I suppose this is something of the beginning a tradition- I wrote one of these last year with the exact title, save for the year. To paraphrase my previous year-ending blog post: In January, I was a contractor at RR Donnelley; as the year comes to a close, I am an employee.
Stranger still, I got a friend request on Google+ from a friend/employee I haven't seen in years- hi, Mike!
Anyway, this is the year-end blog. I'd been thinking about this for a bit, debating whether a year-in-review would make for a good theme, or something more tech related... one idea I had (which I may still do) was to write a short story with computer languages hidden in it and offer some sort of virtual prize for the reader who found all or most of them.
So, what's new this year? Well, in looking back at the 'State' of 2012, I'm still working on my database. Its come a long way, and still has a long way to go. The big difference is that it is about to make the big jump to 2010/2013 Access. I installed Office 2013 on the laptop with only one small glitch: my Lenovo came with a trial version of Office 2013. So, as the installation was almost complete, it suddenly aborted with a message something like, "You already have Office 2013 installed". Egad. Crash course in Windows 8.1 uninstalling!
So, with the pre-installed version of Office uninstalled, I reinstalled my "real" version of Office and was in for more surprises. As I did not immediately see any new icons... er, tiles, I searched for "Microsoft Office". Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Sometimes the operator needs to be smarter than the machine. I closed the search and scrolled to the right, and there were all of my freshly installed applications. Huzzah! I moved Excel and Access all the way to the left, and I was in business. I opened Excel and registered Office with my product key, then closed Excel and opened Access. I plugged the flash drive in that has the working copy of my database, and got my next surprise. While saving, I learned that the file format for 2013 is the same as the 2007 and 2010 versions of Access. I didn't do a great deal of exploring, so I have no insights to share in comparison with 2007 (and I have yet to look at 2010). The only thing I notice is that the interface appears to be "squarer".
"Squarer" is all I've got for a first impression. As far as data goes, I finally got around to adding a column to the media_title table. I had initially envisioned the column to be no/partial/complete, but went instead for a yes/no check box. I think with this refinement I'm done with design for the present- now its time to get back to the arduous task of data entry.
That's all for now from the Secret Underground Lair. Wishing the best for you and yours in the new year.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Happy Christmas... war is not over
Growing up in the United States during the Sixties, idiosyncrasies and undiagnosed A.D.D. notwhithstanding, I still was a bit odd. I grew up in Chicago. And the music I listened to through my formative years was Country and Western. Now, before any hardcore fans get their feathers ruffled, I understand that there is a difference between Country, and Western. It was best explained in a sort of truism I once heard: "Country" is sung by a group, bragging about stealin' a cowboy's horse and kissin' his girl. "Western" is sung by a guy who had his horse stolen and his girl kissed by a group of singing guys.
So, I came onto the rock and roll scene a bit late, but embraced it. (In some circles, it is suggested that to really reach someone, you must speak in the language of their soul...I sometimes think my soul's native language is music).
Flash forward to the late 70's, and college. I had been listening to all sorts of music at this point, but my best friend Mark was a huge Beatles fan, and we formed a Beatles parody group, "performing" at a college coffeehouse or two and suffering the ultimate ignominy at a Gong Show at Chicago's Tuddi Toots (a fern bar of questionable spelling!)
Amid all of this, I immersed myself in the Beatles, and particularly John Lennon, who for no good reason to think of I identified with. I wasn't particularly crazy about his music (or that of Yoko Ono or the Plastic Ono Band), but I did listen to it from time to time. This all comes about as I've recently heard one or two remakes of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" from forgettable pop diva(ettes).
And to all who have recorded this song, or wish to: DON'T. You're not John Lennon, you're not a Beatle, and more than likely, your collective body of work is not art- it stinks. So don't drag this song down to your particular level of mediocrity. Next: its an okay song, having very little to do with Christmas.
Which brings me to the final point of this post, and that is Christmas. Our church has had a sermon series about Christmas which has gotten me to do some thinking about Christmas.
