Music Without an Agenda

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I have music going  on my computer, its generally for a purpose. I NEVER shuffle my music, because my music collection- although conventional- is rather eclectic. Now, before you walk away, realize that this admission is akin to admitting that "jeans day" at work is having the ability to wear jeans. Just like everyone else.

However, THIS blog is about being contrarian in the face of conventionality or trends.

After a LOT of years, I've decided to build a computer for myself. In the past, we've built computers for Jennifer and Mr. T, and now its my turn.  I suppose the first question is, "Why build a computer"?

Well, for starters, because I CAN.  On a certain level, PC building is a lot of fun. On a more personal level, its a bonding experience for Mr. T and I.

At this point, I need to make a note about this particular build. After having three PCs die on me during this year, I decided it was time for a NEW PC. So, I spent a month or two researching cases.

Eh?

Yes, you read that correctly. I spent a few months researching cases.  Why, you may ask.

Well Jennifer's PC was one of our first builds, and it was a "bare-bones" kit which included everything needed to have a running PC- all that was needed on the purchaser's end was a few additional parts, an operating system and assembly. As Mr. T puts it, "building a computer is a lot like making something out of Legos. Very expensive Legos". Then, he specced out an I5-based computer for himself, and we built it. In the interim, I've had several PCs die on me (apologies to readers who less blessed- this is TRULY a 1st world "problem"). Having said that, though, by "1st world standards" my family is comparatively not particularly wealthy- we just look for the best value we can find.

Of the 3 PCs that died on me this year, two were ancient boxes which I purchased some years ago as refurbs- and they were at least a few years old then. And honestly, they served me well. The third, however, was my laptop, which suffered a harddrive (HDD) crash. After that, the power supply died. This was the only one of the three worth salvaging. As much as I really like my Lenovo laptop, I need a desktop- something with a large screen (or two) which I can crunch numbers on and look at data. And play some games.

So, after a few months of research, I had narrowed my choice of cases down to a few. Mr. T had envisioned this build as a small case with a small ITX motherboard. After doing some research, I decided that the ITX had too many limitations, and  decided to "go big or go home".

In the course of my research, I eventually narrowed my choices down to two, both Thermaltake offerings: the Core X5 tempered glass, and the core X9.  Both are MASSIVE cases by any standard.

In the end, I decided to go with the  Thermaltake Core X9 Core Snow edition.  Now, the picture at the right shows the case in its shipping carton. For reference, we have four cats, and the cat tree behind the case is six feet (~2M) tall.

Snow Edition? Yes, I paid extra to get a white case... ~30 USD, actually. And why? Jennifer and I had this discussion, and after all of his resistance, Mr. T stepped up in my defense., saying , "This is his build. He's going to be the one looking at it for the next several years." And beside that, there is a very practical reason for white: when building, its harder to lose things!

So, I bought a white case. But, unlike a lot of the DIY PC folks who put their builds up on youtube, my pockets are neither deep or wide. The case is just the 1st step. One of the things that Mr. T gave me grief over during the initial planning stages was the inclusion of a Raspberry Pi in the case. I didn't have a specific scenario, but thought that the inclusion of a Pi in a large case would be schweet!

The State of the Blog, v.03

If it's December, then it must be time to...

Celebrate. Commemorate. Conjugate...?

Well, maybe not conjugate, but it's the THIRD anniversary of this blog! I'm somewhat e-excited about this. I can honestly say I never expected it to go this long, or have so many entries. Here's the quick recap, from the 1st blog The Final Frontier to the still strangely most popular one Why, 2K to the one that slipped through the proverbial e-cracks A Red Letter Day In History.

The unifying theme of this blog is data. A casual observer might not notice this, but I did say "unifying theme". So, if you're looking for the golden data nuggets of wisdom check out the twitters or websites of my good e-buddies Kirk Borne Ph.D. Lee Baker Ph.D. or Gregory Piatesky Ph.D.

For  those who think my data science is a bit sexist, please check out my good e-buddies Diego Kuonen Ph.D., Carla Gentry and Carol Lynn Curchoe Ph.D.

(In the FWIW column, these folks are some of my followers on Twitter). Not to drop names, of course! :)

In any event, I did drop a few names there, so I should probably clarify things a bit. Some of my more recent posts have been of a somewhat personal nature, and not much data was presented. For the (I'm sure this is a very small percentage of my) readers who were expecting some data in those posts, I apologize.

