Clever Algorithms [2009] [pdf]

Wow this looks really cool. I have been flipping through the book for a little bit, and it seems to have pretty lucid descriptions of some of the more unusual algorithms, especially those based off of physical processes, such as search algorithms based off swarming ants and bees, jazz musicians finding harmony, metallurgy and even the human immune system to name a few! Have to admit I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. Not only that but it has tons of pointers to other reference material for more advanced applications.

The algorithms themselves are presented both as pseudo-code and as a ruby implementation.

I can't wait until I have some more free time to implement some of these algorithms and see how they compare against the techniques I would previously use.

Additionally, it seems this book is available off its own website: http://www.cleveralgorithms.com/ and in fact it is under the Creative Commons license, and is up on github! The one on the website seems to be more recent than this version posted here.

https://github.com/jbrownlee/CleverAlgorithmsMachineLearning

While I have not yet implemented and tried out any of these algorithms listed in the book, it looks very interesting, and seems to have clear descriptions. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

After a hasty search it seems this has made it to the HN front page before. The comments are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2141542