There are sometimes days where, for no particular reason, maybe because of a minor comment someone made somewhere, I feel like I'm being attacked from all sides. Including within, where I re-examine everything about myself and how I do things in the world, how I respond to the world, how the world responds to me, and how this compares to the way others do these things. The one little comment colors the whole rest of my day.
It wasn't even meant as an attack from the person who made the comment, and they were careful to be clear on that point. But I have to wonder on the roots of its existence and ponder whether to do something about it, what to do about it, whether I once more need to change. In the meanwhile, every other disagreement I have anywhere else becomes overwhelming.
06 August 2007
03 August 2007
The swamps are alive with the sound of froggies...
It's been raining all week and will be all weekend, too. Savannah is a place where rain normally happens for minutes at a time, not days. It used to be that rain happened in the afternoons, every afternoon for about twenty minutes. Nowadays it isn't quite so predictable anymore. And this year, it's a lot like we're having a tropical storm going by every other week.
At least the frogs sound happy. They're all over the road, small pale triangles that sometimes hop, and it's impossible not to squish a few while driving home.
At least the frogs sound happy. They're all over the road, small pale triangles that sometimes hop, and it's impossible not to squish a few while driving home.
How to have a well-run research cruise
1. First, it's good to remember to take your station logbook with you, so you can remember to write down important basic info about each station. Like, where it was, what day it was, what time, how deep the water was, etc. Ideally this should be written on sheets of paper with preprinted forms on them, and not a wad of sticky notes.
2. Having a station logbook also helps you avoid giving more than one station the same number.
3. Not to mention it probably helps remind you that stations ought to have numbers in the first place, or at least some kind of distinct name.
4. A cruise plan is good too. That way you don't have to go back to previous stations because you forgot to do something.
5. Second, a CTD depth profile is not actually supposed to be a race to the bottom. You really do want the instruments to take more than one measurement per meter or two.
6. Additionally, if you're hoping to have any useful data from the top 1.0 meters, try to do the CTD presoak shallower than 1.5 meters.
7. Yes, it turns out that the presoak actually is a requirement. Remember: not a race.
8. Third, the time to discover that some of the sensor calibrations are on crack should not be while the cruise is underway.
9. Fourth, it's helpful to have all of the equipment on the boat recording time in the same time zone.
10. And finally, remember that water never has a density of -2.
p.s. Not related to actual cruises, just to the data workup afterward: be aware that all of your Matlab pre-7 scripts will break in Matlab 7 in astoundingly stupid ways.
2. Having a station logbook also helps you avoid giving more than one station the same number.
3. Not to mention it probably helps remind you that stations ought to have numbers in the first place, or at least some kind of distinct name.
4. A cruise plan is good too. That way you don't have to go back to previous stations because you forgot to do something.
5. Second, a CTD depth profile is not actually supposed to be a race to the bottom. You really do want the instruments to take more than one measurement per meter or two.
6. Additionally, if you're hoping to have any useful data from the top 1.0 meters, try to do the CTD presoak shallower than 1.5 meters.
7. Yes, it turns out that the presoak actually is a requirement. Remember: not a race.
8. Third, the time to discover that some of the sensor calibrations are on crack should not be while the cruise is underway.
9. Fourth, it's helpful to have all of the equipment on the boat recording time in the same time zone.
10. And finally, remember that water never has a density of -2.
p.s. Not related to actual cruises, just to the data workup afterward: be aware that all of your Matlab pre-7 scripts will break in Matlab 7 in astoundingly stupid ways.
02 August 2007
The Beauty of Wikipedia
Yesterday evening, a bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed. Before that, its article on Wikipedia was a two-paragraph stub.
Now, several hundred edits later, it has a detailed description, a fairly comprehensive history section, and full information about the collapse itself and aftermath - all of it backed up with nearly 50 references. Plus it's chock full of excellent photos from both before and after.
