July- the writing Intertropical Convergence Zone

This is almost the most nonwriting month ever for me, hence the Intertropical Convergence Zone (a.k.a. "the Doldrums").

I suppose this needs a bit of explanation.

In the e-world, I probably have a slightly larger-than-average footprint in the arenas in which I choose to engage. I say this from the perspective of one who aspires to have a relevant e-footprint in these certain arenas. I also say this from some purely gut feelings based on relevant new Twitter followers, favorites and adds to lists. For me, rightly or wrongly, I do not include e-spaces that are not on my personal e-radar. These spaces include Instagram, Pinterest, Imgur, Snapchat and more than likely a few others which are currently popular but do not come to mind immediately for me.

Now, to claim a larger-than-average e-footprint in the E-VENUES WHERE I CHOOSE TO BE NOTICED, I need to have a game plan of sorts. And I do.

Gameplan: 

* "ENGAGE PhD's" *

Pretty bloody simple, right? Well, I'm fairly certain the best plans of battle are often the simplest. Yamamoto, the genius Japanese Admiral who commanded the Imperial Japanese Navy's (IJN) Combined Fleet in the first part of the Second World War, was know to be brilliant. However, he was also known to be a gambler, and seemed to love intricate plans. His greatest plan was his greatest failure: Midway.

Which was an incredibly costly, miserable failure.

Unlike Yamamoto- who truly was a genius in his field- I am not a genius and I base my e-plan on the tried-and-true KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) methodology. And although I don't even think I'm anywhere near Yamamoto's intellect or skill, I think I stand a better chance at success in my chosen endeavor- and here's the how and why:

As stated, "ENGAGE PhD's" is my plan. How and why? Well, the platform I've chosen as my e-soapbox is Twitter, and the venue I've chosen to play in is DATA SCIENCE. For those uninitiated, this is not a field for the clueless, the uninitiated, the easily intimidated by technical terminology or the unenthusiastic. To that end, I follow stuff that many would find boring: the Internet of Things (a.k.a. The Internet of Everything), agriculture, petroleum, manufacturing, education, and retail (in fact, anything that generates large numbers tends to interest me).

So, why engage PhD's? Especially if you're not even an achiever of a bachelor's degree?

Well, for starters- times have changed. Sometimes the best person for the job doesn't have quite have the qualifications your Dad or Mom's generation would have required- especially when it comes to data. In the "good old days", a "college degree" was a "must", and data used to be pretty black and white. For example, in my industry, the typical (and most critical) pieces of data might be:

"Mr. John Smith
"123 Main Street Apt 1
"Anytown, ST, 12345-6789

In direct mail, we take these bits of data, assign each one a length (in bytes)- as well as a starting position and an ending position- and define them as variables, thus the data becomes something like this in our software-

<prefix>|<fname>|<lname>
<address1>|<address2>
<csz>

This is the second simplest form of direct mail, with the simplest being a blanket mailing like this:

"Resident
"Chicago, IL, 60606

This is almost the equivalent of the "relative of" direct mail that no one talks about. This is pure saturation mail; the intent is getting the mailpiece in every mailbox in a given ZIP code. It's brute force mail, and as the cheapest postage out there for mass-mailings- it can be pretty cost effective. I see this class of  mailpiece come through our office once or twice- maybe- in a year. Most of our mailings, though, have a certain amount of customization (personalization) that is a value-add for our clients.

That's an insight into what we do, but what does that have to do with  "Engage PhD's"?

Quite simply, even though we do a good job at what we do, oftentimes the data we receive is so crummy that I have to ask myself what the point is.

And this is where PhD's and data come in. In direct mail, a very large paintbrush is used, and generally without any logic other than "demographic" == "ZIP code". In the "good old days", this was probably good enough. Today, though, data can be simply and effectively parsed, so that even though Robert Smith lives in a predominantly Hispanic ZIP code, he can receive a mailing in English touting the benefits of a product in English rather than in Spanish, which is what his neighbor Jorge Rodriguez might receive.

Now, honestly, I don't really know what Robert Smith and Jorge Rodriguez like to watch on TV. As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to watch Formula One racing or Rally on any given Sunday afternoon. But I get an odd feeling in my gut when I'm working on a mailing that touts Mexican league football to Robert and an NFL package to Jorge... based solely on a single data point: ZIP code.

