Author: Ian Hopkinson
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Using APIs with Excel and Power BI
Introduction to APIs Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are a standard way for computers to communicate with each other. In this article I am going to show how to use Power Query to access data sources on the web via APIs. Power Query is a feature available in versions of the Excel desktop app after 2016…
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Welcome
Welcome to Deva Data! I’m your host, Dr Ian Hopkinson. I’ve worked as a scientist for the last 30 years, at various universities, a large home and personal care company, a startup in Liverpool called The Sensible Code Company (formerly ScraperWiki Ltd), GBG and now as a consultant in data science. The site logo is…
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Rosetta Stone – Rust
In an earlier blog post I explained the motivation for a series of “Rosetta Stone” posts which described the ecosystem for different programming languages. This post covers Rust, the associated GitHub repository with some minimal code is here. This blog post aims to provide some discussion around technology choices whilst the GitHub repository provides details…
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Book review: The Rust Programming Language by Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols
My next review is a small departure, it is for The Rust Programming Language by Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols but rather than buy the physical book I read this interactive version, which has quizzes and embedded, runnable code. The Rust programming language is the target for my next Rosetta Stone blog post which identifies…
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Book review: Beautiful Code edited by Andy Oram & Greg Wilson
This review is of Beautiful Code edited by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson, a collection of 33 essays by 41 authors about computer code that the authors consider beautiful. A number of the authors are very well known, including Brian Kernighan, Charles Petzold, Douglas Crockford and Yukihiro Matsumoto. The chapters vary considerably in length but…
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Book review: Daphne Draws Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
I recently reviewed Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic’s Storytelling with data, as a result the storytelling team sent me a (pre-publication) copy of their latest book, Daphne Draws Data scheduled for publication 29th October 2024 (UK) and 4th September 2024 (US). This is something of a change for me in the sense that the book is targeted at…
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Book review: A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout
Next for review is A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. This a book about a big idea for software design. The big idea is that good software design is about managing complexity. In Ousterhout’s view complexity leads to a set of bad things: (1) change amplification – small changes in code lead to…
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Book Review: Grace Hopper – Admiral of the Cyber Sea by Kathleen Broome Williams
After reading Broad Band by Claire L. Evans, about women in computing, I realised Grace Hopper was important, so I thought I’d hunt out a biography. I found Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea by Kathleen Broome Williams. Unusually I bought it second hand – my copy came from the Richard Stockton College of…
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Rosetta Stone – TypeScript
In an earlier blog post I explained the motivation for a series of “Rosetta Stone” posts which described the ecosystem for different programming languages. This post covers TypeScript, the associated GitHub repository is here. This blog post aims to provide some discussion around technology choices whilst the GitHub repository provides details of what commands to…
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Rosetta Stone – Python
In an earlier blog post I explained the motivation for a series of “Rosetta Stone” posts which described the ecosystem for different programming languages. This post covers Python, the associated GitHub repository is here. This blog post aims to provide some discussion around technology choices whilst the GitHub repository provides details of what commands to…
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