Month: May 2009

Ubuntu Analytics for Beginners (like me)


So I finally gave in, said Goodbye to my Windows with it’s virus warnings, viruses, anti viruses and security updates and got an Ubuntu.

It is like learning to speak a new language at the age of >30.

Here are some tips for configuring Internet on Ubuntu and Configuring R on Ubuntu
Using R from Ubuntu

Finding All packages

Go to Applications -Accessories-Terminal

Type the following

$apt-cache search r-cran-

To install any package simply

Type

sudo apt-get install r-cran-rcmdr r-cran-xml

After this to get other packages not listed here, invoke R by typing R at the prompt

Load installed packages by Command

>library(packagename)
Configuring Internet (specific to Indian Broadband)  on an Ubuntu Laptop

Connect the Internet Wire and Switch on the ADSL modem

Go to Applications -Accesories-Terminal

Type the following at Terminal ( Note the $ sign represents Terminal- so type only ifconfig in following command)

$ ifconfig

Check the IP address from this value ( among a big dump of stuff you get by typing ifconfig)

inet addr:XXX.XX.XX.XX

Go to System- Administration- Network

Click Wired Connection- Unlock ( Use the admin password given to you- same as your machine login password)

Select Wired Connection -Properties

Configuration to Automatic Configuration (DHCP)

Go to Host

Select username-laptop Properties

Change Ip address to one gotten above

Close

(To be continued)

For Enthusiastic Beginners in Ubuntu – Note I use the Ubuntu Long Term version 8.10. The latest version is 9.04 but it is not a Long Term Version Yet. Also recommended is the Cannonical Shop for Ubuntu Merchandise (see a free screenshot in the post)

https://shop.canonical.com/

Spreading Content using Social Media

The concept of social media is different for different people- some view it as a revolution enabling people to communicate world wide, others view it as a new marketing media, while some of us wonder what the big fuss is all about.

Here are some ways to spread content/marketing communication using Social Media-

1) RSS – Really Simple Syndication has effectively proven a challenge to content creators as well as search engines.Using it effectively can make it a very nice and user friendly way to spread the words you write.

  • Newsletters- I use both Feedblitz ( for historical reasons) and my default feed is Google Feedburner. Google feedburner is useful especially for content leaching and security. I also like to track how people read the newsletter and Feedblitz is very good in that, but if the RSS feed is used by a RSS reader then Feedburner does a better job of tracking IMO.Note Linkedin now has a good feature for Announcements that does the same thing.
  • Linkedin News – In the Linkedin Group created for your Blog ( if not, do it.now) There is an option for News – add your RSS feed there for people/visitors to read it.
  • Facebook- Use the Facebook application called Facebook Notes for spreading your content to all your connections every time you write a post.
  • Linkedin WordPress Application- This updates your Linkedin profile for latest posts. Very useful for link seekers like me who have 8000+ Linkedin connections ( Note I have got 4 contracts and multiple knowledge opportunities through the links there- In a hyper Linked world every one needs as many links they can get)

2) Thid Party Sites- Create a Page to Drop Links or Create a Community to Exchange Comments/Views

  • Create a Facebook Page for your site  and also add similar pages for Favourites- Like a FB analogy for Blogroll( Example –

Join ours at http://www.facebook.com/pages/DecisionStats/191421035186

  • Create a Linkedin Group ( if not done so already)

Join Decisionstats at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=54257

3) Twitter- Use the RSS in Step 1 ( Preferably use Feedburner than the raw xml feed to help you track) and add it to www.twitterfeed.com for automated posting of your content.

4) Use Customized Widgets- I recommend the one at Add to Any WordPress Plugin to help your readers share it on – and you CAN tweak the colors here –

http://www.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save/menu_style/wordpress

5) WordPress- The latest version of WordPress is available at both Simple Scripts ( for Self Hosted) and at www.wordpress.org

Use it for a better looking website/blog. Using custom themes and Akismet with Bad Behaviour plugins guarantees security. For more tips on WordPress security see www.dullest.com

6) Use it or Lose it-

  • Using Facebook has helped me maintain contacts with SCHOOL Friends
  • Linkedin has helped me like n Online Rolodex
  • Twitter – I am still trying to figure it out but it is fun.

