Accessing SQL Server DB from R on Linux using RODBC package

First of all you'll need to install FreeTDS package.

brew update
brew install unixodbc
brew install freetds
It looks like there is no need to specify --with-unixodbc any more.




I would add only that I had to edit not
/etc/odbcinst.ini
but
/usr/local/etc/odbcinst.ini,

On Linux it looks like this
[FreeTDS]
Description = TDS driver (Sybase/MS SQL)
Driver = /usr/lib/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
Setup = /usr/lib/odbc/libtdsS.so
Threading = 1
CPTimeout =
CPReuse = 
FileUsage = 1

On Mac paths are a bit different
[FreeTDS]
Description = TDS driver (Sybase/MS SQL)
Driver = /usr/local/lib/libtdsodbc.so
Setup = /usr/local/lib/libtdsS.so
Threading = 1
CPTimeout =
CPReuse = 
FileUsage = 1


then it worked just fine.
Here is a sample code:

library(RODBC)
# replace server.name, database.name, user.id, password and T_my_table correspondingly
con <- odbcDriverConnect("DRIVER={FreeTDS};SERVER=server.name;DATABASE=database.name;UID=user.id;PWD=password;")
strSql <- "select * from T_my_table"
x <- sqlQuery(con, strSql)
close(con)
cat(x)

tweaking panel size in Ubuntu

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/ubuntu-tips-and-tricks.htm

Grouping data.frame by column name pattern in R

This is kind of brutal force solution. First you transpose the data.frame Then use aggregate function Finally transpose back. An example...

x = data.frame(a1=rnorm(10), a2=rnorm(10), b1=rnorm(10), b2=rnorm(10))
g=sapply(colnames(x), function(xx) {strsplit(xx,split='')[[1]][1]})
y = t(aggregate(t(x),by=list(g),mean, simplify=T))
yy = data.frame(y[-1,])
colnames(yy) = y[1,]
rownames(yy) = rownames(x)


sorting in python by arbitrary key

E.g. we have a list of dictionaries

x = [{'a':1,'b':3}, {'a':3,'b':2}, {'a':2,'b':1}]
x.sort(key=lambda i: i['b'])

sorts it by value at the 'b' key

How to use grep to search within a particular file type

Example finding sort in python files. 3 options:
grep -r --include=*.py "sort" /home/vlad/work
find . -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 grep "sort"
findstr /pinsc:"sort" *.py


setting up Notepad++ on Win7

In case I forget where the settings are: C:\Users\MY_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++ Running IPython ipython qtconsole --pylab=inline --ConsoleWidget.font_family="Courier New" --ConsoleWidget.font_size=10 --c="run $(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"

mastering VIM

a refreshing talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke7SfUFvvxo

The cheat sheet
http://www.viemu.com/vi-vim-cheat-sheet.gif

one way to comment the code
(in addition to :n,ms/^/# where n starting line, m last line)
http://hurley.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/vim-tip-comment-out-multiple-lines/

The other way is Tcomment plug-in

top vim plugins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_galFWwSDt0

my mapping to run python

map <F5> :!start ipython qtconsole --ConsoleWidget.font_family="Courier New" --ConsoleWidget.font_size=10 --c="run %"<CR><CR>
map <F6> :!start ipython -i %<CR><CR>

ctags wisdom
http://programming-in-linux.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-setup-taglist-plugin-with-vim.html

to check out
http://static.djangoproject.hu/vimpy/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6005874/opening-a-window-in-a-horizontal-split-of-a-vertical-split

Need to add resizing

" TaskList and NERDTree
function DualExplorer()
    execute ":Tlist"
    execute ":NERDTree"
    execute ":wincmd J"
    execute ":wincmd k"
    execute ":wincmd l"
    execute ":wincmd L"
endfunction
autocmd VimEnter * call DualExplorer()

Esc key for exiting insert mode - the big downside of vim. Recipes how to deal with it:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip285
This one probably the easiest solution.
:inoremap <CR> <Esc>
Remapping Caps Lock seems like a better choice, but takes extensive changes.

Something to look
http://www.leetless.de/vim.html

dealing with Thermo RAW file on linux

https://github.com/princelab/katamari/wiki/msconvert-on-linux

Installing ImageMagick on Ubuntu 10.10

Dowload from here
ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/

tar xvfz ImageMagick-6.5.3-10.tar.gz
cd ImageMagick-6.5.3-10/
./configure
make
sudo make install
ldconfig /usr/local/lib

Refs:
http://ubuntuguide.net/install-imagemagick-in-ubuntu-linux
http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17059

Managing Office suites on Ubuntu 10.10

Nice page with instructions how to remove/install OpenOffice bypassing Synaptic.
http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/1263-oracles-openofficeorg-330-is-released-with-installation-instructions-for-ubuntu-fedora-centos-debian-linuxmint

We'll see how to install LibreOffice on Ubuntu 10.10...
Here we go. Just switch all the gksu with sudo and run in terminal.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-LibreOffice-in-Ubuntu-10-10-and-Ubuntu-10-04-177762.shtml

Installing from *.deb
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-libreoffice-in-ubuntu-using-deb-packages.html

How to install WinBUGS/OpenBUGS on Ubuntu Linux

I am about to install Win/OpenBUGS on my Ubuntu 10.10 machine.
We'll see how it goes. Here is a nice description how to install it through WINE.
http://cddesjardins.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/winbugs-on-ubuntu-and-r2winbugs-with-wine/
I really hope there is a way to install OpenBUGS natively in linux environment.
We'll see...

OK. Found. Here it is
http://doingbayesiandataanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/07/brugs-for-linux-users.html
So far simple examples written in WinBUGS ran just fine. Just getting my hands wet.