hilary_mason_data hilary_mason_data-2011 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
1 hilary mason data-2011-11-06-80 Million Links a Day Don’t Lie: Fast Company interview!
Introduction: 80 Million Links a Day Don’t Lie: Fast Company interview! Posted: November 6, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Media | Tags: fast company , interview , video | 2 Comments » Fast Company came to our office to film a short interview with me. If you’ve been following bitly closely there won’t be any surprises for you here, but I did get to talk about some of the exciting projects that we’re working on. The best part about filming the interview was getting back to my computer after, where my clever co-workers had been silently answering the questions along with me in our chat room — with a lot more snark.
2 hilary mason data-2011-10-31-Happy Halloween
Introduction: Happy Halloween Posted: October 31, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | Tags: fun , misc | 1 Comment Âť The meatpacking district in NYC has been particularly colorful today! This post is a reminder to myself to have this shirt printed and wear it next Halloween so that I fit in:
3 hilary mason data-2011-10-21-Web 2.0 Summit: The Secrets of our Data Subconscious
Introduction: Web 2.0 Summit: The Secrets of our Data Subconscious Posted: October 21, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Presentations | Tags: conference , data , web2summit | 1 Comment Âť I just got home from the Web 2.0 Summit , a three-day conference that was packed with announcements, interesting ideas, and good conversations. My short talk, The Secrets of our Data Subconscious , touches on how the data we generate online interactions with the physical world spatially and through time, and on the relationships between the things we consume (in private) and the things we broadcast (in public).
4 hilary mason data-2011-10-21-I’m on Fortune’s 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch list!
Introduction: I’m on Fortune’s 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch list! Posted: October 21, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Media | 1 Comment » I’m excited to be on Fortune’s 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch list! My world domination clock is ticking.
5 hilary mason data-2011-10-10-I’m in Glamour Magazine!
Introduction: I’m in Glamour Magazine! Posted: October 10, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Media | Tags: glamour , magazines , media , press , womenintech | 14 Comments » This is probably the least likely thing you would expect to appear on this site, but it’s true! I appear in the November 2011 issue of Glamour alongside Jess Lee, Caterina Fake, and Stacy Brown-Philpot, in a story by Kara Swisher. There will also be a panel event tomorrow morning to talk about the article . I don’t usually speak publicly about the women in tech issue, for a variety of reasons, primarily: if I’m speaking about women in technology I am not speaking about technology , it’s not a topic that I have much insight on, it ignores the other dimensions of the problem, and I would really rather work hard and be known as a great technologist than a great woman technologist. The opportunity to reach out to Glamour’s audience of millions of teenage girls to make math and techn
6 hilary mason data-2011-09-26-Hacking the Food System: The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie
Introduction: Hacking the Food System: The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Posted: September 26, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog , projects | Tags: cookies , food , tech , writing | 1 Comment » Food+Tech Connect is putting together a fun series of essays where technologists and foodies share their opinions on how to hack to the food system. They also had a great party, with liquid nitrogen ice cream and other very cool foods. I’m honored to have been asked to participate, especially since food and tech are two of my favorite things! I decided to write about a hack that I did about three years ago, where I wrote a parser and built a statistical model of chocolate chip cookie recipes that I crawled off of the web. I’d like to tell you the story of the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. This isn’t the Neiman Marcus $65,000 cookie recipe. Nor is it the classic Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that we all grew up with (and, though th
7 hilary mason data-2011-09-25-Conference: Strata NY 2011
Introduction: Conference: Strata NY 2011 Posted: September 25, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Presentations | Tags: conference , keynote , presentations , strataconf , stratany | 1 Comment Âť The first Strata Conference in New York just wound up. It was a five day expo of business, data, and tech, and brought a ton of great people in the data community to New York. Thanks so much to Edd and Alistair and everyone whose hard work made this possible! My talk, Short URLs, Big Data: Learning in Realtime is already online: And the slides are up on Slideshare: Strata NY Sep 2011: Big Data, Short URLs: Learning in Realtime View more presentations from Hilary Mason
8 hilary mason data-2011-08-24-bash: get http response codes for a list of URLs
Introduction: bash: get http response codes for a list of URLs Posted: August 24, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | Tags: bash , code , script , shell | 14 Comments » I had a file with a list of URLs, and I wanted to grab the HTTP response codes for each of them. I’m sure this quick bash script isn’t the best way to do it, but it works, and I’ll probably want to do this again someday, so here it is! #!/bin/bash while read line do echo $(curl --write-out %{http_code} --silent --output /dev/null $line) done <$1
9 hilary mason data-2011-08-21-What do you read that changes the way you think?
