Some Basic Statistics

I've always been fascinated by the essential statistical algorithms. While there are numerous statistical libraries, the simple measures of central tendency (mean, media, mode, standard deviation) have some interesting features.
Well. Interesting to me.
First, some basics.
def s0( samples ):
    return len(samples) # sum(x**0 for x in samples …
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Building Probabilistic Graphical Models with Python

A deep dive into probability and scipy: https://www.packtpub.com/building-probabilistic-graphical-models-with-python/book I have to admit up front that this book is out of my league. The Python is sensible to me. The subject matter -- graph models, learning and inference -- is above my pay grade.

Asking About a Book …

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New Focus: Data Scientist

Read this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/emc/2014/06/26/the-hottest-jobs-in-it-training-tomorrows-data-scientists/ Interesting subject areas: Statistics, Machine Learning, Algorithms. I've had questions about data science from folks who (somehow) felt that calculus and differential equations were important parts of data science. I couldn't figure out how they decided that diffeq's …

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Project Euler


The Permissions Issue

Why? Why are Enterprise Computers so hard to use? What is it about computers that terrifies corporate IT? They're paying lots of money to have me sit around and wait for mysterious approver folks to decide if I can be given permission to install development tools. (Of course, the real …

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Package Deal for Learning Python

If you're very new to programming in general, Python's a great place to start.
There are many, many tutorials. I won't even try to summarize them. They're generally good. And the more you read, the more you learn.
Moving past the n00bz needs, there are some more advanced books. Here's …
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TDD, API Design and Refactoring

See this short discussion on a Stingray Reader feature:

https://sourceforge.net/p/stingrayreader/discussion/COBOL/thread/d2132851/?limit=25#2a3a

This turned into an exercise in pure TDD.

<rant>

I'm not a fan of applying TDD in a strict, death-march fashion.

I see the comments on Stack Overflow that …

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Grace Murray Hopper

Date Tags COBOL

Stingray 4.4 Update -- the Posix split command applied to COBOL files

Here's an interesting problem. Implement the split command for mainframe COBOL EBCDIC files with their BDW and RDW headers.

The conventional split can't handle COBOL EBCDIC files because they don't have sensible \n line breaks. Translating an EBCDIC file to ASCII is high-risk because COMP and COMP-3 fields will be …

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