I don't control the data; neither does my employer. The owners of the data, though... with one or two filters, could make their databases so much more powerful! Lead off with NFL for Richard, and then offer futbol, and then likewise offer Jorge futbol and then offer an NFL package. It's not "rocket science"... it's simply a bit of science applied to marketing.

But it can mean increased $$$'s for everyone.

And this is one reason why I aim to "Engage PhD's". Examine the friends you interact with on a normal basis. Are they like you?  Probably. Do they share your beliefs? Probably Are they better than you in some way? Probably NOT.

And here's where the tough get going. I've stated I'm not degreed. I do, however, have a ridiculously high proportion of Twitter followers that are PhD's- offhand, I'd say close to 3%. I'm fairly certain that even among college graduates, 3% of one's contacts being PhD's would be a huge number.

Why, again?

To be candid, a person with a PhD has achieved something and unlocked a few doors that would be inaccessible to most "normal" people. It's just plain fun when someone like D J Patil mentions something you've tweeted in a note (and if you don't know who D J Patil is, look him up)! And as much as I cherish those, the real kicks come from folks who post back to, thanking me for a retweet of something they're passionate about.

 This sounds like IRL Pokemon, but the folks I'm engaged with on Twitter- I really want to engage with. So thanks, to Carla, Kirk, Lee and a few others who got me started down this road.

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

Monitoring progress in the SUL

For those who are unaware (and this may be most readers), I very recently revamped one of my desks in the Secret Underground Lair (SUL). This is the culmination of a long-overdue equipment upgrade to our displays.The two CRT monitors in the middle photo were replaced with this pair of 23" LG

monitors.

 The next photo shows the old monitors which, to be fair, were never intended to be more than an interim monitor solution for these workstations. 

 

The new 23" LG IPS LED monitors are mounted on a Fleximounts M13 dual monitor arm, which is quite a nice piece of engineering. The last picture shows the vertical support tube as viewed from the top. It's a solid piece of extruded aluminum, with the outer wall and center cylinder each having approximately .125" in (~3.175mm) wall thickness.

 

The hardware which makes up the base is all steel, and the disk that screws up to hold the assembly to the desk is metal as well. If you're in the market for a monitor arm/support, I'd strongly recommend reading the reviews online. I purchased the monitors and arm from Newegg.com, but nearly any reputable seller will have reviews available. As far as reviews go, this was probably the fifth arm I had in the cart before I pushed the "BUY" button. At one point, I had been looking at a 27" monitor that was being offered at a very attractive price, but at least one review for the arm I had initially selected stated that it in no way would practically accommodate a pair of 27" monitors. One other thing I have to say about the Fleximounts arm is the completeness of their kit: the only thing I needed to supply was a Phillips head screwdriver for the VESA screws- everything else is tightened by one of the three supplied Allen wrenches (hex head screws). Fleximounts also includes in their kit a painted, predrilled steel plate to allow for permanent mounting of the arm on a desk. Overall, I am very satisfied with this hardware.

Other than that, I guess it's been a pretty slow week for news, blogging, tweeting- pretty quiet both on- and offline for me.

Amanda and Mike (daughter and son-in-law) came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time- played Cards Against Humanity, Settlers of Catan, had many conversations and some excellent food. Mike and Amanda are now official denizens of the menagerie!

Nothing else is new. Well, except for the story. Y'all remember my e-friend in Japan J.S. Frankel? Well, he and I have been chatting on and off over the past few months about writing, and so I'm once again taking a stab at fiction.  

Lastly, J.S. Frankel and I met on a bodybuilding site a few years ago. I'm not sure what his commitment to bodybuilding is today, but mine is down near zero.  It's something I want and need to change. To that end, I purchased a genuine Wham-O Super Ball last week at Aldi. Actually, its a Super Duper Ball. It's about twice the size of the original, and I don't think its as dense or bounces as high as the original. Still, it's a pretty nifty all-in-one workout device... I'm not going to get Arnold-sized using it, but I'm using it, and this is important in the calorie burning/muscle building department. 

