Author: Admin

he web is a huge source of information and data but often the information is presented in an unhelpful manner. Sometimes all you need is a concise summary – this is where web scraping comes in. Take looking for jobs as an example, do you really want to spend all evening trawling through websites when… Continue reading Web Scraping 101

Planning a project and keeping it on track can sometimes be a hard thing to do, due to the inherent uncertainty in real life. Anyone who has ever had a brush with the construction industry – from large projects like Crossrail, down to small projects like an extension on a house – will have seen… Continue reading Uncertainty, Predictor-Correctors, and Project Management

Developing Shiny apps can provide a rapid way to share interactive insight with your team. But making them available in a way that is scalable, secure and yet cost-effective throws up some challenges. In this blog I will sketch out how Shiny apps can be deployed inside Docker containers, hosted by Microsoft Azure’s App Service. Preparing the… Continue reading Taking a Shine to Microsoft Azure

Belief is a question that crossed my mind a while back. The author Terry Pratchett (Sir Pterry to many) had some views on belief: gods and other things like anthropomorphic personifications, existed simply because people believed in them: if people stopped believing, life would continue as normal but without the magic. In Terry Pratchetts’ book… Continue reading What do you believe in

On the 28th May I, like so many students up and down the country, was excited to finish my GCSEs. I had had 3 months of almost nothing to do, which in my mind, was perfect. I was only two weeks into my holiday when I became desperate to do anything that would involve leaving… Continue reading A Week at Bays Consulting

Introduction As a consulting data scientist, I believe a key strength is flexibility to perform technical work across a range of environments, to meet my customer’s specific needs. At the same time, I am always looking for ways to re-use existing work, and also to shift data workloads to the cloud wherever possible. The conda… Continue reading The Amazonian Anaconda

Last week, Labour MP and Shadow Secretary for Education, Kate Green, proclaimed “we don’t want children doing maths at five and six in the evening”. This statement reinforces the stereotypical poor reputation of maths and people’s fear of not having the right answers. If you ask a random sample of people for their opinion about… Continue reading It’s time to rethink the way we are talking about maths

I have always considered myself a creative person. As a child, I absolutely loved drawing, painting and anything that could be considered “arty”. Growing older, I put this passion towards creative media, eventually leading me to a degree in Media Production (which I completed two weeks ago – yippee!) Before I started my degree, when… Continue reading Creativity: Everywhere and in Everything

Being a speaker at a conference and chairing a session are two very different experiences. With the focus being on the speaker, a chairs position can often be overlooked. In saying this, a good chair can make all the difference to a conference. Apologies if that’s not what you wanted to hear – I know… Continue reading Practical Tips for Chairing your First Conference

Being an apprentice is not how I imagined. It’s nothing like being a full-time student, or like studying part-time and working full-time either. As an apprentice, there is no waiting for study-leave to go to lectures. Nor is there any writing up reports in the middle of the night after a full day at work.… Continue reading Life as an Apprentice