The discussion page is the usual chaos of laws and sausages, with two key points standing out: the fact that under heavy public scrutiny it was crucial to make sure everything was completely accurate (suddenly "citation needed" makes perfect sense doesn't it) and written with a neutral point of view as befit an encyclopedia; and that it was the time for dumping as much info into it as possible, and not the time for revising anything back out again (aside from the frequent obvious vandal edits and uncited potentially misleading info).
But that's behind the scenes and below the surface. In the public eye it's an impressively well-written, professional looking article. Out of total chaos in just 24 hours, we now have something that's well on its way to earning a lucky special gold star as a Featured Article.
Now, several hundred edits later, it has a detailed description, a fairly comprehensive history section, and full information about the collapse itself and aftermath - all of it backed up with nearly 50 references. Plus it's chock full of excellent photos from both before and after.
The discussion page is the usual chaos of laws and sausages, with two key points standing out: the fact that under heavy public scrutiny it was crucial to make sure everything was completely accurate (suddenly "citation needed" makes perfect sense doesn't it) and written with a neutral point of view as befit an encyclopedia; and that it was the time for dumping as much info into it as possible, and not the time for revising anything back out again (aside from the frequent obvious vandal edits and uncited potentially misleading info).
But that's behind the scenes and below the surface. In the public eye it's an impressively well-written, professional looking article. Out of total chaos in just 24 hours, we now have something that's well on its way to earning a lucky special gold star as a Featured Article.
01 August 2007
Hawk
There's a tiny smudge of dirt on my desk that is shaped like a hawk in flight. It's too small to photograph with anything I have. It's been here for months. For some reason, I can't quite bring myself to clean it off.
31 July 2007
External Confirmation of Licensing for images to be used on Wikipedia
The following images, all of them taken by me, are licensed CC-BY-SA-2.5 under Creative Commons:
The picture of the RV Savannah is also available as a print at DeviantArt, for either 9x12in or 5x7in. Come make me rich. :)
The picture of the RV Savannah is also available as a print at DeviantArt, for either 9x12in or 5x7in. Come make me rich. :)
30 July 2007
How to sell me music
The first time I hear a future favorite song, it generally makes no impression on me whatsoever. Then, as I hear it repeatedly on the radio, something about it will catch my attention - could be a particular musical phrase, could be something in the lyrics, or just something about the singer's voice or one of the instruments.
After about ten times, I start paying attention. Ten times after that, I become obsessed, track it down over the Internet, and start playing it on repeat. I also start looking up info about the band. Then, when I'm done playing it on repeat, I consider buying it.
I also start browsing other songs by the same band, either by playing whatever else is available in full for free, or by putting the song on one of my Pandora stations and seeing what else turns up to catch my attention. Lather, rinse, repeat. If enough songs by the same band turn out to catch my attention, I start thinking about buying full albums.
If the song isn't freely available somewhere for me to hear in full on repeat, I will never reach the stage of wanting to buy it.
After about ten times, I start paying attention. Ten times after that, I become obsessed, track it down over the Internet, and start playing it on repeat. I also start looking up info about the band. Then, when I'm done playing it on repeat, I consider buying it.
I also start browsing other songs by the same band, either by playing whatever else is available in full for free, or by putting the song on one of my Pandora stations and seeing what else turns up to catch my attention. Lather, rinse, repeat. If enough songs by the same band turn out to catch my attention, I start thinking about buying full albums.
If the song isn't freely available somewhere for me to hear in full on repeat, I will never reach the stage of wanting to buy it.
Underlying Motives II - Form and Function
To understand a people, study their underlying motives.
Feminine people (mostly women) are mainly concerned with how things look. Things like physical appearance, such as clothes, weight, and age. Things like homes, gardens, and venues, for how clean they are and how they're decorated. Things like social interactions and how they play out, from which arises etiquette. The proper time and place for drama. The appearance of appropriate sentiments, competence, and morality in the eyes of the public.
