Nifty Data Technique

Google Spreadsheets now added some nifty ways to auto-fill data. For instance, rather than typing all of the days or months, you can simply type two or three, select them, and then drag the little blue square in the bottom right corner of the selection. Then, the rest of the days or months will be populated below. That is nice, but what I think is much more interesting, is that you can click and drag holding while down Ctrl (Windows and Linux) or Option (Mac) to pull data from Google Sets. So, in the image below, I only filled in the first three rows of each column. Then, I used the former technique to auto-fill the first three columns and the latter technique (holding down Ctrl or Option) to auto-fill the extra twelve rows.

Nowadays, software developers, such as Google, have a great opportunity to utilize the ginormous pile of data available online. The data that individuals generate is ever increasing and can be extraordinarily useful.

Save R Plot in EPS format

Here is a code example of how to save an R plot in EPS (instead of PS):

postscript(file="testplot.eps",
           paper="special",
           width=10,
           height=10,
           horizontal=FALSE)

yvalues = runif(50)
plot(yvalues)

dev.off()

The variation is adding paper="special" and horizontal=FALSE.

Java Programming Notes

Java Programming Notes is a handy Java reference by Fred Swartz. In his words, he explains:

These Java programming notes are written to fill in missing or weak topics in textbooks that I've taught from. Many pages are useful for reference, but not as an ordered tutorial. Some pages are still rough drafts, but I'm slowly working on fixing them.

Walmart Visualization

Here is an interesting animation of Walmart Store growth overtime. Below is a snapshot of the movie in progress (1991).

Virtual Host Setup

To add a virtual host on your local machine (running apache), do the following two things:

1. Add a virtual host definition to your apache configuration file, like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName sitename
DocumentRoot "/location/of/your/site/"
</VirtualHost>

2. Add a corresponding line to your HOSTS file (on my Mac, it is located at /etc/hosts).

127.0.0.1 sitename

You should then be able to access your site in any Web browser by going to:

http://sitename

This then allows you to develop locally in an environment nearer to how it will likely be deployed.

Abstract classes and Interfaces

In response to some of the questions asked in class today, I compiled some properties of interfaces and abstract classes that should help guide your choice when deciding when to use an Abstract class or an Interface as a parent class.

Neither an Interface nor an Abstract class can be instantiated. Both can be used to as a template for concrete (implemented) child classes.

Interfaces

• example interface definition:
  

public interface Monkey {
  public double getWeight();
  public void setWeight(double w);
  public void walk();
  public void talk();
}

• fields (i.e., members, variables) are not allowed
  
• all methods are implicitly abstract
• a child class can implement many interfaces in Java
• child classes must implement all methods
  

Abstract Classes

• example abstract class definition:

public abstract class Monkey {
  private double weight;
  public Monkey(){
  }
  public double getWeight(){
      return weight;
  }
  public void setWeight(double w){
      weight = w;
  }
  public abstract void walk();
  public abstract void talk();
}

• may have members (e.g., weight)
  
• may have implemented methods (e.g., getWeight, setWeight) and abstract methods (e.g., walk, talk)
• a child class can only extend a single parent class in Java (multiple inheritance is not allowed)
• child classes must implement all of the parent's abstract methods
  

Section 4.4 in Data Structures and Problem Solving in Java discusses this more extensively. 

This talks more about when you might use one, the other, or both. Furthermore, I found some questions and answers about the two that interviewers like to use. ;)

Java Tutorials

Sun provides some excellent tutorials that cover most aspects of programming in Java. Learning the Java language is a set of tutorials, or "trails", on the following fundamental topics:

• Object-Oriented Programming Concepts
• Language Basics
• Classes and Objects
• Interfaces and Inheritance
• Numbers and Strings
• Generics
• Packages

The content of these trails is also available as a book, called The Java Tutorial, Fourth Edition.