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"Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated." - Zen of Python

How to turn images into text with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in R

How to turn images into text with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in R

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a way of turning pictures of words into actual words on your electronic device. For example, OCR can turn a photo of a book page, or a bad photocopy of a PDF, into actual words and characters you can edit. In fact, Microsoft Office already

How much did it cost me to live in Melbourne, Wellington and Singapore?

How much did it cost me to live in Melbourne, Wellington and Singapore?

How well does the ONS' scale of wellbeing line up with intuition?

How well does the ONS' scale of wellbeing line up with intuition?

In 2013, I started monitoring my mental health. I scored my day based on my subjective impression on a scale from one to ten. I had a vague sense that a day less than five had more pain than pleasure, and vice versa for a day greater than five. But

I kept a journal for 10 years, here's what I learnt about happiness

I kept a journal for 10 years, here's what I learnt about happiness

In 2013, I was having a hard time of it. I graduated university in 2012. I completed an internship at a policy think tank. I then got a job in a big four consultancy, moved to Melbourne, met lots of people and put down roots. But soon I felt completely

How to map the Australian Government's Travel Advice in R

How to map the Australian Government's Travel Advice in R

The Australian Government operates the site https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/ which advises Australians on whether and where to travel. Oftentimes the maps are down as the Government reconsiders its advice, but the overall travel advisory remains. For those who want to create their own map, you can use the

How to build a travel map in R (Updated 2024)

How to build a travel map in R (Updated 2024)

I used to catalogue my holidays using Polarsteps. It's a great app for tracking your travels, sharing photos and keeping a journal as you go. But my organising tendencies cannot abide the minor but regular inaccuracies of the Polarsteps travel tracker. Instead, I built my own map in