For those not familiar with Western traditions, Christmas is a pretty powerful one. As I've matured, I've come to realize that there is a peculiar American secular view of Christmas which, although it does not necessarily have much to do with Jesus Christ, does have some value in our culture. In this secular view, it is a time where we reconnect with family, give gifts, perform acts of charity, and are generally nice.It occurs in winter, and there are all sorts of winter-themed songs about Christmas. Its a huge party.
In reality, though....
Jesus Christ is THE most misunderstood person in history. We, who claim Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, see Christmas as anyone else might see a birthday (as an example)- Dec 25th is the date which we commemorate his birth. It is not an annual rebirth (if you don't get this- check out the last birthday party you went to). It's a birthday party! And even if you don't get Jesus, you're welcome to the party.
No data tonight, no programming updates, just a merry Christmas, from our home to yours. If you're wondering about Christianity or Jesus Christ, here's a neat site I found.
Peace, Love and TQM- as always, I am hochspeyer, blogging database management and analysis so you don't have to.
So, I came onto the rock and roll scene a bit late, but embraced it. (In some circles, it is suggested that to really reach someone, you must speak in the language of their soul...I sometimes think my soul's native language is music).
Flash forward to the late 70's, and college. I had been listening to all sorts of music at this point, but my best friend Mark was a huge Beatles fan, and we formed a Beatles parody group, "performing" at a college coffeehouse or two and suffering the ultimate ignominy at a Gong Show at Chicago's Tuddi Toots (a fern bar of questionable spelling!)
Amid all of this, I immersed myself in the Beatles, and particularly John Lennon, who for no good reason to think of I identified with. I wasn't particularly crazy about his music (or that of Yoko Ono or the Plastic Ono Band), but I did listen to it from time to time. This all comes about as I've recently heard one or two remakes of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" from forgettable pop diva(ettes).
And to all who have recorded this song, or wish to: DON'T. You're not John Lennon, you're not a Beatle, and more than likely, your collective body of work is not art- it stinks. So don't drag this song down to your particular level of mediocrity. Next: its an okay song, having very little to do with Christmas.
Which brings me to the final point of this post, and that is Christmas. Our church has had a sermon series about Christmas which has gotten me to do some thinking about Christmas.
For those not familiar with Western traditions, Christmas is a pretty powerful one. As I've matured, I've come to realize that there is a peculiar American secular view of Christmas which, although it does not necessarily have much to do with Jesus Christ, does have some value in our culture. In this secular view, it is a time where we reconnect with family, give gifts, perform acts of charity, and are generally nice.It occurs in winter, and there are all sorts of winter-themed songs about Christmas. Its a huge party.
In reality, though....
Jesus Christ is THE most misunderstood person in history. We, who claim Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, see Christmas as anyone else might see a birthday (as an example)- Dec 25th is the date which we commemorate his birth. It is not an annual rebirth (if you don't get this- check out the last birthday party you went to). It's a birthday party! And even if you don't get Jesus, you're welcome to the party.
No data tonight, no programming updates, just a merry Christmas, from our home to yours. If you're wondering about Christianity or Jesus Christ, here's a neat site I found.
Peace, Love and TQM- as always, I am hochspeyer, blogging database management and analysis so you don't have to.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
On programming (#hourofcode continued)
I am a programmer by trade. My training is ongoing, as is appropriate with any craft. What I do on the job, though, is only a part of my craft.
For nearly a year, I've been in search of the "perfect" programming language to learn. My requirements for this language are fairly simple: I need to be able to learn it on my own time, on my own schedule and at minimal cost. Considering the day and age in which we live, these are pretty simple and easily met. The problem I've encountered, though, is that many languages will fit my criteria, and I think I need to have a few under my belt. The huge problem is: where to start?
HTML is a pretty obvious choice, and I've dabbled in it a bit. The problem is that it is pretty much limited (!) to the Web, and I am in need of something a bit more general purpose in nature. With the advent of the Raspberry Pi, Python has become a strong contender for me, and as I have an interest in this device, Python seems to be the way to go. So, where is Python?
In a word: everywhere! I have it installed on nearly every PC I use on a regular basis, and although I'm not much past the very basics of the language (think: print("hello") ), I've made it a priority to at least touch it every day, if not actually learn something.