Hope that helps. Have a great Memorial Day weekend in the US- those vets have helped the world stay free in Europe, Africa and Asia as well

Create your own Firefox Add-on

A great video Tutorial for creating a Firefox Add-on including potentially a Twitter Firefox add-on using the new Jet Pack release from Mozilla.

Jetpack is an API for allowing you to write Firefox add-ons using the web technologies you already know.

Source https://jetpack.mozillalabs.com/

Creating Online Communities

Sometime back I had asked the question- How much do you think would it be to have the top 100 bloggers on SAS language on the same page, in a manner that the RSS feeds get updated on their own. The answer is here-

Wordframe. I had covered this software before in comparison to Ning.com and they proved favorable.

This is a small startup, East Europe and US based since more than a decade and very hard working. They allegedly wanted to become open source and had plans to create third party applications when I checked with them in January but this may be on hold for a new product launch.

Would sas.com pay for 1000$ set up fee and 200$ monthly fee for getting the top 100 SAS bloggers on their sascommunity.org website.

Would oracle pay for 1000$ set up fee and 200$ monthly fee for getting the top 100 Oracle bloggers on a website sponsored by them.

How much would Aster Data pay for say 100 bloggers about Hadoop ( ahem- assuming there are 100 people who CAN blog about Hadoop- a bit like Einstein’s 5 people in the world can understand his theory of relativity).

Check this site out.

image

Advertising Feed back Loop: Facebook and Adwords

In Systems design a feedback loop is something that measures the difference between expected and actual output and adds it back to the system to enhance it’s performance

For a better more accurate definition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback

Here is how Facebook measures the satisfaction whether I got for an ad on my page- note fraudelent or systematic cheaters would be eliminated by the law of averages.

It places a very small thumbs up or thumbs down on an ad on right hand corner.
‘
When I place a thumbs down on an ad ( note it shows only graphical ads)-it asks me why i didnt like the ad

Was it

1) Misleading
2) Offensive
3) Uninteresting
4) Irrelevant
5) Repetitive
6) Other- allows text mining of free form allowing subjective feedback.

However if I type say Business Intelligence on Google – I get the following

http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=business+intelligence&meta=&aq=0&oq=business+intell

Open Source Ad on Pentaho at prime spot just above the results. Makes me wonder how much open source will spend.

Search Results-
Wikepedia entry usually at the top ( but no ads there*)

Search Optimization means SAS Business Intelligence is now fifth from top- which is the first mention of a BI vendor there ( Note cost to SAS is zero as you can see below). In the remaining top 4, two are similar http://www.businessintelligence.com and http://www.businessintelligence.co.uk as the title page tag remains more important than sheer consumer behaviour to Pagerank.

Right Column Sponsored Links ( These guys spend more money than SAS to be on the sponsored links and still end up in a less favourable ad page than in top vendor on search results page)-

1 http://www.brgglobal.com
2 SAP.com/India
3 IBM.com/cognos
4 http://www.BusinessObjects-India.com
5 http://www.softsmith.com
6 http://www.syncfusion.com/BizIntell
7 http://www.intelligententerprise.com/

(Note from Ajay*- A senior IIM Alumnus CK Prahlad (the first batch in fact) – first expounded the concept of core competence-

Now-what is Google’s core competence.
I believe that Google should simply donate all its information on wikipedia, and offer Google Knol to it- rather than just wallow in sunk cost theory or expect an immediate return from this transaction. It will get lots of goodwill- and maybe the Google Wikipedia Knol will take off.

Similarly sell Orkut to Facebook and just take the advertising and search functions to be combined in a seperate spin off called Google Search before Microsoft forces the Europeans and Justice department to do so.

Or continue to moon the giant.)

I didnt like the Adwords ads or the order they were in. But there is no way in Adwords for me to give feedback to it. Facebook listens. Will Adwords listen.