On December 9 2008, very nearly ten years ago, the first post on Revolutions was published. Way back then, this blog was part of a young startup called Revolution Computing, which later became Revolution Analytics. (That name persists to this day in the URL of this blog.) The idea at that time ... [Read more...]

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So it turns out that the 1990 Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park is, indeed, a work of fiction. (Personal note: despite the snark to follow, the book is one of my all-time favorites — I clearly remember devouring it in 24 hours straight while ill in a hostel in France.) If the monsters ... [Read more...]

Azure SQL Database, the database-as-a-service based on Microsoft SQL Server, now offers R integration. (The service is currently in preview; details on how to sign up for the preview are provided in that link.) While you've been able to run R in SQL Server in the cloud since the release ... [Read more...]

I've posted several examples here of using Azure Cognitive Services for data science applications. You can upload an an image or video to the service and extract information about faces and emotions, generate a caption describing a scene from a provided photo, or speak written text in a natural voice. (... [Read more...]

In case you missed them, here are some articles from October of particular interest to R users. Peter Provost ports some 80's-era BASIC programs for kids to R. In a podcast for Fringe FM, I discuss the ethics of AI, Microsoft and Open Source, and the R Community. Roundup of ... [Read more...]

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Anscombe's Quartet is a famous collection of four small data sets — just 11 (x,y) pairs each — that was developed in the 1970s to emphasize the fact that sometimes, numerical summaries of data aren't enough. (For a modern take on this idea, see also the Datasaurus Dozen.) In this case, it ... [Read more...]

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A front-page story in the Baltimore Sun reported last week on the state of the bridges in Maryland. Among the report's findings: 5.4% of bridges are classified in "poor" or "structurally deficient" condition 13% of bridges in the city of Baltimore are in "poor" condition Those findings were the result of analysis ... [Read more...]

In R, the logical || (OR) and && (AND) operators are unique in that they are designed only to work with scalar arguments. Typically used in statements like while(iter __ 1000 && eps __ 0.0001) continue_optimization() the assumption is that the objects on either side (in the example above, iter and eps) are single values (... [Read more...]

The Economist's Big Mac Index (also described on Wikipedia if you're not a subscriber) was created (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) as a measure to compare the purchasing power of money in different countries. Since Big Macs are available just about everywhere in the world, the price of a Big Mac in Sweden — ... [Read more...]

I wasn't at the Use of R in Official Statistics (uRos2018) conference in the Netherlands last month, but I'm thankful to Jeroen Ooms for sharing the slides from his keynote presentation. In addition to being a postdoc staffer at ROpenSci, Jeroen maintains the official repository for the daily R builds ... [Read more...]

Since 2015, the R Consortium has funded projects of benefit to, and proposed by, the R community. Twice a year, the R Consortium Infrastructure Steering Committee reviews grant proposals and makes awards based on merit and funds available. (Those funds come, in turn, from the annual dues paid by R Consortium ... [Read more...]

Here are some conferences focused on R taking place in the next few months: Oct 26: Nor'eastR Conference (Providence, RI). A one-day R conference, organized by grassroots R community members in the Northeastern US. Oct 27: SatRdays Belgrade (Serbia). Another city joins the popular SatRDays series of one-day, community led conferences. Nov 7: ... [Read more...]

In case you missed them, here are some articles from September of particular interest to R users. R code by Barry Rowlingson to replicate an XKCD comic about curve fitting. The rayshader package creates 3-D relief maps in R with perspective, shadows, and depth of field. The R Developer's Guide ... [Read more...]