In actuality, most of my "data" occurs on Twitter, with some on Pinterest. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what my most impactful social medium is these days... Twitter is the easiest, Blogspot is the deepest, and Pinterest is the broadest. And, most importantly, it's hobby, so I'm not paying for analytics!

I suppose I enjoy blogging the most, as it is the most creative. Pinterest is lots of fun- and easy. However, there's very little original content. Twitter is fun, but once again, not much original content, as I'm generally more of a repeater rather than an original content contributor. Blogger... this is my "original" e-home. To quote AC/DC- "No stop signs, speed limits...." Not that I'm an AC/DC fan.

An update on the SUL (Secret Underground Lair)....

This is my corner of the SUL. If you're curious, the two leftmost PCs are Win7 machines, and the other is an HP workstation running Ubuntu 12.10, I think. There's actually a 4th screen (which is off camera to the right) for Raspberry Pi use and testing), and there are two additional PCs- one of which is another Win7 box, and the last one is an offline XP machine. In fairly big SUL news, we've been getting rid of old tech boxes (those of the cardboard variety, to clarify), and have reclaimed nearly a square meter of floor space.

That's all for now. Oh... still hoping someone in Antarctica will pick this up!

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

"How was your weekend?"

A typical Monday-at-work will often early on experience the "How was your weekend" question. It's pretty safe, really, and it's pretty much a soft question- there's almost NO way that this ice breaker can fail. Please note- I said ALMOST.

"Weekend" means the end of the workweek: no work, no school. Downtime. Sometimes, occasionally, it means that despite prior commitments, stuff that needs to get done at home, or an astronomical event that last occurred in 1982 and won't happen again until 2033, you have to work.

I'm trying really hard not to sound like I'm complaining, but the plain fact is this: I do not relish working on Sundays. Sunday has always been the quieter day of the week for me- relax, maybe catch a sporting event on TV, and do a bit of home-related stuff (grass mowing, etc.).

Not this weekend, though. This weekend was nonexistent for me.

I rolled into the office around 2230 on Friday night. It looked like a fairly busy night from the start; I had no way of knowing exactly HOW busy it would be. Busy ended up being NINE hours of overtime of Friday, and another SEVEN on Sunday. The downside to all of this was no weekend. The upside is overtime pay. We just had a few medical expenses (optometrist, veterinarian), so the extra buckazoids are much appreciated. Still, my "weekend" is shot. Gone. Nonexistent.

It's now Monday, approximately 1000. I had stuff I wanted to do that won't get done today because my sleep is totally hosed. Yes, the money is great- and needed- but the time lost to work cannot be recovered. Friday ended up being a 15 hour day, and Sunday was another seven hours (hmm, that sounds familiar!).

It is now Tuesday. We're so busy that I already have 21.5 hours on the clock, and only eight of these are "straight" time- the majority are overtime. And this week shows no promise of slowing down... I predict major overtime for at least the next three days.

Wednesday update- sixteen hours of straight time, and nineteen of overtime. Crazy night.

Thursday- I think the O.T. now is ~22 hours. And my supervisor has even more.

Friday- The week has officially ended with 29.5 hours of overtime. I am going in to work (tomorrow) for the second Sunday in a row.

So, here I sit on Saturday afternoon, decompressing. I'm in the Secret Underground Lair, trying to finish this blog on one computer and playing Railnation on another PC. I'm tired beyond words, but not exactly sleepy... I still have things on my mind. 

Sunday- One is not required to work overtime in my company, but as the reader can see, we've been busy. My supervisor has put in as much overtime as I have (and possibly more), so I went in to the office today. I had anticipated a "light" day- boy, oh boy, was I ever mistaken. I ended up working on three projects in addition to the one I was there for. Total time on Sunday? 13.5 hours. Adding insult to injury, Jennifer had a lovely roast for dinner which I missed out on. I had also planned on a nap- which obviously never happened. Lastly, as I had anticipated a "light", short day, I didn't bring a lunch. Fortunately, I am prepared for situations such as this, and grabbed a canned pasta meal from my emergency office supply.

The last day I had off was two Sundays ago. Not bragging. Not complaining- I get paid to do this. I'm just stating a fact.

