VIRTUAL PICKET
Beware a structure
wholly electrified. Step
with soles of rubber.
Barbs are benign. It's
those smooth currents contain the
most livid message.
Charge the merest brush
of dear proximity with
the heaviest load.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Aweekstweets August 24-31 2009 @jameskobielus
AWEEKSTWEETS AUG 24-31 2009
1. Recollecting the week in my mind. Pred anal key to scientific discovery. Model decay: old "laws" lose force if new data not scored.about 5 hours ago from web
JK2—Theories are cheap. They’re just predictions about what future evidence may (or may not) confirm. Only as strong as the next confirmation. Decaying into superstition with each failure—or willful refusal—to confirm against the actual universe.
2. Contemplating new gen of predictive analytics in social media. Vet "friend"'s likely future behavior online. Hedge "friendship" accordingly.about 5 hours ago from web
JK2—It comes down to reputation. If you think of it, reputation is a predictive metric. Per what I said in this blog a few years ago, reputation is “an assurance or trust level—an evaluation of the extent to which someone is worthwhile to know and associate with.” It’s “relying parties’ evaluation of our reliability, of their liabilities, and of the degree to which associating with us makes them ill at ease. Relying parties...gather assertions and data from [hither and yon] before rendering their evaluations and opening their kimonos." Before establishing an online “friendship.” I’d like, among other things, some assurance of the other party’s reciprocal friendliness. I’d like to know if they’ll respond quickly, reliably, fully, warmly, constructively with me though any or all social media channels. Nothing I hate more than gushing my guts to someone who doesn’t give as well as they take. How can I check their track record on all this without violating their privacy.
3. RT @jennifer_dubow: "my team would like to listen to your podcast on BAM/BI next week." jk--We record 8-31. It'll be posted by mid-week.3:10 PM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—She’s referring to the podcast referenced in this blogpost: Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?. Never worry (spoiler alert): BAM/BI’s mommy survives this episode.
4. Truly advanced analytics = complex info, models, deployments, latencies, policies, usage. Also, embedded. Hence, seamless, invisible. Simple2:53 PM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—I thought I had coined the term “transalytics” to refer to the tight integration of analytics into transactional computing applications. But then a quick Google disabused me of that notion. Apparently, my grandiose conception is a high-falutin way of saying “tape-reading.” I stand corrected.
5. RT @JesseNewhart: "Over 75% of orgs haven't upgraded to latest MSFT Office." jk--Nor should they. Core/older features sufficient for most.9:06 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—I’m a late adopter of most new techs, services, gadgets, apps, features. And I’m not staying up at night exploring the features of the techs I’ve worked into my life. I’m far more interested in using whatever willfully limited toolset I have to generate and share the content that continually courses through my head. Hence, the “content to be content” motto on this blog.
6. RT @madgreek65 @atmanes "Sell SOA to the business, pitch it as cloud" jk--Substitute one bubble abstraction for another. They'll eat it up.7:55 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—2009 feels like 1969. Saying “SOA” now is like saying “far out” then. What was cool and hip a few years ago now marks you as a dork. Remember how John Denver was saying “far out” well into the 70s? Remember when Duke was neighbors with him in Aspen in Doonesbury? “That’s a far-out creek you have there, Duke!”
7. @kitson @jowyang #AugmentedReality #socialmedia Mobile wearable devices that we all strap on? Wristwatch-like? Yuk. They chafe & constrict.7:46 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—Speaking of things that mark you as a dork. Any technology you wear, as opposed to simply wielding. Any interface that causes you to gesticulate weirdly in apparently empty space. Any service that isn’t woven transparently into the fabric of everyday reality.
8. Just upgraded to Office 2007. So I'm in sync with 2 years ago. But it changed my doc UI. New look, new feel. But I lost the feel. Feels odd.7:23 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—By definition, any new interface that doesn’t give me the option of keeping the old interface cramps my style. I’ll migrate my work- and lifestyle if and when I’m good and ready. Not when Microsoft or anybody else dictates.
9. RT @jswanhart "How do people who follows 1000s of other people filter all that stuff anyway?" jk--You don't filter. You simply glance.
JK2—Worry about information overload is so 90s. The stuff just flows and flows. Don’t worry about missing stuff. It pours directly into the ever-filling, ever-searchable “historical record.” That latter’s a misnomer, of course. The past is always presenting itself. The things you need to find will find you.
10. Eight tweets. That's the # of consecutive tweets I can page down in TweetDeck with my right index finger on mouse wheel. 8 tweets = 1 twyte.1:35 PM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—A twyte’s more than enough distance for a quick glance. I curl my twytefinger on my mouse like an inchworm on a leaf. I don’t attempt to colonize every leaf on this massive tree of info, much less the entire forest canopy, or the world’s many arboreal ecosystems.
11. Interviewed by reporter yesterday on some privacy-invading "data mining" tech. I'm a bit tired of discussing DM in "necessary evil" context9:11 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—I had to drill the reporter, Deborah Yao of Associated Press, for fuller context on the story, which concerned some vendor, Echometrix, that I’d never heard of. The story had something to do with Echometrix’s parental control software, installed on home PCs, feeds teenager private instant messages, tweets, blogposts, and other Web 2.0/social media contents in real-time to some online service hosted/managed by Echometrix. Apparently, Echometrix’ “Pulse” service “reveals what teenagers really think about your products and your competitors.” Echometrix collects and aggregates this info by demographics into an online data mart, and sells access to advertisers and marketers. Interesting because it mines commercially golden customer-generated content, and leverages key text analytics (sentiment analysis), but it still leaves me a bit cold. It feels like surveillance. It feels like privacy invasion. Yes, these are households that voluntarily yield this info. But what are they getting in return? And do teenagers have no say whatsoever in the decision by their parents to sell access to their most private communications (albeit aggregated, de-identified, mined for larger patterns and trends) with some unseen company and their advertiser customers? I can just imagine the privacy advocates, such as Marc Rotenberg’s Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), getting wind of this. Data mining often gets presented in this privacy-invasion context in the popular press.
12. "First Look: Microsoft's SQL Azure Database CTP" (http://bit.ly/M5nNV): jk--Literally: screenshots: svr adm, scripting, query opt, rsc gov..7:27 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—Good to see they’re well along toward production go-live of the service later this year. SQL Azure’s architecture and interfaces don’t interest me as much as Microsoft’s go-to-market business model. Are they primarily going to embed this cloud database in Microsoft Live online app services (a la what they did with the Passport authentication service several years ago)? Are they going to pitch it to their SQL Server enterprise customers, or to small and midsized customers, as a lightweight SaaS database service for specific apps? If so, which customers and which apps? I’m hearing no clear direction from Microsoft on how they’re going to compete with other vendors in the emerging cloud DBMS market.
13. RT @mbalch "Need efficient way to condense relevant tweets" jk--That's purpose of my "aweekstweets." Weekly self-digest. Tweeter's digest.6:59 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—It’s also a handy-dandy way for me to leverage “note to self” tweets as material for longer thoughts to be developed later. And to collect my scattered observations into more coherent aggregates. And to keep my personal blog regularly refreshed with new content, some of which may find its way into my Forrester blogs and other means of expression. Poetry needs to be just one element in my personal blog, not the whole thing.
14. Glanced at the 1000th (or millionth?) trade press article ripping MSFT a new (old?) one over "Bob." Give the snark a rest, please, folks.2:45 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Ever notice the unimaginative, kneejerk, copycat, schoolyard herdthink that we all, even the most professional of us, tend to engage in? This ongoing “let’s jab another dagger in Microsoft Bob’s long-dead sucky heart” theme somehow reminds me of a point that the late biologist Stephen Jay Gould made in an essay ages ago. He discussed the essay, “The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier Clone,” in this interview. A key excerpt: “Textbooks are so unimaginative and just copy one from the other. I discovered that in describing evolution, the horse, which is a standard example in all texts, the earliest horse called the eohippus, is always described as fox terrier in size. Now, it occurred to me that everybody who copies that line--most of them probably don't know what a fox terrier is outside of seeing Astin, those old "Thin Man" movies--who knows what a fox terrier is, yet 80 percent of all references give this knee-jerk line. Eohippus was fox terrier in size. So, I traced it, and I realized that they're just copying from other textbooks. You get these traditions of unimaginative textbook copyings. So I wrote this essay on how the unimaginative textbook is one of the main impediments to good science education.” In IT punditry, the “Microsoft Bob sucks” theme is not much more than that. Each subsequent compiler of “stupidest product” lists just aggregates the previous bunch of lists into a new list. I suspect that the older the product, the less likely the most recent stupid-product-list aggregator actually used it. Given that Microsoft Bob came out in the early 90s, its presence on new lists probably owes more to the “my big brother told me it sucked back in the day” than to any fresh analysis based on “let’s take it out of box, re-install it, and give it another look-see just to be fair.” For the record, I had Bob on a home PC and liked it. But it was limited by the fact that I couldn’t install my favorite cartoon characters for the ones that Microsoft bundled with the product. I love cartoons.
15. Noticing attempts to weave quasi-tweeting into blogs; eg. @cmooreforrester (http://bit.ly/11JB4k), or my own private-blog "aweekstweets."2:43 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Always looking to expand my expressive powers and not get shackled to tiresome old thought patterns. When I was young, I thought and wrote like an old man. I’m trying to make up for lost time.
