FlowingData Forums » Tag: software

FlowingData Forums » Tag: software - Recent Topics http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Strength in Numbers en Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:39:29 +0000 Using gapminder like they do in the video! http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/using-gapminder-like-they-do-in-the-video#post-1480 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:20:04 +0000 dc321 1480@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hello all - I recently started playing with Google Chart's Motion chart which is the same as Gapminder. However, I was wondering if there is a way to look WITHIN a country. For example, Gapminder has millions of year-country specific data. At some point in the video, Hans Rosling clicks on a country and 5 smaller bubbles come out of a country showing the quintiles within a country. Is there a similar way to work with our own data set so that if I want to include subpopulations within a country or other unit that I can do this? I am also open to using other programs that will have the same functionality. Thanks so much! Where do I start? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/where-do-i-start#post-2238 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:56:28 +0000 cscott 2238@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hi, I'm an in-house print/UX designer for a research firm. We are looking to package our data for clients in the form of online reports containing interactive graphs/charts and state maps that would need to illustrate the state’s counties, cities, and economic regions. My experience with data visualization has been limited to cutting data out of an Excel file and pasting it into Illustrator to recreate a stylized graphic for print. This leaves me with many questions, but at this point I am working on these two: 1. Would a system like Tableau fulfill the project requirements listed above? Are there obvious limitations to the types of visualizations you can create and who you can share them with? 2. If we determined we had the budget to build a "data visualization team", what type of person (or people) should we look for and what type of skill set would they need? In my mind this is someone who can pull data with code and create custom Flash animations or something similar, but I’m not sure if there is an official title for this or even the best method. I’ve read the 40 Essential Tools article and found it to very helpful. Any additional guidance will be appreciated. Thanks! Processing vs Flash? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/processing-vs-flash#post-716 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:58:53 +0000 yghitza 716@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I'm new to advanced visualization tools (i.e. anything besides R and Excel) and trying to figure out what tools to learn. I'm hoping to make some custom interactive web-accessible visualizations -- think of Hans Rosling as a starting point -- and have some coding background. I get the sense that Processing and Flash/Actionscript are two of the main options. From what I can tell, people seem to describe Processing as a learning tool and a good place to start, but then you might want to move to something else. My question: what does Processing lack that Flash/Actionscript has? In other words, if I learn Processing (which is open source and has a ton of easily accessible learning materials), what are the drawbacks? Can Flash more easily handle large-scale data, advanced GUIs, something else? Is there something else I should consider? I looked around a little bit but haven't found satisfying answers to these questions. For what it's worth, I'm a student so cheap or free is always a bonus. At the same time, I'll be investing a lot of time so I'm not just looking for a temporary solution. Thanks for any help! Factual looking for 3 software engineers, 1 data engineer http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/factual-looking-for-3-software-engineers-1-data-engineer#post-1784 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:42:07 +0000 gnestor 1784@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Factual is a well-funded and expanding start-up with a mission to create a platform where anyone can share and mash open data on any subject. We are pioneers in the worldwide trend towards open information flow, and our goal is to provide the infrastructure to curate high-quality data and make it accessible everywhere. See our Jobs page for details: <a href="http://www.factual.com/jobs" rel="nofollow">http://www.factual.com/jobs</a> Position: Data Software Engineer Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual is looking for an engineer with good attention to detail that has both experience with and passion for large data. The candidate would take ownership of our data pipeline and manage the process and schedule to ensure timely delivery of data. The ideal candidate would: Have a CS degree Have 2+ years of professional hands-on software experience Have some experience with cloud computing or cluster management Be enthusiastic about large data Be eager to learn new tools and skills related to data and scripting Be able to propose out-of-the-box strategies based on insights about data Desired Skills (at least three of the following): Proficient in a language such as C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl Linux/bash scripting SQL and/or Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) frameworks HTML DOM/XPath and/or Regular expressions Project management Responsibilities: Oversee entire data pipeline and schedule Evaluate and judge algorithmically generated data and assess data quality Coordinate and run web-scale jobs on large clusters and write automation scripts Aggregate, clean, and merge data Generate, maintain, and operate the generation software and scripts Author CSS and XPath selectors Position: Data Engineer Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual is looking for a fast-working multi-tasker with good attention to detail that has both experience with and passion for large data. The ideal candidate would: Have a degree in engineering, science, or linguistics Be eager to learn new tools and skills related to data and scripting Be able to propose out-of-the-box strategies based on insights about data Desired Skills (at least three of the following): Proficient in a language such as C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl Linux/bash scripting SQL and/or Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) frameworks HTML DOM/XPath and/or Regular expressions Speaks multiple languages Experience with data curation Linguistics research Project management Responsibilities: