Uplink Tech Tips

An archive of downloadable files and resources from past print and PDF issues of Uplink.

 

May/June 2007

Web scraping online exclusive: View a collection of resources aimed at anyone interested in learning about Web scraping, including a Q&A with The Center for Public Integrity's John Perry, audio clips from the 2007 CAR conference and links to other useful Web scraping resources.

 

March/April 2007

• Census shows blacks driven from their homes: View the Access module (downloadable text file) created by Elliott Jaspin to use census data to identify counties that lost all or most of their black population. He is the author of "Buried in the Bitter Waters: The hidden history of racial cleansing in America."
  

Jan./Feb. 2007

• Mapping it out: View the PDF map created by Dan Keating of The Washington Post  to accompany a look at Washington, D.C. crime trends.


• Tech Tip: Download practice data from the issue's Tech Tip on indexing Microsoft Access databases, provided by NICAR's David Herzog, Uplink managing editor and computer-assisted reporting instructor at the Missouri School of Journalism.

 

Prior tech tips

• American Community Survey coverage review: Download a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation by Connie Citro, director of the Committee on National Statistics, who spoke at the October 2006 meeting of the Association of Public Data Users. Citro's note: "The content of this PowerPoint presentation reflects issues discussed by the Panel members, but does not necessarily reflect the views they will present in their final report (estimated January 2007 release)." Visit the APDU site for more on this conference session



• Creating data points with Google maps: Sample code that goes with an article in the January/February 2006 issue of Uplink by Maurice Tamman.



• How to use PDFTOTEXT to convert PDFs into text: You've seen the Acrobat files containing columns and rows of numbers and other information, waiting to be analyzed. The problem: Acrobat files — ending with .PDF — can't be directly read into spreadsheet or database software. Now, there's a tool to make a PDF into formatted text, ready to import, and we have a step-by-step tutorial to help you.



• Importing data from PDFs: Click here to download files and instructions to try the NICAR PDF-to-Excel Challenge. A Tech Tip story in the July/Aug. 2003 issue of Uplink explains ways to get around the frustration of importing data from PDFs into a spreadsheet or database.



• Cleaning in FoxPro: Click here to download two programs, one in Excel and the other in FoxPro, to clean and standardize data quickly. A "Tech Tip" story explaining the programs appears in the September/October 2002 edition of Uplink.



• Stealing SAS language: Click here to download a Visual FoxPro program, written using a combination of SAS program files and Excel, to fill in new data fields.



• Automating FTP: Click here to download a FoxPro program, written by Griff Palmer of the San Jose Mercury News, that a journalist can use to download and uncompress FTP data files.



• Intranet tools: Click here to download New York Times Database Editor Tom Torok's Web-based applications to create Active Server Pages for database searching and database editing (updates, deletes, additions as well as searches). He also modified Microsoft's sample text-searching pages so they can be quickly deployed in your newsroom. A story explaining the tools appeared in the May-June 2002 edition of Uplink.


• Fuzzy matches: Click here to download an Access database that includes VBA modules allowing joins between data files that might have similar, but not identical, content. IRE and NICAR Training Director Ron Nixon's explanation appeared in the May-June 2002 edition of Uplink.



• Mapping Molesters: Click here to download a text file with data used by WFLA-TV to show that Florida legislation designed to keep child molesters away from children was not working. A story about the project appears in the September/October 2001 Uplink.



• Census: Click here to download a slice of an Access database used by the Daily Record (Parsippany, NJ) in its Census coverage. A story about the project appears in the September/October 2001 Uplink.



• Tax Assessments: Click here to download some Excel data used by The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.) to calculate the impact a property reassessment would have on taxpayers. A story about the project appears in the September/October 2001 Uplink.



• Tax Assessments II: Click here to download more Excel data from The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.) property tax story.



• Subsidized Housing: Click here to download some Excel data used by KTRK-TV in its investigation of problems within the Houston Housing Authority's Section 8 program. A story about the project appears in the September/October 2001 Uplink.



• Delinquent Taxes: Click here to download some Excel data the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American used to identify people who had not paid local taxes. A story about the project appears in the September/October 2001 Uplink.



• Delinquent Taxes II: Click here to download more Excel data from the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American story.



• Ohio school data: Click here to download a self-extracting Access file of data the Akron Beacon Journal used to analyze a failing school "cluster." A story about the project appears in the July/August 2001 Uplink.



• "Dividing Lines": Click here to download a self-extracting Excel slice of the data The Columbus Dispatch used to uncover "glaring inequities among the district's 88 elementary schools." A story about the project appears in the July/August 2001 Uplink.



• Criminal Teachers: Click here to download a self-extracting Excel slice of the data the Fort Worth Star-Telegram used to report that the state teacher licensing board had such a backlog that convicted criminals retained their certification for years while their credentials were under investigation. A story about the project appears in the July/August 2001 Uplink.



• Underqualified Teachers: Click here to download a self-extracting slice of the data The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) used to analyze the impact of alternatively licensed teachers. A story about the project appears in the July/August 2001 Uplink.



• Subqueries: Click here to download the Microsoft Access and FoxPro database files for the November 2000 Uplink Tech Tip, "Using Subqueries." The database is in a self-extracting file.



• Hospital Infections: Click here to download a self-extracting file of data Michele Rubenstein of WMAQ-TV (Chicago) used in her story on the types of infections patients contract in hospitals. A story about the broadcast appears in the March/April 2001 Uplink.



• Converting names: Click here to download a self-extracting file that contains FoxPro scripts, a sample database and an explanation of how David Milliron used these scripts to clean troublesome name fields as part of his analysis of corrections and school employee data for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV joint project, "Just Who's Teaching Our Children?" Milliron, database editor for the Journal-Constitution, and Chris Cantergiani, of WSB-TV, explain more about their work on the series in the May 2000 issue of Uplink.



• Herzog Tech Tips: Click here to download the Microsoft Access database that you can use with the article, "User-Friendly Forms" by David Herzog, of the Providence Journal. The article is a step-by-step explanation of how to create stand-alone programs that allow reporters to point and click their way to useful information.



• Henderson Tech Tip: Click here to download a self-extracting file containing several items that supplement the article, "Starting with modules," by Tim Henderson of The Miami Herald. The article, on using modules in Microsoft Access, appears in the June 2000 issue of Uplink.



• Felons and Nurses: Click here to download a self-extracting file containing sample slices of the data that WAGA-TV used to find certified nurse aides who had been convicted of felonies. A story about this project, "Criminal Caregivers" appeared in the Jan/Feb 2001 Uplink.