Masculine people (mostly men) are mainly concerned with what things do. Everything is a tool. Clothes are tools to protect the physical body from the elements. Hands are tools to make hammers, which are tools to drive nails into boards. Houses are for shelter, storing items, and providing physical structure. Food is fuel for the body in the same way gas is fuel for the car. Drugs are tools to heal or take away pain. Words are tools to convey thoughts. Art is for expressing emotions. There are tools to make more tools, and tools to fix broken tools. Tools to look at how things in the world work on their own, in order to turn them into useful tools.
Thus, little girls like to play dressup with dolls, and little boys like toys with lots of moving parts.
Feminine people (mostly women) are mainly concerned with how things look. Things like physical appearance, such as clothes, weight, and age. Things like homes, gardens, and venues, for how clean they are and how they're decorated. Things like social interactions and how they play out, from which arises etiquette. The proper time and place for drama. The appearance of appropriate sentiments, competence, and morality in the eyes of the public.
Masculine people (mostly men) are mainly concerned with what things do. Everything is a tool. Clothes are tools to protect the physical body from the elements. Hands are tools to make hammers, which are tools to drive nails into boards. Houses are for shelter, storing items, and providing physical structure. Food is fuel for the body in the same way gas is fuel for the car. Drugs are tools to heal or take away pain. Words are tools to convey thoughts. Art is for expressing emotions. There are tools to make more tools, and tools to fix broken tools. Tools to look at how things in the world work on their own, in order to turn them into useful tools.
Thus, little girls like to play dressup with dolls, and little boys like toys with lots of moving parts.
28 July 2007
Virtual Mules
The one thing that would vastly improve Diablo II for me is a single big stash space, shared by every character I have on a given account. Right now it's eight little spaces. As a result, I spend at least half of my playtime passing items back and forth among them (a process called "muling"). Last night I started a second "real" character, and it took me five hours of muling to set him up with items collected by the first "real" character, before I even started playing. This is retarded. It's a game. Why am I spending my playtime doing mindless tedious tasks?
Yes, I know, the creators of Diablo II insist that item collecting is not the point of the game. I say to them, you're the ones who are missing the point. The storyline and quests are only entertaining the first time (and for some people, sometimes not even then). Once you've done them, there is nothing else to do.
Q&A
1. What's a mule?
A mule is a character that was created for the express purpose of storing things in its stash space. The term "muling" means "transfer of items from one character to another." How to mule in Diablo 2 explains it in more detail.
2. Why did it take me five hours?
a) Because I only have two computers, and can therefore only have two characters in a game at a time. This means that on one computer, I have one character stand in the game, while on the other computer, other characters take turns coming and going, and they pass items back and forth a little at a time. I had a total of one "real" character and seven mules when I started setting up the second one. By the time I was done, I'd decided to start the second one on a different account, where he now already has one mule of his own. To make it more complicated, I had to delete one of the mules of the first character, because I wanted to use his name for the second character, which meant scrounging together enough space to hold all of the stuff he was holding.
b) Because I'm terribly disorganized about stashing things wherever they fit. I do have a system, but I refuse to go to the lengths of actually creating a spreadsheet to track everything, the way some of the hardcore players do. Also, half of my good beginning-level equipment was being worn by the mules, and I had to look at the clothes on each one individually (seven total mules plus their hirelings, which are mostly where I store my low-level bows). Also also, once I had multiple versions of the same items next to each other, there was a lengthy winnowing process of discarding inferior copies.
And also also also, there's been a bug since the latest version was implemented, which sometimes causes the game to crash when I exit games. This is why my slower computer just has the one character standing there the whole time, instead of also switching them in and out; on its older operating system, game crash means having to reboot.
3. If I hate it so much, why do I bother collecting stuff at all?
Because you never know when you might need something! Unfortunately, I am a hopeless packrat, and even though I consciously threw away a whole ton of crap that I didn't want (or, more accurately, dumped them in "mule park" games where people stand around in camp with their mule characters while organizing their stuff; one player's trash is another player's treasure), and even some relatively good items that I should've kept, my first character still somehow ended up with a staff of seven mules. (He's a paladin. He'd probably like the idea of having staff.)
