Category: Uncategorized

This is a difficult time for many of us. My thoughts are first with all of the people suffering from the disease and it’s impact. Also with the heroic first responders, the men and women who are risking their own lives to save others.
There are a number of interesting site I’ve been following to get more info. The site below does a great job of explaining the growth of the virus and how to tell if we are flatting the curve.

The original Johns Hopkins site uses a map delivered by ESRI and ArcGIS to track the progression of the virus:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

In 2012, I picked up a copy of Teo Lachev’s “Applied Analysis Services.” The book featured how Microsoft was pulling together Excel, Power View, Power Pivot, Tabular Modeling and the new DAX Language (Data Analysis eXpressions). The traditional OLAP SSAS MDX cube wasn’t going away but the new hardware options and increased need for self service meant a new technology was required. DAX uses standard Excel formula syntax. This provided business users with a way to extended Excel logic, formulas and calculations. The power of Excel with the promise of self service BI is pretty compelling.

During my time at Qlik (2012-2017), Microsoft continued to build and expand it’s products. With the Tabular model , Microsoft adopted a “columnstore indexing” strategy using Vertipaq. This allowed for much more data to be available on disk and in-memory.

For more info visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/analysis-services/

Recently I read a very interesting article on how the “digital world” allows for much more experimentation than previously available. Online marketing and research has changed the discipline. The authors of the article explore some of the “subtleties” of designing experiments and provide guideline.

A copy of the article is available below:

https://www.ericfrayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/SSRN-id2630209.pdf

This is just a quick post to share I’m using this site mainly as a “technical sandbox”. Someplace to try out different functionality and post working examples. I’m using Google Analytics in a browser and app on my phone to see if I’m getting any traffic. Most of my “users” are friends, colleagues and potential employers who’ve I’ve given the url.

Anyway here is a page from Google Analytics for my site. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising how much Google provides for developers and internet users.

It’s amazing how many free or low cost learning solutions exist online. Currently, I’m using DataCamp, Udemy, and Code Academy. I’m also following specific experts including Nathan Yau, Hadley Wickham and Graham Williams.