Product Review – Revolution R 5.0

So I got the email from Revolution R. Version 5.0 is ready for download, and unlike half hearted attempts by many software companies they make it easy for the academics and researchers to get their free copy. Free as in speech and free as in beer.

Some thoughts-

1) R ‘s memory problem is now an issue of marketing and branding. Revolution Analytics has definitely bridged this gap technically  beautifully and I quote from their documentation-

The primary advantage 64-bit architectures bring to R is an increase in the amount of memory available to a given R process.
The first benefit of that increase is an increase in the size of data objects you can create. For example, on most 32-bit versions of R, the largest data object you can create is roughly 3GB; attempts to create 4GB objects result in errors with the message “cannot allocate vector of length xxxx.”
On 64-bit versions of R, you can generally create larger data objects, up to R’s current hard limit of 231 􀀀 1 elements in a vector (about 2 billion elements). The functions memory.size and memory.limit help you manage the memory used byWindows versions of R.
In 64-bit Revolution R Enterprise, R sets the memory limit by default to the amount of physical RAM minus half a gigabyte, so that, for example, on a machine with 8GB of RAM, the default memory limit is 7.5GB:

2) The User Interface is best shown as below or at  https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1V_G7r0aBR3I5SktSOenhnhuqkHThne6fMxly_-4i8Ag&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

-(but I am still hoping for the GUI ,Revolution Analytics promised us for Christmas)

3) The partnership with Microsoft HPC is quite awesome given Microsoft’s track record in enterprise software penetration

but I am also interested in knowing more about the Oracle version of R and what it will do there.

Google Chrome introduces in-browser ads

Just saw a text ad on my chrome browser. Not a website just the browser.

Text ads courtesy Google Chrome.

No matter what website you go- well who has the browser can show you ads. I am glad the decade long stint of browsers as a sink hole for free stuff is going to go away soon.

Hmm.

Now if Microsoft comes up with in-Desktop Ads and slices the prices it would be fun.

Holiday season starts early!

 

 

UseR goes to Nashville, USA

So if Vanderbilt did lose (again) to UT (http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2011/nov/20/video-tennessee-highlights-vanderbilt-game/) , they have somethign better to look before next season’s football season.

UseR is coming to Tennessee in 2012! This is the premier conference happens annually for R language (>2 mill users), and alternated between Europe and North America every other year.

Details here

http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/Main/UseR-2012

useR! 2012 (12-15 June 2012)
Department of Biostatistics
Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine
Nashville Tennessee USA

 

 

 

 


Pre-conference Survey

If you plan to attend useR! 2012, help us plan by completing a RedCAP Survey.

 


Contact

Stephania McNeal-Goddard
Assistant to the Chair
stephania.mcneal-goddard@vanderbilt.edu
Phone:             615.322.2768
Fax: 615.343.4924
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Department of Biostatistics
S-2323 Medical Center North
Nashville, TN 37232-2158

 

 


Abstracts and Tutorial Proposals

Participants are encouraged to submit an abstract to for oral presentation during a Kaleidoscope or Focus session, or for poster presentation. Tutorial proposals are also welcomed.

Deadlines

  • Tutorial Submission: Dec 1 – Jan 31
  • Tutorial Acceptance Notification: Feb 1 – Feb 29
  • Abstract Submission: Dec 1 – Mar 12
  • Abstract Acceptance Notification: Mar 13 – Apr 15

 

 


Registration

 

Deadlines

  • Early Registration: Jan 1 – Feb 29
  • Regular Registration: Mar 1 – May 12
  • Late Registration: May 13 – June 11
  • On-site Registration: June 12 – June 15

 

 


Travel and Lodging Information

Vanderbilt University is located in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Air Travel

The nearest major airport to Vanderbilt University is the Nashville International Airport (BNA). The airport is about 10 miles east of the campus and downtown Nashville. The BNA website maintains a list of ground transportation options for air travelers. The approximate taxi fare from the airport to Vanderbilt University is $27. Shuttles and buses are also available from the airport. The latter is economical (approximate fare is $1.60), but the travel time is more than an hour.

Car Travel

Nashville is located at the intersection of three major interstates. Interstate 40 approaches from the east and west, interstate 24 from the northwest and southeast, and interstate 65 from the northeast and south.

Free online education by Stanford and MIT

One more reason American education is the best in the world- it has a big heart.