16. I have entirely lost interest in the universe of Twitter add-on features/tools. I just like simplicity. Lean tweets.2:36 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—I hate distraction.
17. Did a great podcast with Stefan Andreasen, Kapow's CTO/co-founder, and Dana Gardner, Interarbor Solutions, on web data services.1:00 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Discussed my FORR doc on Mighty Mashups: Self-Service BI For the New Economy.” I disagree with the headline in this otherwise fine article by Lauren McKay in www.searchdatamanagement.com. Mashups don’t make anybody smarter. If you wish or don’t watch out, they allow you, the end user, to make an even bigger mess with mashed-up Web data than you would with spoonfed enterprise data. You still need to distill it all down to a drop or two of insight. And that’s the “heavy lifting” I allude to: the uncanny brainpower you may or may not apply to the mashup.
18. New FORR blog post: "Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?" (http://bit.ly/1KL83X)8:59 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Good. The folks at Information Management syndicated what I consider one of my best recent blogposts. Spoiler alert: The answer is “yes.”
19. "Anti-Twitter: Woofer requires 1,400-char min" (http://bit.ly/PstIb): jk--Charcount-sorted msging? E-mail evolve to route outbound by size?7:27 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—I pride myself on my ability to go long or short with my musings, whatever suits the message, or my mood. Novels are not a more advanced art form than short stories. They’re just longer.
20. "Social Networking Poll Shows Users More Vulnerable Than Ever" (http://bit.ly/Gu4XU): jk--Vulnerable to those tuned to our vulnerabilities.7:19 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Users are not more vulnerable than ever. Rather, our self-appointed “protectors” are more predatory than ever.
21. Nothing could be sweeter than a clean inbox at 8:12am--i.e., a formerly full one cleaned through brute force--i.e., resolve to respond later7:16 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Nothing’s more transient than a clean inbox. Don’t freak when it’s suddenly full 10 seconds later. Just keeping draining—and breathing evenly.
22. Developing predictive models is one thing. Predicting which models will be most useful is another. That's why comparative model eval so important7:13 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Any darn fool can predict the future. Many predictions are plausible. Adjudicating among them is best left to the experts. Economics wouldn’t be the fine, Nobel-winning profession it is today if this weren’t true.
23. E-mail evolving into event-alerting, clickback, and object-transport bus for interpersonal comms. Social ntwks are core P2P "messaging" now.8:20 PM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Somehow, this doesn’t feel like it’s making us more social.
24. Developed BAM maturity model. Will discuss w/ @passion4process on FORR podcast next Monday. Is BAM still relevant in age of lean processes?3:23 PM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—BAM BAM BAM! Level 1: business activity monitoring. Level 2: business action mobilization. Level 3: business adaptability management.
25. @carterlusher : Yep, re Forrester research projects (e.g. Waves), research associates are key. Mine is the ever-ready/organized Charlie Coit11:33 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Even with a full-time RA, it becomes awfully difficult to manage my full research agenda, consulting, speaking engagements, etc. Being a Forrester analyst is a step or two up in the “everybody wants to speak with you” scale from any of previous, smaller analyst firms I was with. Not that I’m complaining. Being with a big-brand gives me unparalleled access, and unparalleled influence. None of which do I take for granted. That’s why I work doubly hard.
26. RT @carterlusher: Observations on Forrester's and its analysts' use of social media http://bit.ly/iXpOg9:09 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Forrester encourages us to use all social media channels, new and emerging, to build our respective star-analyst brands and our corporate brand. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m one of the most active tweeters among current Forrester analysts. I’m also one of the handful who have their own private blog. Which I started long before I joined Forrester—and which has obviously evolved over the years as my career has evolved—and in line with my ever-changing moods and interests. I like to play around. Call me quirky, but you only go around once. I’m the master of me.
27. "Google PubSubHubbub Looks Like RSS on Steroids" (http://bit.ly/7VpTV): jk--It also looks like key pub-sub protocol for social networking.8:25 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Will the ever-diversifying social-media world ever standardize on a common pub-sub protocol? Hell no. Some master aggregator service will emerge by tapping into the proprietary interfaces of all the major—and many minor—social media services. That aggregator may be Google, but probably not. Hence, PubSubHubbub could just become yet another visionary but ultimately forgotten, nowhere-implemented Google project. Remember when I referred to Google as the Xerox PARC of Web 2.0? I still stand by that.
28. RT @carterlusher: "Why large analyst firms don’t seem to mind losing superstars" (http://bit.ly/YCunP): jk--Good post. 2 words: deep bench.2:01 PM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—What’s questionable is this notion of analyst “superstars.” There are lots of smart people in this space. But none of us is so supernaturally, charismatically brilliant that they clearly stand head and shoulders above the rest and set the industry’s agenda. I judge everybody by a simple criterion: what have I learned from them that I couldn’t have figured out before long on my own? I’ve long surrounded myself with the smartest people I could find and then, in my head, quickly assimilated what I’ve learned from them. What others might regard as “superstars” I might regard as somebody who’s simply well known and respected. Down deep, the core criterion I respect is brainpower—and collegiality.
29. RT @bitterer: @hackathorn "condensing a vendor briefing into 140 chars *is* a bitch." jk--Technical term? Is a batch of bits a "bitch"?12:29 PM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—It’s not a bitch. It’s easy as can be. To the extent that the vendor doesn’t condense their message down to a simple phrase and make that their press release headline, they’re not doing their job. I laugh at how often I can do it for them—though they may not agree with the slant I give it.
30. "Mining the Web for Feelings Not Facts "(http://bit.ly/44z1X): jk--Cube evolve for advanced analytics? Feeling fact & dimension tables?10:55 AM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—OK, OK, you OLAP purists—I know a “feeling table” can be modeled as just another type of “fact table.” Chances are, though, it often won’t. It’ll be modeled as an RDF triple instead.
31. Teradata Virtual Storage “Temperature Aware” [for] DW (http://bit.ly/kbLE5): jk--Auto-move data to low-cost "colder" storage. Key cost-saver10:39 AM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—If a data warehouse were a real warehouse, “hot storage” would be the main loading dock where trucks pick up same-day local deliveries; “tepid storage” where goods scheduled for delivery in the next 2-3 days, within a 500-mile radius, are kept, further back from the docks; and “cold storage,” where less-in-demand inventory, not currently scheduled for delivery, are maintained. In other words, a data warehouse, like a real warehouse, is just a complex, many-sectored storage, staging, and transshipment points for diverse goods.
32. Taking a demo from IDS Scheer on their BAM and BI mashup solutions.
JK2—Also, I’m taking demos and briefings galore from the vendors in my Forrester Wave for Predictive Analytics and Data Mining Solutions. I’m not tweeting or blogging on any of those. You’ll have to wait till I publish my Wave later this year.
1. Recollecting the week in my mind. Pred anal key to scientific discovery. Model decay: old "laws" lose force if new data not scored.about 5 hours ago from web
JK2—Theories are cheap. They’re just predictions about what future evidence may (or may not) confirm. Only as strong as the next confirmation. Decaying into superstition with each failure—or willful refusal—to confirm against the actual universe.
2. Contemplating new gen of predictive analytics in social media. Vet "friend"'s likely future behavior online. Hedge "friendship" accordingly.about 5 hours ago from web
JK2—It comes down to reputation. If you think of it, reputation is a predictive metric. Per what I said in this blog a few years ago, reputation is “an assurance or trust level—an evaluation of the extent to which someone is worthwhile to know and associate with.” It’s “relying parties’ evaluation of our reliability, of their liabilities, and of the degree to which associating with us makes them ill at ease. Relying parties...gather assertions and data from [hither and yon] before rendering their evaluations and opening their kimonos." Before establishing an online “friendship.” I’d like, among other things, some assurance of the other party’s reciprocal friendliness. I’d like to know if they’ll respond quickly, reliably, fully, warmly, constructively with me though any or all social media channels. Nothing I hate more than gushing my guts to someone who doesn’t give as well as they take. How can I check their track record on all this without violating their privacy.
3. RT @jennifer_dubow: "my team would like to listen to your podcast on BAM/BI next week." jk--We record 8-31. It'll be posted by mid-week.3:10 PM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—She’s referring to the podcast referenced in this blogpost: Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?. Never worry (spoiler alert): BAM/BI’s mommy survives this episode.
4. Truly advanced analytics = complex info, models, deployments, latencies, policies, usage. Also, embedded. Hence, seamless, invisible. Simple2:53 PM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—I thought I had coined the term “transalytics” to refer to the tight integration of analytics into transactional computing applications. But then a quick Google disabused me of that notion. Apparently, my grandiose conception is a high-falutin way of saying “tape-reading.” I stand corrected.
5. RT @JesseNewhart: "Over 75% of orgs haven't upgraded to latest MSFT Office." jk--Nor should they. Core/older features sufficient for most.9:06 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—I’m a late adopter of most new techs, services, gadgets, apps, features. And I’m not staying up at night exploring the features of the techs I’ve worked into my life. I’m far more interested in using whatever willfully limited toolset I have to generate and share the content that continually courses through my head. Hence, the “content to be content” motto on this blog.
6. RT @madgreek65 @atmanes "Sell SOA to the business, pitch it as cloud" jk--Substitute one bubble abstraction for another. They'll eat it up.7:55 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—2009 feels like 1969. Saying “SOA” now is like saying “far out” then. What was cool and hip a few years ago now marks you as a dork. Remember how John Denver was saying “far out” well into the 70s? Remember when Duke was neighbors with him in Aspen in Doonesbury? “That’s a far-out creek you have there, Duke!”
