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New York Times Article: Data Analysts Captivated by R's Power
7 messages · Art Burke, Tom Backer Johnsen, Simon Blomberg +4 more
Sure, that statement is in it self somewhat amusing. But the article itself is very good PR. I am sending off copies of the link to many of my colleagues, some sceptic, others not sceptic at all. Thanks! Tom
Arthur Burke wrote:
Readers of this list might be interested in the following article in the New York Times and might find amusing the notion that "Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software...". http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07progra m.html?_r=1&ref=technology Art ------------------------------------------------------------------ Art Burke Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory 101 SW Main St, Suite 500 Portland, OR 97204-3213 Phone: 503-275-9592 / 800-547-6339 Fax: 503-275-0450 burkea at nwrel.org [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
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+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tom Backer Johnsen, Psychometrics Unit, Faculty of Psychology | | University of Bergen, Christies gt. 12, N-5015 Bergen, NORWAY | | Tel : +47-5558-9185 Fax : +47-5558-9879 | | Email : backer at psych.uib.no URL : http://www.galton.uib.no/ | +----------------------------------------------------------------+
"Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."
Maybe it's my dry Australian humour, but I think this should go into the fortunes package. Simon.
Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey.
But wait, there's more... The bit I think deserves a fortunes listing is the SAS jibe: "I think it addresses a niche market for high-end data analysts that want free, readily available code," said Anne H. Milley, director of technology product marketing at SAS. She adds, "We have customers who build engines for aircraft. I am happy they are not using freeware when I get on a jet." I love it. Bill Venables http://www.cmis.csiro.au/bill.venables/ -----Original Message----- From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Simon Blomberg Sent: Thursday, 8 January 2009 10:15 AM To: Arthur Burke Cc: r-help at r-project.org Subject: Re: [R] New York Times Article: Data Analysts Captivated by R's Power
"Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."
Maybe it's my dry Australian humour, but I think this should go into the fortunes package. Simon.
Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey. ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
On Thu, 8 Jan 2009, Bill.Venables at csiro.au wrote:
But wait, there's more... The bit I think deserves a fortunes listing is the SAS jibe:
Yep, both added to the devel-version on R-Forge (fortunes 222 and 223).
Additionally, there is
R> fortune(224)
It's interesting that SAS Institute feels that non-peer-reviewed software
with hidden implementations of analytic methods that cannot be reproduced
by others should be trusted when building aircraft engines.
-- Frank Harrell (in response to the statement of the SAS director of
technology product marketing: "We have customers who build engines
for aircraft. I am happy they are not using freeware when I get on a
jet.")
R-help (January 2009)
grx,
Z
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Simon Blomberg <s.blomberg1 at uq.edu.au> wrote:
"Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."
Maybe it's my dry Australian humour, but I think this should go into the fortunes package.
The irony of that quote is great, but I'd guess it's also an effective bit of advertising. Akin to Gary Larson's famous "what dogs hear" cartoon (link below), I can envision many managers reading the article and seeing something like: "blah blah blah blah supercharged version of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software that can help illuminate data trends more clearly blah blah blah blah ...." ;-) Kingsford Jones http://www.flickr.com/photos/sluggerotoole/153603564/
Simon. -- Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey.
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Simon Blomberg wrote:
"Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of
Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."
Maybe it's my dry Australian humour, but I think this should go into the fortunes package.
It is somewhat humourous even in damper London. But I think what the sentence was trying to say is that a WHOLE LOT of what is done in Excel would be better done in R. Patrick Burns patrick at burns-stat.com +44 (0)20 8525 0696 http://www.burns-stat.com (home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User")
Simon.