One more bit of news, and then I need to put this blog to bed. Jennifer and I were out shopping yesterday, and wouldn't you know it but the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) warning light came on. We were able to drive Meerkat, our trusty Subie, home without incident. The thing that's mildly amusing about this is my history with flats: I've had four- exactly four- in over thirty years of driving. My first occurred in Chicago on my Chevy Nova in a slightly rough neighborhood of Chicago. Mark, Dr. Dave and I were on our way back from a concert with The Alarm and The Pretenders at the Aragon Ballroom. I turned a corner on a sidestreet, and one of Chicago's famous potholes blew out a tire- that was college days. Flat #2 occurred at high speed on I-355 on my way home from work, pre 9/11. It was the left rear tire of our 1999 Escort... the same car I drove to work last night. I remember this flat because although it was rush hour, no one stopped to see if I needed assistance. I changed that tire with my butt facing traffic. It was not pleasant. Flash forward to Meerkat. We've had Meerkat for 15 months, and I've gotten two flats, and I'd bet both of them were due to construction in the area... I know for a fact the first one was, because the technician that repaired the tire showed me the offending piece of metal.

That's it for now. 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.  

Data Science, pt 1

I'm calling this "Data Science, pt 1" because it's the beginning, and to be honest, I'm not sure where it end.

To be honest, if you're not interested in Twitter or data, you probably won't be interested in this post. One of my coworkers and I often have discussions about Twitter, partly because I'm a regular poster there and partly because he does not post there. Our inside joke about Twitter, though, is about my posting.

If you follow my twitter posts (hochspeyer@CJoelHarrison), you'll see an account that is focused primarily on Big Data, IoT and programming. We have some good-natured interplay about this-

"You're a fraud," he says.

"I tell the truth," I reply.

This can, and sometimes does- go on all night. I'm not mentioning his name because of my personal blogging rules: if I don't have permission, then I don't have permission.

In the end, we agree to disagree. So, why the Big Preface?

Well, mostly because this blog is about data. And, although data seems to be the furthest thing from a theme, I try to keep data as the unifying theme.

Believe it or not, Twitter is a two-way street. As with all other social media, marketing is important. In the world of social media, I have this blog. I have a Facebook account with many friends. I have a LinkedIn account with many connections. I have Google+ and a Pinterest account. I used to be active on a few forums. I even had a mySpace account. Of all of these, I regard Twitter as my primary and most premium e-presence.

Why? Chicago's own Ides of March really expressed it well: it's my vehicle. More precisely, it's my e-vehicle: it puts my name where I want it to be on the internet. I don't remember exactly how the old truism about publicity went, but it was something like this: "Any publicity is better than no publicity." This is largely (but not entirely) true for someone who is trying to find a job or build a reputation on the internet: almost 100% of the time, any internet presence is better than none. If you're looking for  job, you should have an established social media presence, and probably on at least LinkedIn and Twitter- and it had better damn well be squeaky clean. Please make no mistake: I very seldom (that is, exceedingly rarely) use a word such as "damn" online- and this is HIGHLY intentional. Any reputable firm will probably be have at least a concern about online vulgarity or profanity.

But I digress... back to me and Twitter. I have more than one Twitter account- I don't think this is unusual: one is fairly general, and the other is pretty tightly subject focused. I really don't do too much on my "general" account, and I have no special reason for the lack of activity there. My primary account, though, currently has a few hundred followers, and I follow a few more. What's interesting about this account, though, is my relative level of education to that of my followers. Here's where the ride gets interesting, so buckle up, kiddos!

The subject matter that I generally tweet about is Big Data, Internet of Things, Programming and, to a lesser extent, Technology (Computer, Electronic and Otherwise). I researched this a bit- probably at least thirty minutes on Google (this is the equivalent of 1.21 eternities in Internet time) and could not come up with a definitive answer. However, I know that I have no fewer than five PhD's and one PhD candidate in a population of ~225 followers, which means that ~2% of my FOLLOWERS have doctoral degrees. As best as I could tell through my "extensive" research, approximately 1% of ALL college students in the United States of America complete a doctorate. So as far as my followers are concerned, I think I'm pretty top-heavy in the academic department, even though I'm a card-carrying member of the unwashed masses that check the "some college completed" box.

In fact, in some circles I may even be classified as a "savant".

In any event, I'm going to leave "this" alone for now. When (and/or if) I gain further insights, I will continue this train of thought.

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

Joe Cool, etc.

