Recent Posts

  1. Embed Observable Notebooks

    Fri 02 July 2021

    TL;DR: Use all of the cool examples with your own data, while keeping that data local or inside your network.

    If you haven’t heard of it, Observable is a platform for interactive coding brought to the world by Mike Bostock, creator of d3. It embodies a bold vision …

  2. Vectorizing code matters

    Thu 17 September 2020

    I come from the world of MATLAB and numerical computing, where for loops are shorn and vectors are king. During my PhD at UVM, Professor Lakoba's Numerical Analysis class was one of the most challenging courses I took and the deep knowledge of numerical code still sticks with me …

  3. Observable with local files and Flask

    Tue 15 September 2020

    We're relying heavily on Observable for the most recent edition of Berkeley MIDS W209: Information Visualization. While Observable is a hosted tool, there are a handful of tricks that make is useful for enterprise applications (where data needs to reside locally). One of these is relying on locally accessible data …

  4. Boston Marathon 2020: Take 2

    Sun 13 September 2020

    The COVID-19 pandemic not only delayed the Boston Marathon until September, but cancelled it entirely. The organizers moved to a virtual format, and of course, I had to do it.

    On Strava:

    And if you don’t get motion sick, and want to hear me complain about running with a …

  5. Atom vs RStudio

    Mon 08 June 2020

    Let's talk about workflow.

    Most R users that I know use RStudio.

    Most programmers that I know use a text editor like Emacs, or use what is embedded into an IDE like PyCharm or IntelliJ. https://jstaf.github.io/2018/03/25/atom-ide.html

    There are some things to like …

  6. Great Expectations of Vertica

    Fri 29 May 2020

    Great Expectations is a useful tool in any data pipeline to ensure that data is what you expect. While data validation and such have been compared to Data Science's "janitorial work", others argue that it's really part of the analysis. Either way, I've had enough headaches with analysis being wrong …

  7. Boston Marathon 2020: From a Basement Near You

    Mon 20 April 2020

    The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of most events, including the Boston Marathon (which made it through the 1918 flu and 2 world wars). Alas, I couldn't let my half-assed training go to "waste", so I took to the basement.

    I'd already taken the time off from work …

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