Research and analyze data on the web Evaluate and judge algorithmically generated data and assess data quality Curate data schemas Aggregate, clean, and merge data Generate, maintain, and operate the generation software and scripts Find and follow URL patterns using regular expressions Author CSS and XPath selectors Write automation scripts Position: Software Engineer, Large Data Processing Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual Inc. has an immediate need for an experienced full-time software engineer who is excited about algorithms and large-scale data processing. We need a strong new team member for our mission to develop groundbreaking systems to cleanse huge datasets on-the-fly. If you are a seasoned software engineer who loves data and knows how to beat the averages, we'd like to talk to you. The ideal candidate would: Generally love data Be familiar with MapReduce programming models such as Hadoop Have good knowledge of parsing, duplicate detection, statistical and clustering algorithms Thrive in a start-up environment and enjoy wearing many hats Desired Skills: Degree in Computer Science or other technical / scientific field Fluency in Java Strong algorithms and data structures knowledge Experience in writing fast production code and code optimization Familiarity with databases, especially NoSQL databases Comfort with Unix and the command line Responsibilities: Collaborate with both the data team and the back-end team to design and develop our core production real-time data classification and improvement algorithms Create metrics, reports, and management tools to measure the effectiveness of our data cleansing - then use this feedback to further refine our next-generation algorithms Shepherd your product from initial concept to hands-on development, testing, and then all the way to deployment and production monitoring Position: Software Engineer, NoSQL Specialist Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual Inc. has a pressing need for an experienced full-time software engineer who has a great fascination and knowledge of the NoSQL space - systems like HBase and Cassandra. Our company is all about data and we need to store and retrieve huge datasets with a guarantee of high availability and performance. Our ideal new team member is excited about working for a start-up and not afraid of a fast development cycle. The ideal candidate would: Generally love data Have a strong interest in cluster computing Thrive in a start-up environment and like wearing many hats Desired Skills: Degree in Computer Science or other technical / scientific field Fluency in Java Deep knowledge of BigTable, Cassandra, HBase, or a similar NoSQL database in production (experience with multiple NoSQL databases a big plus!) Experience in writing fast production code and code optimization Comfort with Unix and the command line EC2 experience a plus Responsibilities: Work on our back-end server team to design and develop a data storage platform that can serve the world Tune and tweak performance, from algorithms to machine configuration Shepherd your product from initial concept to hands-on development, testing, and then all the way to deployment and production monitoring Looking for software http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-software#post-1525 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:49:54 +0000 mikev 1525@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Does anyone know of any comprehensive data visualization software packages? Something that can do all of the things that the ManyEyes website can do would be ideal. Software used http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/software-used#post-97 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:35:52 +0000 Btibert3 97@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ What software do you use to create your graphics? I see the graphics on this blog and clearly they are not created in Excel. I am trying to create more professional graphics that can explain the story behind my analysis. Thanks in advance, Brock Introduction to R (Slides) http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/introduction-to-r-slides#post-618 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:17:56 +0000 nathany 618@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ If you're looking into learning about R, here's a good introduction: <a href="http://scc.stat.ucla.edu/mini-courses/" rel="nofollow">http://scc.stat.ucla.edu/mini-courses/</a> Recommended software? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/recommended-software#post-635 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:14:52 +0000 Dackle 635@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hi, what would you say is the best piece of software for good-looking data visualization? Is it the case that a lot of the graphs posted on Flowing Data are done in Adobe Illustrator? Any other programs you'd recommend? I'm interested more in the visual appearance of the graph (not so concerned with number-crunching ability). Thanks SAS to Go Open Source After R Article http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/sas-to-go-open-source-after-r-article#post-572 Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:56:42 +0000 nathany 572@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Quickly how the tide turns: <a href="http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2009/03/sas_gets_with_t.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2009/03/sas_gets_with_t.html</a> <blockquote><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.html" rel="nofollow">A January New York Times article</a> on the R open-source statistical programming environment catalysed a change in attitude at SAS, the largest independent BI and analytics vendor. In just one month, SAS's position swerved from disdain -- the Times quoted Anne H. Milley, SAS director of technology product marketing as opining, "We have customers who build engines for aircraft. I am happy they are not using freeware when I get on a jet." -- to embrace with an admission that "both R and SAS are here to stay, and finding ways to make them work better with each other is in the best interests of our customers." And that's good news, for SAS and for R.</blockquote> Data Analysts Captivated by RÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Power http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/data-analysts-captivated-by-r%e2%80%99s-power#post-201 Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:40:58 +0000 nathany 201@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ The New York Times just put out a piece on R, the software of choice by research statisticians. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1</a>