kiwigrant - Slashdot User

Comment Re:R or WEKA ... Wait, What Exactly Are You Doing? (Score 2, Informative) 146

by kiwigrant on Wednesday November 16, 2011 @06:41PM (#38079486) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Statistical Analysis Packages For Libraries?

Try SOFA (http://www.sofastatistics.com/) alongside R. SOFA (Statistics Open For All) focuses on making some of the most important statistical tests easy to use and understand. It also has attractive charting and report tables. There are also videos, on-line documentation, and direct support from the developer. Disclosure #1 - I am the lead developer of SOFA. #2 I already posted accidentally as AC

Comment Non-statisticians doing stats (Score 0) 429

by kiwigrant on Thursday March 18, 2010 @12:37AM (#31519150) Attached to: Science and the Shortcomings of Statistics

Non-statisticians are always going to be doing statistics. Perhaps from a purist point of view they shouldn't, but they will. They might be health researchers, business analysts etc, and their job requires the use of statistics. Unfortunately, many statistical packages assume people can be trusted to choose the right test and interpret it correctly. But that isn't enough, and even some of the more helpful wizards and documentation are inadequate. The open source SOFA (Statistics Open For All - https://sourceforge.net/projects/sofastatistics/) project is an attempt to provide the required guidance and tools and is looking for people to join the community.

Comment Open society needs open data and analysis tools (Score 0) 62

by kiwigrant on Tuesday March 09, 2010 @11:23PM (#31422606) Attached to: Open Data Needs Open Source Tools

Investigative journalism is dying; citizens need direct access to government data and the tools to analyse it themselves. We can't rely on the media to expose flaws in government policy any more so we need:

data
meta-data e.g. how to avoid obvious misinterpretations, errors etc
free tools for storing data (and running basic analyses) e.g. SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL etc
free tools for analysing data e.g. R, SOFA (Statistics Open For All - https://sourceforge.net/projects/sofastatistics/) etc
free resources for learning about analysis e.g. CAST (http://cast.massey.ac.nz/collection_public.html), wikipedia etc
free tools for presenting and disseminating results e.g. OpenOffice Impress, WordPress etc

Comment Re:Lol (Score 0) 936

by kiwigrant on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @07:44PM (#27142957) Attached to: Living Free With Linux, Round 2

Less embarrassing than having to explain the main OSS image program is called the GIMP

Man Fired When Laptop Malware Downloaded Porn 635

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 18, 2008 @06:59PM from the your-computer-wants-porn dept.

Geoffrey.landis writes "The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents fired worker Michael Fiola and initiated procedures to prosecute him for child pornography when they determined that internet temporary files on his laptop computer contained child porn. According to Fiola, 'My boss called me into his office at 9 a.m. The director of the Department of Industrial Accidents, my immediate supervisor, and the personnel director were there. They handed me a letter and said, "You are being fired for a violation of the computer usage policy. You have pornography on your computer. You're fired. Clean out your desk. Let's go."' Fiola said, 'They wouldn't talk to me. They said, "We've been advised by our attorney not to talk to you."' However, prosecutors dropped the case when a state investigation of his computer determined there was insufficient evidence to prove he had downloaded the files. Computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted virus-protection software, and Fiola was hit by spammers and crackers bombarding its memory with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye. The virus protection and software update functions on the laptop had been disabled, and apparently the laptop was 'crippled' by malware. According to Loehrs, 'When they gave him this laptop, it had belonged to another user, and they changed the user name for him, but forgot to change the SMS user name, so SMS was trying to connect to a user that no longer existed ... It was set up to do all of its security updates via the server, and none of that was happening because he was out in the field.' A malware script on the machine surfed foreign sites at a rate of up to 40 per minute whenever the machine was within range of a wireless site."

Bell, SuperMicro Sued Over GPL 273

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 18, 2008 @02:48PM from the if-it-wasn't-for-your-meddling-hippies dept.

Markus Toth writes "The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed two more copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of the developers of the Linux-based BusyBox utility suite. The suits allege that Bell Microproducts and SuperMicro Computer each violated redistribution stipulations of the GNU General Public License (GPL).The Bell Microproducts suit pertains to the Hammer MyShare NAS (network-attached storage) appliance, which is sold by Bell's Hammer Storage division. I was the one who alerted the busybox developers about the GPL violation after providing a script for disassembling the firmware and instructions about mounting the contained initrd. As you see in my first post at the gpl-violations.org mailing lists where I posted all mails that I sent to and received from Hammer Storage, they refused to provide me the GPL sources several times. Looks like they will have to provide them soon; I will post any updates in the nas-central blog."

$50 to Get XP On a New Dell 616

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 18, 2008 @12:00PM from the paying-more-for-less dept.

CWmike writes "Dell will charge customers up to $50 for factory-installed Windows XP on some PCs after Wednesday, according to the company's Web site. Buyers of the low-priced Vostro line of desktops and notebooks will pay $20 to $50 more for Windows XP Professional installed as a 'downgrade' from Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate than they would for Vista only."