One of the things that is really pretty nifty about blogging (and yes, I do talk this way in real life) is that it is creative writing which does not need to be tied to a plot. I think I've had the desire to write a book since around my high school years, and have yet to do it. I'm sometimes a little jealous of some folks who are actually published, like my good e-buddy J. S. Frankel. He's written a few books and if you follow the link you'll get to see his Young Adult offerings on Amazon. The extent of my creative writing (apart from things required in school) was some reporting I did for my college newspaper,  The Reporter ( I kid you NOT!), Twitter (known in some circles as "microblogging"), this blog, and an infrequently updated blog on Wordpress. Oh, and a slew of incomplete and unpublished science fiction and/or fantasy stories, as well as one incomplete collaboration from college with my good friend Mark. We were once best friends, but once he became engaged, he felt it was his duty to inform me that I was being demoted in favor of his soon-to-be-bride. Not to be outdone, Jennifer appeared in my life not long after that, and we were married in the same year that Mark and Mary were.

Although I've only used "Potpourri" as part of a blog title twice, and even though that is an apt description of this blog, I've decided to reserve the use of that word for another blog. "Joe Cool" was/is an alter ego of Snoopy, along with the famous World War One fighter ace. I think I grew up during the heyday of the Peanuts comic strip- Peanuts seemed to be all over pop culture, and the Peanuts holiday cartoons on television were a must-see, even if it was the third or fourth or more time of watching them. They were special, and they were really family time.

This blog, though, borrows thematically from- of all things- a tee shirt I bought in the 80's.

For a brief period in the 80's, I worked at J.C. Penney's in the Brickyard, the first "real" shopping center in Chicago. I actually ended up working at a few stores in the Brickyard, but I worked at Penney's before the mall actually opened. At some point, Penney's carried a line of Peanuts-themed shirts. I purchased several (with an employee discount) and one of them had a picture of Snoopy (in his Joe Cool persona). The graphic featured Joe Cool in his signature dark sunglasses flipping a flying disk (a.k.a. "Frisbee") with the following text:

"What else is there to do on a Saturday afternoon when there's nothing on TV,  your clothes are in the laundry and your girlfriend has left you?"

That's pretty close to a quote, in any event. I tried Googling it and came up with nothing.

Finally, in the world of news, I'd like to introduce someone new to my blog- my sister-in-law Donna. In true Love American Style fashion, we've known "of" each other for nearly thirty years, but have only really connected in the past year. She's a good egg- anyone who enjoys my particular brand of humor deserves a pat on the back. And a job- she got caught in the recent bout of Schlumberger layoffs. So if you're in Houston (or maybe Dallas) and reading this- she's lookin'.

Someone recently asked me (okay, it was Donna, who is new to blogging) how I find all of these readers in countries outside of the United States? The answers is: I don't know. I was checking my view stats just before getting back to the blog, and discovered twenty-five new page views from Portugal.

Go figure.

I need to close this out, but one or two more topics are left. First, as I am a proud member of that special group of I.T. workers known to the world only as Nightstalkers, I have to update our grass. At home, that is... the lawn. We seem to have had a good deal of rain during May and June it seems, and as I enjoy cutting the grass (probably an Air Force flashback, but more than likely because it was one of my chores as a youngster), I generally get to do the mowing. And, I'm quicker than Jennifer. So, I happily cut the grass. The problem, though, is that I'm a Nightstalker, and as such, my grasscutting hours are sometimes a bit constrained. For example, we are allowed to "start our engines" after 0700, and are requested to cease power equipment operation by 1900 by our local municipality. The Chicago area is known to be rather humid, so the grass is often dewy in the morning... difficult to cut. My "morning" during the workweek is 1900, so my best opportunities for lawn maintenance are the weekend and Monday.  Although there's been no rain for a few days, I ended up cutting the grass in two stages- Thursday before work, and this morning (Saturday) after work. Our compost bin is nearly overflowing from the clippings, and the lawn was still quite wet, so I think more grass clippings got left on the lawn than those which made it to the compost.

At the start

Compost overflowing

I'm not sure how much can bee seen from these pictures, but the grass in many areas was close to 4" (10cm) tall. It was so tall that I'd started to get calls from conservation agencies around the world asking me to kindly return their endangered species.

Well, not quite, but it was certainly buggier the closer I got to the lushest, least-trafficked area behind the garage.

Also, not sure about the rest of the world, but here in the United States, tomorrow (Sunday) is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads out there.

No data to report this week, but I have a programming update.

