Category Archives: Statistics

PMean: Python, Raspberry Pi, and cluster computing

This page is moving to a new website.

I’ve been experimenting with connecting a small number of Raspberry Pi in a cluster computer, and a good place to start is MPI (Message Passing Interface). Unfortunately, many of the books and websites that I have looked at use examples in C and FORTRAN. These are fine languages, but ones that I am unlikely to need in the future. I want to explore MPI from with a newer programming language, Python. Here are some resources I have leaned on in getting this started. Continue reading →

PMean: What day is it in my R program?

This page is moving to a new website.

There are three different ways to find out inside your R program what day it is. Let’s quickly look at each. Continue reading →

PMean: Business essentials for starting an independent consulting practice

This page is moving to a new website.

I’m giving a talk on Wednesday, August 22, titled “Business essentials for starting an independent consulting practice.” Here are a few details about this talk. Continue reading →

PMean: The Dark Side of Data Science

This page is moving to a new website.

I’m planning to give a talk on “The Dark Side of Data Science” and I’m hoping to get some interesting references and articles from my colleagues. Here is a first draft of my abstract, with a few references that I am already familiar with. Continue reading →

PMean: A simple structure for documentation

This page is moving to a new website.

Everybody has different standards for documentation, and if you are already using a standard you like, don’t let me stop you. But if you’ve never used much documentation and decide that you need to do better, here’s a guideline that I developed. Continue reading →

PMean: Grading rubric for computer assignments

This page is moving to a new website.

I’ve been teaching a variety of classes that require students to run a statistical analysis in a package like SAS or R and report the results. There is a tremendous variety of formats that students use, and I thought it would be helpful to offer some guidance. It would save me time in grading, but more importantly it would emphasize that students need to think about what they produce rather than just tossing together whatever comes out of the computer. The five requirements for homework assignments are they be complete, concise, clear, error-free, and interpretable. Continue reading →

Recommended: How to be more effective in your professional life

This page is moving to a new website.

This article starts with a nice anecdote about being dismissive about what someone else is saying ends up hurting you. It also provides a nice structure, POWER, for organizing consulting meetings. POWER stands for Prepare, Open, Work, End, and Reflect. This article was a basis for some of the content in an interesting webinar on consulting. Continue reading →

PMean: How much missingness can you tolerate?

This page is moving to a new website.

I got a question about how much missing data could you have in a study and still feel comfortable with your data analysis. It’s a question with no hard and fast answer, but I get the question so often that I have developed some general guidance. Continue reading →

Recommended: Section 508 CoP: PDF Accessibility – Part One

This page is moving to a new website.

I have been somewhat lax in making my work accessible for people with disabilities. This video covers some of the basic things you can do with a PDF file to insure that it is can be easily read by screen reading software. There are similar videos for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint files. Continue reading →

PMean: What goes into a contract for a consultation

This page is moving to a new website.

Someone asked me about what sort of contract to use with a new client. This person did not need a very detailed contract, but said that a handshake would not suffice. Here’s what I suggested. Continue reading →