[Interview]: Get to know bugman!

[Dason]

bugman has graciously accepted to be the next member to be interviewed and I have offered to provide a brief introduction to get things started.

A little bit from bugman's profile:
Biography: A New Zealander currently living in Australia
Location: Australia
Interests: Fly fishing; Science; Statistics; Photography; Cricket; Rugby Union; music; movies
Occupation: Aquatic ecologist

bugman is one of the global moderators here and has been a member for quite some time (since 9-16-2008!). They are a user of both Linux and R (so you know bugman is really cool!).

So I'll quit jibber-jabbering now and let the interview start!

 

[gianmarco]

Hi Phil,
1) what was your first interest that brought you to statistics?
2) what part of stats did you approach first?
3) what part of stats do you like most?
4) how came that you join this Forum?

Gm

 

[bugman]

1) what was your first interest that brought you to statistics?

I used to hand draw barcharts of fishing data that I collected. I always thought this was kinda cool. Once at uni I enrolled in EXTRA stat papers becasue I love the theory and outputs of stats. I also get off on the aesthetics of it (plots, notation - real geek stuff).

2) what part of stats did you approach first?

Basic theory of CLT, probabilities and ANOVAS by hand.

3) what part of stats do you like most?

Multivariate statistics and trend analyses. I am a big fan of GAM's and mixed models too. I have read quite alot on data visualisation and one of my favorate books is on that subject (by Tufte!).

4) how came that you join this Forum?
I think I was struggling to get my head around a BACI type design and came across this forum (4 years ago now!! Hows that?!). My first contact was with Dragan I think.

 

[Dason]

Which book by Tufte is your favorite?

Would you be willing to post a photo of yourself?

If you had to choose one type of being to be your overlord which would you choose: bots or raptors?

 

[vinux]

(1) Which team will win the second test match ( IND vs NZ)?
(2) Favourite cricketer
(3) Favourite movie(s)
(4) Favourite Fish
(5) Did you meet Ross Ihaka/Robert Gentleman in person?

 

[trinker]

1. Why the name bugman? Was it the love of fly fishing?

2. This will show my ignorance but...
What is the difference between Australia and New Zealand? They're close right? What's the difference in climates, culture, landscape etc.

3. Ever been to the U.S.A.?

4. What's your favorite mathematical paradox (or just cool math trick)?

 

[bugman]

Which book by Tufte is your favorite?

Would you be willing to post a photo of yourself?

If you had to choose one type of being to be your overlord which would you choose: bots or raptors?

1) Visual Display of Quantitative Information. I have heard Beautiful evidence is good, but I haven't read it.

2) Im a bit shy. But sure. I'll dig one out.

3) Dason, I was expecting this. Bots. By a long shot. Raptors are evil, conniving vermin and I dont trust them at all.

 

[bugman]

(1) Which team will win the second test match ( IND vs NZ)?
(2) Favourite cricketer
(3) Favourite movie(s)
(4) Favourite Fish
(5) Did you meet Ross Ihaka/Robert Gentleman in person?

1)Good question Vinux. I love NZ but I know they cant play cricket right now. India, but not by much. NZ are actually doing ok. I just check cricinfo....
2) I have several all for different reasons.

Sachin Tendulkar - he is just the greatest.
Chris Gayle - he is the coolest
Danial Vetoori, he's a kiwi

3) Movies? Wow, thats tricky. I love the usual suspects, lord of the rings, pulp fiction, reservoir dogs, kill bill, star wars and anything with Bill Murray in it.

4) favorate eating fish - Snapper or Grouper. Favorate sports fish - trout and salmon!

5) Haven't yet. But I want to!

 

[bugman]

1. Why the name bugman? Was it the love of fly fishing?

2. This will show my ignorance but...
What is the difference between Australia and New Zealand? They're close right? What's the difference in climates, culture, landscape etc.

3. Ever been to the U.S.A.?

4. What's your favorite mathematical paradox (or just cool math trick)?

Hey there Trinker!

1) Yep, fishing mainly. I tie my own trout flies too and take macro photos of bugs. I also annoy people.
2) This is such a loaded question I wont even start.
I once asked a Canadian the same question about America and nearly got thrown out of a bar.

But seriously, NZ lies about 2000 miles east of australia. It has a moderate climate and doesnt really have extreme highs or lows. NZ is mountainous and has volcanic lakes, glaciers and beautiful forests. Australia is HOT and flat and dry. New Zealanders tend to achieve greatness quietly (Rutherford, Hadley Wickham etc...) while Austrlians (and I know a few memebers that are going to hate me for this ) tend to claim New Zealanders glory for themselves (such as the band Crowded House and Shihad) and the delicious desert -Pavalova. New Zealand is superior at Rugby, and tend to hav emuch nicer accents than our gracious neighbours. Australia is also rife with Raptors which makes it a terrifying place to live.

