Martin Mächler's Avatar

Martin Mächler

@mmaechler

Husband, father, granddaddy; Christian; Math Prof.em. ETH; R Core member;

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02.05.2024
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Latest posts by Martin Mächler @mmaechler

Congratulations to the baby! (the human one, not the software ;-)😜

09.03.2026 08:57 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

...as @r-foundation.bsky.social knows all too well. #rstats

08.03.2026 14:55 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Me too. ((Teaching R and in general: I think the bigger problem nowadays is motivating students to *think* more rather than just letting an AI ..))

09.03.2026 08:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Loops are fine in R - notably in such cases (showing video by looping through frames). Whoever told you "should avoid" without qualification was not a good teacher of R.

26.02.2026 14:35 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Debugging Sensitivity to C math library on Linux - The R Blog

New #RStats blog post from Tomas Kalibera: Debugging Sensitivity to C math library on Linux.

Following on from the previous blog entry, this post introduces the mfuzz tool which can be used on Linux to empirically calibrate the tolerance of numerical tests.

blog.r-project.org/2026/01/30/d...

30.01.2026 22:02 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Post image

I’ve changed my header photo to this one. It shows my father Herbert and his sister Lotte with their parents Fritz and Marta in their Frankfurt apartment before Herbert and Lotte were sent to England on the Kindertransport, and later Fritz and Marta transported to Lodz Ghetto, final fate unknown.

21.11.2024 13:09 👍 1350 🔁 170 💬 74 📌 5

Go, Canada!

18.01.2026 16:03 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A promotional image for the UseR! Conference.

Top text: "UseR! Conference, 7-9 July, 2026, Warsaw".

Image: A scenic photograph of the Warsaw, Poland skyline at sunset, featuring prominent skyscrapers like the Palace of Culture and Science bathed in golden light.

Bottom section: A text box with the useR! logo in the corner. The text reads: "Why Sponsor useR! 2026? useR!2026 brings together R users, developers, and enthusiasts from around the world. Your sponsorship helps us maintain affordable registration rates while delivering a high-quality conference experience."

A promotional image for the UseR! Conference. Top text: "UseR! Conference, 7-9 July, 2026, Warsaw". Image: A scenic photograph of the Warsaw, Poland skyline at sunset, featuring prominent skyscrapers like the Palace of Culture and Science bathed in golden light. Bottom section: A text box with the useR! logo in the corner. The text reads: "Why Sponsor useR! 2026? useR!2026 brings together R users, developers, and enthusiasts from around the world. Your sponsorship helps us maintain affordable registration rates while delivering a high-quality conference experience."

Support Open-Source Data Science-Sponsor UseR! 2026
Join us in Warsaw 6–9 July 2026 at the premier event for R. As a sponsor, you help power an inclusive, high-impact event while reaching thousands of researchers, developers, and educators.
user2026.r-project.org/about/sponso...

#RStats #useR2026

14.10.2025 16:42 👍 11 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
SSI awards funding to 13 projects through the RSMF Round 1 | Software Sustainability Institute We are pleased to announce that the Research Software Maintenance Fund (RSMF) has funded 13 projects to advance the sustainability and impact of research software. Through this initiative, the SSI, wi...

The R Foundation is happy to be a partner on the project

"Enabling the next generation of R contributors"

awarded £500k under the Research Software Maintenance Fund (Software Sustainability Institute, UK).

Announcement: www.software.ac.uk/ssi-awards-f...

Congratulations to the project team!

10.12.2025 20:00 👍 43 🔁 15 💬 1 📌 1

I remember John Fox as one of the most kind R Foundation #rstats members (ca. 2006-2023) giving wise and kind words often. The 1-1 interview he held with several of us, resulting in a useR!2008 pres and the article journal.r-project.org/articles/RJ-... It is sad to miss him. May he rest in peace!

28.11.2025 20:57 👍 24 🔁 5 💬 3 📌 0

The #rstats community has given me so much, and I give back enthusiastically! I love this stuff. It's easy to talk and teach about stuff you love ❤️❤️❤️ But you're right, this community is just the best, most generous group ✨

27.10.2025 02:50 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Ok, that's it. Just a story about how much I love R, how much I miss teaching, my love for stats, and my amazing friend on her PhD journey 😌 I hope you spent your weekend doing things that feel magical, too!! 🪄✨
8/8

27.10.2025 00:59 👍 20 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0

We've used this in student exercises (using #rstat R) before...
.. embarrassing that Swiss official news casts on the Sechseläuten use this yearly being seemingly serious about its predictive power ... horrifying me every year.

