Friday, October 31, 2008

What I'm Researching...


Producing Open Source Software

Posted: 30 Oct 2008 09:56 PM CDT

very cool online book detailing the starting of an open source project.

OmniTI ~ Careers ~ Site Reliability Engineer

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 12:04 PM CDT

one of the best job descriptions I've read on working as an operations engineer. best two quotes: "If you don't grow, you'll fail." & "Think of it like any other fun and challenging job you've had -- now remove the margin for error." How true!

Monday, October 27, 2008

What I'm Researching...


Linux Server, Linux Hardware

Posted: 26 Oct 2008 02:28 PM CDT

pre-installed linux provider

system76, Inc.

Posted: 26 Oct 2008 02:26 PM CDT

pre-installed linux computers (laptops, desktops, servers).

The R fCalendar package (pdf)

Posted: 26 Oct 2008 11:18 AM CDT

date, time, calendar manipulations in R. Sample functions are diffTimeDate, isWeekday, isWeekend, and the very cool timeNdayOnOrAfter, timeNthNdayInMonth, timeLastNdayInMonth.

How To... Mount Your Computer Screen

Posted: 26 Oct 2008 10:17 AM CDT

details how to wall mount your monitor. very cool.

Javascript style dot notation for dictionary keys unpythonic? - Stack Overflow

Posted: 23 Oct 2008 06:59 AM CDT

great thread on object-style dot notation. instead of stock['id'], this thread shows how to create stock.id.

vizierfx - Google Code

Posted: 22 Oct 2008 12:38 PM CDT

really cool flex library to display graphviz graphs. haven't explored the flex toolset before...but may have to check it out.

z/OS Workload Manager - How it works & How to use it (pdf)

Posted: 21 Oct 2008 12:18 AM CDT

Great summary on Workload Manager (WLM)...including tips for setup and troubleshooting existing setups.

Monday, October 20, 2008

What I'm Researching...


RocketDock - About RocketDock

Posted: 20 Oct 2008 12:17 AM CDT

extremely cool application dock for windows.

Python Programming/Lists - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks

Posted: 20 Oct 2008 12:12 AM CDT

Great collection of python list examples.

Introduction To New-Style Classes in Python

Posted: 19 Oct 2008 01:18 AM CDT

great explanation of python classes. check out the final part discussing the __slots__ feature. basically, reserve attributes...those not defined cannot be assigned.

PyTables User's Guide

Posted: 18 Oct 2008 12:30 PM CDT

html version of the pytables userguide.

rdoc:graphics:barplot [R Wiki]

Posted: 17 Oct 2008 04:22 PM CDT

R doc for barplot

Welcome to DrQueue Commercial Website

Posted: 12 Oct 2008 11:44 PM CDT

queue manager with python binding. looks to be used as a render manager...but could see other uses as well.

Building home linux render cluster

Posted: 12 Oct 2008 11:30 PM CDT

excellent article on building a cheap 24 core x 48GB ram linux cluster.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Portfolio Performance for September 2008

September came and went. October brought the perfect storm...I guess. Looking forward to October's portfolio performance in relation to the market...to see how bad things really are. Until then...let's cover September's performance.

September's VAMI


September's ROI


As you can see, not a great month of performance. And while the downside doesn't feel good...my greatest concern is the upside that will come. When it does...the portfolio will lag the market due to the relatively high level of cash. But, nothing we can do...but be patient and allow the system to do its job.

Last thing you want to do during turbulent times is hit the panic button. Or worse, try to figure this market out. You don't figure a hurricane out while you're in the middle of it. Don't buy a generator, food, and flood insurance during a hurricane. Those are things you buy prior. The only thing you can do when the storm hits is batten down the hatches and hope you prepared enough for the damage to come. After the storm is over...reassess what you did right and what was lacking. Oh, and clear those fallen trees from your portfolio.

On a side note...I've spent the weekend putting together a new office. I've bought several office pieces and trying to find the optimal setup. Once I've got everything moved in...I'll share some pics of the new digs.

Later trades,

MT

What's an Outsider to do?

I avoid watching all news programs...especially related to the market and economy. Avoid reading newspapers and for the most part news bloggers. My one exception is Howard Lindzon. I read him for his take on the entrepreneurial spirit...but with it have to eat the occasional brussel sprout when he starts pawing at the market's ups and downs.

Same goes with people. Typically, talk very little about the market to others. And rarely hear more than a peep or two about the market from others in the water cooler discussions.

That is until now. This recent market debacle has really changed things. Howard is causing me to eat mucho brussel sprouts. My wife is hearing about the market on Dr. Phil & Oprah of all things. And even my programming bloggers are discussing the economy and the hoozy whatsits of the markets.

So, what's an outsider to do? Well, we should ask ourselves what a maverick would do and do that. Or watch these videos for inspiration...