Stanford just announced free courses starting from Jan 2012- and they are online (so no visa blues) and free( as in speech and free as in beer) and just the same as actual courses (yes , the homework will have to be done, and the dog cannot eat the homework)

http://www.venture-class.org/

MIT meanwhile has 2000 courses  at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

 

– but I liked Stanford’s minimal , clutter free interface ( I read Steve Jobs biography- the interface hangover continues).

Hurrah for Stanford!

MIT needs to DESIGN  their free online courses website and maybe do more search engine optimization at

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/.

 

How many LinkedIn Connections do I have?

I have 8116 LinkedIn connections at http://www.linkedin.com/network?trk=hb_tab_net

But wait I have only 7557 connections at

http://www.linkedin.com/home?trk=hb_tab_home_top

Somebody refresh those DB tables faster!! Where did 600 connections go!!

Of course if you see my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ajayohri/ja

Someone at LinkedIn totally forgot to update the 500+ cutoff for connections. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secure Browsing from Mobile and PC ( Tor ,PeerNet, WasteAgain)

While Tor remains the tool of choice with pseudo-techie hacker wannabes , there is enough juice and smoke and mirrors on the market to confuse your average Joe.

For a secure browsing experience on Mobile – do NOT use either Apple or Windows OS

Use Android  and this app called Orbot in particular

Installing Tor with a QR code

Orbot is easy to install by simply scanning the following QR code with your Android Barcode scanner.

Android QR code

Installing Tor from the Android Market

Orbot is available in the Android Market.

ENTER PEERNET

If you have a Dell PC, well just use PeerNet to configure and set up your own network around the neighbourhood. This is particularly applicable if you are in country that is both repressive and not so technologically advanced. Wont work in China or USA.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/p70008/EN/vista_7/peernet.htm

What is a peer network?

A peer network is a network in which one computer can connect directly to another computer. This capability is accomplished by enabling access point (AP) functionality on one of the computers. Other computers can then connect to this computer in the same way that they would connect to a physical AP. If Internet Connection Sharing is enabled on the computer that has the AP functionality, computers that connect to that computer have Internet connectivity as well.

A basic peer network, which requires no networking knowledge or experience to set up, should meet the needs of most home users and small businesses. By default, a basic peer network is configured with the strongest available security (see How do I set up a basic peer network?).

For users who are familiar with wireless networking technology, advanced configuration features are available to do the following:

Change security settings (see How do I configure my peer network?)
Choose which method (push button or PIN) computers with Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ capability can join your peer network (see How do I allow peer devices to join my peer network using Wi-Fi Protected Setup technology?)
Change the DHCP Server IP address (see How do I configure my peer network?).
Change the channel on which to operate your peer network (see How do I configure my peer network?)

 If you are really really in a need for secure browsing (like you are maybe a big hot shot in the tech world), I suggest go over to VMWare

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

create a seperate Linux (Ubuntu for ease) virtual disc, then download the Tor Browser Bundle from

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en for surfing and a Peernet (above) or  a prepaid one time use disposable mobile pre-paid wireless card. It is also quite easy to delete your virtual disc in times of emergencies (but it is best to use encryption even when in Ubuntu https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EncryptedHome)

IRC chat is less secure than you think it is thanks to BOT  Trawlers- so I am hoping someone in the open source community updates Waste Again for encrypted chats http://wasteagain.sourceforge.net/

What is “WASTE again”?

“WASTE again” enables you to create a decentralized and secure private mesh network using an unsecure network, such as the internet. Once the public encryption keys are exchanged, sending messages, creating groupchats and transferring files is easy and secure.

Creating a mesh

To create a mesh you need at least two computers with “WASTE again” installed. During installation, a unique pair of public and private keys for each computer is being generated. Before the first connection can be established, you need to exchange these public keys. These keys enable “WASTE again” to authenticate every connection to other “WASTE again” clients.

After exchanging the keys, you simply type in the computers IP address to connect to. If that computer is located behind a firewall or a NAT-router, you have to create a portmap first to enable incoming connections.

At least one computer in your mesh has to be able to accept incoming connections, making it a “public node”. If no direct connection between two firewalled computers can be made, “WASTE again” automatically routes your traffic through one or more of the available public nodes.

Every new node simply has to exchange keys with one of the connected nodes and then connect to it. All the other nodes will exchange their keys automatically over the mesh.