7. @kitson @jowyang #AugmentedReality #socialmedia Mobile wearable devices that we all strap on? Wristwatch-like? Yuk. They chafe & constrict.7:46 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—Speaking of things that mark you as a dork. Any technology you wear, as opposed to simply wielding. Any interface that causes you to gesticulate weirdly in apparently empty space. Any service that isn’t woven transparently into the fabric of everyday reality.
8. Just upgraded to Office 2007. So I'm in sync with 2 years ago. But it changed my doc UI. New look, new feel. But I lost the feel. Feels odd.7:23 AM Aug 28th from TweetDeck
JK2—By definition, any new interface that doesn’t give me the option of keeping the old interface cramps my style. I’ll migrate my work- and lifestyle if and when I’m good and ready. Not when Microsoft or anybody else dictates.
9. RT @jswanhart "How do people who follows 1000s of other people filter all that stuff anyway?" jk--You don't filter. You simply glance.
JK2—Worry about information overload is so 90s. The stuff just flows and flows. Don’t worry about missing stuff. It pours directly into the ever-filling, ever-searchable “historical record.” That latter’s a misnomer, of course. The past is always presenting itself. The things you need to find will find you.
10. Eight tweets. That's the # of consecutive tweets I can page down in TweetDeck with my right index finger on mouse wheel. 8 tweets = 1 twyte.1:35 PM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—A twyte’s more than enough distance for a quick glance. I curl my twytefinger on my mouse like an inchworm on a leaf. I don’t attempt to colonize every leaf on this massive tree of info, much less the entire forest canopy, or the world’s many arboreal ecosystems.
11. Interviewed by reporter yesterday on some privacy-invading "data mining" tech. I'm a bit tired of discussing DM in "necessary evil" context9:11 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—I had to drill the reporter, Deborah Yao of Associated Press, for fuller context on the story, which concerned some vendor, Echometrix, that I’d never heard of. The story had something to do with Echometrix’s parental control software, installed on home PCs, feeds teenager private instant messages, tweets, blogposts, and other Web 2.0/social media contents in real-time to some online service hosted/managed by Echometrix. Apparently, Echometrix’ “Pulse” service “reveals what teenagers really think about your products and your competitors.” Echometrix collects and aggregates this info by demographics into an online data mart, and sells access to advertisers and marketers. Interesting because it mines commercially golden customer-generated content, and leverages key text analytics (sentiment analysis), but it still leaves me a bit cold. It feels like surveillance. It feels like privacy invasion. Yes, these are households that voluntarily yield this info. But what are they getting in return? And do teenagers have no say whatsoever in the decision by their parents to sell access to their most private communications (albeit aggregated, de-identified, mined for larger patterns and trends) with some unseen company and their advertiser customers? I can just imagine the privacy advocates, such as Marc Rotenberg’s Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), getting wind of this. Data mining often gets presented in this privacy-invasion context in the popular press.
12. "First Look: Microsoft's SQL Azure Database CTP" (http://bit.ly/M5nNV): jk--Literally: screenshots: svr adm, scripting, query opt, rsc gov..7:27 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—Good to see they’re well along toward production go-live of the service later this year. SQL Azure’s architecture and interfaces don’t interest me as much as Microsoft’s go-to-market business model. Are they primarily going to embed this cloud database in Microsoft Live online app services (a la what they did with the Passport authentication service several years ago)? Are they going to pitch it to their SQL Server enterprise customers, or to small and midsized customers, as a lightweight SaaS database service for specific apps? If so, which customers and which apps? I’m hearing no clear direction from Microsoft on how they’re going to compete with other vendors in the emerging cloud DBMS market.
13. RT @mbalch "Need efficient way to condense relevant tweets" jk--That's purpose of my "aweekstweets." Weekly self-digest. Tweeter's digest.6:59 AM Aug 27th from TweetDeck
JK2—It’s also a handy-dandy way for me to leverage “note to self” tweets as material for longer thoughts to be developed later. And to collect my scattered observations into more coherent aggregates. And to keep my personal blog regularly refreshed with new content, some of which may find its way into my Forrester blogs and other means of expression. Poetry needs to be just one element in my personal blog, not the whole thing.
14. Glanced at the 1000th (or millionth?) trade press article ripping MSFT a new (old?) one over "Bob." Give the snark a rest, please, folks.2:45 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Ever notice the unimaginative, kneejerk, copycat, schoolyard herdthink that we all, even the most professional of us, tend to engage in? This ongoing “let’s jab another dagger in Microsoft Bob’s long-dead sucky heart” theme somehow reminds me of a point that the late biologist Stephen Jay Gould made in an essay ages ago. He discussed the essay, “The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier Clone,” in this interview. A key excerpt: “Textbooks are so unimaginative and just copy one from the other. I discovered that in describing evolution, the horse, which is a standard example in all texts, the earliest horse called the eohippus, is always described as fox terrier in size. Now, it occurred to me that everybody who copies that line--most of them probably don't know what a fox terrier is outside of seeing Astin, those old "Thin Man" movies--who knows what a fox terrier is, yet 80 percent of all references give this knee-jerk line. Eohippus was fox terrier in size. So, I traced it, and I realized that they're just copying from other textbooks. You get these traditions of unimaginative textbook copyings. So I wrote this essay on how the unimaginative textbook is one of the main impediments to good science education.” In IT punditry, the “Microsoft Bob sucks” theme is not much more than that. Each subsequent compiler of “stupidest product” lists just aggregates the previous bunch of lists into a new list. I suspect that the older the product, the less likely the most recent stupid-product-list aggregator actually used it. Given that Microsoft Bob came out in the early 90s, its presence on new lists probably owes more to the “my big brother told me it sucked back in the day” than to any fresh analysis based on “let’s take it out of box, re-install it, and give it another look-see just to be fair.” For the record, I had Bob on a home PC and liked it. But it was limited by the fact that I couldn’t install my favorite cartoon characters for the ones that Microsoft bundled with the product. I love cartoons.
15. Noticing attempts to weave quasi-tweeting into blogs; eg. @cmooreforrester (http://bit.ly/11JB4k), or my own private-blog "aweekstweets."2:43 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Always looking to expand my expressive powers and not get shackled to tiresome old thought patterns. When I was young, I thought and wrote like an old man. I’m trying to make up for lost time.
16. I have entirely lost interest in the universe of Twitter add-on features/tools. I just like simplicity. Lean tweets.2:36 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—I hate distraction.
17. Did a great podcast with Stefan Andreasen, Kapow's CTO/co-founder, and Dana Gardner, Interarbor Solutions, on web data services.1:00 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Discussed my FORR doc on Mighty Mashups: Self-Service BI For the New Economy.” I disagree with the headline in this otherwise fine article by Lauren McKay in www.searchdatamanagement.com. Mashups don’t make anybody smarter. If you wish or don’t watch out, they allow you, the end user, to make an even bigger mess with mashed-up Web data than you would with spoonfed enterprise data. You still need to distill it all down to a drop or two of insight. And that’s the “heavy lifting” I allude to: the uncanny brainpower you may or may not apply to the mashup.
18. New FORR blog post: "Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?" (http://bit.ly/1KL83X)8:59 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Good. The folks at Information Management syndicated what I consider one of my best recent blogposts. Spoiler alert: The answer is “yes.”
19. "Anti-Twitter: Woofer requires 1,400-char min" (http://bit.ly/PstIb): jk--Charcount-sorted msging? E-mail evolve to route outbound by size?7:27 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—I pride myself on my ability to go long or short with my musings, whatever suits the message, or my mood. Novels are not a more advanced art form than short stories. They’re just longer.
20. "Social Networking Poll Shows Users More Vulnerable Than Ever" (http://bit.ly/Gu4XU): jk--Vulnerable to those tuned to our vulnerabilities.7:19 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Users are not more vulnerable than ever. Rather, our self-appointed “protectors” are more predatory than ever.
21. Nothing could be sweeter than a clean inbox at 8:12am--i.e., a formerly full one cleaned through brute force--i.e., resolve to respond later7:16 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Nothing’s more transient than a clean inbox. Don’t freak when it’s suddenly full 10 seconds later. Just keeping draining—and breathing evenly.
22. Developing predictive models is one thing. Predicting which models will be most useful is another. That's why comparative model eval so important7:13 AM Aug 26th from TweetDeck
JK2—Any darn fool can predict the future. Many predictions are plausible. Adjudicating among them is best left to the experts. Economics wouldn’t be the fine, Nobel-winning profession it is today if this weren’t true.
23. E-mail evolving into event-alerting, clickback, and object-transport bus for interpersonal comms. Social ntwks are core P2P "messaging" now.8:20 PM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Somehow, this doesn’t feel like it’s making us more social.
24. Developed BAM maturity model. Will discuss w/ @passion4process on FORR podcast next Monday. Is BAM still relevant in age of lean processes?3:23 PM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—BAM BAM BAM! Level 1: business activity monitoring. Level 2: business action mobilization. Level 3: business adaptability management.
