Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

  • Something interesting that happened to you
  • Something humourous that happened to you
  • Something frustrating that happened to you
  • A quick question
  • A request for recommendations
  • Pictures of your pet
  • A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
  • Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

  • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
    5·
    4 months ago

    I thought I’d better post an update about the Lemmy.nz census. I have been working on analysing the data and writing a post, but there’s probably still a while before I’ll be done. There’s quite a lot to get through.

    Also, if anyone knows any good tools for generating graphs then let me know! I’m using LibreOffice Calc as an excuse to learn how to use it, and it’s graphs aren’t that great. I can break out Excel if I have to but to be fair Excel graphs aren’t much better.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      You could do this with python and a couple of libraries. This is just an example, but you could import the data from a DB or use a CSV file.

      import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Pie chart data
labels = ['Category A', 'Category B', 'Category C', 'Category D', 'Category E']
sizes = [30, 25, 20, 15, 10]
colors = ['#ff9999','#66b3ff','#99ff99','#ffcc99','#c2c2f0']

# Pie chart
plt.figure(figsize=(8, 8))
plt.pie(sizes, labels=labels, colors=colors, autopct='%1.1f%%', startangle=140)
plt.title('Sample Pie Chart')
plt.axis('equal') # Equal aspect ratio ensures that pie is drawn as a circle.
plt.show()

# Histogram data
data = np.random.normal(0, 1, 1000) # Generate 1000 random data points with a normal distribution

# Histogram
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
plt.hist(data, bins=30, color='#66b3ff', edgecolor='black')
plt.title('Sample Histogram')
plt.xlabel('Value')
plt.ylabel('Frequency')
plt.show()

      • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
        2·
        4 months ago

        Ooh thanks! I’ll definitely have a play with this. What’s the step before this? Is it as simple as installing python, putting the code in somefile.py, then running it?

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
          3·
          4 months ago

          Yep, if you are running any type of Linux python is already installed.

          I always have a path in my python files to allow for direct running rather than calling python first. This only works on Linux.

          If you put
          #!/usr/bin/env python3
          as the very first line, you can make the file executable and it will just run

          otherwise you will have to call python first, e.g. python yourFile.py

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
            1·
            4 months ago

            Awesome, thanks! I’ll have a play with this over the weekend.

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
      2·
      4 months ago

      Just roll with the LibreCalc charts.

      It’s the data that’s important, perfectly rendered gradients on histogram bars is less important.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
        1·
        4 months ago

        Mainly I don’t like that the pie charts are hard to tell what is what. If there are 6 or 7 things and you have to tell which is which by colour, that’s a bit tricky. Labels on the sections would be better, but I haven’t worked out how to do that.

        Maybe if I think a pie chart shows it best, I’ll also include the bar chart so it’s clearer.

        • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
          2·
          4 months ago

          Use a bar chart. Pie charts are for marketing and pizza.

          Also, no one cares if a bar chart sums to more than 100% ;-)

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
            2·
            4 months ago

            I dunno. I feel something like this works better as a pie chart.

            • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
              2·
              4 months ago

              Pie charts tend to work when you have three to four categories, more than that they fall apart.

              The nice thing about the bar chart is the axis label which can be the raw value rather than a percentage, having a large (7-8) number of categories is still readable especially if there minority categories.

              Also, is all just my opinion, so don’t let me stop you using whatever you like!

              • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
                2·
                4 months ago

                I think pie charts are also helpful for when you have 10 categories but two of them make up 90% of the result.

                But your bar chart preference is noted, so I’ll try to make sure to include them along side pie charts 🙂

                • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
                  2·
                  4 months ago

                  Poor data visualisation is a pet peeve of mine and I’m disproportionately vigorous when talking about it ;-)

                  Especially after a few drinks with dinner.

    • liv@lemmy.nz
      2·
      4 months ago

      Fudge, I forgot to complete it! I got halfway through and started having an existential crisis about my identity ha ha and thought I’ll come back later and fix this.

        • liv@lemmy.nz
          2·
          4 months ago

          Thanks! Done!

          Great, I’m back to questioning my identity and I’d forgotten the other super hard question in there, dessert. 😃

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
            2·
            4 months ago

            Haha I copied that from the Lemmy.ca one, I thought it would be interesting to see any differences!

            If anyone else wants to do it and hasn’t had a chance, I’ll leave it open until tonight or whenever I next get back to doing the data analysis.

    • Lee Duna@lemmy.nzEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I’m curious, can we have something like automation in LibreOffice? I mean like in VBA, where I can pull data and export excel charts.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
        2·
        4 months ago

        LibreOffice Calc supports its own macro language as well as a subset of VBA! I recently converted an Excel macro to LibreOffice and it wasn’t too painful.

  • Lee Duna@lemmy.nzEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    It’s been a month since I started journey with Linux Mint as my daily driver. I enjoy tinkering with things like PulseEffects (trying to create similar sound effects as in Windows). Also tried to customize Conky, but I think I need to learn Lua.

    I also found out that my setup without a swap file / partition. I guess it because I use btrfs for the root partition, so the Mint installer replaced swap with some tmpfs folders. I only realized after I got stuck in OOM. 😂😂

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
      2·
      4 months ago

      One thing I learnt in making the jump to Linux as a daily driver is to keep all my documents and files on a separate partition. There are so many distros that I wanted to test a few, and I got sick of copying 600GB around all the time. Much easier to keep them separated on a partition away from the boot partition.

  • FloofahNZ@lemmy.nz
    3·
    4 months ago

    “15 Minutes of Fame”

    Andy Warhol once said, everyone will eventually get their “15 Minutes of Fame”.

    Still waiting for mine …

    • liv@lemmy.nz
      4·
      4 months ago

      Be careful what you wish for. Mine was when half my hometown started telling my mother they saw me stuffing my face with chips in the background of a One News report when I was meant to be in class.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
      2·
      4 months ago

      Everyone might get their 15 minutes of fame, but it may not be for a good reason. Try not to be a murderer or an Elon Musk.

      You might just be the person that the news videos falling over in the wind to demonstrate how windy it is today. Still counts.

      • FloofahNZ@lemmy.nz
        3·
        4 months ago

        Given the current ease for anyone to post YouTube or social media content these days, and gaining attention, the quote, originally from around the 1970’s, was quite forward looking to how things have now become.

    • liv@lemmy.nz
      2·
      4 months ago

      I did it when I was in my 20s a few times and I hated it. Tasted suspiciously like vomit.

      However I did not give up there. The grown up spider/icecream soda involves tonic water, french vanilla icecream, crushed strawberries and a dash of gin, imo.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
        2·
        4 months ago

        I like how you hated it so much, you tried it multiple times 😆

        I can’t stomach anything with tonic water. It must be an acquired taste because it’s so bad.

        • liv@lemmy.nz
          2·
          4 months ago

          What can I say, I was young and it feels like it should work so I kept thinking maybe the champagne wasn’t good enough, maybe it works better with dry instead of sweet, etc.

          If you hate tonic, maybe substitute one of those fancy Fever Tree club sodas then?

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
            2·
            4 months ago

            To be honest, the whole thing doesn’t sound that appetising to me! I’m just not a big spider fan in general, so swapping the tonic probably wouldn’t help.

            • liv@lemmy.nz
              2·
              4 months ago

              Makes sense. I still really love plain lemonade ones, feels like a treat for me.