The past week has been a bit of a wash as far as Python goes. The main reason for this is because I am once again gainfully employed as an employee rather than a contractor or temp.This makes me happy- yay! However, as an employee, I feel the need to increase my value to my employer, and to this end, I will ensure that I do some programming on my own time.
In the wonderful world of data, I came up with one more improvement to one of the tables which should fix a data synchronization issue. More on that after it is implemented.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
For nearly a year, I've been in search of the "perfect" programming language to learn. My requirements for this language are fairly simple: I need to be able to learn it on my own time, on my own schedule and at minimal cost. Considering the day and age in which we live, these are pretty simple and easily met. The problem I've encountered, though, is that many languages will fit my criteria, and I think I need to have a few under my belt. The huge problem is: where to start?
HTML is a pretty obvious choice, and I've dabbled in it a bit. The problem is that it is pretty much limited (!) to the Web, and I am in need of something a bit more general purpose in nature. With the advent of the Raspberry Pi, Python has become a strong contender for me, and as I have an interest in this device, Python seems to be the way to go. So, where is Python?
In a word: everywhere! I have it installed on nearly every PC I use on a regular basis, and although I'm not much past the very basics of the language (think: print("hello") ), I've made it a priority to at least touch it every day, if not actually learn something.
The past week has been a bit of a wash as far as Python goes. The main reason for this is because I am once again gainfully employed as an employee rather than a contractor or temp.This makes me happy- yay! However, as an employee, I feel the need to increase my value to my employer, and to this end, I will ensure that I do some programming on my own time.
In the wonderful world of data, I came up with one more improvement to one of the tables which should fix a data synchronization issue. More on that after it is implemented.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Darth Anna, Defiler of Planets
The HVAC in our office is challenged. That is the most polite thing I can say about it. You're probably wondering how my meek coworker from Russia came to be Darth Anna, Defiler of Planets and Mistress of the Dual Tailed Optical Mouse and Yours Truly became Darth Chris, Consumer of Comets and Sneezer of Asteroid Belts.
HVAC is industry shorthand for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. So, in other words, when it should be hot in the office, its cold. And when it should be cold, its hot in our office. Please note: I'm using EXTREMELY polite terms as I prattle on about our HVAC.
The rumor that's been going around for some time is this: when the office was first designed, the air conditioner that was ordered was too large (powerful) for the size of the office. Consequently, a vicious, rapid cycle of heating and cooling is the norm. Adding insult to injury, the thermostat used to be located directly under a vent in the ceiling. I'm not an HVAC expert, so I don't know the purpose of the vent. All I do know is that cold air generally wafted down from it, onto the thermostat, adding more drama to the hot cold cycle. At some point in 2012, the thermostat was moved to a more central part of the office, and even though there is a remarkable improvement, Anna and I still don and remove our hoodies several times each night... and when I say "don our hoodies", I mean deploy the hoods as well. Hence, we look like a pair of dark Jedi acolytes.
So, how did the #hourofcode go? I had hoped to start programming on a Raspberry Pi last week, but the Pi I ordered may not arrive until after Christmas. I finally gave up and installed Python on Jennifer's PC, and took the plunge this morning. I found a very nice tutorial on daniweb which I highly recommend to anyone interested in programming in Python.
Not much news on the database front. I was at the gym yesterday and as I was updating my training log, I got to thinking about 'average' and 'mean' numbers, and how I cannot do averages for walking times, as my phone's stopwatch doesn't really store lap data... my log entries are confined to total laps, total time, fastest and slowest laps. So, I'm pretty sure I understand 'mean', and I think it's how I will quantify things. Here's a site that does a pretty technical job of explaining average vs mean.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
HVAC is industry shorthand for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. So, in other words, when it should be hot in the office, its cold. And when it should be cold, its hot in our office. Please note: I'm using EXTREMELY polite terms as I prattle on about our HVAC.