25. @carterlusher : Yep, re Forrester research projects (e.g. Waves), research associates are key. Mine is the ever-ready/organized Charlie Coit11:33 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Even with a full-time RA, it becomes awfully difficult to manage my full research agenda, consulting, speaking engagements, etc. Being a Forrester analyst is a step or two up in the “everybody wants to speak with you” scale from any of previous, smaller analyst firms I was with. Not that I’m complaining. Being with a big-brand gives me unparalleled access, and unparalleled influence. None of which do I take for granted. That’s why I work doubly hard.
26. RT @carterlusher: Observations on Forrester's and its analysts' use of social media http://bit.ly/iXpOg9:09 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Forrester encourages us to use all social media channels, new and emerging, to build our respective star-analyst brands and our corporate brand. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m one of the most active tweeters among current Forrester analysts. I’m also one of the handful who have their own private blog. Which I started long before I joined Forrester—and which has obviously evolved over the years as my career has evolved—and in line with my ever-changing moods and interests. I like to play around. Call me quirky, but you only go around once. I’m the master of me.
27. "Google PubSubHubbub Looks Like RSS on Steroids" (http://bit.ly/7VpTV): jk--It also looks like key pub-sub protocol for social networking.8:25 AM Aug 25th from TweetDeck
JK2—Will the ever-diversifying social-media world ever standardize on a common pub-sub protocol? Hell no. Some master aggregator service will emerge by tapping into the proprietary interfaces of all the major—and many minor—social media services. That aggregator may be Google, but probably not. Hence, PubSubHubbub could just become yet another visionary but ultimately forgotten, nowhere-implemented Google project. Remember when I referred to Google as the Xerox PARC of Web 2.0? I still stand by that.
28. RT @carterlusher: "Why large analyst firms don’t seem to mind losing superstars" (http://bit.ly/YCunP): jk--Good post. 2 words: deep bench.2:01 PM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—What’s questionable is this notion of analyst “superstars.” There are lots of smart people in this space. But none of us is so supernaturally, charismatically brilliant that they clearly stand head and shoulders above the rest and set the industry’s agenda. I judge everybody by a simple criterion: what have I learned from them that I couldn’t have figured out before long on my own? I’ve long surrounded myself with the smartest people I could find and then, in my head, quickly assimilated what I’ve learned from them. What others might regard as “superstars” I might regard as somebody who’s simply well known and respected. Down deep, the core criterion I respect is brainpower—and collegiality.
29. RT @bitterer: @hackathorn "condensing a vendor briefing into 140 chars *is* a bitch." jk--Technical term? Is a batch of bits a "bitch"?12:29 PM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—It’s not a bitch. It’s easy as can be. To the extent that the vendor doesn’t condense their message down to a simple phrase and make that their press release headline, they’re not doing their job. I laugh at how often I can do it for them—though they may not agree with the slant I give it.
30. "Mining the Web for Feelings Not Facts "(http://bit.ly/44z1X): jk--Cube evolve for advanced analytics? Feeling fact & dimension tables?10:55 AM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—OK, OK, you OLAP purists—I know a “feeling table” can be modeled as just another type of “fact table.” Chances are, though, it often won’t. It’ll be modeled as an RDF triple instead.
31. Teradata Virtual Storage “Temperature Aware” [for] DW (http://bit.ly/kbLE5): jk--Auto-move data to low-cost "colder" storage. Key cost-saver10:39 AM Aug 24th from TweetDeck
JK2—If a data warehouse were a real warehouse, “hot storage” would be the main loading dock where trucks pick up same-day local deliveries; “tepid storage” where goods scheduled for delivery in the next 2-3 days, within a 500-mile radius, are kept, further back from the docks; and “cold storage,” where less-in-demand inventory, not currently scheduled for delivery, are maintained. In other words, a data warehouse, like a real warehouse, is just a complex, many-sectored storage, staging, and transshipment points for diverse goods.
32. Taking a demo from IDS Scheer on their BAM and BI mashup solutions.
JK2—Also, I’m taking demos and briefings galore from the vendors in my Forrester Wave for Predictive Analytics and Data Mining Solutions. I’m not tweeting or blogging on any of those. You’ll have to wait till I publish my Wave later this year.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
FORRESTER blog repost Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?
Is BAM Relevant in the Age of Lean Processes?
By James Kobielus
In any dynamic business environment, the last thing you want is to indulge in navel-gazing. If you’re finely attuned to monitoring internal processes, but are not adept at responding to breaking events or anticipating the future, you will find yourself marginalized in the new global economy.
In a turbulent world, the most successful companies are those that stay lean--in other words, trimmed of excess overhead, fit for new challenges, and flexible enough to evolve rapidly. Forrester advises customers to make their business processes leaner, through such measures as reducing the number of steps, routing paths, participants, decision points, milestones, and revisions. As you do, you will find concomitant improvements in speed, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Clearly, you can’t do that well if you don’t have, at the very least, the means to monitor a wide range of business processes in unified dashboards, reports, and other applications. That’s where traditional business activity monitoring (BAM) tools, which are a key component of most business process management (BPM) environments, play a critical role. However, critical as BAM may be, it is often deployed in a predominantly navel-gazing process-tracking capacity (remember what that “M” stands for) and, as such, is as much part of the problem as the solution.
Why? Well, for starters, most BAM environments are deployed in conjunction with specific vendors’ BPM platforms--hence can only track the subset of business processes that run on those platforms. But, even more limiting, BAM dashboards are often the stand-alone province of process administrators. Only in a handful of BAM-using organizations do alerts and metrics escalate beyond the process administrator level and trigger the necessary human and automated workflows necessary to respond to breaking issues--or nip them in the bud before they can become issues.
To stay relevant, BAM needs to evolve in the age of lean processes so that it can become a tool for business agility at all levels. Next week, Forrester BPM analyst Clay Richardson and I will do a podcast on this very topic. In that podcast, and in a joint presentation that Natalie Petouhoff and I will do at Forrester Business and Technology Forum in Chicago in October, I’ll sketch out a vision for the next-generation of BAM (which I half-jokingly call “uber-BAM”).
Here is a rough sketch of the maturity levels of BAM's evolution to realize this vision:
* BAM Level 1: Business activity monitoring: This is today’s BAM baseline. Essentially, it combines BPM with business intelligence (BI), interactive dashboarding, and complex event processing to deliver process metrics to consoles used solely by human process administrators.
* BAM Level 2: Business action mobilization: This is the BAM level that many forward-looking users and vendors have implemented. It combines all Level 1 functionality with business rules engines (BRE) to drive sophisticated human and automated workflows in response to breaking events. It puts the “immediate action loop” into the BAM equation.
* BAM Level 3: Business adaptability management: This is the promise of truly lean uber-BAM, and is found only in a vanguard of visionary business environments. It combines all Level 2 functionality with embedded predictive-analytics models, which are developed and maintained by business process architects and/or subject-matter process experts. Continuously mining historical and real-time metrics, these in-process analytics drive automated “recommendation engines” that adapt coordinate response to changing conditions. Recommendation engines enable human and automated decision agents to seize opportunities and neutralize threats well ahead of the curve.
Going forward, this new vision of BAM’s evolution and promise will inform Forrester’s coverage of process agility and optimization.
By James Kobielus
In any dynamic business environment, the last thing you want is to indulge in navel-gazing. If you’re finely attuned to monitoring internal processes, but are not adept at responding to breaking events or anticipating the future, you will find yourself marginalized in the new global economy.
In a turbulent world, the most successful companies are those that stay lean--in other words, trimmed of excess overhead, fit for new challenges, and flexible enough to evolve rapidly. Forrester advises customers to make their business processes leaner, through such measures as reducing the number of steps, routing paths, participants, decision points, milestones, and revisions. As you do, you will find concomitant improvements in speed, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Clearly, you can’t do that well if you don’t have, at the very least, the means to monitor a wide range of business processes in unified dashboards, reports, and other applications. That’s where traditional business activity monitoring (BAM) tools, which are a key component of most business process management (BPM) environments, play a critical role. However, critical as BAM may be, it is often deployed in a predominantly navel-gazing process-tracking capacity (remember what that “M” stands for) and, as such, is as much part of the problem as the solution.
Why? Well, for starters, most BAM environments are deployed in conjunction with specific vendors’ BPM platforms--hence can only track the subset of business processes that run on those platforms. But, even more limiting, BAM dashboards are often the stand-alone province of process administrators. Only in a handful of BAM-using organizations do alerts and metrics escalate beyond the process administrator level and trigger the necessary human and automated workflows necessary to respond to breaking issues--or nip them in the bud before they can become issues.
To stay relevant, BAM needs to evolve in the age of lean processes so that it can become a tool for business agility at all levels. Next week, Forrester BPM analyst Clay Richardson and I will do a podcast on this very topic. In that podcast, and in a joint presentation that Natalie Petouhoff and I will do at Forrester Business and Technology Forum in Chicago in October, I’ll sketch out a vision for the next-generation of BAM (which I half-jokingly call “uber-BAM”).
Here is a rough sketch of the maturity levels of BAM's evolution to realize this vision:
* BAM Level 1: Business activity monitoring: This is today’s BAM baseline. Essentially, it combines BPM with business intelligence (BI), interactive dashboarding, and complex event processing to deliver process metrics to consoles used solely by human process administrators.
* BAM Level 2: Business action mobilization: This is the BAM level that many forward-looking users and vendors have implemented. It combines all Level 1 functionality with business rules engines (BRE) to drive sophisticated human and automated workflows in response to breaking events. It puts the “immediate action loop” into the BAM equation.
