Josh Wieder

I needed to setup a quick Cassandra environment in Windows today, but I ran into a problem when executing the quick start guide from Cassandra's (excellent) website . The quick start assumes a working Docker environment. Because this is in Windows, WSL 2 has been configured, and the Docker for Windows binary has been properly installed: docker pull cassandra:latest  docker network create cassandra docker run --rm -d --name cassandra --hostname cassandra --network cassandra cassandra From here you can either load data into Cassandra from a file or start a prompt. A prompt is supposed to be opened like this per the documentation: docker run --rm -it --network cassandra nuvo/docker-cqlsh cqlsh cassandra 9042 --cqlversion='3.4.4' This produces an error:   Error messages like this can be a little intimidating. There's a hint, though, in the last line. ValueError and 'invalid literal for int()...

We tend to overestimate the reliability of authority figures, and this impacts how we should analyze data for public policy. Public data is an intrinsic appeal to authority The CDC's WONDER database keeps track of causes of death within the United States . When a death certificate is created for a person in the United States, the certificate includes a special code indicating the cause of death. Through a lengthy process, that information makes its way from the funeral home or hospital to a state registry to the National Vital Statistics System and finally to the CDC. CDC tracks that information in WONDER, which can be partially queried by the public. WONDER is used by scientists, researchers and journalists for all sorts of reasons. It was data from WONDER that largely provided the justification for the claim the the United States has been undergoing an epidemic of heroin addiction. And by any measure, the US has a serious problem with heroin and abuse of other opiate drugs. But W...

Over the last month or so I've noticed that all of the ads and retail descriptions of low-end PCs I have been seeing have updated their description of the included version of Windows. Instead of promising that purchasing a new PC includes "Windows 10", "Windows 10 Home" or "Windows 10 Pro", the operating system was listed as "Windows 10 S", as shown in the screenshot below: Windows 10 "S-Mode" isn't new: it was released as part of the Windows update released in April 2018. But using the term in a sales context - promising new PCs will include Windows S-Mode, while not clarifying what actual version of Windows will be included, is very new and suggests there is a tectonic shift in thinking about the Windows operating system and its relationship to consumers. What is "S-Mode"? According to Microsoft's FAQ, S-Mode is not a version or edition of the Windows 10 license, in the way that Home or Pro edition is. Instead, S...