It's a slow upgrade process of constantly improving stuff. Items that were good when I started from scratch are now crap, and much of the stuff I consider good now will be crap later, and I'll throw them all out. But I need to keep them now because they're the best I have right now.
At some point in the future, I will hopefully get around to writing a post drawing some parallels between Diablo II items and Wikipedia articles. The lengthy process of starting a second character has been rather enlightening in some interesting ways.
Yes, I know, the creators of Diablo II insist that item collecting is not the point of the game. I say to them, you're the ones who are missing the point. The storyline and quests are only entertaining the first time (and for some people, sometimes not even then). Once you've done them, there is nothing else to do.
Q&A
1. What's a mule?
A mule is a character that was created for the express purpose of storing things in its stash space. The term "muling" means "transfer of items from one character to another." How to mule in Diablo 2 explains it in more detail.
2. Why did it take me five hours?
a) Because I only have two computers, and can therefore only have two characters in a game at a time. This means that on one computer, I have one character stand in the game, while on the other computer, other characters take turns coming and going, and they pass items back and forth a little at a time. I had a total of one "real" character and seven mules when I started setting up the second one. By the time I was done, I'd decided to start the second one on a different account, where he now already has one mule of his own. To make it more complicated, I had to delete one of the mules of the first character, because I wanted to use his name for the second character, which meant scrounging together enough space to hold all of the stuff he was holding.
b) Because I'm terribly disorganized about stashing things wherever they fit. I do have a system, but I refuse to go to the lengths of actually creating a spreadsheet to track everything, the way some of the hardcore players do. Also, half of my good beginning-level equipment was being worn by the mules, and I had to look at the clothes on each one individually (seven total mules plus their hirelings, which are mostly where I store my low-level bows). Also also, once I had multiple versions of the same items next to each other, there was a lengthy winnowing process of discarding inferior copies.
And also also also, there's been a bug since the latest version was implemented, which sometimes causes the game to crash when I exit games. This is why my slower computer just has the one character standing there the whole time, instead of also switching them in and out; on its older operating system, game crash means having to reboot.
3. If I hate it so much, why do I bother collecting stuff at all?
Because you never know when you might need something! Unfortunately, I am a hopeless packrat, and even though I consciously threw away a whole ton of crap that I didn't want (or, more accurately, dumped them in "mule park" games where people stand around in camp with their mule characters while organizing their stuff; one player's trash is another player's treasure), and even some relatively good items that I should've kept, my first character still somehow ended up with a staff of seven mules. (He's a paladin. He'd probably like the idea of having staff.)
It's a slow upgrade process of constantly improving stuff. Items that were good when I started from scratch are now crap, and much of the stuff I consider good now will be crap later, and I'll throw them all out. But I need to keep them now because they're the best I have right now.
At some point in the future, I will hopefully get around to writing a post drawing some parallels between Diablo II items and Wikipedia articles. The lengthy process of starting a second character has been rather enlightening in some interesting ways.
26 July 2007
My name is Ozymandias
Today, after two months of hard work, I launched my article about the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography upon the general public.
Today I also sent around an email to SkIO's director, publicity guy, and a faculty member who helped with the research, asking them to nitpick it to death. And began pursuit of the oldest among the research staff for comments from a non-faculty perspective.
After their feedback, I believe I've got the ambitions and stubbornness to pursue Wikipedia's lucky special gold star, awarded to their very best articles.
Let the crumbling of my works begin!
Today I also sent around an email to SkIO's director, publicity guy, and a faculty member who helped with the research, asking them to nitpick it to death. And began pursuit of the oldest among the research staff for comments from a non-faculty perspective.
After their feedback, I believe I've got the ambitions and stubbornness to pursue Wikipedia's lucky special gold star, awarded to their very best articles.
Let the crumbling of my works begin!
25 July 2007
Libertarianism 101 by Ron Paul
note: video is 65 minutes long.
