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• Content Weighting and Sociology

  - by Chris Massey

  I’ve had loads of fantastic feedback on the concept and early curation wireframes I posted on the labs, and it’s led to some further thoughts on the topic of voting. More specifically, thoughts about the kinds of behaviour and values a platform encourages in it’s users via the set of available actions. StackOverflow is a very good example of this kind of sociology in action, not only via the set of available actions, but through the reputation system it uses to both reward and control it’s users. In our case (specifically, in the case of the curation model I’ve been talking about thus far), the main considerations are how the quality of content is judged, and how to make sure each piece of curated content gets a fair hearing. Based on the feedback and conversations I’ve had with many of you over the last few days, a few considerations came to light about how we might need to weight and display our curations, and I’ve written about that more extensively over on the labs themselves – have a read and let me know what you think.

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• Why Are Ruby Programmers So Full of Themselves? [closed]

  - by Pierreten

  I've noticed this culture surrounding Ruby where developers truly believe that they are somehow more gifted than developers of other languages, regardless of experience and talent (even when that isn't the case, I've met some extremely junior Ruby developers come up with some pretty basic constructs, and pass them off as some sort of revolutionary idea). The derision of strongly typed languages seems to be a common theme as well; regardless of its merits. Is there something particular to the Ruby syntax in general that is to account for this? Is there a socialogical component to it?

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• Research useful for getting a job?

  - by Twirling Hearth

  I have recently started a BS program in Computer Science, in order to improve my employment prospects. I already possess a Master's in sociology (as part of a PhD program that I left early because I could not possibly sustain interest any longer). As such, I am trying to find my way in the grand world of computers. One option that has been suggested to me in the past is something to do with social networking. I already have a strong social sciences background, and my knowledge of programming is increasing as I go through my studies. I know there are some people in my city (Boston) who are doing research in that area, so it's possible I could get someone to take interest in me. For that matter, because research is something that I'm pretty good at, it's an option I'm considering, career-wise. I just have one question, is it a worthwhile use of my time career-wise? I have no burning intellectual passion for that topic, but I'm perfectly happy to do it, if it means $$$. Your thoughts are welcome.

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• Excel export displaying '#####...'

  - by Cypher

  I'm trying to export an Excel database into .txt (Tab Delimited), but some of my cells are quite large. When I export into a txt some of the cells are exported as '#######....' which is surprisingly useless. Has this happened to anyone else? Do you know an easy fix? Data from one cell of my column: Accounting, African Studies, Agricultural/Bioresource Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Science, Anatomy/Cell Biology, Animal Biology, Animal Science, Anthropology, Applied Zoology, Architecture, Art History, Atmospheric/Oceanic Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Botanical Sciences, Canadian Studies, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry/Bio-Organic/Environmental/Materials,ChurchMusicPerformance, Civil Engineering/Applied Mechanics, Classics, Composition, Computer Engineering,ComputerScience, ContemporaryGerman Studies, Dietetics, Early Music Performance, Earth/Planetary Sciences, East Asian Studies, Economics, Electrical Engineering, English Literature/ Drama/Theatre/Cultural Studies, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Environmental Biology, Finance, Food Science, Foundations of Computing, French Language/Linguistics/Literature/Translation, Geography, Geography/ Urban Systems, German, German Language/Literature/Culture, Hispanic Languages/Literature/Culture,History,Humanistic Studies, Industrial Relations, Information Systems, International Business, International Development Studies, Italian Studies/Medieval/Renaissance, Jazz Performance, Jewish Studies, Keyboard Studies, Kindergarten/Elementary Education, Kindergarten/Elementary Education/Jewish Studies,Kinesiology, Labor/Management Relations, Latin American/Caribbean Studies, Linguistics, Literature/Translation, Management Science, Marketing, Materials Engineering,Mathematics,Mathematics/Statistics,Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology, Microbiology/Immunology, Middle Eastern Studies, Mining Engineering, Music, Music Education, MusicHistory,Music Technology,Music Theory,North American Studies, Nutrition,OperationsManagement,OrganizationalBehavior/Human Resources Management, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Physical Education, Physics, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Political Science, Psychology, Quebec Studies, Religious Studies/Scriptures/Interpretations/World Religions,ResourceConservation,Russian, Science for Teachers,Secondary Education, Secondary Education/Music, Secondary Education/Science, SocialWork, Sociology, Software Engineering, Soil Science, Strategic Management, Teaching of French/English as a Second Language, Theology, Wildlife Biology, Wildlife Resources, Women’s Studies.