The rumor that's been going around for some time is this: when the office was first designed, the air conditioner that was ordered was too large (powerful) for the size of the office. Consequently, a vicious, rapid cycle of heating and cooling is the norm. Adding insult to injury, the thermostat used to be located directly under a vent in the ceiling. I'm not an HVAC expert, so I don't know the purpose of the vent. All I do know is that cold air generally wafted down from it, onto the thermostat, adding more drama to the hot cold cycle. At some point in 2012, the thermostat was moved to a more central part of the office, and even though there is a remarkable improvement, Anna and I still don and remove our hoodies several times each night... and when I say "don our hoodies", I mean deploy the hoods as well. Hence, we look like a pair of dark Jedi acolytes.
So, how did the #hourofcode go? I had hoped to start programming on a Raspberry Pi last week, but the Pi I ordered may not arrive until after Christmas. I finally gave up and installed Python on Jennifer's PC, and took the plunge this morning. I found a very nice tutorial on daniweb which I highly recommend to anyone interested in programming in Python.
Not much news on the database front. I was at the gym yesterday and as I was updating my training log, I got to thinking about 'average' and 'mean' numbers, and how I cannot do averages for walking times, as my phone's stopwatch doesn't really store lap data... my log entries are confined to total laps, total time, fastest and slowest laps. So, I'm pretty sure I understand 'mean', and I think it's how I will quantify things. Here's a site that does a pretty technical job of explaining average vs mean.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Hows that #hourofcode coming?
Unfortunately for me, not so well.
It all started last Friday for me. I had mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to try my hand at Python. I've been doing some research over the past month, and had decided that the best way to get my Python education going ( after downloading my free copy of Python 3.3.3) would be to put Python on a dedicated platform- not a problem there, as I have a spare PC that can be utilized for the task. However, as Mr. T is still at home and being homeschooled (and has an interest in this sort of thing), I decided to tackle Python and Linux simultaneously, so I went online and ordered a Raspberry Pi for each of us. During my research, I found one author who was a big fan of the Linux Gentoo distro; he said it worked quite well on the Pi. And, as Mr T. waxes long and eloquently about Gentoo but has yet to install it, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get our son into another programming opportunity.
However, the plan didn't quite come together as I'd hoped. I went to a vendor listed on the Pi website and placed my order for two units. This was my first time using this vendor, though, and I apparently did something incorrectly, for even though I had originally ordered a quantity of two, when my pending purchase order was displayed, there was only one. Not a problem- there was a chat-based customer service representative (CSR) available. It took around forty-five minutes, but the CSR assured me that my order was fixed. My order was fixed, but I found out on Wednesday that my order was now on backorder, and might ship on the 23rd of December. So my plan to have Pi for the #hourofcode has been thwarted. Alas and alack!
In the interim, I'm also planning and plotting about the impending Windows XP EOL. I have three machines that are impacted by this, and I honestly haven't decided what to do about them. One is almost certainly going to become a Win7 box, and the second may become a Linux box. I'm not sure about the remaining one. One option is to keep of them as XP machines, but take them offline and use them for games or things which don't require connectivity to the world.
In other news, both the car and the truck have been to the shop this week for needed repairs, and when all of the hours were added up, there was no time for data! I'm hoping this (data) situation changes soon. I'm getting excited about working with Python- I hear it is contending with and in some areas displacing R for statistical work.
Lastly, a bit of blog news: as 2013 comes to a close, the blog has now been viewed in at least thirty-seven countries- Belarus is the latest!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
It all started last Friday for me. I had mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to try my hand at Python. I've been doing some research over the past month, and had decided that the best way to get my Python education going ( after downloading my free copy of Python 3.3.3) would be to put Python on a dedicated platform- not a problem there, as I have a spare PC that can be utilized for the task. However, as Mr. T is still at home and being homeschooled (and has an interest in this sort of thing), I decided to tackle Python and Linux simultaneously, so I went online and ordered a Raspberry Pi for each of us. During my research, I found one author who was a big fan of the Linux Gentoo distro; he said it worked quite well on the Pi. And, as Mr T. waxes long and eloquently about Gentoo but has yet to install it, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get our son into another programming opportunity.
In the interim, I'm also planning and plotting about the impending Windows XP EOL. I have three machines that are impacted by this, and I honestly haven't decided what to do about them. One is almost certainly going to become a Win7 box, and the second may become a Linux box. I'm not sure about the remaining one. One option is to keep of them as XP machines, but take them offline and use them for games or things which don't require connectivity to the world.