People have told me that I'm a Libertarian. After watching this, I suppose I am, at least when it comes to social issues; one of my life creeds is "So long as it harms no one, do as you will," which appears to be the underlying philosophy behind Libertarianism as well.
However, I'm not sure I'd go quite so far as to extend the concept to businesses. Businesses don't have the same motivations and goals that individuals do. Free markets sound great on paper, but if we had that originally and now we don't, the first question on my mind is "why not? what went wrong with it to cause it to shift away from that?" Also, for every example Dr. Paul gave of a spectacular success of the free market approach, I could think of an equally spectacular failure that he didn't mention.
I'm not sure I'd go to quite the decentralization extremes that Ron Paul advocates either. Some things really are much better left in the hands of the national government, and not individual smaller communities.
Overall his ideas intrigued me, and will leave me with much food for thought for some time to come.
People have told me that I'm a Libertarian. After watching this, I suppose I am, at least when it comes to social issues; one of my life creeds is "So long as it harms no one, do as you will," which appears to be the underlying philosophy behind Libertarianism as well.
However, I'm not sure I'd go quite so far as to extend the concept to businesses. Businesses don't have the same motivations and goals that individuals do. Free markets sound great on paper, but if we had that originally and now we don't, the first question on my mind is "why not? what went wrong with it to cause it to shift away from that?" Also, for every example Dr. Paul gave of a spectacular success of the free market approach, I could think of an equally spectacular failure that he didn't mention.
I'm not sure I'd go to quite the decentralization extremes that Ron Paul advocates either. Some things really are much better left in the hands of the national government, and not individual smaller communities.
Overall his ideas intrigued me, and will leave me with much food for thought for some time to come.
24 July 2007
Cheese Mantacaos
I've finally found something I can make that's suitable for bringing to a potluck. These are described in the cookbook as "the Platonic ideal of our packaged cheese puffs, with the texture of macaroons and the flavors of fresh cheese and fragrant spices" (Mark Bittman, The Best Recipes in the World p. 35).
If you make larger balls and bake twice as long, you can also turn them into cheese biscuits. They're good that way, too.
- One stick butter (8 tablespoons)
- One egg
- Two cups good quality cheese (cheddar, swiss, gruyere, etc.), grated or shredded
- 1.5 cups flour
- 3 teaspoons cumin (recipe calls for toasted seeds, I used powder and it came out fine)
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
- 0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- paprika
Mix everything except the paprika in a bowl. Make one-inch-diameter balls. Bake at 400 degreesoF for about ten minutes. Sprinkle with paprika.
If you make larger balls and bake twice as long, you can also turn them into cheese biscuits. They're good that way, too.
23 July 2007
How to get into a hot car
In the heat of summer, the first thing I do when I reach my car is to open all the doors. First the front passenger, then the rear passenger, then the back gate (it's a station wagon), then the rear driver's side, then the driver. Then I roll down the windows in reverse order - driver, rear driver's side, front passenger. (The windows are manual; I fear floods. I skip the rear passenger window because I can't reach it from the driver's seat.) By the time I'm back at the front passenger door, the ovenlike heat wave has wafted its way out, and if I'm lucky there's enough of a breeze to cool the inside of the car to the same temperature as the outside. Then I close the doors in the same order I opened them, and get into the car with the last one.
People tend to stare at me while I'm doing all this. The one time I saw someone else doing this, they were sheepish and apologetic when they noticed me noticing. I guess it just doesn't look very cool. Even though the whole point is to end up cool.
People tend to stare at me while I'm doing all this. The one time I saw someone else doing this, they were sheepish and apologetic when they noticed me noticing. I guess it just doesn't look very cool. Even though the whole point is to end up cool.
22 July 2007
Of Fish and Ponds
The world is made up of many ponds.
Sometimes a big fish in one pond will visit another pond.
Sometimes the fish has trouble coping when it discovers that the other pond already has its own big fish.
