Nicola Romanò @nicolaromano@qoto.org

Ever wonder about the basis for fear-mongering & conspiracy theories about mRNA vaccine? Wish you had a place to go when someone cites "proof"?

I've got you covered! In my latest post @PLOS, I buckle up for the waves of anti-vax claims likely to come at us in 2025 :

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2024/12/28/getting-ready-for-more-mrna-vaccine-fear-mongering-a-compendium/

#Vaccines #Covid

Do you know of any #rstats teams who could use some help in 2025?

I'm a freelance consultant with 10yrs of experience in #DataSci, #DataEng, #DataOps, and providing #SysAdmin for related tools. I primarily work with R, but I have enough SQL and Python knowledge to get by. I know my way around a linux terminal and docker-compose file. I'm also handy as an interpreter between IT and analytics teams. Open to many types of engagements (project-based, temp staff, etc).

If you have a need or a lead, I'd love to chat!

boosts welcome :-)

Spotify killed the Car Thing, but they don't have to die! When a company like Spotify decides to generate huge amounts of unnecessary e-waste, the community steps in to save them from the landfill.

Image credits:
DeskThing (Dammit Jeff on YouTube)
GlanceThing (GlanceThing on GitHub)

#spotify #SpotifyWrapped #ifixit #ewaste #trash #hacking #repair #righttorepair

Today is the day. Welcome to THE charger!

USB-C is officially the common standard for charging electronic devices in the EU.

This means:

🔌The same charger for all new phones, tablets and cameras
⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology
🔄 Reduced e-waste
🛑 No more “Sorry, I don’t have the right cable”

One charger to rule them all.

#SingleMarket #DigitalEU 

In case you missed it, the hackers who reverse-engineered DRM on Polish trains got sued by the train manufacturer…

…multiple times.

You can donate to their defense fund:
https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2024/das-ist-vollig-entgleist

Context:

Their original talk from last year
https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-12142-breaking_drm_in_polish_trains

My piece about the first lawsuit against them
https://rys.io/en/175.html

#Newag #38C3 #DRM #Trains

@nicolaromano
I agree, a bad idea to push novelty scores. Making perceived novelty a review/selection/acceptance criterion does disservice to the scientific community and their stakeholders. I firmly believe that scientific quality, study inegrity, ethics and replicability should form the basis of a decision to accept and publish a manuscript, and NOT the perception of flashiness or novelty. For that same reason I also abhor the weight and importance given to a journal's calculated or perceived impact score (or whatever scoring factor is used), whether by submitting authors, tenure review committees, readers and the audience (lay press), etc...

@ColinTheMathmo When I was younger it was all just arithmetic practice drills (which I knew I could've been doing with a calculator...) and then when we moved on to "higher math" there was just never any purpose grounded in reality.

Algebra? I still do not actually know what the point of solving for X is. No one ever told me. They were just like "do this a bunch." I did. A purpose never occurred to me. It is now decades later and I don't know why I had to do that.

@ColinTheMathmo

"Fun" is a kind of engagement. It is also subjective. Learning can be enjoyable; that's not identical to "fun".

Learning is better when not unpleasant, let alone miserable. But when you ask a person (of any age) to learn something, for no obviously good reason—other than to avoid punishment—they will find it unpleasant.

Curiosity is specific. Utility a bit more general. But neither work on kids who expect to be celebrities due to magical thinking.

@ColinTheMathmo @rakhichawla I think that the "fun" stuff can be important for getting people over the initial activation barrier. I.e. those who say they're "just not good at maths" without ever seriously engaging with it. But I agree that fun is not enough in the long term.

Why probability probably doesn...

This seems spot on.

Introducing {oomph} an #RStats pkg technical demonstration of 500x faster named subsetting of vectors and lists

https://github.com/coolbutuseless/oomph

Given a static named list/vector, `oomph` subsets 100 elements from n=200k list 500x faster than R's standard method, & 1000x less memory allocation

Notes:
* Uses an order preserving minimal perfect hash
* Suited to static objects only - hashing object would need to be recalculated for every addition/removal
* A dynamic minimal perfect hash would be welcomed

Hey are you a recent PhD with interests in #rstats and #psychology? Fancy joining the amazing stats teaching team in Psychology at Edinburgh University? Closing date for applications: 27 January https://edin.ac/3OVNTTE