My employer uses a very interesting software package for programming our products. As you may know, we produce what is known in the United States as "direct mail"; that is, advertising pieces that are sent through the postal service to named recipients. The client gives us their designs, tells us what specific information that a particular addressee should receive, and we- through composition, layout and programming- will produce a mailpiece that is tailored to each recipient's anticipated needs. On Thursday night, I had to do a bit of break/fox on one of these programs, and then on Friday I was able to pass this newfound knowledge to a few colleagues.

One other bit of very informal data- actually closer to conjecture: I may quite possibly have the highest percentage of folks with PH.D.'s that follow a non-degreed poster than any other non-degreed poster on Twitter... maybe just a hunch... maybe!

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

Suburbia 302: Nightstalkers

"He says there's a storm coming."

"Tell him I know. I know," Sarah Connor replies to the gas station owner at the end of the original  Terminator movie just before she drives off towards the mountains, the storm and the epic Terminator music score.

I sorta knew what Sarah Connor was thinking when I pulled into my driveway this past Saturday morning. I opened the door of Meerkat, our trusty Subaru Outback, and did a quick survey of our yard. Yep, the grass was due for mowing- and the local meteorologists all agreed that the Chicago area was going to be hammered by wind, heavy rain and hail on Sunday- all day. Four letter words, each and every one of them!

Time for an aside here....  Back in my college days, I used to do a fair amount of creative writing, both for class and for personal enjoyment. Stream of consciousness was often used, partly because my typewriter (my manual typewriter) was horrid, and the "t" did not work properly. It was so bad that I once wrote a short paper for a freshman English class and I was struggling so badly that I slipped into stream of consciousness (SOC) without even knowing what SOC was whilst writing this essay. The paper itself was bad, but my salvation was my viewpoint- after several typos, I started SOC and the paper ended up getting a very good grade simply because I took the topic and a bad situation, and managed to get a laugh out of my classmates and our instructor through my commentary.

That was English 102. Fast forward thirty-odd years to 2015. I present Suburbia 302: Nightstalkers. And actually, this is not really for Nightstalkers. It is about Nightstalkers, and why we do things in the manner that we do.

Let's set the stage properly. At 0700, do you want to be wakened or have your morning disturbed by a lawnmower? Of course not! I'm not certain if this is a local ordinance, but the convention seems to be no mowers or other noisy equipment are to be in operation prior to 0800. I generally arrive home sometime between 0500 and 0700. Apart from the fact its bloody early, its also generally fairly wet, as the grass is covered with dew. So, I have the following windows available for grass cutting: Tuesday through Friday 1700-1900, Saturday 1800-2000 and pretty much all day Sunday and Monday. (And Sunday is the only full day of the entire week that I do not normally have to work for my employer.)

The bottom line, though, is that the grass does get cut, although sometimes because of meteorological conditions, it sometimes gets a bit shaggier than some of our neighbors' lawns who employ lawn services. For example, in May when Jennifer was out of town, I was always behind in my grass cutting because of Mother Nature's gleeful demonstrations of deluges, downpours and general dampness. Many of our neighbors had lawn services that seemed to suddenly appear with their high-powered self-propelled mowers the moment the rain stopped. Me? I had to wait until the grass dried- often a day or more. I once cut the grass in the rain, just because it was in dire need.

Its not quite like I see our suburb anywhere near the Monkees' Pleasant Valley Sunday, but I try to make our home and property look nice. And yes, I am aware that the song is NOT about nice or pretty (for 60's fans, please see also Proud Mary)

On the data front, not much has been going on. As some may be aware the Secret Underground Lair (SUL) has been undergoing a remodel. Mr. T., in an honest effort to move things along, committed a tactical error which has created a setback. In my previous blog, (Around) 2.5 Years Ago, or, my personal Interwebz v2.1, I had noted that the major moves were complete, and what was left was arguably the hard part- getting everything back in the office. Mr. T. decided to expedite the process by unboxing a great deal of old software to save some room. The net result of this was the complete occupation (wasted space) of nearly two shelves of formerly unoccupied space. It has been a week since he did this, and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to re-package this software.

Lego data has not been worked on. But- some Lego elements have been organized for ease of counting.

Lastly, Jennifer came to me with an odd problem- she was trying to read a document, but it would not download properly. At first, the website was blamed, but after a bit of troubleshooting, I discovered a much simpler error: Microsoft Office was not installed on her PC. Fiften minutes later, everything was good.

Now if I could only find the interface cable for my DSLR....

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.