Sometimes the fish is unable to grasp that in the other pond, it's only a small fish.
It does no good, in those times, for the fish to insist that the other pond must change to look like its own pond, where it can once more be a big fish.
It does no good for the fish to denounce the other pond as a cesspool when it is refused.
Always approach the world as if you are a small fish. More good comes when you recognize that you always have room to grow.
The above was originally written on July 7 for my Wikipedia User Page "Thought of the Month." Since then, two people uninvolved in its raison d'être have commented that it's good wisdom in general. So I'm reprinting it here.
Sometimes a big fish in one pond will visit another pond.
Sometimes the fish has trouble coping when it discovers that the other pond already has its own big fish.
Sometimes the fish is unable to grasp that in the other pond, it's only a small fish.
It does no good, in those times, for the fish to insist that the other pond must change to look like its own pond, where it can once more be a big fish.
It does no good for the fish to denounce the other pond as a cesspool when it is refused.
Always approach the world as if you are a small fish. More good comes when you recognize that you always have room to grow.
The above was originally written on July 7 for my Wikipedia User Page "Thought of the Month." Since then, two people uninvolved in its raison d'être have commented that it's good wisdom in general. So I'm reprinting it here.
20 July 2007
American Tipping
The tipping customs in the U.S. are a bizarre mess of unspoken rules that are explained via doublespeak if they're explained at all. You tip restaurant waitstaff, but not shoe store clerks. Taxi drivers but not bus drivers. Hairdressers but not dental hygienists. Belly dancers but not ballet dancers.
And then, today, I learned that while you don't tip chiropractors, you do tip massage therapists.
The massage itself was good (my first one!). It showed me a large number of spots on my body where my muscles are sore all the time, except I'm so used to it that I don't notice. And there are weird connections everywhere - sometimes she would be working on one area, and a whole separate area would be twinging like mad, and I would get all tensed up in response. She was good about explaining some of why that is. So although I wouldn't say it was a relaxing experience, it was definitely enlightening.
Anyway, it didn't even occur to me that tipping might be expected until the end of the session when I was at the counter paying. As a result, I'd only brought enough cash to cover the cost they'd told me in advance. Without thinking about it, I asked them directly if I was supposed to tip, and the reply was: "Oh no, you don't have to do that. It's not mandatory or anything."
For those unfamiliar with tipping doublespeak, that means: "yes."
So naturally after I'd asked that without thinking, I also didn't tip because I didn't have the funds. Which means I suck as a person for being insulting and she probably hates me now. :(
And then, today, I learned that while you don't tip chiropractors, you do tip massage therapists.
The massage itself was good (my first one!). It showed me a large number of spots on my body where my muscles are sore all the time, except I'm so used to it that I don't notice. And there are weird connections everywhere - sometimes she would be working on one area, and a whole separate area would be twinging like mad, and I would get all tensed up in response. She was good about explaining some of why that is. So although I wouldn't say it was a relaxing experience, it was definitely enlightening.
Anyway, it didn't even occur to me that tipping might be expected until the end of the session when I was at the counter paying. As a result, I'd only brought enough cash to cover the cost they'd told me in advance. Without thinking about it, I asked them directly if I was supposed to tip, and the reply was: "Oh no, you don't have to do that. It's not mandatory or anything."
For those unfamiliar with tipping doublespeak, that means: "yes."
So naturally after I'd asked that without thinking, I also didn't tip because I didn't have the funds. Which means I suck as a person for being insulting and she probably hates me now. :(
19 July 2007
Underlying Motives I - Time and Money
To understand a people, study their underlying motives.
In a GoogleTalks video, Cory Doctorow said that in general, people between the ages of 18 and 34 are cash poor and time rich, while people 34+ are cash rich and time poor. This means that the first group of people will go to ludicrous lengths to avoid having to pay for anything. Meanwhile, the second group doesn't have time to figure out ways to avoid paying for things, plus they can easily afford to pay for whatever they want, and so paying for things is a non-issue.