* BAM Level 3: Business adaptability management: This is the promise of truly lean uber-BAM, and is found only in a vanguard of visionary business environments. It combines all Level 2 functionality with embedded predictive-analytics models, which are developed and maintained by business process architects and/or subject-matter process experts. Continuously mining historical and real-time metrics, these in-process analytics drive automated “recommendation engines” that adapt coordinate response to changing conditions. Recommendation engines enable human and automated decision agents to seize opportunities and neutralize threats well ahead of the curve.
Going forward, this new vision of BAM’s evolution and promise will inform Forrester’s coverage of process agility and optimization.
Monday, August 24, 2009
poem Froid
FROID
A family is
pattern nuisance, a matter
of blood tolerance.
As familiar as
sang and Sigmund, reproach and
rapprochement abide.
Full of feelings rubbed
raw, once or twice removed from
love's stealth genesis.
A family is
pattern nuisance, a matter
of blood tolerance.
As familiar as
sang and Sigmund, reproach and
rapprochement abide.
Full of feelings rubbed
raw, once or twice removed from
love's stealth genesis.
Aweekstweets August 17-24 2009 @jameskobielus
AWEEKSTWEETS Aug 17-24 2009
1. My godbro Howie and I discussed the absurd stigma that the culture has attached to data mining--a very valuable sales/marketing tool.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
• JK2--Judicious use of data mining, data warehousing, and customer relationship management is key to well-targeted, tuned business strategy.
2. Was chatting with godbrother Howard Brubaker about his consulting mainstay: system conversions. Faster platform evolution = more conversions3:22 PM Aug 22nd from TweetDeck
• JK2--Good to have somebody in the family to talk shop with. Nobody else in my extended family that I can truly say is in the same biz as me, though we have very different jobs.
3. RT @CompositeSW "@jameskobielus boris [& leslie] had fun with dual meaning title in "BI Polishes its Crystal Ball" jk--Not double entendre.10:09 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’m curious what “dual meaning” Bob is referring to.
4. RT @mhweier IBM's SPSS deal will spark BI industry consolidation http://bit.ly/1bnwpZ (From FORR report by @jameskobielus BEvelson & LOwens)10:06 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This doc was definitely a co-authorship. My name came first in the credits, but Boris and Leslie definitely contributed a lot.
5. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time." jk2--No game-maker has monopoly on strategy (http://bit.ly/43dXCu)2:24 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly, played according to the official rules, is tedious. Need a Speed Monopoly edition. Is there one?
6. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time in special section." jk--Cuz no game-maker has monopoly on ingenuity.2:22 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly is all about real estate. Is there a cyber-version that’s all about accumulating virtual estate, such as domain names?
7. Learn from games: many games are abandoned if players can't make own rules as they go. Who knows chapter/verse of written rules of Monopoly?1:29 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I suspect that most people lost or threw away the rules sheet that came with their Monopoly sets. Everybody knows the rules to this game--or knows as much as they need/care to know.
8. RT @dhinchcliffe "Information Architecture of Social Experiences" (http://bit.ly/4iKwBr): jk--Schweet! My fave rule is "learn from games"1:16 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Number one rule: keep social networks fun. As fun as the proverbial break room with donut box and morning chit-chat at the office. If it’s fun, people will flock there and, believe it or not, engage in “shop talk” and, before long, “shop work.”
9. RT @mhweier: "Just opened up your BI report and am looking forward to reading it." jk--Call me anytime, Mary, to discuss.12:49 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I see she wrote an article about it. Haven’t read her article yet.
10. "Hive, Pig fight for Hadoop supremacy" (http://bit.ly/10p8Us): jk--Is it just me, or does this sound like a cartoon sci-fi plot synopsis?12:48 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--It’s awkward when the serious topics that occupy our days have odd names that feel a bit too fun.
11. "Amazon's data shipping goes both ways now" (http://bit.ly/tzb8Q): jk--Amazon EC2/S3 for DW staging/BAR layer in cloud?12:06 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--BAR is “backup and recovery.” Chats with my godbro Howie Brubaker indicate that Amazon EC2/S3 is getting greater traction all over, for many apps.
12. "Microsoft issues SQL Azure, CEP platform previews" (http://bit.ly/hny63): jk--SQL Azure suited for disposable cloud analytical data marts?12:04 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Data marts are by definition limited: in subjects, apps, users--even time-to-live.
13. Always fun to see which vendors have R&D groups more active than marketing. Surfeit of overstuffed jargon-laced data sheets and powerpoints.11:19 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--On those occasions, it’s awkward to point out to otherwise top-notch innovators that industry analysts--whose job it is to understand this stuff--are perhaps the only people who in fact do understand it. Customers? We don’t need no stinkin’ customers!
14. Recent FORR doc pub in June: "Massive But Agile: Best Practices For Scaling Next-Gen EDW" (http://bit.ly/O9x3v). Oleh Jakobus Kobielus saja.9:41 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has been particular popular with our customers. It triggers many inquiries, especially among the more tech-savvy.
15. Nu-ish FORR doc pub last mnth: "Mighty Mashups: Do-It-Yourself Business Intelligence For The New Economy" (http://bit.ly/40wVA8). Just JKob9:38 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has more of a business focus that many of many docs, but doesn’t skimp on the technical discussion where appropriate.
16. Nu FORR doc pub last wk: "Refresh Your Information Management Strategy To Deliver Business Results" (http://bit.ly/i02ZY) RKarel & JKobielus9:37 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one is very popular with our customers, and I suspect that many of the downloads are by and for CIO-level readers.
17. My latest FORR doc just published: "BI Polishes Its Crystal Ball" (http://bit.ly/GqcDs). Co-authors: Boris Evelson & Leslie Owens.9:35 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--What it all means: future-oriented analytics--statistical analysis, predictive modeling, data mining, text mining--coming into core BI solution stacks everywhere.
18. Always fun to see which vendors have marketing departments that are much more active than their R&D groups. Surfeit of empty press releases.8:31 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--In such cases, it’s not so much a matter of the products lacking differentiation and sophistication. More often, it’s a matter of long times between product enhancements, with the marketing department having little “news” to sell other than “customer A is realizing awesome ROI from deploying our leading-edge product” messages. Marketing is, in fact, an essential, and tough, job. Part of my core job is to digest their messages--but digestion of some substance that lacks nutritional content is a fast track to indigestion.
19. "Commodity Hardware Aiding DW Appl Perf, Costs" (http://bit.ly/Pz8nG): jk--Misquoted. I estimated Netezza's pre-TwinFin pricing at half that8:17 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Jeff Kelly is one of my favorite reporters. But he needs to recheck his notes from this phone interview.
20. Doing a podcast next week with Dana Gardner and the good folks of Kapow on Web data services.7:04 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’ll bring the “data mashup” side of “mighty mashups” into the discussion of “Web data services.”
21. RT @jilldyche "Don't force social conversation; join an in-process conversation" @smcseattle #socialmedia: jk--But then I'm Mr. Buttinsky10:00 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Here’s a key thing about “social conversation.” It’s a bit like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: observing (i.e., “joining in-process”) tends to distort the phenomenon being observed, and sometimes to derail it entirely. You can’t force others to include you. You can’t force the conversation to live long after you butt in. By that time, it’s become a different conversation. Or, perhaps, nothing at alll.
22. RT @sapscene: Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect: BriefingsDirect analysts discuss ... http://bit.ly/hr5ee: jk--Yes, indeed, IDS Scheer has BI.9:30 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Almost every vendor has BI, or at the very least a BI-like functional slice (e.g., reporting). Hence, the term “BI” is becoming almost useless to differentiate among vendors. However, some vendors are in well-focused, promising BI niches. For example, IDS Scheer is one of a reasonably small subset of vendors of products in support of BI mashup with CEP.
23. "Parents Twittering During Childbirth " (http://bit.ly/4ZRaO): jk--If they were tweeting while birthing AND driving, then I'd worry. '-)1:38 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I had a micro-cassette tape recorder in the pocket of my hospital scrubs when I was in the delivery room for the births of my two kids. I understand the desire to record the moment. BTW, I have no cassette player to listen to those first infantile cries.
24. RT @lancewalter: "re: BAM w/ social networking. SQLStream promotes this as a use-case and may have a case study" jk--Thanks for the tip!12:58 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--They left me a message upstairs. Need to respond. Lots of Monday morning tasks.
25. "Goofus & Gallant Do Tech" (http://bit.ly/VTViO): JK--A ref that non-Boy Scouts in 60s/70s are sure to get. Goofus was our Eddie Haskell.10:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--And Eddie Haskell is a boomer reference that also needs to be explained.
26. RT @johnperrybarlow "Socrates worried writing would obliterate memory." jk--Hey, Soc: next-gen DW: all-in-memory'll obliterate write-to-disk10:37 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Ah yes, remember that quaint thing called a hard drive, back in day?
27. RT @craignewmark @edyson: #focas09 "journalism [role] 'comfort afflicted & afflict comfortable'" jk--Nope: it's report analyze contextualize10:06 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Journalists aren’t revolutionaries or missionaries--unless they choose to be. But why should they be?
28. BAM is totally Venn-diagram mkt segment: convergence of BPM, CEP, BI, GRC, CRM, and service management.10:02 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--That’s “business activity monitoring.” If you’re not in the tech biz, the others are easy to decipher through a few quick Googles (or Bings).
