Almost 3 years ago I posted my computer setup following the model introduced by The Setup. A few things have changed in the meantime and this time is as good as any for updating the list.
Category: meta (Page 3 of 6)
I have been writing in internet on and off—perhaps mostly off—for near 20 years, including various blog stints since July 2003. This is my fifth or sixth iteration for a blog and I figured out that one element that makes it difficult to keep going in its current form is how skewed is the sampling of topics I covered. I mean all this quantitative, coding, etc. is like looking through a prism that only lets through a tiny portion of life.
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This week I’ve been feeling tired of excessive fanaticism (or zealotry) of open source software (OSS) and R in general. I do use a fair amount of OSS and pushed for the adoption of R in our courses; in fact, I do think OSS is a Good ThingTM. I do not like, however, constant yabbering on why using exclusively OSS in science is a good idea and the reduction of science to repeatability‡ and computability (both of which I covered in my previous post). I also dislike the snobbery of ‘you shall use R and not Excel at all, because the latter is evil’ (going back ages).
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Every so often I get bored writing about statistical analyses, software and torturing data and spend time in alternative creative endeavors: taking and processing pictures, writing short stories or exploring new research topics. The former is, mostly, covered in 500px, I keep the stories private and I’m just starting to play with bioacoustics.
The Google Reader debacle came while I was away from this blog; Google announced that Reader will be canned mid-year, probably because they want to move everyone towards Google+. Let’s be straightforward, it is not the end of the world but a (relatively) minor annoyance. The main consequence is that this decision led me to reevaluate my relationship with Google services and the result is that I’m replacing most services, particularly those where what I consider private information is stored. Continue reading
An R wish list for 2013
First go and read An R wish list for 2012. None of the wishes came through in 2012. Fix the R website? No, it is the same this year. In fact, it is the same as in 2005. Easy to find help? Sorry, next year. Consistency and sane defaults? Coming soon to a theater near you (one day). Thus my wish list for 2012 is, very handy, still the wish list for 2013.