Configuring KNIME to work with Python 2.7.x on Windows

UPDATE: These days it is recommended to use Python3 instead of Python2 Apparently it is tricky to get Python integration working in the KNIME Analytics Platform. If you read the official guide too quickly you can miss some critical information at the bottom of the page. I was getting an error complaining that the google.protobuf library was missing even though I thought that I had everything installed correctly: Library google.protobuf is missing, required minimum version is 2....

August 23, 2017 · Simon

How to get up-to-date Python packages without bothering your cluster admin

If you have ever been stuck as a user on an out-of-date cluster without root access it can be frustrating to ask the admin guy to install packages for you. Even if they respond, by the time they get round to it you might have moved onto something else. The moment could be gone. Luckily, as far as Python is concerned, the pyenv project allows users to install their own local Python version or even assign different versions to different directories/projects....

September 1, 2016 · Simon

The new default colormap for matplotlib is called “viridis” and it’s great!

It’s probably not news to anyone in data visualization that the most-used “jet” colormap (sic) (sometimes referred to as “rainbow”) is a bad choice for many reasons. Doesn’t work when printed black & white Doesn’t work well for colourblind people Not linear in colour space, so it’s hard to estimate numerical values from the resulting image The Matlab team recently developed a new colormap called “parula” but amazingly because Matlab is commercially-licensed software no-one else is allowed to use it!...

April 6, 2016 · Simon