined with a red rectangle.
Page 154. Section 4.3. CHOLECKY DECOMPOSITION
This was the first typo I noticed. I looked at the formula for a long time and thought, “what the hell,” before I thought of looking at the English version.
Page 154 whole
Page 175. Section 4.6. MATRIX APPROXIMATION
In formula (4.94) in the argmin index it is necessary to indicate that the search is carried out among all matrices B rank k, and not God knows what else 🙂
Page 175 whole
Page 198. Section 5.3. GRADIENTS OF VECTOR-VALUED FUNCTIONS
On the left side of formula (5.55) it is indicated that we take the partial derivative with respect to the i-th x, but in the middle part the first derivative is erroneously indicated with respect to x1.
Page 198 whole
Page 210. Section 5.6.1. GRADIENTS IN DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS
On the right side of the formula we forgot about xi-1.
Page 210 whole
Page 217. Section 5.8. LINEARIZATION AND TAYLOR SERIES FOR SEVERAL VARIABLES
In the book, as in many other places, the convention is that vectors are denoted in bold type. Here “delta” is designated as a scalar. Personally, this confused me.
Page 217 whole
Page 218. Section 5.8. LINEARIZATION AND TAYLOR SERIES FOR SEVERAL VARIABLES
To the power of k, not multiplied by k.
Page 218 whole
Page 230. Section 6.1.2. PROBABILITY AND RANDOM VARIABLES
On the previous page of the book it says that we draw 2 coins from the bag in two possible currencies. Accordingly, we cannot take out $3 right away. And further on the formulas will show this.
Page 230 whole
Page 237. Section 6.2.3. DIFFERENCES between DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS DISTRIBUTIONS
On the previous page of the book there are figures 6.3(a), 6.3(b). We are, of course, talking about them, and not about 6.4.
Page 237 whole
Page 269. Section 6.6.2. SUFFICIENT STATISTICS
Here g is not an index of h(x), but a function containing the entire dependence on Θ.
Page 269 whole
Page 272. Section 6.6.3. EXPONENTIAL FAMILY OF DISTRIBUTIONS
They just mixed up the variable.
Page 272 whole
Page 273. Section 6.6.3. EXPONENTIAL FAMILY OF DISTRIBUTIONS
The entire expression must be under the exponent.
Page 273 whole
Page 283. Section 6. PROBABILITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
The word “marginal” was translated from English as “marginal,” which is true in the most general case, but not here when it comes to distributions. Throughout the text of the book, “marginal distribution” is translated as “marginal distribution,” which is quite established name.
Page 283 whole
Page 294. Section 7.1.1. STEP SIZE
A situation similar to the previous point. We are talking about the singular value of the matrix, and not about the unit value. “Single matrix value” is most likely a non-existent term.
Page 294 whole
Page 311. Section 7.3.3. LEGENDRE–FENNEL TRANSFORMATION AND CONVEX CONJUGATION
This is probably my favorite. No comments.
Page 311 whole
Page 367. Section 9. LINEAR REGRESSION
The reference should be to Figure 9.1, which is shown in the book on the previous page. Aggravating circumstance: and fig. 9.1, and fig. 9.2 have indices a and b.
Page 367 whole
Page 386. Section 9.3.2. A PRIORI PREDICTIONS
The images are transferred incorrectly: the confidence levels of 67% and 95% are not indicated, although they are referenced in the text. (in the correct version of the figure, the red lines in the right graph are not mine: that’s how it was in the original)
Page 386 whole
Page 391. Section 9.3.4. POSTERIOR PREDICTIONS
In general, the idea of transferring drawings and graphs from a color book to black and white is so-so. But this would be completely solvable. Unfortunately, here the already difficult to read black and white graph was completely spoiled by forgetting to provide the correct designation for BLR. Yes, the explanation mentions shaded areas, from which you can guess where to look for BLR, but this did not greatly ease my suffering.
Page 391 whole
Page 406. Section 10.2.1. DIRECTION WITH MAXIMUM DISPERSION
The wrong partial derivative is indicated on the left side of the formula. Everything on the right side is correct.
Page 406 whole
Page 416. Section 10.3.3. FINDING THE BASIS OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBSPACE
Instead of the variable “x”, “n” was mistakenly indicated. The result was “nno en”.
Page 416 whole
Page 428. Section 10.7.1. GENERATIVE PROCESS AND PROBABILISTIC MODEL
Forgot the “epsilon” on the left side of the expression.
Page 428 whole
Page 440. Section 11.2. STUDYING PARAMETERS USING MAXIMUM LIBILITY
Finally, just a translation error from English into Russian, which made the sentence meaningless. The word “draw” has a lot of meaning valuesamong which “draw” is also included, but in this case that’s not what was meant at all.
Page 440 whole
I don't know if this book was reprinted or not. It is possible that by now the publisher has already corrected these typos. But if I had the good fortune to read this version, it means that it happened to many more. I repeat: the book is excellent. And it’s great that at least this version was published in Russian. I don't remember how I ended up with this book. Perhaps if there had not been a Russian edition, I would not have known about it at all.