29. RT @scottros: "both 'blogger' & 'journalist' remain useful words." jk--More generally, I think "analyst" is best. Sans it, reportage suffers9:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Reporting is the key calling. It’s more than repeating. It’s also ripping a topic down to its core and rebuilding it into a more comprehensible story, with all necessary nuance.
30. RT @scottros: "is it time to retire term 'blogger'?" jk--Time to retire the term "journalist"? Other than WSJ, who writes for "journals"?9:36 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Definitely, “blogger” already feels archaic. As you can tell, my own blogging activities have evolved toward a more diffuse tweeting, facebooking, and blogging multicasting.
31. I'm looking for some good case studies integrating social media with business activity monitoring (BAM) tools. Anybody?9:34 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Still looking.
32. "Informatica offers DI software by the hour on Amazon EC2" (http://bit.ly/4ClH4): jk--And "throwaway" data marts will become common on cloud7:17 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Clouds precipitate analytic brainstorms.
33. MSFT product news: upcoming "private preview" for SQL Server "Madison"; "limited preview" of "Gemini"; "first CTP" of SQL Azure Database.7:12 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Full slate of important releases for Microsoft coming up.
34. Tweeting consistently, event-driven, is the best generator of fresh material.6:54 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--The week moves by too quickly for me to catch my breath till the following weekend. A week’s tweets encapsulate my rushing sense of what’s worth flagging--and commenting on now and later--as it whizzes by.
1. My godbro Howie and I discussed the absurd stigma that the culture has attached to data mining--a very valuable sales/marketing tool.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
• JK2--Judicious use of data mining, data warehousing, and customer relationship management is key to well-targeted, tuned business strategy.
2. Was chatting with godbrother Howard Brubaker about his consulting mainstay: system conversions. Faster platform evolution = more conversions3:22 PM Aug 22nd from TweetDeck
• JK2--Good to have somebody in the family to talk shop with. Nobody else in my extended family that I can truly say is in the same biz as me, though we have very different jobs.
3. RT @CompositeSW "@jameskobielus boris [& leslie] had fun with dual meaning title in "BI Polishes its Crystal Ball" jk--Not double entendre.10:09 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’m curious what “dual meaning” Bob is referring to.
4. RT @mhweier IBM's SPSS deal will spark BI industry consolidation http://bit.ly/1bnwpZ (From FORR report by @jameskobielus BEvelson & LOwens)10:06 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This doc was definitely a co-authorship. My name came first in the credits, but Boris and Leslie definitely contributed a lot.
5. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time." jk2--No game-maker has monopoly on strategy (http://bit.ly/43dXCu)2:24 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly, played according to the official rules, is tedious. Need a Speed Monopoly edition. Is there one?
6. RT @jswanhart "Monopoly manual has accumulated player rules over time in special section." jk--Cuz no game-maker has monopoly on ingenuity.2:22 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Monopoly is all about real estate. Is there a cyber-version that’s all about accumulating virtual estate, such as domain names?
7. Learn from games: many games are abandoned if players can't make own rules as they go. Who knows chapter/verse of written rules of Monopoly?1:29 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I suspect that most people lost or threw away the rules sheet that came with their Monopoly sets. Everybody knows the rules to this game--or knows as much as they need/care to know.
8. RT @dhinchcliffe "Information Architecture of Social Experiences" (http://bit.ly/4iKwBr): jk--Schweet! My fave rule is "learn from games"1:16 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Number one rule: keep social networks fun. As fun as the proverbial break room with donut box and morning chit-chat at the office. If it’s fun, people will flock there and, believe it or not, engage in “shop talk” and, before long, “shop work.”
9. RT @mhweier: "Just opened up your BI report and am looking forward to reading it." jk--Call me anytime, Mary, to discuss.12:49 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I see she wrote an article about it. Haven’t read her article yet.
10. "Hive, Pig fight for Hadoop supremacy" (http://bit.ly/10p8Us): jk--Is it just me, or does this sound like a cartoon sci-fi plot synopsis?12:48 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--It’s awkward when the serious topics that occupy our days have odd names that feel a bit too fun.
11. "Amazon's data shipping goes both ways now" (http://bit.ly/tzb8Q): jk--Amazon EC2/S3 for DW staging/BAR layer in cloud?12:06 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--BAR is “backup and recovery.” Chats with my godbro Howie Brubaker indicate that Amazon EC2/S3 is getting greater traction all over, for many apps.
12. "Microsoft issues SQL Azure, CEP platform previews" (http://bit.ly/hny63): jk--SQL Azure suited for disposable cloud analytical data marts?12:04 PM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Data marts are by definition limited: in subjects, apps, users--even time-to-live.
13. Always fun to see which vendors have R&D groups more active than marketing. Surfeit of overstuffed jargon-laced data sheets and powerpoints.11:19 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--On those occasions, it’s awkward to point out to otherwise top-notch innovators that industry analysts--whose job it is to understand this stuff--are perhaps the only people who in fact do understand it. Customers? We don’t need no stinkin’ customers!
14. Recent FORR doc pub in June: "Massive But Agile: Best Practices For Scaling Next-Gen EDW" (http://bit.ly/O9x3v). Oleh Jakobus Kobielus saja.9:41 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has been particular popular with our customers. It triggers many inquiries, especially among the more tech-savvy.
15. Nu-ish FORR doc pub last mnth: "Mighty Mashups: Do-It-Yourself Business Intelligence For The New Economy" (http://bit.ly/40wVA8). Just JKob9:38 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one has more of a business focus that many of many docs, but doesn’t skimp on the technical discussion where appropriate.
16. Nu FORR doc pub last wk: "Refresh Your Information Management Strategy To Deliver Business Results" (http://bit.ly/i02ZY) RKarel & JKobielus9:37 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--This one is very popular with our customers, and I suspect that many of the downloads are by and for CIO-level readers.
17. My latest FORR doc just published: "BI Polishes Its Crystal Ball" (http://bit.ly/GqcDs). Co-authors: Boris Evelson & Leslie Owens.9:35 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--What it all means: future-oriented analytics--statistical analysis, predictive modeling, data mining, text mining--coming into core BI solution stacks everywhere.
18. Always fun to see which vendors have marketing departments that are much more active than their R&D groups. Surfeit of empty press releases.8:31 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--In such cases, it’s not so much a matter of the products lacking differentiation and sophistication. More often, it’s a matter of long times between product enhancements, with the marketing department having little “news” to sell other than “customer A is realizing awesome ROI from deploying our leading-edge product” messages. Marketing is, in fact, an essential, and tough, job. Part of my core job is to digest their messages--but digestion of some substance that lacks nutritional content is a fast track to indigestion.
19. "Commodity Hardware Aiding DW Appl Perf, Costs" (http://bit.ly/Pz8nG): jk--Misquoted. I estimated Netezza's pre-TwinFin pricing at half that8:17 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Jeff Kelly is one of my favorite reporters. But he needs to recheck his notes from this phone interview.
20. Doing a podcast next week with Dana Gardner and the good folks of Kapow on Web data services.7:04 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I’ll bring the “data mashup” side of “mighty mashups” into the discussion of “Web data services.”
21. RT @jilldyche "Don't force social conversation; join an in-process conversation" @smcseattle #socialmedia: jk--But then I'm Mr. Buttinsky10:00 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Here’s a key thing about “social conversation.” It’s a bit like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: observing (i.e., “joining in-process”) tends to distort the phenomenon being observed, and sometimes to derail it entirely. You can’t force others to include you. You can’t force the conversation to live long after you butt in. By that time, it’s become a different conversation. Or, perhaps, nothing at alll.
22. RT @sapscene: Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect: BriefingsDirect analysts discuss ... http://bit.ly/hr5ee: jk--Yes, indeed, IDS Scheer has BI.9:30 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Almost every vendor has BI, or at the very least a BI-like functional slice (e.g., reporting). Hence, the term “BI” is becoming almost useless to differentiate among vendors. However, some vendors are in well-focused, promising BI niches. For example, IDS Scheer is one of a reasonably small subset of vendors of products in support of BI mashup with CEP.
23. "Parents Twittering During Childbirth " (http://bit.ly/4ZRaO): jk--If they were tweeting while birthing AND driving, then I'd worry. '-)1:38 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--I had a micro-cassette tape recorder in the pocket of my hospital scrubs when I was in the delivery room for the births of my two kids. I understand the desire to record the moment. BTW, I have no cassette player to listen to those first infantile cries.
24. RT @lancewalter: "re: BAM w/ social networking. SQLStream promotes this as a use-case and may have a case study" jk--Thanks for the tip!12:58 PM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--They left me a message upstairs. Need to respond. Lots of Monday morning tasks.
25. "Goofus & Gallant Do Tech" (http://bit.ly/VTViO): JK--A ref that non-Boy Scouts in 60s/70s are sure to get. Goofus was our Eddie Haskell.10:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--And Eddie Haskell is a boomer reference that also needs to be explained.
26. RT @johnperrybarlow "Socrates worried writing would obliterate memory." jk--Hey, Soc: next-gen DW: all-in-memory'll obliterate write-to-disk10:37 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Ah yes, remember that quaint thing called a hard drive, back in day?
27. RT @craignewmark @edyson: #focas09 "journalism [role] 'comfort afflicted & afflict comfortable'" jk--Nope: it's report analyze contextualize10:06 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Journalists aren’t revolutionaries or missionaries--unless they choose to be. But why should they be?
