Attention conservation notice: Academic statistico-algorithmic navel-gazing. With the grading done, but grades not yet posted while we wait for the students to fill out faculty evaluations, it's time to reflect on the class just finished. (Since this is the third time I've done a post like this, I guess it's now one of my traditions.) Overall, it went a lot better than my worst fears, especially considering this was the first time the class was offered. There was a lot of...

Assignment, database (large!) Introduction to Statistical Computing

Lecture 26: Aggregation in databases is like split/apply/combine. Joining tables: what it is and how to do it. Examples of joinery. Accessing databases from R with the DBI package. Introduction to Statistical Computing

Lecture 25: The idea of a relational database. Tables, fields, keys, normalization. Server-client model. Example of working with a database server. Intro to SQL, especially SELECT. Introduction to Statistical Computing

Assignment; solutions (R) Introduction to Statistical Computing

Lecture 24: Scraping by constructing and debugging regular expressions. R Introduction to Statistical Computing

Lecture 23: Importing data from webpages. Example: scraping weblinks. Using regular expressions again (with multiple capture groups). Example: how long does a random surfer take to get to Facebook? Exception handling. R Introduction to Statistical Computing

One of the final projects was to build first- and second- order Markov models based on the text of Heart of Darkness. I present their last slide: (Whatever merit this might have is due to the students: Jason Capehart, Seung Su Han, Alexander Murray-Watters, and Elizabeth Silver.) Introduction to Statistical Computing

Attention conservation notice: I have no taste. F For Fake Watched after Jessa Crispin's recommendation, which I cannot improve upon. An utterly delightful movie. (There is an essay, if not a dissertation, to be written about the male gaze in this movie. How much of this is due to Welles being taken with Ms. Kodar's [admittedly stunning] legs, how much was aimed at mere commercial sex-appeal, and how much was a deliberate manipulation and distraction of half or so of the audience? The way...