[Interview] Interview with a raptor: Get to know trinker

[trinker]

What is your favorite post ever (of someone else's or your own) on talkstats?

I must admit the hamid post brought my heart great joy. I laughed until my jaw hurt and still laugh when ever I read it.

My favorite thread was one I dd for a map learning project:
http://www.talkstats.com/showthread....ll=1#post77786

I loved this one because it forced me to learn a lot about R. If you read it bryangoodrich really put a lot of time into helping me to learn things. I grew a lot in R capabilities because of that thread.

I also like a post where the poster did something a bit silly and Dason renamed the thread to "I like cake". Genius but I only liked that title not the whole post.

I also like when I really help someone to get a concept and you can tell they're appreciative. It's a way of giving back when others have put so much time into you.

[trinker]

What is your favorite R function?

I will assume base install functions.

Man that's difficult. Like asking what body part do you need the most. How about if I give you a rank order with rationale)
1. dataframe (most used function hands down)
2. lapply (or apply family but usually I use lapply; second most used function)
3. do.call (awesome in so many contexts when you need to do the same function to an unknown number of lists)
4. %in% operator (I use this guy alot; see if each element of a belongs somewhere in b)
5. gsub (just a hard working regex)
6. strsplit (another hard working fast regex)
7. str (I like to see what's going on use this guy all the time)
8. head (great for looking at the data just to see if it's looking how you expect; another frequently used function)
9. : operator (very simple what to make integer sequences; very easy to use)
10. function (how cool is it that we can make any function we want with the function function)

Bonus: don't use it much but Reduce is awesome, as is parLapply for parallel computing.

I may start a top ten thread for R functions similar to this.

[spunky]

this is spunky channeling his inner james lipton from that awesome tv show, "actors studio"...

so, trinker...

- what is your favourite word?

- what is your least favourite word?

- what turns you on? (<-- not *that* stuff :P)

- what turns you off?

- what sound or noise do you love?

- what sound or noise do you hate?

- what is your favourite curse word?

- what profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

- what profession other than yours would you NOT like to attempt?

- finally, if heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

[trinker]

- what is your favourite word?

eigenvector because it's fun to say (I even called Norah my little eigenvector for a few weeks. The concept itself is difficult at best but it's fun to say none the less.

- what is your least favourite word?

ambulance because it's difficult for me to say

- what turns you on? (<-- not *that* stuff :P)

I like a person who is confident in their beliefs but has thought them through and is able to articulate them clearly. So of the best discussion I have are people of the perspective of me (be it political, research, religion etc)

- what turns you off?

Close mindedness. People who have decided something in advance and then gather evidence to support the idea rather than looking at the evidence and generating an belief (shoot this is how some people do research ).

- what sound or noise do you love?

A fireplace on a snowy night. I grew up with wood burning stoves for heat and there's something very comforting about that. Also (I get two) rain on a tin roof is awesome when you're going to sleep. Shppt why not have another, the sound of peepers (A high pitched frog) that sings you to sleep at night.

- what sound or noise do you hate?

anything involving fingernails in unnatural states (I just cringed)

- what is your favourite curse word?

I plead the 5th

- what profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I'd love to be an electrician. I love doing electrical work.

- what profession other than yours would you NOT like to attempt?

A desk job doing the same activity over and over again.

- finally, if heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

"Well done good and faithful servant" though I suspect he may say "Really? What were you thinking?"

[victorxstc]

What are your political views? Which party is your favorite? Why? Why don't you like the other one?

Sometimes, we are willing to talk about something(s), but we are not asked about them. We can't know for sure, what is of special interest to you, in order to ask it. But I would be glad if hear your opinion about anything you, yourself, like to share. Any opinion, idea, memory, phrase, etc. is welcome (demanded ), and the more the content and details, the better and more enjoyable our experience of knowing a raptor

[trinker]

What are your political views? Which party is your favorite? Why? Why don't you like the other one?

Sometimes, we are willing to talk about something(s), but we are not asked about them. We can't know for sure, what is of special interest to you, in order to ask it. But I would be glad if hear your opinion about anything you, yourself, like to share. Any opinion, idea, memory, phrase, etc. is welcome (demanded ), and the more the content and details, the better and more enjoyable our experience of knowing a raptor

Oh wow talk about your loaded question Last question of the interview. Ok let's answer it by going back to my other responses. I can't not compartmentalize my word view and my actions. So I obviously have a Judeo Christian world view which states that we are free creatures and that goodness (though necessary is not sufficient) is asked of us but we're free to do as we please. We are totally free creatures. My belief is that outside of free will morality and love do not exist other wise we have compliance. LEt's move to taking that world view into politics...

I think we are free people (or should be) and that government should do little to intervene, though no government is total anarchy (and that's when the bots attack GULP!) Now you asked what party I align with...

I like the OScar Levant quote:
“The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.”

I really don't believe that beyond what the two parties we have in the US say there's not a whole lot of difference in how they act. I can not align with either party. Instead think of my world view and apply that to politics as a continuum. You have communism on the left and anarchy on the right. I think that either extreme is going to lead to problems. Anarchy obviously is dangerous as we see in riots and such and the only communist society that quasi works (and they're by no means communist) is the Amish people; all other communist societies don't work because in the absence of some belief in a higher good that you must adhere to human nature rejects it and in such necessitates a dictator to enforce "goodness and communal living". That's the end of free will and the death of my word view. So I align more towards freewill.

PS I got my teeth drilled and filled three times today so there's not a lot of love for dentists tonight

This concludes Trinker's interview thanks for asking the questions TSers hope you learned something about me (not to use against me Dason) and if I offended anyone I blame victorxstc for asking the probing questions

[victorxstc]

Thank you dear trinker for your time put on responding to our questions I'm so glad I know you more and personally don't find your answers but kind and interesting (not at all offensive in my humble opinion).

ps. such a lucky dentist who had the experience of working on raptor teeth That's a very rare case, and I hope I'll read its case report sometimes soon

[noetsi]

Do they actually teach statistics in high school (or below)?