28. BAM is totally Venn-diagram mkt segment: convergence of BPM, CEP, BI, GRC, CRM, and service management.10:02 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--That’s “business activity monitoring.” If you’re not in the tech biz, the others are easy to decipher through a few quick Googles (or Bings).
29. RT @scottros: "both 'blogger' & 'journalist' remain useful words." jk--More generally, I think "analyst" is best. Sans it, reportage suffers9:56 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Reporting is the key calling. It’s more than repeating. It’s also ripping a topic down to its core and rebuilding it into a more comprehensible story, with all necessary nuance.
30. RT @scottros: "is it time to retire term 'blogger'?" jk--Time to retire the term "journalist"? Other than WSJ, who writes for "journals"?9:36 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Definitely, “blogger” already feels archaic. As you can tell, my own blogging activities have evolved toward a more diffuse tweeting, facebooking, and blogging multicasting.
31. I'm looking for some good case studies integrating social media with business activity monitoring (BAM) tools. Anybody?9:34 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Still looking.
32. "Informatica offers DI software by the hour on Amazon EC2" (http://bit.ly/4ClH4): jk--And "throwaway" data marts will become common on cloud7:17 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Clouds precipitate analytic brainstorms.
33. MSFT product news: upcoming "private preview" for SQL Server "Madison"; "limited preview" of "Gemini"; "first CTP" of SQL Azure Database.7:12 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--Full slate of important releases for Microsoft coming up.
34. Tweeting consistently, event-driven, is the best generator of fresh material.6:54 AM Aug 18th from TweetDeck
• JK2--The week moves by too quickly for me to catch my breath till the following weekend. A week’s tweets encapsulate my rushing sense of what’s worth flagging--and commenting on now and later--as it whizzes by.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Aweekstweets August 10-17 2009 @jameskobielus
1.RT @JeromePineau: "My DB is smaller than your DB! http://jeromepineau.blogspo..." jk--Vertica V-Stick: Mini-DW? Micro-mart? Nano-cache?about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Full URL at http://jeromepineau.blogspot.com/2009/08/oh-yeah-well-my-database-is-smaller.html. V-stick is essentially a USB-flashdrive-based data warehouse (DW) appliance platform for very small, very portable, very subject-, application-, and/or role-specific data marts. But it’s more than that: it’s also potentially a complete business intelligence (BI) appliance in a thumb drive, considering that, currently, it also includes Apache/Tomcat Web Server, LogiXML Dashboard Reporting, and sample data and dashboards. Dock a bunch of these micro-marts in any portable client with multiple USB drives and, voila, an enterprise DW hub with prebuilt analytic applications. Plug some USB-based extract transform load (ETL) software in another port and you’ve got a portable EDW for rapid branch-office provisioning.
2.Taking briefing from text mining/search pure-play Cormine right now. Geared to crawling Web-based market intelligence.about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Web-based market intelligence--gushing from the ever-enlarging fountain called social networks--beats any customer focus group for candor. Yes, it’s the same mix of flames, bias, lies, manipulation, distortions, ignorance, and herdthink as the rest of human creation. But it’s organic. It just flows and flows from spontaneous interaction.
3.By the way, why are some Twitterers still greening their photos? Hey gang-green, Iran democracy's a tough nut. Stop holding your breath.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I have my own opinions about the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of various governments in power around the world. I prefer not to let any of them color the face I present to the world.
4.Weird when Twitter gives you a quick status update on the BPM market and your grown children living elsewhere in a single glance.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--You realize that your own life is just an event cloud, blurring into others, some of them reaching very high into the heavens, others a tad ominous.
5.RT @lancewalter "for spending time in airport...and MCO (Orlando) has bars and free wi-fi." jk--Re free wi-fi, try Phoenix Sky Harbor.about 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I find Sky Harbor’s gates fairly quiet and relaxing. I can sit there for hours, focus, and de-stress.
6.RT @kexpplaylist: Cannonball by The Breeders #KEXP: jk--Of course you crank this as loud as speakers/ears allow. Perfect powerdrink songabout 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This was a mid-90s rock-radio song that caught my attention after a 10-year-period of not listening to rock radio. Helped to revive my interest in music made by people a half-generation younger than me.
7.RT @joeharris76 "re highschool class...disappointed at how little people change views " jk--Not surprised. Highschool's where adults congealabout 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Highschool’s where you sense people’s true political and sexual orientations. Adulthood’s where they’re confirmed.
8.Taking briefing from Jedox, German vendor of in-memory real-time collab s.s/brwsr-oriented BI, OLAP, perf mgt w/ open-sc & cloud...very coolabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This is one of many vendors who are pioneering the next generation of collaborative, self-service, mashup-style BI.
9."Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" (http://bit.ly/ndCEx): jk--Most of it unlamented. I do miss record stores, though. Great hangouts.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s Obsolete Technology #26 “Putting in a Videotape to Watch a Movie... Status: On life support” Yeah, and the home movies of my children’s entire childhood are thereby imperiled. Thank you technological advance.
10.Noticing how my highschool graduating class splits down the liberal/conservative spectrum.about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Very few surprises there. I sensed a lot of that back then. I’m more liberal and felt disenfranchised when Reagan and the Bushes won. Some are more conservative, and hate both Clinton and Obama. Funny how people let this crap stand in the way of something as simple as being nice to each other.
11.Hmmm. Morning’s sports headlines: “Tiger Woods Loses to Virtual Unknown at PGA.” When will the story NOT be about Tiger?about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--The media is essentially running with Tiger Woods as an ongoing hero-worship story, an odyssey in which his every failure somehow burnishes his legend with sanctifying struggle. Oh, please! It’s just a guy whacking a little ball into a cup from a long distance.
12.I also saw signs that the analytics industry, not hard hit by the recession, is tighter, more focused than ever. Plenty of vision.10:53 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--One sign of that is their relentless focus on ever greater scalability, performance, and affordability.
13.What I saw this week on my consulting trip impressed me that key DW appliance vendors are taking the next evolutionary leap.10:52 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The next leap is toward the DW appliance as core architectural component of scalable, flexible, virtualized analytic cloud in which complex application logic will be embedded with rich content.
14.RT @stoweboyd: Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt, with Melissa Leo & MIsty Upham -- awesome: jk--Yes. Excellent native American drama.10:48 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The frozen river is, I believe, the St. Lawrence in winter, forming a solid drive-able smuggler-friendly border between the US, a Mohawk nation, and Canada.
15.North American airports. Which is most pleasant to spend any time in? My vote goes to Minneapolis. Best shopping/dining mall environment.10:22 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Any airport with a Quiznos Subs is my favorite. No they didn’t pay me to blog this. I do indeed love their sandwiches, all of which are delicious and filling--perfect for grabbing quick and eating on the plane--or just relaxing at the gate listening to my Zune.
16.Bounceback is something I’m teaching my knees and spine, in particular. They’re the weak links in the whole upright biped hominid bit.10:16 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It’s all about knowing how to keep them balanced, when to keep them soft, and how to roll your gait to keep them from feeling concussed by the repetitive rhythm of life on the go.
17.I've noticed that my nervous system bounces back more quickly from long road trips, ever since Egidia and I got serious on yoga.10:08 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Ah, yes, I’ve become the most insufferable yoga prig.
18. One of the other nice things about doing work administrivia on Saturday night is that tedium frees the mind to roam where it will. Try it.10:06 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Where it will is, more often than not, is inattention.
19.Love nothing more than to submit an expense report on Saturday night. At least it gives excuse to shut self away, sip wine, listen to music.10:05 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Love something more. Which is to do the last two things but not the first two things.
20.Wondering how childhood buddy William "Biz" Reynolds ended up a folksinger. Facebook pops surprises. Somehow, Kobielus ended up in high-tech10:03 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Waiting for Biz’ response. Perhaps he sings rock. The photo with acoustic guitar and beret suggests almost anything these days.
21.Thinking about the pool party tomorrow at Juan & Mel's...the perfect party house with a great Maryland-side view of the mighty Potomac.10:00 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It was certainly a cool party. Didn’t realize how close they are--walking distance--to the river, and National Harbor, site of October’s Teradata Partners Conference. I’ve never seen the Wilson Bridge from that vantage before. Surprised the feds never built a fort there back in the day, or maybe they did. They built one downriver at Fort Washington, I know.
22.Definitely was a good week of west coast consulting with leading & innovating DW vendors. My most forward thinking fell on receptive minds.7:10 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Never quite sure who’ll respond to my most forward thinking. Sometimes people get it right away and see the obvious practical import. Others call it “theoretical.” I take my chances.
23.Congrats to Sonya, and kudos to Virginia DMV, for granting her her driver's license on the first try. Way to go girl!3:14 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--The girl’s got wheels now. Glad I don’t have to chauffeur her to GMU in the fall.
24.Ah...with all the other Twitterers I’m following, my TweetDeck “all friends” column is now an absolutely incongruous jumble--perfect!!!!!!!3:12 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Don’t stare at your TweetDeck columns--or try to search for specific tweets--you’ll go blind.
25. Always pushing myself to see how many distinct tasks I can accomplish in a tight space, tight time, tight constraints.3:05 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--All of which explains why I’m the twisted little man that I am.