That's all from the SUL (Secret Underground Lair) for now. No data news to report, no Arduino progress report, and no Raspberry Pi update.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Father's Day 2015- a contrarian view

This past Sunday we observed Father's Day here in the United States. As I understand it, a very well-meaning young lady had an idea that Mothers should have a special day set aside for them, and Mother's Day came into being. After that, greeting card companies caught on, and then (I'm OVERSIMPLIFYING here and probably making a ton of assumptions)... and then came Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, Mother in Law Day and Law Day, just to highlight a few of the myriad of (fill in the blank) Days.

Now, before anyone gets all upset about my seemingly callous position, let me backtrack just a bit. If someone wishes me a happy Father's Day, I'll gladly accept it. I really think its neat to have a special day to honor Moms and Motherhood, and Fathers and Fatherhood, and you can probably extend that a bit in a lot of different directions. According to Wikipedia, though, Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother's day was concerned about the commercialization of the holiday not long after it had become established- and I think she and I might have some similiar thoughts about what are now known as "greeting card" holidays. Jennifer and I have three kids, and I can't remember the last time I got a card from any of them. And honestly? I could care less. I think Jennifer feels pretty much the same way. We generally try to do a little something special on these days (meals, mostly), but its more about family time than spending money on cards and gifts.

I think one of the best gifts one can give is time. This past Sunday was hot AND humid, so Jennifer was in no mood for going outside to do much of anything.  On the other hand, it was not raining, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to go out and take some photos of the tollway expansion. I asked her to be polite, pretty much expecting what her response would be. She did not disappoint, but suggested Mr. T be invited.  Much to my surprise, when I told him where I planned to go, he cheerfully accepted. When the spare batteries for my trusty Nikon D3200 were charged, I grabbed the backpack and we were off.

Mr. T was quite interested in the construction. What's happening is somewhat out of the ordinary: this is not a new highway. It is the widening by one lane in each direction of an existing highway. We were probably out for two hours or less, but had a blast! He's not a photographer, but has a bit of graphic design experience, so he makes a great assistant. And, he was ready for a bit of adventure. As my gear is really lightweight and all fits neatly into a small backpack, I kept it with me on my back. There were one or two shots where the tripod would have been nice, but in the end I had ~140 frames, several of which were very nice.

We also had the opportunity to climb up hill and down dale, so to speak. 

And lastly, as I am fond of saying in this blog, we come to data. Except today, I don't want to talk about data per se, but rather data handling.

As frequent readers may be aware, the Secret Underground Lair (SUL) is in the midst of a major overhaul. Furniture has been moved out, and furniture has been moved in. Up until now it's been something of a minor disaster (think S.S. Minnow rather than R.M.S. Titanic). Still, it's been quite the challenge as displaced items seem to occupy more space than they used to. So, I suppose it isn't so much data handling even as it is data display: we've eliminated al of the CRTs in the SUL and now only have flat panels. This means we'll soon be goint to visit our local Goodwill donation center with eight monitors- the oldest one was manufactured in 1990!

I still need to hook up the Raspberry Pi- we might be back in programming mode soon! Also, with the new setup, I can easily jack my work laptop into one of the new monitors and work effectively from home. There's also room on the desktop for my personal laptop, so I can get back to the Arduino as well!

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.  

(Around) 2.5 years, or, my personal Interwebz v2.1

Around two and a half years ago, I posted my first blog- December 4th, 2012 (it's a pretty short post- even by my current blogging standards!). Even way back then (figuratively speaking) I strove to keep data in the mix as the unifying theme of this blog. And at the end of May, 2015, I'm still blogging about life in general with data as the underlying theme.

It's June of 2015 now, and I've been working on my Twitter account. I consider Twitter serious work primarily because it is an integral element of my online presence strategy- and two and a half years ago, I didn't even know what an online presence strategy was, let alone seeing the need for one. After all, Twitter is one of the places where this blogs posts, but more importantly, it's where I interact with the world of #bigdata and #IoT.

I'm a firm believer in cross-pollenization and shameless self-promotion when it comes to creating a larger presence on the internet, so here's an invitation: if you have an understanding of any of the following terms, have a personal or professional interest in them, or possibly have heard one or more of them before and would like to learn more about them... here's a sample of the topics I address on my (hochspeyer) account on twitter:

#bigdata, #notsobigdata, #smalldata, #microdata, #database, #analytics, #stats, #IoT (Internet of Things), #IoE (Internet of Everything), #M2M (machine to machine), #machinelearning and, of course, #hadoop and #python. I touch on a lot of related topics on that account, but if Big Data and the Internet of Things are topics which you are interested in, you may enjoy following.