Introduction: What do you read that changes the way you think? Posted: August 21, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | Tags: books , philosophy , reading | 24 Comments » A friend asked me which of three startup business books she should read. Obama’s reading list since entering office has nothing surprising on it. The most valuable books I read this year have been stories of things very different from what I spend most of my time thinking about. One of my favorites was China Meiville’s The City & The City , which I loved for the ambition and artistry, and another was Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary , which I loved for the descriptions of creating an analog, scalable information system. What have you read recently that was really great? Edit: Thanks for the recommendations! There are also a bunch over on Google Plus .
10 hilary mason data-2011-07-29-Uses This
Introduction: Uses This Posted: July 29, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Media | Tags: tools , usesthis | 1 Comment » I’m honored to have my tools of choice featured on Uses This !
11 hilary mason data-2011-06-22-My Head is Open Source!
Introduction: My Head is Open Source! Posted: June 22, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | Tags: 3d , makerbot , opensource | 8 Comments » Last night I visited friends at Makerbot , where artist-in-residence Jonathan Monaghan scanned my head with a high-resolution laser scanner. The model is available on Thingiverse and can be printed on your friendly neighborhood makerbot or other 3d printer. There are lots of other awesome models of people and things to play with, including Stephen Colbert’s head . I look forward to the emergence of plastic clone head armies! Edit: Please note: thanks for asking, but brains are not included.
12 hilary mason data-2011-05-21-An Introduction to Machine Learning with Web Data is now available!
Introduction: An Introduction to Machine Learning with Web Data is now available! Posted: May 21, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Presentations | Tags: howto , machinelearning , oreilly , tutorial , video | 2 Comments » I’m really excited that An Introduction to Machine Learning with Web Data is now available for purchase! This is a 2 hour and 43 minute instructional video that walks you through basic machine learning algorithms, first theoretically and mathematically, and then with Python example code (which is available here ). This video is an instructional take and builds on the material I covered in my Strange Loop 2010 keynote Machine Learning: A Love Story and the Data Bootcamp I did with Joe Adler, Drew Conway, and Jake Hofman at the Strata Conference in February. I’d also like to acknowledge the many collaborators, colleagues, and friends who have made definite contributions to my thinking about this material and how best to pres
13 hilary mason data-2011-05-02-How to get a random line from a file in bash.
Introduction: How to get a random line from a file in bash. Posted: May 2, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | Tags: bash , code , one-liner , remember , tips | 25 Comments » I work with a lot of data, and while I’d like to pretend it’s all in upside-down quasi-indexed b-tree rocket ships or some other advanced database, the truth is that much of it is in text files. I often find myself wanting to see a random line from one of these files, just to get a sense of what the data looks like. I thought there must be an easy bash way to do this, but I couldn’t find it (‘shuf’ isn’t installed on my server), so I turned to twitter, and now I’m pleased to present more methods for finding a random line than you ever expected! sort -R | head -n 1 If you can use this, do so! If it isn’t available, consider one of the following commands: @andrewgilmartin suggests using awk: awk 'BEGIN { srand() } rand() >= 0.5 { print; exit }' @devinteske offer
14 hilary mason data-2011-03-27-Gitmarks: a peer-to-peer bookmarking system
Introduction: Gitmarks: a peer-to-peer bookmarking system Posted: March 27, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog , projects | 3 Comments » Several months ago I was looking for a command-line solution for group bookmark sharing. I couldn’t find one, so I coded up a quick python script that runs on top of git. It’s very much a hack that takes advantage of git to manage users, preserve the URL, the tags, the description of the URL (in the commit message) and also includes the content itself (so it’s grep-able later). If you put it on github, you get the additional commenting and collaboration features. You can check out my original code here . I’m very excited that Far McKon has picked up the project and has a great vision for where it can go. If you’re interested in hacking on it with him, let him know! .bbpBox52009388440948740 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/a/1299876209/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #000000;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padd
15 hilary mason data-2011-03-18-Be Ballsy.