In other news, both the car and the truck have been to the shop this week for needed repairs, and when all of the hours were added up, there was no time for data! I'm hoping this (data) situation changes soon. I'm getting excited about working with Python- I hear it is contending with and in some areas displacing R for statistical work.
Lastly, a bit of blog news: as 2013 comes to a close, the blog has now been viewed in at least thirty-seven countries- Belarus is the latest!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Let It Snow
I had planned on starting this blog off with some weather comments. Sadly, I was not able to really differentiate between astronomical and meteorological winter, so we're stuck with my definition: it's past October, the wind is blowing and the snow is sticking. And, the salt trucks are out.
As the readership of this blog is quite geographically diverse, I once again need to take a few steps back and explain nearly everything I've written. I live near Chicago- actually, quite close to O'Hare Airport (ORD), and it it pretty much winter here. I know this because the temperature has been in the single digits and low teens on the Fahrenheit scale. As I write this, its Tuesday the 10th of December. Over the past two days we've officially gotten 3" (~7.6cm) of snow, and 2-4" (5-10cm) is predicted to fall today. The lowest overnight low temperature that I saw tonight was -1F (~ -18C). I blame all of this recent temperature recording partly on a coworker who is a native of Arkhhangelsk (Архáнгельск). This coworker has expressed a desire to return home, but is at the same time what we'd call a "freezy-cat": the office is always too cold! So, on one particularly cold day last week I looked up the temperature in Arkhangelsk, and it was actually warmer by a couple of degrees (F). I said, "You can go back to Russia. Its warmer there." The irony here is that Arkhangelsk is more than 1,500 miles (~3300km) to the NORTH of Chicago!
Has anyone tried the #hourofcode yet? This is the week to give programming a chance. It doesn't hurt, and its free! Try W3schools- they offer FREE training in half a dozen web-related languages. All free, and with a nicely designed site that offers instant gratification- this is as close to painless training as it gets!
I've worked a bit on the database since the last post. Nothing stupendous to report, but the data is getting cleaner. That's progress, and I'm calling this a day!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
As the readership of this blog is quite geographically diverse, I once again need to take a few steps back and explain nearly everything I've written. I live near Chicago- actually, quite close to O'Hare Airport (ORD), and it it pretty much winter here. I know this because the temperature has been in the single digits and low teens on the Fahrenheit scale. As I write this, its Tuesday the 10th of December. Over the past two days we've officially gotten 3" (~7.6cm) of snow, and 2-4" (5-10cm) is predicted to fall today. The lowest overnight low temperature that I saw tonight was -1F (~ -18C). I blame all of this recent temperature recording partly on a coworker who is a native of Arkhhangelsk (Архáнгельск). This coworker has expressed a desire to return home, but is at the same time what we'd call a "freezy-cat": the office is always too cold! So, on one particularly cold day last week I looked up the temperature in Arkhangelsk, and it was actually warmer by a couple of degrees (F). I said, "You can go back to Russia. Its warmer there." The irony here is that Arkhangelsk is more than 1,500 miles (~3300km) to the NORTH of Chicago!
Has anyone tried the #hourofcode yet? This is the week to give programming a chance. It doesn't hurt, and its free! Try W3schools- they offer FREE training in half a dozen web-related languages. All free, and with a nicely designed site that offers instant gratification- this is as close to painless training as it gets!
I've worked a bit on the database since the last post. Nothing stupendous to report, but the data is getting cleaner. That's progress, and I'm calling this a day!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
The #hourofcode is coming, and Happy Anniversary!
This is my eightieth blog post, and also marks one year of blogging which- in many ways- amazes me. Firstly, I am amazed that I stuck with this. I don't really remember why I started the blog, but I'm glad I did. Its helped to develop a dimension of discipline that was nascent. Always there. Just waiting for the proper stimulus. Next (and for me this has a certain 'WOW' factor), this post marks the realization of the only goal that I had set for this blog: to have at least one viewer or reader on each continent (excluding Antarctica)... the person that made this happen lives in Trinidad and Tobago! Excluding the United States, I've managed to reach folks in thirty-five countries! And lastly, I've always thought that I possessed some ability at writing- probably not gifted, but possessing the ability to tell a story and turn a phrase.