My other twitter account (hochspeyer1) still has a tech focus, but has more of a personal touch, looking more at #maker and #programming topics, as well as life in general.

Whew!

The state of the state of my microdata projects: as of today (Jun 4, 2015), the SUL (Secret Underground Lair) is still theoretically experiencing remodeling; by this I mean that while all of the furniture and shelving are in their (probable) final positions, everything that came out and came from upstairs still is in need of homes. Forty-two. my database project, is currently on hold. The Lego database (currently an Excel 2007 workbook) is currently in a data entry phase, and will eventually be a part of Forty-two. Even the Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Python projects are all on hold pending the completion of the SUL upgrade/remodel.  Lastly, I'm building my media library, one song at a time. I'm using Windows Media Player, which I suppose is extremely lazy, but the interface is familiar and it does pretty much all that I want, so for now it suffices.

That's all from the SUL for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

C and 10x10

Welcome to my 100th blog post celebration! Help yourself to some virtual cake and ice cream!!

To commemorate this event, I'm going to take everyone a bit deeper into the Secret Underground Lair, share a few speeds and feeds, post some Top Ten lists (10, to be precise), and hopefully have a little bit of fun.

Well, I started with the Secret Underground Lair, so we might as well go there first. In case you were wondering, yes, it really is underground. We currently have a roster of nine PCs which more or less permanently reside in the SUL with us. Of these, one is an ancient laptop, two are Raspberry Pi's, one is a much more recent laptop, and the remainder are desktops. The Pi's and two of the desktops run Linux; the others run Win7. I have a laptop which I occasionally use down here, and there are another 6+ PCs in various states of repair. We've got one functional inkjet printer hooked up, and a few other printers with questionable functionality. The SUL is also our NOC (network operations center), which includes our router and a couple of wired gigabit switches. It should be noted that although the SUL as a rule does not utilize wireless (with the exception of my cell phone and occasionally my laptop), on any given day most of the rest of the Hovel may access our internet service wirelessly. In case you were wondering, the Hovel is our home- our humble abode. The SUL is also home to some of our video collection, my Lego collection, and a good part of my technical (I.T.) library, our music collection, and various and sundry other references and some fiction. It has be noted that the SUL is pretty small; we don't have room for a fuβball table, but we do have the Lego Soccer Championship Challenge set (#3409). Speaking of Lego Soccer, here's the first list- my Top Ten toys: 1. Lego 2. Wooden blocks (including dominoes) 3. Teddy bears (and plush animals in general) 4. cardboard boxes 5. Electric trains 6. Your Dad's tools 7. Walkie-talkies 8.Flashlights 9. Rubber bands/string/rope 10. Magnifying glass

Other SUL highlights... the lair is rectangular and fairly cat-proofed, in that cats cannot enter at will. Also, as Schwarz is a typical Bombay, the primary egress point has a cat bell for his use. Mr. T and I sit at opposite ends of the SUL and we both have a telephone with intercom. When the Zombie Apocalypse happens, we'll know about it. If I had only one word to describe the SUL, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the word would be "cluttered". Second list: Top Ten things found in the SUL: 1. Legos 2. Music CDs 3. VHS movies 4. Books 5. Software 6. Playstation/PS2 games 7. computer components 8. Shelves and racks 9. Cat5 cabling 10. a shredder

The Dungeon is another story. Adjacent to the SUL, it is where our workout equipment resides, as well as being a holding place for the SUL's overflow. The main attractions of the Dungeon are a weight bench and an elliptical. There are also three rectangular lidded clear plastic storage boxes in front of the weight bench right now; these contain primarily I.T.-related books which used to be stacked in the SUL. Third list (no- not the contents of the Dungeon!): speaking of I.T. stuff, my Top Ten websites: 1. Google+ 2. LinkedIn 3. Twitter 4.Facebook 5. Portal.pixelfederation.com/Trainstation 6. Steam 7. Tech Republic 8. How To Geek 9. Wikipedia 10. IMDB.com

In all honesty, I was a bit concerned when I first came up with the idea of ten Top Ten lists- after all, ten lists can be rather boring, and I don't work all that much with the formatting or HTML on blogger to make some neat, bulleted lists. I tried the segue+bolding at the end of a paragraph, and I think it works- if anyone has any thoughts, please post a comment! And now for something completely random, Ten Vehicles we have owned: 1.'03 Chevy S10 pickup 2. '99 Ford Escort 3. '94 Chevy S10 Blazer 4. '89 Honda Civic 5. Ford Crown Victoria 7. Chevy Suburban 8. Opel Ascona 9. Honda Civic hatchback 10. Plymouth Volare wagon. The funny thing about the Volare is that we're not sure if we ever even legally owned it...we sold it to a scrapyard for $50 bucks.  I also did not include the He-Man Beemer.

