Create a Data Science Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure

It is time consuming and a lot of work to set up your own data science virtual machine locally.  If you don't mind the cost, the alternative to is to setup a data science Virtual Machine in Azure and let Azure take care of the plumbing such as the hardware requirements and etc, because a data science Virtual Machine is a little beefier than an regular mainstream laptop.

R Programming : Installing R for Windows

R is a programming language used by data scientists to present and manipulate data.  In this blog post I will go over the steps you need to do to install R in your Windows machine.

Here are the steps to install R:

1. Type the following URL into the address bar https://cran.r-project.org

2. Once you are on the page click on the link that says "Download R for Windows"

Hadoop Part 1: Install Hortonworks HDP Sandbox

In this blog I am going to show you how to install the Hortonworks  Hadoop virtual machine on your local machine using Oracle's VirtualBox.  It is free so it's the best way to learn Hadoop if you are just starting out.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1.  Type in the url http://hortonworks.com/products/sandbox-instructions , you will be taken to the Hortonworks sandbox download page.

2.  What you want to do is download the latest stable release.  Choose the virtual machine version that is for VirtualBox at the time of this writing the file should say VirtualBox(HDP 2.2.4 - 5.4 GB).  It's going to take a while.