If those don't make you laugh...just remember my fellow mavericks...this too shall pass.

Later Trades,

MT

Thursday, October 09, 2008

What I'm Researching...


Tips For Barplots in R

Posted: 08 Oct 2008 12:27 PM CDT

examples of barplotting in R - color the bars, horizontal axis, stacked bar graph, and side by side graphs.

R Functions and Procedures We Should Know

Posted: 08 Oct 2008 12:26 PM CDT

common functions in R - just a brief command set.

Gmail, Weather, Beauty on your Ubuntu Desktop | Quick Tweaks

Posted: 08 Oct 2008 11:59 AM CDT

very cool desktop for ubuntu.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

What I'm Researching...


Linus' blog: .. so I got one of the new Intel SSD's

Posted: 07 Oct 2008 10:02 PM CDT

great analysis on evaluating SSD hard drives. read the comments for more info. as an aside...linus has a blog...cool.

pymc - Google Code

Posted: 07 Oct 2008 12:45 PM CDT

monte carlo in python? looks worth exploring further.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

What I'm Researching...


The Sect of Homokaasu - The Rasterbator

Posted: 07 Oct 2008 01:45 AM CDT

Cool, print huge posters from normal paper - software breaks up images to fit on 8.5 x 11 paper. Hat-tip to my wife for finding this site.

PerTrac Support - Statistics

Posted: 06 Oct 2008 12:43 PM CDT

Great site covering formulas of investment stats. Useful for coding the performance part of the testing platform.

pickle(cPickle) vs numpy tofile/fromfile - Python - Snipplr

Posted: 05 Oct 2008 11:09 PM CDT

interesting code snippet comparing performance of cpickle and numpy to/from file routines. been thinking about this lately...using numpy directly or cpickle instead of using a bloated dbms for persistent storage of time series on the testing platform.

HintsForSQLUsers - Hierarchical Datasets in Python

Posted: 05 Oct 2008 11:06 PM CDT

covers many of the faq of SQL developers when developing with PyTables.

EasyvizDocumentation - scitools - Google Code - Easyviz Documentation

Posted: 05 Oct 2008 09:55 PM CDT

Python plotting interface to various backend plotting engines: Gnuplot, Matplotlib, Grace, Veusz, PyX, VTK, VisIt, OpenDX, and a few more. Seems like a fairly straight-forward interface. And choosing the backend used is a one-line import statement. Interesting.

PyX - Python graphics package

Posted: 05 Oct 2008 12:25 PM CDT

looks like a dead-simple plotting library in python to produce pub quality pdf/ps images. Need to explore.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

What I'm Researching...


TinyMCE - Home

Posted: 05 Oct 2008 12:12 AM CDT

WYSIWYG Javascript WYSIWYG editor - haven't tried it...but may be worth testing on a new project of mine.

PyTables - Hierarchical Datasets in Python

Posted: 04 Oct 2008 01:35 PM CDT

the original python interface to the HDF5 library. Have tested this before...need to test again using new architecture. Original tests found speeds that were equivalent to SQLite but of course slower than CSV files.

Python bindings for the HDF5 library — h5py v0.3.1 documentation

Posted: 04 Oct 2008 01:33 PM CDT

a python interface to the excellent HDF5 library. worth testing in project.

Dive into Erlang

Posted: 04 Oct 2008 12:24 PM CDT

enjoyed reading this guy's take on Erlang. Of course, he had me with quoting Unix philosophy, "Do one thing and do it well."

Optimal RAID setup for SQL server - Stack Overflow

Posted: 04 Oct 2008 10:35 AM CDT

Excellent Q&A on choosing the optimal RAID config for disk i/o performance. By the by, stackoverflow is an awesome site for programmers!!!

Saturday, October 04, 2008

What I'm Researching...


R Colors Chart(pdf)

Posted: 03 Oct 2008 11:45 PM CDT

breaks down the colors available to R - both number and symbolic name.

One R Tip A Day: barplot

Posted: 03 Oct 2008 11:29 PM CDT

Great examples of barplots in R.

Dabbleboard - Online whiteboard for drawing & team collaboration

Posted: 03 Oct 2008 12:59 PM CDT

Awesome drawing application - auto-recognizes shapes and smooths lines from raw drawings. Great tool for flowcharting, room designs, etc.

ode Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python

Posted: 29 Sep 2008 09:21 PM CDT

takes the basics of python up a notch. definitely pay attention to the dictionary and advanced string formatting examples.

My no-server personal wiki—Part 3 - And now it’s all this

Posted: 02 Oct 2008 11:18 PM CDT

Describes in detail how to design a personal wiki. I enjoyed reading the design...I've built a similar html document system in the past. But, never added the markdown features. May have to try this out.