I therefore extend a heartfelt and humble thanks to all who have taken the time to visit my little corner of the Internet and read my musings.
Okay, time to put the party favors and balloons away. I'd like to switch gears and talk a bit about coding.
Next week, Dec 9-15, is Computer Science Education Week, and a highlight of that week which practically everyone can participate in is The Hour of Code 2013. Of course, those who are not necessarily will cry, "but coding is so [fill in the blank]".
Well, don't fret, because coding isn't [fill in the blank].
For starters, coding IS for everyone. If you can do basic mathematics, you can code. If you don't know what to do or how to get this ball rolling, visit http://csedweek.org/ Its important for this to get out to everyone... coding is not necessarily easy (after all, you actually have to invest some time to learn how to do it), but it is a much in demand skill, and can be quite lucrative. The icing on top of this virtual cake, though, is the cost: many popular languages can be acquired for free, and instruction is also free online for many. Watch the video- chances are you'll recognize someone there (*I'm a geek; I recognized several). will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas had a great programmer plug- "Great programmers are today's rockstars".
So, what's happening @the Secret Underground Lair? Well, we've played a bit with VB, HTML and a few other more obscure environments in the past, but starting next week we'll start looking hard @Python. I'm pretty excited about this; I hope my enthusiasm is contagious!
Lastly, a few links to older blogs- enjoy!
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/hard-drives-bane-of-ones-existence.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/it-old-school.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/normal-is-town-in-illinois.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-it-steamy-in-here.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/its-time-for-rant.html
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I therefore extend a heartfelt and humble thanks to all who have taken the time to visit my little corner of the Internet and read my musings.
Okay, time to put the party favors and balloons away. I'd like to switch gears and talk a bit about coding.
Next week, Dec 9-15, is Computer Science Education Week, and a highlight of that week which practically everyone can participate in is The Hour of Code 2013. Of course, those who are not necessarily will cry, "but coding is so [fill in the blank]".
Well, don't fret, because coding isn't [fill in the blank].
For starters, coding IS for everyone. If you can do basic mathematics, you can code. If you don't know what to do or how to get this ball rolling, visit http://csedweek.org/ Its important for this to get out to everyone... coding is not necessarily easy (after all, you actually have to invest some time to learn how to do it), but it is a much in demand skill, and can be quite lucrative. The icing on top of this virtual cake, though, is the cost: many popular languages can be acquired for free, and instruction is also free online for many. Watch the video- chances are you'll recognize someone there (*I'm a geek; I recognized several). will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas had a great programmer plug- "Great programmers are today's rockstars".
So, what's happening @the Secret Underground Lair? Well, we've played a bit with VB, HTML and a few other more obscure environments in the past, but starting next week we'll start looking hard @Python. I'm pretty excited about this; I hope my enthusiasm is contagious!
Lastly, a few links to older blogs- enjoy!
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/hard-drives-bane-of-ones-existence.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/it-old-school.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/normal-is-town-in-illinois.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-it-steamy-in-here.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/its-time-for-rant.html
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Data never sleeps
Hey, hey, my, my. I'm not a fan of Neil Young, but that's a great song. It was Saturday night, and I found myself at one of the Secret Underground Lair's remote sites. It was close to midnight- relatively late for this particular Saturday. I had a serious case of the nods, and my trusty Logitech G105 keyboard was threatening to tattoo QWERTY into my forehead if I didn't shut down soon. Just one more small task, really- I had a few titles to enter into the database, then off to La La Land.
I have at least hinted in the past, I think, that we are strong embracers of the dull edge of technology- the bleeding edge moves too fast, costs too much, and loses its sheen in a hurry. So on Black Friday, Daniel hiked over to our local Gamestop in search of a few games, and to get a 1st Gen Wii, RVL 001. As I have a deep and abiding dislike of lines (queues), I opted to drive out closer to midnight. When I arrived, I was shocked to see a group of about forty people waiting in freezing temperature to get into the store, several later emerging with the just released Xbox One. While waiting I ran into Ryan, my cohort in comedy, and we chatted for some time. Well, up until the point where he started freezing- at that point, he went home, and I continued to wait. After about forty minutes, Daniel emerged with a case of the happys. We walked over to the Target store, and browsed around a bit before going home, and then off to bed.
