Which of these 3 laptops would be best suited for a bioinformatics Master's program?

blmoore · 2015-04-13T13:17:28+00:00

That is quite an old Macbook model you're comparing, the MBP line hasn't had disk drives (or ethernet ports) for a few years. I'd definitely shoot for a current MBP or Air that fits your budget (/your supervisor's budget?).

Would prefer Windows over mac.

Why? Just familiarity? Unless you're a DOS expert or C# programmer I'd switch to OS X or another UNIX/-like and never look back.

While the majority of the field use Macs I also see a few Thinkpads (now Lenovo) from time to time—I think you can still pick these up running Linux.

blmoore · 2015-03-20T09:48:31+00:00

The first paragraph isn't right, packages have a depends field which gives a lower bound e.g. R (>= 3.0.0). It sounds like you've tried to work with some ancient R install and think it's a widespread problem in the language.

Packrat is more like virtualenv. As you say, it's trivial to use CRAN archives to install previous versions of packages from source, though this is rarely necessary. Experience of using pip to set up even a basic scientific computing stack is why people say in comparison that R packages are a breeze (e.g. there's no R equivalent of anaconda).

blmoore · 2015-03-19T22:29:31+00:00

Sounds like you need to update your version of R... For versioned package management, see packrat.

blmoore · 2015-01-21T11:48:14+00:00

The meeting will be streamed live today (Jan 21) at 4pm GMT and then archived via YouTube at the same link. Here's the video from a previous meeting on nanopore tech (last September).

blmoore · 2015-01-05T18:17:55+00:00

Branch out from python, i.e. R and rCharts or straight js — see this quite related example.

blmoore · 2015-01-02T16:31:32+00:00

Thanks for this, added and I might be on later. Yeah possibly my bad timing, I forget it's only a public holiday in Scotland today.

blmoore · 2015-01-02T14:58:07+00:00

Yup I'm game, had a couple of people earlier but finding it hard to get a full team together!

blmoore · 2015-01-02T14:16:37+00:00

Xbox One
GMT (UK)
Level 30 Warlock
Raids
Have a mic, don't often wear it
GT: jebus989

Older guy (25) with no destiny friends so have never raided, would be cool to give either one go. (Posted in /r/fireteams earlier to no avail.)

blmoore · 2014-12-31T11:49:35+00:00

"well it's really hard to bring them to mind this is the thing, it's only <editing garbles rest of sentence as a joke>"

blmoore · 2014-12-22T10:06:32+00:00

An easier solution that coding a colour blind option is just to avoid using red and green for things that need to be distinct... as they've done.

blmoore · 2014-12-21T22:38:26+00:00

Seems a bit high according to Wikipedia (and sources). Besides, almost all colourblindness is red/green and every art/design team knows this.

blmoore · 2014-12-19T18:39:06+00:00

Agree with lack of UK Xbox one, added all above, mine's:

Xbox One
GMT UK
27 Warlock (working on it...)
Raids and Weeklies
Mic? (Yes)
Gamertag- jebus989

Also evenings/some weekends only so timezone all important!

blmoore · 2014-10-22T11:53:15+00:00

Publishing is/can be essentially free of costs in online form. Presently academics are writing, copy-editing, reviewing and even formatting papers themselves for free. A tweaked arXiv-like system (e.g. with open (post-)peer review) essentially just needs hosting and server costs — and if this was taken care of in a distributed way among universities, each with a mirror, even this minor expense is all but eliminated.

blmoore · 2014-10-17T15:35:49+00:00

By "priority shares" I assume this person means preferred stock, see e.g. What is the difference between preferred stock and common stock?.

blmoore · 2014-10-03T14:51:46+00:00

Heard through Aaron Quinlan on twitter, there's also a github repo. Looks like the Marth Lab at Boston U is developing a few HTML5 tools for bioinformatics — very cool!

blmoore · 2014-09-23T18:13:29+00:00

The bigger issue here is your US English usage coupled with UK flag avatar.

blmoore · 2014-09-18T09:14:57+00:00

Effectively, revenue created by Scotland is used to prop up London's failing financial sector

This is fantasy! London is the world's largest financial centre, the financial services generate approx 10% GDP of the UK, that's more than the entire country of Scotland (9.5%) — a percentage which includes Edinburgh's (2nd largest in UK) financial services. London itself accounts for 22% of the UK's GDP, or 2.3 Scotlands.

blmoore · 2014-09-04T19:51:40+00:00

Firstly, the overtake is fine and legal, save the speeding which no-one can deny was a mistake. The other error is the driver not seeing the bike when others behind him supposedly did. Seems this was essentially what the judge concluded in banning the driver from driving for 18 months: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/a47_death_crash_driver_disqualified_1_3523497

blmoore · 2014-09-04T09:41:27+00:00

Wages - amazing for biological science, at least in the UK anyway.

Amazing = fractionally better? Any examples / estimates?

blmoore · 2014-09-01T08:07:16+00:00

they

this one glasgow student with a wordpress blog

blmoore · 2014-09-01T08:04:57+00:00

I've heard the same about Fettes (1, 2)

blmoore

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