He was talking about digital media - music, videos, games, software, books (pdfs), etc. I'm thinking it could be extended to many other aspects of life as well.
In a GoogleTalks video, Cory Doctorow said that in general, people between the ages of 18 and 34 are cash poor and time rich, while people 34+ are cash rich and time poor. This means that the first group of people will go to ludicrous lengths to avoid having to pay for anything. Meanwhile, the second group doesn't have time to figure out ways to avoid paying for things, plus they can easily afford to pay for whatever they want, and so paying for things is a non-issue.
He was talking about digital media - music, videos, games, software, books (pdfs), etc. I'm thinking it could be extended to many other aspects of life as well.
18 July 2007
On Little White Lies
Lying is easy. It always seems so harmless at the time.
But then you have to remember what you said the last time you lied.
And then you have to support it by adding more lies.
And then you discover all the things you now have to hide.
Soon you're making a whole separate persona that isn't you.
All your friends are friends of the persona, and not you.
Everyone new you meet through those friends will also meet the persona, and not you.
It's isolating and exhausting, keeping that persona from crumbling, knowing that even you may no longer know you at all.
Knowing that the longer it stays the harder it will fall.
Knowing when that fall does come, it will probably destroy them all.
Lying is hard. It will kill you, slowly, from inside.
But then you have to remember what you said the last time you lied.
And then you have to support it by adding more lies.
And then you discover all the things you now have to hide.
Soon you're making a whole separate persona that isn't you.
All your friends are friends of the persona, and not you.
Everyone new you meet through those friends will also meet the persona, and not you.
It's isolating and exhausting, keeping that persona from crumbling, knowing that even you may no longer know you at all.
Knowing that the longer it stays the harder it will fall.
Knowing when that fall does come, it will probably destroy them all.
Lying is hard. It will kill you, slowly, from inside.
17 July 2007
Arguably the lowest point of a thoroughly aggravating day
I returned from a fruitless coding session with a coworker to discover that an enormous cockroach was munching on my sandwich.
In broad daylight! The audacity! These so-called "water bugs" all need to die. -.-
In broad daylight! The audacity! These so-called "water bugs" all need to die. -.-
16 July 2007
As I descend into coding madness...
Huh. The "R" programming language. Never heard of it.
...
Documentation says it's related to S-Plus. Never heard of that, either.
...
Huh. This stuff sure is focused on doing statistics type things.
...
And here's some documentation that says it can also take data from SAS. I've heard of SAS. That's a statistics package. I was the only biology student in that stats class that was good at it. SAS was fun. I liked playing with univariate data. But then we moved on to a different stats package for the second half of the course. What was it called ... S-Plus.
OH!
Too bad I didn't like S-Plus much.
Too bad that was ten years ago.
Too bad I can't remember anything about it, except it had objects.
Now why exactly are we using a stats package to do calculus?
Conundrum of the day:
Should the database be sending the data to R? Or should R be getting the data out of the database? Which should be first, the chicken or the egg?
And do I increase my geekiness if I have command line interfaces open for PostgreSQL, R, and Matlab at the same time? What if I also open a session to IDL?
...
Documentation says it's related to S-Plus. Never heard of that, either.
...
Huh. This stuff sure is focused on doing statistics type things.
...
And here's some documentation that says it can also take data from SAS. I've heard of SAS. That's a statistics package. I was the only biology student in that stats class that was good at it. SAS was fun. I liked playing with univariate data. But then we moved on to a different stats package for the second half of the course. What was it called ... S-Plus.
OH!
Too bad I didn't like S-Plus much.
Too bad that was ten years ago.
Too bad I can't remember anything about it, except it had objects.
Now why exactly are we using a stats package to do calculus?
Conundrum of the day:
Should the database be sending the data to R? Or should R be getting the data out of the database? Which should be first, the chicken or the egg?
And do I increase my geekiness if I have command line interfaces open for PostgreSQL, R, and Matlab at the same time? What if I also open a session to IDL?
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