3) Yes! LA, New York, Buffalo and some weird town in Northern New York state.
4) Buffons needle. Im sure there are others much better, but I love pi and this is the first that springs to mind.

 

[vinux]

Thanks Bugman.

1)Good question Vinux. I love NZ but I know they cant play cricket right now. India, but not by much. NZ are actually doing ok. I just check cricinfo....

This match happened at my city, Bangalore. It was cloudy the whole day here. So I thought it is going to be a drawn match. Anyway your prediction is correct.

Another set of questions
(1) Do you like to share any of your photography work? Is photography is your serious hobby? Did you send any of your collection to National geographic?
(2) There were some news that whales/sharks found in Arabian sea. I think this has something to do with global warming. Do you have anything to share us on global warming and aquatic ecologist?
(3) What is your favourite food/recipe?

 

[bugman]

Thanks Bugman.


This match happened at my city, Bangalore. It was cloudy the whole day here. So I thought it is going to be a drawn match. Anyway your prediction is correct.

Another set of questions
(1) Do you like to share any of your photography work? Is photography is your serious hobby? Did you send any of your collection to National geographic?
(2) There were some news that whales/sharks found in Arabian sea. I think this has something to do with global warming. Do you have anything to share us on global warming and aquatic ecologist?
(3) What is your favourite food/recipe?

1) its a fairly serious hobby vinux. I haven't had anything published in a magazine of that calibre, but i have entered a few competitions and one of my fishing photos was published in a fishing magazine.
2) ha. yeah, its surprising (to me anyway) that there a still quite a few skeptics out there. Global warming is becoming a serious issue in Australia, especially in the relm of water manangement. Australia has alot of intermitent rivers and streams that contain quite rates if endemism, and with the increasingly long periods of drying - less frequent wet periods - these systems are in danger of loosing these critters. This is particulary true for groundwater and sub terrainean aquaifers where a large number of species are found only there. Mananging extraction licences is becoming more and more important, and difficult during these times. Coal seam gas mining is also causing pressure to build on these ecosystems, so combined with global warming this is big buisiness right now.

3) this is really hard. I was a professional chef before returning to study ecology and statistics, so its tough. But actually, I love simple food done well. I love pasta, seafood and am particulalry keen on lamb sagwalah and dossi. Can't beat a good cheeseburger though!

 

[vinux]

1) I was a professional chef before returning to study ecology and statistics

You are really cool.

 

[trinker]

Dason, I was expecting this. Bots. By a long shot. Raptors are evil, conniving vermin and I dont trust them at all.

I'm boycotting the rest of this interview. I should have expected this though with R2D2 for an icon. I thought maybe it was an icon showing something you'd like to destroy.

 

[Dason]

I'm boycotting the reset of this interview. I should have expected this though with R2D2 for an icon. I thought maybe it was an icon showing something you'd like to destroy.

Everybody knows that the avatar a person uses says nothing about them.

 

[bugman]

Everybody knows that the avatar a person uses says nothing about them.

awwww, come on trinker. Where is the proof that R2D2 is a bot anyway? Raptors are cunning...

 

[trinker]

Just like a statistician, he needs proof for what his eye sees

 

[Dason]

Eyes can be deceiving.

View attachment 2626

Does it look like there is a difference between these two groups?

Because they were both generated using random standard normal deviates! So there is no difference in their population means. You can't always believe what you see...

For instance some people might take my new avatar as proof that I am bot. But they're wrong because I am definitely a human.

Now for more questions for bugman:

1) Do/did you watch Firefly?

2) What is your favorite hot beverage?

3) What areas of statistics would you like to learn more about?

 

[bugman]

1) Do/did you watch Firefly?

2) What is your favorite hot beverage?

3) What areas of statistics would you like to learn more about?

1. No, we dont have it here, but I'm intreged. Tell me more!!
2. Coffee and hot chocolate
3. Theory behind probability distributions and when to apply them. Also I would like to understand time series and zero inflated models better. AND I would love to have Jakes knowledge about the lme4 pakage and mixed models. (Its not too much to ask is it?)

 

[trinker]

AND I would love to have Jakes knowledge about the lme4 pakage and mixed models. (Its not too much to ask is it?)

Beware Jake he's planning on stealing your brains. Brains are to a bot what cookies are to a cookie scientist.

 

[bugman]

Im after yours too trinker, so don't relax yet!