The Office for National Statistics (ONS) approached us regarding a task which involves transforming data in a spreadsheet. Basically, unpivotting it. Data transformation is quite a general problem, but one with recurring patterns. Marginal variables are usually, well, somewhere in the margin. Cells generally refer to an observation or the name or value of a […]
Programmers past, present and future
As a UX designer and part-time anthropologist, working at ScraperWiki is an awesome opportunity to meet the whole gamut of hackers, programmers and data geeks. Inside of ScraperWiki itself, I’m surrounded by guys who started programming almost before they could walk. But right at the other end, there are sales and support staff who only […]
Lots of new libraries
We’ve had lots of requests recently for new 3rd party libraries to be accessible from within ScraperWiki. For those of you who don’t know, yes, we take requests for installing libraries! Just send us word on the feedback form and we’ll be happy to install. Also, let us know why you want them as it’s […]