After a recent conversation with a friend about photography and digital images, there seems to be many unanswered questions out there regarding the wide variety of image formats which have become commonplace in our lives. A few months ago I wrote a short article on HDR Photography (link) since so many people were asking questions […]
Kitchen Photos
Here are photos from my latest project. It is still a work in progress; new article will be posted when completed.
Independent Exploration: Picking a Model
At the onset of the semester, myself along with Taylor, Xu and Erick committed to setting up and running a 3d hydrographic model of Apalachicola Bay. Since the primary goal of these weekly meetings was to learn how to take a modelling project from start to finish, we needed to be deliberate about our choice […]
Ventilation in the shop
Ever since setting up my workshop last month, I’ve been working on making the space as versatile and organized as possible–a bit of a trial and error process. One step in the right direction was setting up a ventilation system so that the fumes and dust created by the various projects would be taken care […]
Political Economics: Formation of the State
This essay is taken nearly verbatim from notes on the subject taken during a seminar at Boston College and later compiled into essay form. All information was presented by Dr. Fukuyama with additional content and context provided by me. Fukuyama is perhaps best known for his influential textbook, The End of History and the Last […]
Kitchen Renovation: Measurements and Quotes for new Countertops
Over the past two weeks I’ve been running around town either before or after work in the hope of negotiating a fair price for some granite countertops in my latest kitchen remodel. Since I’ve found the experience frustrating and painstaking, I wanted to share my experience with the local businesses in case anyone finds themselves […]
Quick introduction to EOF/PCA analysis
In the field of oceanography, statistical analysis of complex data is a fundamental skill that often calls for mathematics beyond the training of the student. Here I would like to walk through some simple linear algebra and connect it to a well-used yet poorly understood statistical analysis technique. Eigenpairs Given a linear transformation (e.g. $x\mapsto […]
Moroccan Chicken Recipe
As the title hints, this will be a post about a recipe I created over this past weekend. On Saturday I was hosting a BBQ to celebrate the end of the fall semester and because I wanted to show friends around my place. While I may be able to get by on a charcoal grill, […]
Philosophy Monday: On the Origin, Propagation and Cause of Variations
Darwin’s On the Origins of Species provided a vivid and practical mechanism to explain how variations within a species can be selected for. This mechanism became known as natural selection or, perhaps less accurately, survival of the fittest. Although Darwin’s natural selection mechanism was not novel—Malthus described a similar mechanism as actively limiting a population’s […]
Being smart about adventure
Over the years I have certainly been the recipient of plenty of concern regarding the sometimes dangerous recreation I pursue, yet I’m always confident because I have a plan. Now there is always risk–a tree could fall and kill me or a poisonous snake could catch me at a bad time–but risk is only dangerous is […]
Analyzing YSI data through clustering
Update 10/13/15 – Minor improvements to code and an update to the latest findings. CTD data (conductivity, temperature and depth) from a YSI provides a quick and methodologically simple way to estimate the current water column state by, literally, dropping an instrument off the side of a boat. During each deployment the YSI records the […]
The Future of R
On a day to day basis, I use the R programing language more than any other language (e.g Python, Java, Fortran, Matlab…), and there is a good reason for it: R excels at the sort of work I do. It has been extremely well suited to my modeling work, especially when going to analyze the […]
Organizing: More new and less old by putting the new with the old
I’m not sure about you, but I have always struggled with keeping all of my digital files organized and readily available. Often times it feels as if sorting and organizing physical copies would be much easier, but alas! that’s not a realistic option. Instead I always end up resorting these files into a bunch of […]
Grassroots Learning: Independent Explorations
Taylor and myself have traditionally spent a fair bit of time outside of lectures and meetings going over material that we find interesting, confusing or useful. Often these topics would push one of us into delving more deeply into the literature or logic of the problem and then sharing the insight and answer with the […]
On my Religion
For most people relgion was an aspect of life that they simply grew up with. An aspect that they never had too much personal choice in until a fairly mature age. In America countless children, ages less than say 16 go to church every Sunday, like clockwork, with their family and say the sacred prayers […]
Markov Chain Monte Carlo: A Practical Introduction
Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation sounds, admittedly, like a method better left to professional practitioners and the like; but please don’t let the esoteric name fool you. MCMC, as we like to call is, is a powerful yet deceptively simple technique that can be useful in problems ranging throughout science and engineering. Since this promises […]
Home Workshop
Over the last couple days I’ve been working pretty hard trying to get a home workshop together, and I wanted to share the progress I’ve made. My house has an attached 1 car garage which also houses both the laundry area and the trash bins, so space is a bit tight. Let’s jump right in […]
Finalizing my research, the CCELIM model, in R
For the past 6 months I’ve been working on an inverse modeling project as a ‘starter’ graduate project, and today I am announcing that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. While there is certainly more work ahead, especially with regards to the manuscript, Â the model and the code are just […]
Sapir-Whorf and the nature of experience
The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a classic all its own. Sure there’s WE, Brave New World and countless other dystopian novels from the early to mid 20th century[1]; yet none of these novels are quite so prescient or relevant decades after their release. While literary critics and poor graduate students will certainly continue […]
Getting a new name: switching hosting services and much more
Today makes the beginning of a slow transition over to a new domain name: TKelly.org. Over the course of the past couple years, I’ve grown fond of the .me domain[1] and it has served my needs well. But as fate would have it, it’s time for a change. My hosting service, the company that manages the […]
Statistical Analysis for my Inverse Modeling
For the past week I’ve been working on a small but important facet of my inverse modeling research: a sensitivity analysis. Since some of the constraints placed on the model are estimated from measured quantities and not really nailed down, we need to be confident that a small change in the measurement wouldn’t make a […]
Philosophy Monday: The Birth of Education
Go up to any student of a modern literature course as ask what their reading. Perhaps you’ll hear about Shelly’s Frankenstein or Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment or perhaps Orwell’s 1984. Regardless of which works make their reading list, if you ask this student if what they’re reading is ‘True’ with a capital T you’ll likely […]
Philosophy Monday: Heat
From the ancient times of philosophical thought to the advent of the first chemical theories of Becher, heat had been a mysterious concept. It is almost a wonder that something as ubiquitous as heat could be debated, but often daily experience is a poor substitute for real understanding. Although a defining character in differentiating chemistry from […]
Which Witch is Which
This post is an elaboration of an iRKernel Notebook which can be found at http://misc.tkelly.org/Which_Witch.html. For a previous article on the iPython Notebook, see here. Every programming language comes pre-packaged with certain basic functions, or methods, that are considered standard. These generally include methods for sorting objects, conversions between basic types (e.g. integer $\leftrightarrow$ float […]
iPython Notebook
Even though Python is one of those skills I’d love to claim proficiency in, I haven’t worked on a real project in the language in quite some time. I’ve always felt more comfortable in statically-typed languages, like Java, where I know exactly how the data is structured[1]. When a friend sent me a NPZ model he’s […]
Photos of Photos
I’ve discovered a new technique in post-processing images that I feel holds a lot of promise when making prints that you want to be captivating and expressive. To save you from the details here are a few examples of the results. Since I am no artist I make no claims for the images except that I like […]
Patio Upgrade: Part 2
Ten days ago I wrote about my plans and progress in giving my backyard patio a facelift, Patio Upgrade Part 1, so today I wanted to show where we are at. Since last time I have been swamped in work (Mini Split Installation) and have scarcely even thought about the patio, much less done any work […]
Sunday Gardening
Continuing what now seems like a weekly tradition, I took care of some of the yardwork on my TODO list this morning. When at it, I decided to upgrade the plants off the front of my front porch since the four that were there are either dead or dying.
Biting off more than I can chew, again
In a previous article I lauded the habit of tackling large, novel problems head on, so after my recent foray in HVAC, it seemed appropriate to demonize the same trait to ensure a well-rounded perspective. To begin this story, let’s start at the beginning. The Story Ever since I realized that my AC unit wasn’t […]
Making R your own: Scripting & Tweeting
Previously I have spoken on the merits of the R programming language (here) and alluded to its place in my research (here)[1], so today I thought it was about time to share how I approach using R in my research. R–just like any other tool–needs to be leveraged in such a way that the use […]