Well, back to the Dungeon, I suppose. The Dungeon is our workout/training area when we cannot get to the gym- theoretically. Apart from the elliptical, most of the equipment is inaccessible, save for some kettlebells, dumbbells and medicine balls.

We also have something of a pantry next to the Dungeon. This area does not have a name, but it does have a Top Ten list (#5) of things you'll find: 1. Ramen 2. Noodle mixes 3. Noodles 4. Cereal 5. Vitamins 6. Chocolate 7. Coffee 8. Tea 9. Toilet paper 10. Facial tissue.

List #6 is my current Top Ten list of albums- the only list presented in order of popularity (so far!): 1. Beatles For Sale 2. The Blues Brothers soundtrack 3. Help! (The Beatles) 4.Revolver (The Beatles) 5. Rubber Soul (The Beatles) 6. Different Light (Bangles) 7. The Transformers Movie soundtrack (the original cartoon) 8. Songs (Rich Mullins) 9. A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles) 10. A Maze Of Grace (Avalon). The interesting thing about this last list is that while it is the most accurate (it actualy comes out of a database), it is also fairly inaccurate because the data is incomplete! However, for the thirty-four albums currently represented  in the database, it is accurate.

List #7 is thematically related to List #4 in that both are automotive. #7 is ten of my favorite vehicles: 1. '71 Chevelle SS 396 2. '69 American Motors AMX 3. Mercedes Unimog 4. '77 Chevy Blazer 5. SDKFZ7 6. SDKFZ250 7. '70 Plymouth Roadrunner 8. Subaru Impreza WRX STi  8. '67 Mustang Shelby Cobra 9. Porsche 928 10. Volvo 940GL wagon. Now, that's an eclectic list of vehicles!

List #8 is my Top Ten list of board games. 1. France 1940 2. Risk 3. Monopoly 4. Chess 5. Checkers 6. Panzer Blitz 7. Squad Leader 8. Trivial Pursuit 9. Othello 10. Axis and Allies.

List #9 is a bit quirky. I have a backpack I take to work every day, and it has some work things in it and some zombie apocalypse-type things as well. So, here are ten things that are in my work backpack on any given day: 1. Logitech Marble Mouse 2. 2x .5L bottles of water 3. small Leatherman-type tool 4. Bluetooth enabled speaker 5. iPod 6. Triangular extruded aluminium ruler 7. Plastic ruler with magnifier 8. Wind up flashlight 9. HP 11c programmable RPN calculator 10. elastic wrap

List Ten is probably THE list  It is the list of my Top Ten blogs. I suppose that isn't too impressive when the blog count is only 100, but I never really thought I'd hit 100 posts when I started this... and for it to have an international following amazes me even further.And with that, here are the Top Ten blogs, in order of reader popularity:

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-2k.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-free-night.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-final-frontier.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/01/who-does-that-anyway.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-31-2012-state-of-blog.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-official-end-of-winter.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/an-it-christmas-whole-lotta-cliches-in.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/06/spinning-wheel.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/01/like-data-we-are-in-it-sense-fully.html

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/normal-is-town-in-illinois.html I think I've written enough for now. I hope some of it, at least, has been enjoyable. Happy 100th! As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

  

Resolutions and other useless things

I've never been a fan of New Year's Resolutions. I grew up in the tradition of making these resolutions, and they were generally forgotten by the time the second week of January had rolled by. However, as I've grown, I've come to realize that resolutions are not necessarily bad things. Maybe we need to repurpose them as goals.

The preceding was written three days ago, and is a perfect illustration of why I still set goals, but am not horribly crushed when they are either not realized, or not realized within a stated timeframe. One of my 2014 blog goals is to write more than I did in 2013. If I publish this before the end of the month, I'll be tied with my 2013 January output. If I publish more more blog, I'll be ahead. There's just one little problem, and that is the intersection of blog and life.