19.10.2025 20:01 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Niall Ferguson: Without Books We Will Be Barbarians It is not the road to serfdom that awaits—but the steep downward slope to the status of a peasant in ancient Egypt, writes Niall Ferguson.

Niall Ferguson: Without Books We Will Be Barbarians www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferg... quiet convincing & frightening. Will we (mankind) "turn around"?

16.10.2025 19:26 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The Sovereign Tech Fund invests $450,000 in R Foundation to Enhance R’s Sustainability and Security – R Consortium R Foundation embarking on a crucial project to modernize R’s core infrastructure, improve its maintainability, and fortify its supply chain.

🚨 Big news for the R Community!

The Sovereign Tech Fund has invested $450,000 in the R Foundation to strengthen R’s sustainability, security, and modernization.

Details: r-consortium.org/posts/sovere...

#rstats #opensource #datascience

02.10.2025 16:54 👍 52 🔁 8 💬 2 📌 3
Preview
2025 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations DuckDuckGo is donating $1.1 million in 2025 to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online.

EFF thanks DuckDuckGo for their generous support as we continue the fight to protect your privacy online!

02.10.2025 21:17 👍 179 🔁 30 💬 2 📌 4

and then .. you did / didn't make it available?

23.08.2025 09:10 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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They tried to kill us (a missile hit like three blocks from us),

We survived (but are very tired),

Let's eat (pancakes!)

14.06.2025 12:31 👍 18 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

You're right ... but it's fun and somewhat insightful, I love it!

12.06.2025 19:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
useR! Early Bird sales end this Wednesday on April 30th!

useR! Early Bird sales end this Wednesday on April 30th!

REMINDER!!! Early Bird Registration for useR! 2025 is open until April 30th!

Join this gathering of leaders in industry, academia, and the government to network while you increase your expertise in #R.
user2025.r-project.org/register

#useR2025 #RStats #coding #statistics #coding #data

28.04.2025 16:16 👍 13 🔁 13 💬 0 📌 2
Post image Post image Post image Post image

After a massive Russian missile strike on Kyiv, teens waited 12 hours at the rubble of their friend’s home.

He was found dead.

Three children were killed in the attack.

One friend said simply, “He was good. I want people to know that.”

Photo: UNICEF Ukraine

24.04.2025 16:38 👍 253 🔁 110 💬 12 📌 10
An autumn scene of the Duke Belltower along with the useR! 2025 logo and text about the early bird ticket special.

An autumn scene of the Duke Belltower along with the useR! 2025 logo and text about the early bird ticket special.

Early Bird for useR! 2025 is open until April 30th!

Join this gathering of leaders in industry, academia, and the government to network while you increase your expertise in #R.
useR! will be held from August 8th to August 10th at Duke University.

Conference page: user2025.r-project.org
#rstats

21.04.2025 15:55 👍 5 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value

Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value

I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :(

So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/

20.03.2025 18:30 👍 1463 🔁 437 💬 57 📌 29

It’s worth stating this simply: For literally anyone in the US Govt from 1945 to 2025, Signalgate would require an instant resignation—and a criminal investigation. It would be a matter of personal *honor* to resign. The fact Mike Waltz & Pete Hegseth are choosing to fight it out is a terrible omen.

26.03.2025 02:11 👍 29513 🔁 6739 💬 923 📌 299

Government spreadsheets sometimes add asterisks next to a few numbers in a large data set. Why worry about that when I can handle it automatically?
x <- c("10.1", "74%", "23*")
as.numeric(x)
[1] 10.1 NA NA
Warning message:
NAs introduced by coercion
readr::parse_number(x)
[1] 10.1 74.0 23.0

08.03.2025 17:13 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

I see; never had the need, but more importantly, the question only involved number strings .. hence why should the answer be about something more complicated... ... but never mind.

08.03.2025 03:56 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

"When a clown moves into a castle, he doesn't become a king. The castle becomes a circus" - Turkish proverb

07.03.2025 16:04 👍 33 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

Sorry.. a "typo" -- as.numeric("0.01") of course

08.03.2025 03:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0