Don't Alienate Open Source Contributors

Posted by on February 16, 2016 No comments
https://goo.gl/zo7lyA

From the article:
Don't alienate volunteers — everyone in the R community is a volunteer, and it doesn't benefit the community when you're unnecessarily rude.
Understand volunteers have other commitments — while the core R team is doing an excellent job building a statistical computing platform, not everyone can make the same commitment to an open-source project.
Open-source has limited resources — every contribution helps.
Be patient — not everyone can operate on the same level, and new members will need to be brought up to speed on best practices._

(I removed the auto-scraped G+ link at the bottom of this post because apaprently G+ hates the format of the linked page and can't provide the picture or the correct headline)


View this post on Google+

When adopting a new library or framework into a project, do a close evaluation on…

Posted by on February 16, 2016 No comments
When adopting a new library or framework into a project, do a close evaluation on the changelog and updating guides available for the library.

This is particularly relevant in frontend web development where there's constant library churn, constant evolution in libraries, and where changelogs and update guides seem to be particularly bad.

View this post on Google+

Exciting time for exoplanets

Posted by on February 16, 2016 1 comment
According to results published in the Astrophysical Journal, European astronomers have found hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere around Janssen, which may have a diamond-like core due to its very high density. This atmosphere is likely a remnant of the nebula from which the planet and its star formed about 8 billion years ago. The planet has kept this atmosphere somehow, despite the proximity of its star.

Astronomers have detected a Super-Earth atmosphere for the first time
Diamond-like world isn’t going to be on anyone’s bucket list, though.


This post has been reshared 2 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

It feels like most people are so ignorant they should be embarrassed

Posted by on February 15, 2016 19 comments
I mean, by any reasonable metric I can think of, the US military is by far the world's number 1 military, yet 49% of Americans think it is not…

Americans Less Likely to See U.S. as No. 1 Militarily
About half of Americans now think the U.S. is the world’s No.1 military power, down from last year, and by one percentage point the lowest Gallup has measured over the past quarter century.

View this post on Google+

This is a pretty great introduction to Facebook's React javascript library that…

Posted by on February 13, 2016 No comments
This is a pretty great introduction to Facebook's React javascript library that doesn't use any React code!

I always love these sorts of articles that give a great overview of the hows and whys.

What will you learn when you are finished with part 1 and 2? A high level understanding of why you might need React and maybe Redux or another state container.

What you will not need: No need for JSX, ES6/ES*, Webpack, Hot Reloading, understanding of how the virtual DOM functions not even React itself.

Learning React Without Using React Part 1
First Concepts Then Frameworks

View this post on Google+

Delete all the code you can

Posted by on February 13, 2016 No comments
Every line of code written comes at a price: maintenance. To avoid paying for a lot of code, we build reusable software. The problem with code re-use is that it gets in the way of changing your mind later on.

Also, welcome to my new code collection. 

Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend.
“ “Every line of code is written without reason, maintained out of weakness, and deleted by chance” Jean-Paul Sartre’s Programming in ANSI C.
”
Every line of code written comes at a price:…


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

Well, I guess if you think democracy is good (you should), then you'll think…

Posted by on January 31, 2016 4 comments
Well, I guess if you think democracy is good (you should), then you'll think this is bad news.

Every year since 2006 more democracies have experienced erosion in political rights and civil liberties than have registered gains

Democracy Takes a Global Hit
Mark P. Lagon and Arch Puddington write that in 2015 democracy took a global hit as powerful dictatorships—China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia—extended their antidemocratic influence abroad. But there were a few promising signs.


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

The image highlighted below from this article feels wrong to me as someone who lives…

Posted by on January 26, 2016 3 comments
The image highlighted below from this article feels wrong to me as someone who lives in the United States.

It seems like every global map I see has North and South America on the left side of the map…

Zika’s alarming spread: CDC investigates link to paralyzing condition, adds 8 countries to travel warning
Infectious disease experts are becoming increasingly concerned about the spread of the tropical virus which has been linked to brain defects in infants.


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

Sites exist to make you think every drug has every side effect

Posted by on January 20, 2016 No comments
 

Side Effects May Include Anything
A couple of days ago I had a patient who said he became depressed after starting Xolair, a new asthma drug I know nothing about. On the one hand, lots of things that mess with the immune system can…

View this post on Google+

This is why you should save money.

Posted by on January 20, 2016 2 comments
This is why you should save money.

A Story of a Fuck Off Fund — The Billfold
You will be the kind of woman who can tell anyone to fuck off if a fuck off is deserved, so naturally you start a Fuck O…


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+