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• subtotals in columns usind reshape2 in R

  - by user1043144

  I have spent some time now learning RESHAPE2 and plyr but I still do not get it. This time I have a problem with (a) subtotals and (b) passing different aggregate functions . Here an example using data from the excellent tutorial on the blog of mrdwab http://news.mrdwab.com/ # libraries library(plyr) library(reshape2) # get data and add few more variables book.sales = read.csv("http://news.mrdwab.com/data-booksales") book.sales$Stock = book.sales$Quantity + 10 book.sales$SubjCat[(book.sales$Subject == 'Economics') | (book.sales$Subject == 'Management') ] <- '1_EconSciences' book.sales$SubjCat[book.sales$Subject %in% c('Anthropology', 'Politics', 'Sociology') ] <- '2_SocSciences' book.sales$SubjCat[book.sales$Subject %in% c('Communication', 'Fiction', 'History', 'Research', 'Statistics') ] <- '3_other' # to get to my starting dataframe (close to the project I am working on) book.sales1 <- ddply(book.sales, c('Region', 'Representative', 'SubjCat', 'Subject', 'Publisher'), summarize, Stock = sum(Stock), Sold = sum(Quantity), Ratio = round((100 * sum(Quantity)/ sum(Stock)), digits = 1)) #melt it m.book.sales = melt(data = book.sales1, id.vars = c('Region', 'Representative', 'SubjCat', 'Subject', 'Publisher'), measured.vars = c('Stock', 'Sold', 'Ratio')) # cast it Tab1 <- dcast(data = m.book.sales, formula = Region + Representative ~ Publisher + variable, fun.aggregate = sum, margins = c('Region', 'Representative')) Now my questions : I have been able to add the subtotals in rows. But is it possible also to add margins in the columns. Say for example, Totals of Stock for one Publisher ? Sorry I meant to say example total sold for all publishers There is a problem with the columns with “ratio”. How can I get “mean” instead of “sum” for this variable ? P.S: I have seen some examples using reshape. Will you recommend to use it instead of reshape2 (which seems not to include the functionalities of two functions).

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• codeigniter mulitple LIKE db query using associative array- but all from the same column name...?

  - by Inigo

  Hi, I'm trying to query my database using codeigniter's active record class. I have a number of blog posts stored in a table. The query is for a search function, which will pull out all the posts that have certain categories assigned to them. So the 'category' column of the table will have a list of all the categories for that post in no particular order, separated by commas, like so: Politics,History,Sociology.. etc. If a user selects, say, Politics and History, The titles of all the posts that have BOTH these categories should be returned. Right? So, the list of categories queried will be the array $cats. I thought this would work- foreach ($cats as $cat){ $this->db->like('categories',$cat); } By Producing this- $this-db-like('categories','Politics'); $this-db-like('categories','History'); (Which would produce- 'WHERE categories LIKE '%Politics%' AND categories LIKE '%History%') But it doesn't work, it seems to only produce the first statement. The problem I guess is that the column name is the same for each of the chained queries. There doesn't seem to be anything in the CI user guide about this (http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/database/active_record.html) as they seem to assume that each chained statement is going to be for a different column name. Does anyone know how I could do this? Thanks! edit- Of course it is not possible to use an associative array in one statement as it would have to contain duplicate keys- in this case every key would have to be 'categories'...

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• Authoritative sources about Database vs. Flatfile decision

  - by FastAl

  <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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• How do I prove I should put a table of values in source code instead of a database table?

  - by FastAl

  <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

  Read the article

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