I've had overtime on every weekly 2014 timesheet I've turned in so far. Now, don't get me wrong- overtime is quite the blessing to this salaryman, and Jennifer certainly appreciates it, but at a certain point one needs a bit of balance. After all, I've had my Raspberry Pi for ~a month, and because of both timing and equipment issues (and weather!), have barely had time to do much more than install Raspbian. This makes me moderately internet iSad (which means I'm not really losing any sleep over it). Today was a regular, eight hour shift, and it was nice.

The other challenges the Secret Underground Lair has experienced as an organization over the past month have been equipment related. I still need to acquire an inexpensive powered USB hub for my Pi. Daniel had a catastrophic video failure last week- fortunately for him, it was a cable that failed rather than the monitor or video card. Just our luck, I suppose, as cables don't generally just fail. Then, just a day ago, Mr. T's monitor failed. This scenario is actually more interesting- and frustrating. Mr. T has a Dell Win7 box with a 23" ASUS monitor. The monitor and video card are both less than two years old, so failure, while an option, is not highly probable. Jennifer and I had been out shopping when Mr. T texted Jennifer and informed her that the power at the house had gone out. Not soon after, Daniel texted a similar message. Not long after we got back, the power did a dipsy-doodle for a third time, and I called Commonwealth Edison (our electricity provider). I spent a couple of minutes doing the auto-attendant menu game, and finally got a work order to investigate the brownouts.

Mr. T's monitor eventually came back to life, but what I don't understand is why it failed in the first place? We have a whole house surge protector, and he has his system hooked up to an APC UPS. We talked about this issue for over an hour, and finally he mentioned that the monitor had an external power supply. We disconnected that, and then plugged it in to a different outlet. The power light came on (always a good sign)!  I then showed him how to use a digital multimeter (DMM) to test the output of a power supply. Everything checked out fine, and he reconnected the power supply to the monitor. I don't think I was surprised at all when the monitor started up.

Once again, no real data news to report. I've made a very rough training template-  its so rough its more suggestion than draft. This is more than a bit frustrating, as I have plenty of data, but no analysis or output.That's all for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to,

Migrating hoodies, or, This Pi has flown

I still need to write the Year in the Blog review in which I present some numbers about the blog and prognosticate, or something along those lines. No solid thoughts, as this will be the inaugural post of this sort. I have the numbers, I just haven't crunched them yet.... I've been working and shoveling snow. Someone has come up with the rather clever mashup of a name Chiberia (Chicago+Siberia) in honor of the extreme temperatures we've experienced in the area over the past few days. While not quite Siberia, it does make one wonder a bit about the concept of global warming: Chicago normally doesn't experience extreme lows like this because of the warming effect of Lake Michigan.

But the twin topics of weather and hoodies, I am brought back to the thought of migrating hoodies. As noted in my Darth Anna post, the HVAC in our office is challenged, so I normally wear a hoodie for around half of the time I'm working. The other half of my evening is spent with my sleeves rolled up desperately trying to cool off. During the cooler parts of the year (later autumn, winter and spring), I'll generally wear a hoodie as a layer of my outerwear, and during summer I'll carry it in my backpack (the backpack and my bag are another story altogether!).

This migration has given me a certain insight and possibly empathy with some concerns that modern nation states and I share vis-a-vis migrations. I think it is a given that most countries frown upon large incursions into their sovereign territory by itinerant groups. In a similar manner, I become increasingly distressed as time passes and the hoodie population at the foot of our bed increases. I don't think it has ever gotten past three garments, but the hoodies are seemingly relentless in their quest to squat on the bed. So, once every week or so, I am forced to grab some hangers and put the hoodies on the rack in the basement where they belong. They get there because our home office- the Secret Underground Lair- is always cool, and being something of a freezy-cat, I often don a hoodie whilst working and/or playing there. When I go back upstairs, the hoodie I'd been wearing generally accompanies me, and ends up on the bed. Worse, I work nights, so I often go to the office after "normal" work hours. Not wanting to disturb Jennifer, I grab a hoodie from the rack, and when it is bedtime, the hoodie catches a ride to the bedroom with me... and the following night, this behavior is sometimes repeated.                                                                                                                                                                            
So, the end result is an aggregation of hoodies at the foot of our bed!

In data news.some got done, and much remains.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

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.

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.