Data Anxiety

Constants of R

Of all of the mathematical and scientific constants, they decided to go with lower/upper case letters, month names/abbreviations, and pi.

Constants {base} R Documentation

Usage
LETTERS
letters
month.abb
month.name
pi
R has a small number of built-in constants. The following are available:

LETTERS: the 26 upper-case letters of the Roman alphabet;

letters: the 26 lower-case letters of the Roman alphabet;

month.abb: the three-letter abbreviations for the English month names;

month.name: the English names for the months of the year;

pi: the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

I agree, this does seem like an odd choice.

First thought that crossed my mind: Why pi but not e?

(Source: adamlaiacano)

":’-("

—

Via Antipodean

Whyday is Friday or rather, August 19 was, and will always be Whyday. Unless what now is hidden ever decides to re-emerge.

Who is _why?

Clever programmer. Multimedia and performance artist. Whimsical writer. Oddball performer.

He sounded fun, and inspirational:

His Ruby tutorial, why’s (poignant) guide to Ruby, broke away from the style of your typical programming books and went for the wild and whimsical. Few developers [could] pull off a well-received music-and-programming performance.

_why decided to retreat from public life, J.D. Salinger style, on August 19, 2009.

Whyday is a day to celebrate _why’s contributions to the culture and communities that have grown around the Ruby programming language and all the software built upon it.

* Thank you, DHotson a.k.a. Antipodean. Hope you had a great time on your vacation. I’m looking forward to the return of World Bovine Domination tumblr in a few weeks. Some pics from the vacation would be nice. Consider it, okay? You could post them here, on Tumblr!

ack 1.94 is better than grep

via tingletech:


_   /|
\'o.O'
=(___)=
   U    ack!

ack 1.94 is source code search tool for programmers.

Is it better than Google Code Search? Possibly, if it is for those who live in a non-MS Windows world.

Programmers need to learn statistics

This was a bit of a rant. But I liked it. I would though.

I have a confession to make.

I am a statistician.

Python Worst Practices: Do Not Use These Techniques

I could identify the best with slides 9, 11, 13, 15 and 16.

I laughed the most at 17 and 19 though.

Python Worst Practices

View more presentations from Daniel Greenfeld

Johnny Myles White (“All is Ripeness”) did this in December 2010, but I failed to notice until the other day. The actual study is interesting, and rigorously complete.

Pigs and Code Number 1

One Woman's Opinion On Work

via chillmoz:

So I woke up early from a message from a User Interface Designer I hired last month. I lent him my old laptop … I’ve owned it since starting college and that was in 2004. Quite old but usable still.

This UI designer has a lot of potential and I want to teach him everything about Ruby on Rails with the time that I have. He takes my advice on work and I’m sure he’ll be able to afford a Macbook Pro soon and help his siblings finish their studies. They live in Philipines.

Work Hard And Be Assertive About Your Pay: Get Things Done (Right) and Get Paid Right.

Those should be your goals. Potential and skill is useless if you either don’t listen or listen too much. The first voice you should hear when in doubt about work and money matters is your own voice. Ask yourself what you need and what your family needs.

If you don’t know how to value your work today, someone else will set a price and treat you like a cog. If that happens, you will lose a lot. You really will….

Work hard, get things done correctly and DEMAND TO BE PAID FAIRLY.

Assuming you possess some marketable skills that are in demand at present….

(Source: katgironpe)

How to IRC by Hackety Hack

hackety:

Hello everyone! I figured I’d write up a small little how-to about IRC, so that if you’ve never been on it before, you can show up to the summit tomorrow!

IRC stands for “Internet Relay Chat.” It a chatting protocol like AIM, Jabber, or any of the other ones you may have used. IRC is still really…

This is a very friendly blog by what appears to be a very good-faith effort to help people learn how to code using the Ruby programming language. And in the most pleasant was possible.

Really, really bad pun alert, but I couldn’t resist.

How to IRC by Hackety Hack: Now You CAN Yack Back!

Disclaimer: The pun is all mine, Hackety had nothing to do with this. Nor does anyone I decide to sing the praises of, here at the home of all-things-Data Anxiety. I’m a 100% unpaid endorser.