sandbox
This is my current blog where I discuss a variety of computing topics including Linux, vim, python and javascript as well as science and statistics. Many of the posts have accompanying gists, which contain code for the example discussed.
Installing PySoundFile on Ubuntu 14.04
Mar 3, 2015
In this post I will go over installing PySoundFile using pip and virtualenvwrapper. PySoundFile is a utility for reading and writing sound files of various types, like wav, flac, and ogg using the abilities of the libsndfile library. Noticeably absent is mp3 due to the license issue-- use a tool like (the wonderful) sox to convert mp3's to a supported file type.
Install QGIS on Ubuntu 14.04
Feb 17, 2015
In this post I will cover my install process for QGIS on Ubuntu 14.04. QGIS is a tool for creating maps and working with geospatial information. The official QGIS installation instructions provide three different ways to install the software. I'll be using the UbuntuGIS ppa to get access to more recent versions of the relevant GIS software, including QGIS.
Using Python to query data from Socrata
Feb 17, 2015
I've started going to Open Oakland meetings on Tuesday nights. The group works on a variety of projects related to making city data more accessible and usable for Oakland citizens by creating websites, or apps.
Installing Node.js and npm on Ubuntu 14.04
Jan 12, 2015
I've decided to start being systematic about learning javascript, with a focus on getting good with d3js. I'll be installing nodejs and npm (node package manager) as a way to get access to a javascript console and, for later, a powerful javascript environment.
Inferring probabilities with a Beta prior, a third example of Bayesian calculations
Dec 11, 2014
In this post I will expand on a previous example of inferring probabilities from a data series. In particular, instead of considering a discrete set of candidate probabilities, I'll consider all (continuous) values between \( 0 \) and \( 1 \). This means our prior (and posterior) will now be a probability density function (pdf) instead of a probabilty mass function (pmf). More specifically, I'll use the Beta Distribution for this example.