Simple linear regression with Python and R: Getting started

Development of a linear model in R using physical property values of rubber samples. Explore the use of R for linear modeling in a detailed document.

Python and R are open-source programming languages. There is a large community of scientific software developers using Python and its NumPy and SciPy libraries. While Python is a general-purpose language, R programming mainly has its focus on statistical and predictive analysis. Both languages are currently popular choices in designing algorithms for big data problems and machine learning projects, but also are employed by researchers in diverse fields whenever the need arises for data fitting, complex calculations, simulations and modeling.

The evaluation of the the relationship between two variables is a frequently occurring task; for example, in calibrating measurement instruments and modeling experimental data. Here is a Getting Started document:  Simple linear regression with Python and R: three ways to begin with. Therein, linear modeling in Python and R is demonstrated and compared. You will learn how

• to import CSV-formated data in Python and R ,
• to use NumPy arrays in SLR computation,
• to derive regression and correlation coefficients with SciPy's stats.linregress() function,
• to use R's data.frame container with the lm() function to fit a linear model presenting your data.

R instruction resulting into a scatter diagram for the rubber-sample data used in the linear model development

  
Keywords: linear regression, Python, R, statistical description, data analysis, machine learning.

Threats or no threats? What is a harmful website?

The McAfee security scan is supposed to identify threats on and onto a computer [1]. Recently, I got a list of harmful websites, McAfee found after a scan. For example, the list included the following sites:

• linkedin.com
• html5.validator.nu
• independent.academia.com
• trailingahead.blogspot.com
• commerce.gov
• ioam.de

What does this mean? The last two sites in the list I don't recall visiting. The first two I visit frequently—like many of us do! So, I am not really expecting them to be a threat. Neither is my Trailingahead blog, hosted by Blogger, which is a Google service. 

I checked the URLs above with VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com/#/home/url). They came out clean. I didn't see flags or URL/domain blacklisting.

If McAfee finds a website it indicates as harmful, then—so goes the claim—the scanner has detected some evidence of misbehavior such as spamming, malware activity or a server problem [2]. But obviously this website-threat connection is not always true or, at least, not made transparent. There are people out there with the advice to ignore such “harmful website” warnings or even uninstall McAfee [3].

Now, I am not sure if this information was helpful? But I hope it was not harmful!

References

[1] Lynn Burbeck: How to Remove Threats Detected by McAdee. It Still Works. Link: https://itstillworks.com/remove-threats-detected-mcafee-8572308.html.
[2] What does it mean if McAfee scan finds an "issue" of "harmful website" for a site I visited in the past, but no other issues? Quora. Link: www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-if-McAfee-scan-finds-an-issue-of-harmful-website-for-a-site-I-visited-in-the-past-but-no-other-issues.
[3] How do I get rid of a "Harmful Website" threat? Yahoo! Answers. Link: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20131218145638AA5JdP3.