- open git terminal/cli
- git branch new-branch-name (make new branch)
- git checkout new-branch-name (switch to new branch)
- git push -u origin new-branch-name (make push/pull possible through Rstudio)
- make changes and save files
- add changes with Rstudio or git add
- commit changes with Rstudio or git commit -m “Commit message.”
- push changes with Rstudio or git push origin new-branch-name
#Resist
I’ve been thinking on and off over the last few days about how to make change in the world. In America, we’re seeing one-party control of the executive and legislative branches of government, which is probably a bad thing. I’m not a fan of parties in general–too often, they seem to work in lock-step and will afford their members no deviation, even to represent their constituents.
There are many posts written on this type of thing already, and with much more understanding and history backing them up. I just feel the need to summarize some of the ideas bouncing around my head, in no particular order.
- #Resist in the title isn’t necessarily in reference to the current administration. It’s a call to take action for your beliefs. Resist miseducation, resist fake news, resist kneejerk reactions, resist ignorance (especially your own). Be aware of why you’re taking action, and why you believe what you believe.
- It’s not enough to choose your side and be done with it (especially if your side is a political party). People in government are built from the same stuff as the rest of us, and are subject to the same emotions. They (like everyone else) can make mistakes, be illogical, and not think in the long term. Look at their actions and respond to those, not whether there is a D or R after their names.
- Use the tools given, but be mindful. Swing Left looks interesting, and looks like it’s a way to statistically strike at the most important voting areas of the country. It can be a tool for change, but it’s also a tool for the Democratic Party. I don’t know who runs it. Third parties likely don’t count. Republicans who are doing good work in their districts and are pretty close to Democrats don’t count.
There are more thoughts. There will hopefully be more posts if I can organize them. Thanks for reading.
Quick Rainmeter Snow Skins
I’m a minor nerd about fresh snow, so I have these Rainmeter skins running on my monitor right now (really just two versions of the same skin). I thought I had them in GitHub or GitLab, but apparently not yet. If you use them, enjoy!
Snow.ini
;Shows the 48-hour snowfall map from Intellicast. ;To customize, go to http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/Weather/Snow/Forecast.aspx?region=brd, navigate to the right region, and get the url of the image. ;Paste that as URL, below. ; ;Help from http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20018 and http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/getting-started/creating-skins [Rainmeter] Update=3600 ;To make this to immediately show up, change value to 0 and refresh. [MeasureImage] Measure=Plugin Plugin=WebParser URL=http://images.intellicast.com/WxImages/48hrSnowForecast/brd.jpg Download=1 [MeterImage] Meter=Image MeasureName=MeasureImage H=375 W=500
snow_noaa.ini
;Shows the 3-day snow probability from NOAA. ;To customize, go to http://www.weather.gov/crh/outlooks?sid=fgf#.WF2NTdUrJaR ;Paste that as URL, below. ; ;Help from http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20018 and http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/getting-started/creating-skins [Rainmeter] Update=3600 ;To make this to immediately show up, change value to 0 and refresh. [MeasureImage] Measure=Plugin Plugin=WebParser URL=http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/day3_psnow_gt_04.gif Download=1 [MeterImage] Meter=Image MeasureName=MeasureImage H=375 W=500
Simple pannier retention
During winter bicycle commutes (or summer trips over rough terrain), my simple Bontrager “shopping bag” pannier has a tendency to fall off. No longer!
Bakken Citation
This is essentially an internal citation, but exciting to see, nonetheless. The SPE conference paper referenced has passed peer review and should be out soon. Trying to make time for more Bakken CO2 extraction statistics at the moment.
cited in
We’re Green
In a good way. I was thinking tonight that in addition to helping people drive less and supporting local races, I could throw some extra money towards carbon credits or similar offsets for this website. Websites use energy, even the good ones, and we can’t just sweep that under the rug. Then I remembered who the host is: GreenGeeks. Green is in the name, and that was one of the reasons I chose them a few years back. From the horse’s mouth:
In order to compensate for the polluting power we pull from the grid we purchase wind energy credits for the energy we consume from the grid. In fact we replace, with wind power, 3 times the amount of energy used by our servers, so if we pull 1X of power from the grid we purchase enough wind energy credits to put back into the grid 3X of power having been produced by wind power. Your website hosted with GreenGeeks will be powered by 300% wind energy, making your website’s carbon footprint negative!
You can read more here.
Well, that was an easy way to make some small difference in the world! If you’d like to contribute to keeping the site alive (and buying that wind energy), drop some coins in the jar weekly at Gratipay.
Matt
Philosophy
I’ve been on quite a burn of updating race information this week, which always makes me consider the philosophy behind this website. What is NPA, and why is it here?
Simply enough, I like to race, but being torn among multiple time obligations makes it harder than it used to be. The real killer is the full-time job, but it definitely pays better than grad school, so I think I’ll keep it for now. The original cause was money: gas prices were high, races were far away, and I was poor. Now it’s time: I can’t take an entire weekend to travel to a race. I imagine 90% of people are in the same boat.
One question I imagine people have is “why is it a map, not a list?” followed by “why can’t I look at dates more easily?” I struggle with the second one more. It’s a map because the goal is to minimize the amount of time and money spent traveling (sorry, local visitor and convention bureaus). Maps are easy to understand, and the system on other sites of filtering a list down by selecting a state/city/zip code is just dreadful when we have better tools available.
The date question? Well, mostly I don’t have a good handle on the best way to show dates on a map. I’ve considered color codes (<1 week, 1-4 weeks, >4 weeks, etc.) but haven’t implemented them. If you have an idea, get in touch and let’s develop it.
The last bit of philosophy is about the volume of information avaiable on NPA. I’ve kept it as simple as possible in order to reduce errors. The least amount you should know about a race is when it is, where it is, and where to get more information. Name and description are secondary; and type/category/discipline? That’s just extravagance.
Comparing two lists with R
No, not list() lists.
a <- data.frame(name=old$NAME) a$status <- "old" b <- data.frame(name=allfields[allfields$StateAbbre=="ND",]$name) b$status <- "new" both<-merge(a,b,by="name",all=T)
Make two data frames, one for each list, create a column identifying each one (new or old), then join on the common column (name).
Output:
See also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17598134/compare-two-lists-in-r/17599048#17599048
Red River of the North Flow
With END-WET next weekend, I’m hoping we get some more flow, which means I’m looking into prediction tools. I’ve posted a few things at the ENDracing message board, including an analysis of flow versus finish times.
Race Feedback
It’s always interesting getting feedback on races. This comic (from Death Bulge) comes to mind every time I get a survey back.