Introduction: Be Ballsy. Posted: March 18, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: blog | 9 Comments » The things that are hardest to make yourself do are often the ones that end up being the most rewarding. (By rewarding I mean they lead to the kinds of experiences where you learn something new, get to meet amazing people, and generally have opportunities to do things you never would have imagined doing before. Rewarding does not only mean money.) I was thinking about this at PyCon, after someone asked me how it felt, as a woman, to get up and give a technical talk to approximately 1,400 men. Five years ago I couldn’t have imagined myself doing something like that, but a series of small chances, risks, and experiences have led me here. And it was a ton of fun! I thought about this again when Bryce sent me a link to this post . OATV is hiring an analyst, and they haven’t received applications from women. The OATV team is a wonderful, smart, and energetic group of peop
16 hilary mason data-2011-03-11-Conference: PyCon 2011 Keynote!
Introduction: Conference: PyCon 2011 Keynote! Posted: March 11, 2011 | Author: hilary | Filed under: blog , Presentations | Tags: conference , conferences , pycon , python | 1 Comment » I gave the opening keynote this morning at PyCon . The one thing that everyone in the room at PyCon has in common is that we all love to code. I used that as the central theme of the talk, spoke about the constructs that give us joy, the history of some of our favorite patterns (they date as far back as the 60s!) and proposed that we think about the way we’ll compute fifty years into the future. There’s also a bit of fun data hacking, of course. PyCon 2011 Keynote View more presentations from Hilary Mason . Enjoy the slides. The video is up! Please let me know here or on Twitter if you have any questions or comments.
17 hilary mason data-2011-02-13-Betaworks Builds a Makerbot
Introduction: Betaworks Builds a Makerbot Posted: February 13, 2011 | Author: hilary | Filed under: blog | Tags: betaworks , fun , makerbot , pizza , video | 1 Comment Âť A few weeks ago, a bunch of us spent two long evenings in the office assembling a MakerBot . Hudson Lines made an awesome timelapse video of it. Betaworks builds a MakerBot from hudson on Vimeo . Special thanks to the always awesome Adam (from MakerBot) for helping us breeze through the final configuration and calibration steps.
18 hilary mason data-2011-02-11-Interview on Silicon Angle TV
Introduction: Interview on Silicon Angle TV Posted: February 11, 2011 | Author: Hilary Mason | Filed under: Media | Tags: conference , press , strataconf | 2 Comments » You can catch an interview (or see a writeup ) that I did live from the Strata Conference on Silicon Angle TV! We talk about bit.ly data, politics, and touch briefly on some of the interesting problems that we’re working on. Full video: [I removed the video embed because it was annoyingly auto-playing in some browsers. You can still see the video here .]
19 hilary mason data-2011-02-07-NPR: Interview on Science Friday
Introduction: NPR: Interview on Science Friday Posted: February 7, 2011 | Author: hilary | Filed under: blog , Media | 3 Comments » On Friday, January 28th I hopped in a cab and went up to NPR’s Bryant Park recording studio for a fifteen minute chat with Ira Flatow , host of Science Friday . I’ve been a big fan of Ira and Science Friday since I discovered the show years ago, and it was a very exciting honor to be a guest. The image at the right is a snapshot I took with my phone while nervously waiting outside the studio. The title of the segment is the rather dramatic Privacy At Stake As Sites Track Online Preferences . Our conversation wound around the issues of tracking user data online, and the potential opportunities and dangers that all users of online services face. NPR has the full broadcast and transcript online . By far the most fun and unexpected aspect of this was the number of people who wrote to me to ask questions or say that they appreciated my