An organization based in Puerto Rico called “Broadening Participation in Data Mining” (BPDM) interviewed me over the weekend, and it’s online now! Without further ado…. Thanks to Orlando and Herbierto for having me on! (P.S. I did put up the post about Data Sources on DataSciGuide)
Books for Data Science Beginners, and Data Sources
I just wanted to note here on Becoming A Data Scientist that I recently wrote two posts over on Data Sci Guide that are getting some attention Books to Read if You Might Be Interested in Data Science and Data Sources & APIs for Data Science Projects Enjoy!
Data Science Tutorials Flipboard Magazine
I have been getting great feedback on my “Becoming a Data Scientist” Flipboard magazine, and I had this other set of articles bookmarked that didn’t quite fit into it. I want the Becoming a Data Scientist one to be the “best of the best” of articles I find on Twitter about data science, and to… Continue reading Data Science Tutorials Flipboard Magazine
Playing With Google Cloud Datalab
This weekend, I played around with the newly-released Google Cloud Datalab. I learned how to use BigQuery and also played around with Google Charts vs Pandas+Matplotlib plots, since you can do both in Datalab. I had a few frustrations with it because the documentation isn’t great, and also sometimes it would silently timeout and it… Continue reading Playing With Google Cloud Datalab
Becoming A Data Scientist Flipboard Magazine
I love finding and sharing good articles about data science related topics on twitter, but I know not everyone is on twitter, and also sometimes tweets get quickly lost in the timeline and they’re easy to miss. So, I’ve started sharing the best articles via a Flipboard magazine as well! Check it out! https://flipboard.com/@becomingdatasci/becoming-a-data-scientist-5ktft1lky
How To Use Twitter to Learn Data Science (or anything)
When I decided that I wanted to become a data scientist, I started following some data scientists on twitter to see what they talk about and what was going on in the “industry”. Then I saw them pointing one another at resources, and answering each other’s questions, and I realized I had only seen the tip of the iceberg of “Data Science Twitter”. That’s when I created a new twitter account.
DataSciGuide Contest
Want a way to help people that are learning data science, and also get a chance to win a $40 Amazon Gift Card? Review a data science blog, podcast, course, or other content at DataSciGuide! Here’s more info: http://www.datasciguide.com/review-stuff-and-win-a-40-amazon-gift-card/
Human Name Variations in Databases
I normally write about my adventures learning data science here, but my expertise for years has been database design and reporting, and I have some knowledge to contribute to a discussion that I thought I’d document here. A conversation on Twitter today about how people’s names are stored in databases, with stories of frustration from people that have had terrible customer/patient experience because of “unusual” names, made me want to write about this topic.
DataSciGuide Update
I finally had a chance this weekend to make some progress on my “Data Science Directory” website, DataSciGuide.com, and I would love your feedback on it! That site isn’t open for comments yet, so I’m directing people to leave feedback here. If you haven’t kept up with the development of DataSciGuide, here are a few… Continue reading DataSciGuide Update
The Imitation Game, and the Human Element in Data Science
Last night, my husband and I watched The Imitation Game. First of all, it’s a great movie and you should see it. Secondly, there was a moment that got me thinking about the human element of machine learning.
[Spoiler Alerts – but you probably already know much of the story, and the movie is still good even if you know the historical outcome.]
I thought a moment like this may be coming when Alan Turing was first applying to work at Bletchley Park, and Denniston can’t believe he’s applying to be a Nazi codebreaker without even knowing how to speak German. Alan emphasizes that he is masterful at games and solving puzzles, and that the Nazi Enigma machine is a puzzle he wants to solve. He starts designing and building a machine that will theoretically be able to decode the Nazi radio transmissions, but the decoder settings change every day at 12am, so the machine must solve for the settings before the stroke of midnight every day in order for the day’s messages to be decoded in time to be useful and not interfere with the next day’s decoding process. Turing can’t prove his machine will work, simply because it is simply taking too long to solve the daily puzzle. In the meantime, people are dying in the war, and the Nazis are going on transmitting their messages over normal radio waves believing the code is “unbreakable”.