China Launches Antitrust Probe Vs. Microsoft 295

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 18, 2008 @11:21AM from the get-on-the-bus dept.

snydeq writes "China has launched an investigation into whether Microsoft unfairly dominates its software market, according to a state media report. A working committee of China's State Intellectual Property Office is investigating whether Microsoft engaged in discriminatory pricing and will also look at Microsoft's practice of bundling other software programs within its Windows operating system, according to the report. The probe is part of a greater sweep of operating systems and other software developed by multinational companies that cost much more in China than in the U.S. 'On the one hand, global software firms, taking advantage of their monopoly position, set unreasonably high prices for genuine software while on the other hand, they criticise Chinese for poor copyright awareness. This is abnormal,' a source said."

Ericsson Predicts Swift End For Wi-Fi Hotspots 286

Posted by Zonk on Monday March 10, 2008 @07:29PM from the kind-of-in-their-interest-to-do-so dept.

mikesd81 writes "Mobile technology group Ericsson is predicting a 'swift end' for Wi-Fi hotspots, according to the PC Pro site. Johan Bergendahl, the company's chief marketing officer, offers this analysis: 'The rapid growth of mobile broadband is set to make Wi-Fi hotspots irrelevant ... Hotspots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era. Industry will have to solve the international roaming issue ... Carriers need to work together. It can be as simple as paying 10 euros per day when you are abroad.' He also pointed to a lack of coverage as a potential hindrance to the growth of the technology."

Why Aren't More Linux Users Gamers? 693

Posted by Zonk on Monday March 10, 2008 @03:18PM from the all-about-the-games dept.

tops writes "MadPenguin.org wonders why more Linux users aren't gamers and attempts to answer that question. The article suggests, 'As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to a choice. Expect the gaming industry to follow the Linux doctrine or instead, build up a viable, cross platform gaming market that includes us, the Linux users.' The article urges publishers to consider Linux users as a viable market, and requests that game developers target Linux as a platform during the pre-production phase." What do you think are the most important obstacles barring the big game publishers from reaching out to the Linux market more than they already do?

State Lawmaker Wants To Ban Anonymous Posting Online 471

Posted by Zonk on Monday March 10, 2008 @01:21PM from the didn't-know-kentucky-was-so-powerful dept.

bfwebster writes "According to a local news article from last week, Kentucky state lawmaker Tim Couch wants to ban anonymous posting on the internet in order to 'cut down on online bullying', which he says has been 'a particular problem in eastern Kentucky.' His bill would require posters to register with their real names and e-mail addresses under threat of fines. Looks like another battle in the right for anonymous free speech."

IT Labor Shortage Is Just a Myth 619

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday March 10, 2008 @12:00PM from the also-roswell-and-jfk-and-high-fructose-corn-syrup dept.

buzzardsbay writes "For the past few years, we've heard a number of analysts and high-profile IT industry executives, Bill Gates and Craig Barrett among them, promoting the idea that there's an ever-present shortage of skilled IT workers to fill the industry's demand. But now there's growing evidence suggesting the "shortage" is simply a self-serving myth. "It seems like every three years you've got one group or another saying, the world is going to come to an end there is going to be a shortage and so on," says Vivek Wadhwa, a professor for Duke University's Master of Engineering Management Program and a former technology CEO himself. "This whole concept of shortages is bogus, it shows a lack of understanding of the labor pool in the USA.""

Facebook Interviewer Heckled at Web Conference 179

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday March 10, 2008 @11:19AM from the go-home-and-cry-in-your-billions dept.

jriding writes "Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old billionaire, was the keynote speaker at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Business Week journalist Sarah Lacy took the stage to question Zuckerberg, but the audience quickly grew tired of the topics she focused on, claiming that the real issues were being ignored. "Never, ever have I seen such a train wreck of an interview," claimed audience member, Jason Pontin." The audience apparently wanted to know more about privacy and portability issues, which I guess shouldn't surprise anyone here.

Unreal Creator Proclaims PCs are Not For Gaming 705

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday March 10, 2008 @08:58AM from the true-if-you-run-a-mac dept.

An anonymous reader writes "TG Daily is running an interesting interview with EPIC founder and Unreal creator Tim Sweeney. Sweeney is anyway very clear about his views on the gaming industry, but it is surprising how sharply he criticizes the PC industry for transforming the PC into a useless gaming machine. He's especially unhappy with Intel, which he says has integrated graphics chipsets that 'just don't work'."

T-Ray Camera Sees Through Clothes, Preserves Privacy 315

Posted by kdawson on Monday March 10, 2008 @05:33AM from the so-they-say dept.

Quite a few readers are sending in stories about ThruVision's products, slated to be demonstrated in Britain next week, that are claimed to use Terahertz radiation ("T-rays") to detect foreign objects under clothing, without revealing body details, from a distance of 25 meters and while the subject is in motion. T-rays lie on the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwaves, and are the subject of lively research efforts worldwide. ThruVision says it developed its products in cooperation with the European Space Agency.

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