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Indonesia traffic jam: 12 die in Java gridlock during Ramadan – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36748008

R: Installing Packages with Dependencies

Usually installing packages in R is as simple as

install.packages("package name")

However sometimes you will run into errors. This could be due to the fact that the package you are trying to install has what is known as a dependency. What this means is that in order for the package to properly install and run, it requires another package to  already be installed.

You can think of this like trying…

Start by creating a data frame.

Note I am initializing each of the columns to datatype(0). This tells R that I while I want the name column to be a character and the age column to be numeric, I am leaving the size dynamic. You can set size limits during the initialization phase if you so choose.

dfe <- data.frame(name=character(0), age = numeric(0), jobTitle = character(0))

Now, let’s use the edit() function to add some data to our data frame

dfe<- edit(dfe)

When the new window pops up, fill in the data and simply click the X when you are done

You may get warning messages when you close out your edit window. These particular messages I got simply informed me that name and jobTitle were set as factors by R. Remember in R, warnings just want you to be aware of something, they are not errors.

Now if you run dfe, you can see your data frame

By running the edit() function again, you can edit the values that currently exist in the data frame.  In this example I am going to change Philip’s age from 28 to 29

If you want to add a column to the data frame, just add data to the next empty column

You can just close out now and rename the column in R, or just click on the column header and you will be able to rename it there.

Now we have a new column listing pets

name age jobTitle pet 1 Ben 42 Data Sc cat 2 Philip 29 Data Ana dog 3 Julia 36 Manager frog

You can use the edit() function to manually edit existing data sets or data imported from other sources.

Below, I am editing the ChickWeight data set

R: Connecting to SQL Server Database

You can query data from a SQL Server database directly from R using the RODBC package.

install.packages("RODBC")

First you need to form a connection

library(RODBC) ##connection string cn <- odbcDriverConnect(connection="Driver={SQL Server Native Client 11.0};server=localhost; database=SSRSTraining;trusted_connection=yes;")

We use the odbcDriverConnect() function. Inside we pass a connection =…

R: Importing Excel Files

To work with Excel files in R, you can use the readxl library

install.packages(“readxl”)

Use the read_excel() function to read and Excel workbook

> library(readxl) > > ## read excel file > df1 head(df1) # A tibble: 6 x 4   Name   Job              Hours Complete                    1 Sally  Predictive Model    1. n       2 Philip Maintanence        10. n       3 Tom    Ad-hoc Report      12.…

Python: Simulate Blockchain Mining

In my earlier tutorial, I demonstrated how to use the Python library hashlib to create a sha256 hash function. Now, using Python, I am going to demonstrate the principle of blockchain mining. Again using BitCoin as my model, I will be trying to find a nonce value that will result in a hash value below a predetermined target.

We will start by simply enumerating an integer through our sha 256 hash…

This was, without a question, the most confusing aspect of blockchain to me when I first tried to learn it. Maybe it was because all the buzz around BitCoin mining. I usually find that when a topic becomes popular, misinformation spreads just as fast, if not faster, than actual information.

In an attempt to explain this topic I am going to be using BitCoin as my primary example. I am doing this…

Python: Create a Blockchain Hash Function

If you are at all like me, reading about a concept is one thing. Actually practicing it though, that helps me to actually understand it. If you have been reading my blockchain tutorial, or if you came from an outside tutorial, then you have undoubtedly read enough about cryptographic hashes.

Enough reading, let’s make one:

( if you are unfamiliar with crytographic hashes, you can reference my…

Let’s make the report at little more readable and interactive.

We are going to do a drill down on the names in our report. This mean when the report first opens, you will only see one row for each name. If you want to see the details of that person, you can click on a + by their name and the details for that person will pop down like an accordion.

Below your report design window, you should see…

Now let us look at some sorting options

Below your report design window, you should see another window called Row Groups

Go to the area marked Details (green arrow) and right click

Select Group Properties

Go to Sorting, select the column you want to sort by and choose ascending or descending

In our last lesson we made the basic report seen below:

**Note, you can follow the link below to the first lesson:

SSRS: Introdution: 1rst Report

Grouping

Our data is currently in table form, but is otherwise still nothing more than a raw data dump. Let’s make our report a little nicer with some grouping. Right click on the data row (not header) in your table. Mouse over to Add Group and select…

Blockchain: P2p distributed networks

Another concept you need to be familiar with to understand Blockchain is the concept of a P2p distributed network. This is the physical architecture that allows Blockchain to work and provides a blockchain with redundancy.

The P2P in P2P distributed network stands for peer to peer, indicating a network comprised of peers. What do I mean by that? The majority of computer networks in place right…

SSRS: Introdution: 1rst Report

SSRS stands for Sql Server Reporting Service. This is Microsoft’s BI reporting tool integrated into their Sql Server platform. SSRS allows you to create, deploy, and manage reports from a server platform.

SSRS comes as part of the SQL Server suite. It is not available as part of Express, but if you buy the developers edition, you will get SSRS (as well as SSIS and SSAS). You may need to download…

SQL Server: Importing Excel File to SQL Server

Working with data inside a database has many advantages to working with data in an Excel spreadsheet. Luckily SQL Server makes it relatively easy to import data from an Excel File into the database.

We will be using the Excel files below:

JobDataSet

JobDesc

Let’s start by opening SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio)

Next, let’s create a database to hold these files. You don’t need to create a new…

The next concept we need to cover to properly understand blockchain is the concept of an Immutable Ledger.  To translate this term into something that looks more like English, an Immutable Ledger simply means a record that cannot be changed.

The idea behind all of this is data security and proof that the data has not been altered. Why are we so concerned here? In a blockchain application like…

To fully understand blockchain, it helps to have a good understanding of what is known as a cryptographic hash. It is this hash that is at the very core of how blockchain works.

If you read my introduction to blockchain lesson, you would see that the Hash is part of every block. It serves as a unique identifier for the block. That is the general idea for all Hashes, whether cryptographic or not.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have undoubtedly heard the  term blockchain being batted around. Most likely you’ve heard of it in relation to cryptocurrency like BitCoin, but blockchain is quickly moving into many other areas. Much like the Big Data craze though, my personal experience has been the more you hear someone utter the term blockchain, the less that person actually knows…