Which catches me up to where I started. We ended having to go back to Gamestop on Saturday, as the Wii was a later Gen, and did not have... wait for it... Gamecube ports. So, he exchanged it, and because of the model, got some store credit- more games were acquired. I decided to enter all of this into the database and call it a night. I clicked the NEW RECORD arrow, and noticed that I had not alpha sorted the table, so I sorted it and much to my surprise, there was a dupe record! I went into Design View, and much to my shock, this field was not indexed. I'd been duped! I went back into datasheet view, and replaced the dupe with one of the new titles. Then, I went back and changed the field property to Indexed (No Duplicates) and saved.
Well, I tried to save. To make a long story short, there were close to twenty duped records in that table of 900+. It took nearly an hour to find all of them and replace them with new data. I was really upset, because I thought I had this under control... as Buford Tannen said, "Ya thought wrong, Dude". Never assume anything- even about your own data!
Which brings me to today (Monday). As I'm working this evening, I'm going to catch a nap. But before that, just a quick peek at the database. Everything is working properly, but I need a query to generate a simple checklist for digital video media (DVDs and Blurays), so I made a simple one and printed... yeah, it wouldn't print. That was ~45 minutes ago. I've had more than enough fun for one day with this- it is nap-thirty.
On a happy note, this post marks the one year of this blog. I'd like to thank the Academy, etc., and cutting to the chase, "AND WORLD PEACE". Yippie kay yay, folks.
Most significantly, I just recently achieved the only objective I had set for this blog: at least one view on each continent (Antarctica doesn't count).
AS always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I have at least hinted in the past, I think, that we are strong embracers of the dull edge of technology- the bleeding edge moves too fast, costs too much, and loses its sheen in a hurry. So on Black Friday, Daniel hiked over to our local Gamestop in search of a few games, and to get a 1st Gen Wii, RVL 001. As I have a deep and abiding dislike of lines (queues), I opted to drive out closer to midnight. When I arrived, I was shocked to see a group of about forty people waiting in freezing temperature to get into the store, several later emerging with the just released Xbox One. While waiting I ran into Ryan, my cohort in comedy, and we chatted for some time. Well, up until the point where he started freezing- at that point, he went home, and I continued to wait. After about forty minutes, Daniel emerged with a case of the happys. We walked over to the Target store, and browsed around a bit before going home, and then off to bed.
Which catches me up to where I started. We ended having to go back to Gamestop on Saturday, as the Wii was a later Gen, and did not have... wait for it... Gamecube ports. So, he exchanged it, and because of the model, got some store credit- more games were acquired. I decided to enter all of this into the database and call it a night. I clicked the NEW RECORD arrow, and noticed that I had not alpha sorted the table, so I sorted it and much to my surprise, there was a dupe record! I went into Design View, and much to my shock, this field was not indexed. I'd been duped! I went back into datasheet view, and replaced the dupe with one of the new titles. Then, I went back and changed the field property to Indexed (No Duplicates) and saved.
Well, I tried to save. To make a long story short, there were close to twenty duped records in that table of 900+. It took nearly an hour to find all of them and replace them with new data. I was really upset, because I thought I had this under control... as Buford Tannen said, "Ya thought wrong, Dude". Never assume anything- even about your own data!
Which brings me to today (Monday). As I'm working this evening, I'm going to catch a nap. But before that, just a quick peek at the database. Everything is working properly, but I need a query to generate a simple checklist for digital video media (DVDs and Blurays), so I made a simple one and printed... yeah, it wouldn't print. That was ~45 minutes ago. I've had more than enough fun for one day with this- it is nap-thirty.
On a happy note, this post marks the one year of this blog. I'd like to thank the Academy, etc., and cutting to the chase, "AND WORLD PEACE". Yippie kay yay, folks.
Most significantly, I just recently achieved the only objective I had set for this blog: at least one view on each continent (Antarctica doesn't count).
AS always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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