Linux Workshops

NOTE - The Linux Workshops are no longer being presented. This page is being retained so that we can remember the links to the materials used in previous workshops. You may be interested in the The Statistical Computing Series as an alternative.

2011

• Record Linkage with Coupler - Wednesday, May 25th
• Rack: A Web Server Interface for R - Wednesday, March 23rd
• WikiWalkthrough - Wednesday, January 26th

2010

• Raconteur.pdf: Raconteur.pdf - Wednesday, November 3rd
• WikiWalkthrough - Wednesday, January 27th
• Some modest suggestions to make Linux desktop computing easier - Wednesday, March 31th
• Nomogram.net and Rapache - Jeremy Stephens and Jeff Horner - Wednesday, May 26th
• Location, location, location - Wednesday, June 23rd
• Editor Edification - Wednesday, July 28
• Introducing Raconteur: A Web Framework for R - Wednesday, Nov 3rd

2009

• TwikiWalkthrough - Wednesday, Jan 28th (1:30 - 2:55pm, MRBIII 1220)
• Kde4AndProgrammingTips - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 (1:30 - 2:55, MRBIII 1220)
• EncryptionToolsForWorkstations - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 (1:30 - 2:55pm, MRBIII 1220)
• R Programing Tips and Gotchas - Wednesday, June 24, 2009 (1:30 - 2:55pm, MRBIII 1220)
• Wednesday, July 29, 2009 (1:30 - 2:55pm, MRBIII 1220) Jeff - ImageMagick
• No Linux Workshop in August
• No Linux Workshop in September
• Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (1:30 - 2:55pm, MRBIII 1220) Zhouwen and Thomas - Data Management in your Research Study
• No Linux Workshop in November
• No Linux Workshop in December

Suggestions for topics

• Source Control
• Using Command Line Tools
  • ImageMagick
  • New users guide to the terminal (command line) (see, e.g., http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/01/17/flipping-the-linux-switch-new-users-guide-to-the-terminal/)
  • ssh and scp to connect to remote computers and move files
• Collaborative Academic Writing - see this Slashdot conversation for some interesting discussion.
• "Good Programming Tips for Statisticians - 90% of what we do as statisticians is programming yet most of us have received little formal training in programming. Update - We've created the page Programming Tips For Statisticians, which contains a lot of great tips on fundamentals.
• "Good Data Management Tips for Statisticians - Another huge part of what we do a statisticians is manage data. We're trained on pre-cleaned, small, simple datasets. We're only learning how to handle big messy data structures by experience after we graduate. Good advice here could save us a lot of growing pains."
• Helpful alias tricks and .bashrc
• Directory and email folder organization for efficient work
• Life cycle of a data set from arrival to analysis
• Advanced Time Management: how to bring Mozilla, Webcalendar, Korganizer, and your Palm Pilot together
• Application Awareness: what are my choices and where do I find them?
• OpenOffice: what makes it so great?
• Present This: OpenOffice Impress (possible incorporate this with OpenOffice)
• Power Printing: kprinter, xprinter, cups, oopadmin, lp/lpr etc. - how does this [not] work together?
• Mounting Madness: learn better ways to mount, including USB devices
• Random Bytes of Information: cover a plethora of topics (email features, web browsing, creating short cuts)
• "Why Computers Are Bad At Math"

Here are two math problems all of us can do with pen and paper.

What is 10^16 + 1 ?
What is exp(15*log(10)) ?

But R gets these wrong.

> options(scipen=20)
> 10^16 + 1
[1] 10000000000000000
> exp(15*log(10))
[1] 1000000000000006

Why is that?

We use computers for all of our analyses, but most of us don't really understand how computers store and process numbers, let alone how R stores and processes numbers, so we're surprised when we see things like R mess up a simple math problem."

• Modding Mozilla: themes & extensions can make Firefox and Thunderbird more attractive
• Burning Desire: K3B can/sometimes/everyonce-in-a-while can be real useful for burning CDs
• PDF viewers: options and printing
• Web calendar
• Work-from-Home options and accessing files
  • Rsync
  • From KDE/Linux, mounting Windows shares
• Introduction to OpenOffice

Ideas for Software Training

• Linux OS: learning the OS
• Learning LaTeX: howto, best practices, examples (with use of Kile)
• The Access Alternative: MySql and sql statements; how OO can help
• Batch Jobs: introduction to Perl, Python, and shell (BASH) scripts; how to run/check background jobs

2008

• December - none
• November - none
• October 29 - Overview of Biostatistics IT services; who can help with what; selected applications (.e.g. twiki, datahippo, survey tool, PS, ACCRE (parallel processing), webcalendar, email lists, rapache)
• suggestions: dolphin file manager; how to change passwords;
• Learning Open Office- Wednesday, 25 Jun 2008 (1:30pm - 2:30pm, MRBIII 1220)
• Linux History and Security - Wednesday, March 26th
• Heaping Helping of TWiki - Wednesday, Jan 30th (1:30-2:30pm, MRBIII 1220)

2007

• GutsyInstall - Wednesday 28 Nov 2007
• Kubuntu User's Guide - Wednesday 31 Oct 2007
• A presentation on Linux text utilities - Wednesday 26 Sep 2007
• Regular Expressions - TBD
• More Biostatistics TWiki - Wednesday, April 25 (1:30-2:30pm, MRBIII 1220)
• SAS for Linux - Wednesday, March 28
• Wednesday, February 28
  • KDE Desktop Environment, presented by Jeff Horner; KDE is the desktop manager that we use on our Linux workstations in Biostatistics. Jeff will give an overview of KDE and talk about how to best use its features.
• Rhubarb - Wednesday, January 31
  • DBConnect, presented by Cole Beck; Cole is the developer of DBConnect which is the online administrative tool used in Biostatistics. DBConnect is used for grant management, purchase requests, vacation and sick time reporting, etc. This tool is in daily use and almost daily development. Cole will give a short overview and describe some new features that have been added recently.

2006

• OpenOffice and Amarok - Wednesday, July 26th
• Using subversion for collaboration and file consistency - Wednesday, June 28th
• E-mail tips and Installing R packages locally - Wednesday, May 24th
• Printing, Gaim, and IT-CQI project - Wednesday, March 22nd, D-2221 MCN
• Web Calendar & the Department Database - Wednesday, February 22nd, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• Using the Biostatistics web site - Wednesday, January 25th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN

2005

• Introduction to databases - Wednesday, October 26th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• Helpful Command Line Utilities - Wednesday, July 27th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• Modding Mozilla - Wednesday, June 29th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• File Management: CDs and PDFs - Wednesday, May 24th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• Exploring the Linux Shell - Wednesday, Feb 23rd, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN and Wed Apr 27, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN
• TwikiWorkShop - Wednesday, Jan 26th, 2:00 PM, D-2221 MCN

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