26. RT @fastcompany: Les Paul Guitar Legend http://su.pr/2QDBZF: jk--Electrifying he gave guitar penetrating power to outbrass the brass section9:30 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--I heard an NPR interview with him. The man was brilliant, fearless, determined, indefatigable, upbeat--the Thomas Edison of music! The modern age would sound very different now--and not half as exciting--if it weren’t for Les Paul.
27. "Stop the presses! 40% of tweets are 'pointless babble'" (http://bit.ly/1u8l2X): jk--Stop the presses! 90% of social life is small talk.7:39 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Pointless babble is a big part of the creative process. Random stimuli spark the unanticipated.
28.ORCL HQ campus purely symbolic. Grid parking ramps = data centers. Glass towers = storage. Lagoon = resource pool. Fountain = data streams.8:24 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Oracle’s George Lumpkin and Peter Urban saw this tweet and mentioned it over dinner/drinks that evening. Clearly, I’m far from the first person to entertain these thoughts.
29. Check my Facebook for my cameraphone captures this morn round ORCL's lagoon. BTW, MGMT is name of band. "Oracular Spectacular" their album.7:50 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Standout MGMT song from “Oracular Spectacular”: “Electric Feel.” It just shimmers with multicolored electronic power-pop choral funk.
30. Just completed a fine advisory day with Oracle. Presented my thoughts, research on the DW market etc. @nyuhanna on the DBMS market.7:48 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I love the simplicity of their on-campus conference center. A two-story L-shape on the outer road, with an inviting glass atrium.
31.IT vendors’ us-uber-alles strategies vs. more limited, less grandiose, but undeniably innovative efforts. “In-niche-atives.”5:41 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Idle wordplay. A minor conceptual doodle.
32. Every market’s a prediction market. Predicting demand & placing bets. Doing “predictive analytics,” i.e., shifting mix of SWAGs and/or stats5:35 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s a good article in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” (http://bit.ly/2ZyII). Nutshell: “Technology is allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago.” In other words, predictions are tested in real-time through decision support technology (i.e., data warehouses, data mining, predictive modeling, interactive visualization) that drives in-the-field limited projects in such areas as merchandising, marketing, pricing, and supply chain management), which return immediate feedback on what actually works. A way of hedging riskier business bets before major resources get committed.
33.RT @metadaddy: “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexy’s Midnight Runners: 1980...remote now” jk--I bought it on vinyl: now THAT’S OLD!5:28 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I think I sold that one long ago. But I still have a hardcore of cherished vinyl that, unfortunately, I have no working phonograph to play.
34.RT @gappy3000 “Will is a conservative for sure, but “thoughtful”?” jk--I like George Will’s columns in the WashPost. Thought provoking.5:23 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Charles Krauthammer is good too.
35. Forrester's BT Forum, Oct. 8-9 in Chicago. Learn how to tap into technologies that propel Lean IT: http://snipurl.com/ptsp55:22 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Natalie Petouhoff and I will be speaking on the convergence of social media and BAM.
36. "NYT: Solid-State Drives Get Warmer Reception From Businesses" (http://bit.ly/L3ktN): jk--SSD "hottest" drives from ILM/multi-temp POV too.5:21 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--SSD/flash drives will become the core storage tech for all enterprise data warehouses within the next 2-3 years.
37. RT @sdutCustomer “Thank you for the compliment.” Jk--And thanks for the great morning reading to accompany my Starbucks experience.5:17 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s me giving further kudos to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Maybe I shouldn’t treat Starbucks as an “experience.” Morning alone in a café with coffee--that’s an experience that, say, Caribou or Panera or Dunkin could stoke just as well. What’s with dark color schemas at Starbucks? I prefer more lemony fresh.
38.RT @NeilRaden “thoughtful [conservatives]...Ike,Kissinger,George Will,WFBuckley” jk--Agreed. Need more analysis, less anal-ness, from r-wing2:42 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Somehow, the public faces of the Republican party are all screaming and snarky, arranged in a split-screen on a 24x7 cable news channel that usually includes one attractive female and one balding white middle-aged male (I, by the way, fit that latter description).
39. RT @areyoustanding: "listening to media" jk4--I'll advise you to advise your friend RLimbaugh to have constructive proposals for a change.10:35 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Seriously, when was the last time Rush Limbaugh actually engaged in a thoughtful debate with someone, even someone of his ideological leaning?
40. RT @areyoustanding "listening to media" jk3: The media's bought into Republican "borrow&spend" as preferable to pay-as-go "tax& spend."
JK2--Somehow, defense spending, which the right wing does with great wasteful megabucks abandon, never qualifies as “government spending:” when the discussion turns to the budget and deficit. The military is, in fact, the largest branch of the US government by budget.
41. RT @areyoustanding: “you seem to be listening to the media” jk2--Fox is hopeless case. Ever notice that Lou Dobbs is still employed at CNN?10:30 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--If that xenophobic anti-immigrant trumped-up issue wasn’t bad enough, now Dobbs is aiding and abetting the “birthers” without having the decency to admit that it’s clinically insane.
42. RT @areyoustanding: "you seem to be listening to the media" jk--That's the problem. The media is largely conservative. Especially TV/radio.10:29 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Even when supposedly “liberal” viewpoints are allowed to express themselves on cable news channels, they’re always paired up with some conservative counterpointer who essentially attempts to shout them down. But conservative commentators, such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs, more or less rule the roost on their televised pulpits.
43.RT @kexpplaylist: Kashmir by Led Zeppelin #KEXP: jk--This classic languid-Donovan-meets-stalking-steroid-blues rock riff just stays ever ...10:27 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Stays ever-boss.
44. RT @areyoustanding “not talking to your conservative friends. I wonder, do you have any?” jk--Does extended family count as “friends”?10:25 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That Twitter attack was from the usual “liberals are divorced from real America” lunkheads. There are conservatives on both my father and mother’s sides of the family. Yes, I’m well aware of their views on all matters political and cultural. Have long been. Thanks for your concern.
45. For another, healthcare insurance coverage needs to be portable. Wish we could roll it over like we can a 401k to an IRA--without gap.10:17 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Right. It’s not so important that I can roll it over to a government-run vs. private-sector health-insurance plan. A range of private-sector choices is fine. As long as my health insurance doesn’t get de-provisioned when my employment ends with this or that firm, as if it were, say, equivalent to a corporate e-mail account.
46. If nothing else, this "pre-existing condition" exclusion needs to be banned by law.10:15 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s absolutely essential. If no health insurer could impose a pre-existing condition exclusion, then no health insurer will suffer financially, net-net, from a great horde of very sick people coming onto their rolls.
47. Republicans seem to be pretending that the US healthcare system is perfect. When any of our daily personal experience argues otherwise.10:14 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Just the complexity of the policies, restrictions, and the like is daunting. It’s not quite as complex as the US tax code, but it’s not far behind.
48. Just noticed: Julia Child looked and sounded a bit like Hyacinth Bucket from BBC series "Keeping Up Appearances."9:41 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--“Richard, Richard, come here, dear, Sheridan’s trying to cook blancmange and he’s asking mummy for advice! Oh, isn’t that precious, Richard!”
49. "What Does MapReduce & In-db Tech Mean For Data Warehouses?" (http://bit.ly/NAdCl): jk--My commentary. What does MR mean for app servers?9:01 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--MapReduce, as the first open framework for defining advanced-analytic application logic for virtualized, federated data/content warehousing environments, is paving the way toward evolution of the EDW into an analytic application server.
50. My advisory day with Aster Data yesterday confirmed for me one truth: My intuitions about in-database analytics’ evolution are sound.8:54 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--It also confirmed that visionaries still abound in Silicon Valley.
51. RT @morefromalan “yeah, cheer up, Thom. Why so glum?” jk--TYorke of Radiohead without his glum would be unrecognizable probably unlistenable8:14 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Thom is to gloom what Andy Partridge of XTC is to sarcasm.
52. RT @alyswoodward "wouldn't it be a bit damp to live in a cloud?!" jk--"in" a cloud? No. View's better on top. Also, closer to the Big Cheese8:09 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I laugh to think I started calling my defunct Network World column “Above the Cloud” in 1995. By the time cloud computing got going, the column was history. Hence I’m not only above the cloud, but I’m covering it from all sides. Soon, we’ll all be beyond the cloud.
53. RT @samanthastone "but I'm still a big user of AOL IM, largely for work related communications" jk--FORR uses Windows Messenger internally.8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--IM networks, like social networks, go through their life cycles. At one point in the late 90s, it seemed like AIM would rule. Now, just like AOL as a whole, it’s definitely seen better days. I have to catch myself now and then and remind myself that somebody named “Steve Case” on Twitter used to run that place--and got a major media company to buy it and put “AOL” first in their company name. What, indeed, were they thinking?
54. RT @kimstanick "that explains the aura - u r in town. Sorry for da clouds. Next time a beer..." jk--Kim--a lowercase oracle with an aura?8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Next time, Kim, next time.
55. Just completed an advisory day with Aster Data. Wow! It's going to be an eventful fall announcement season.8:05 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--It certainly will. Lotsa folks working on lotsa cool stuff.
56. Obligatory tech snark of the morning: Calling your new product version “next generation” is like calling your newborn child that. Oh...ok.10:21 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Have to keep reminding ourselves that “next generation” is essentially a version control and configuration management designation: your version 1.0 becomes a 2.0--voila, the next coming of whatever junk you dished out last time around.
57. My obligatory music musing of morning: Listening to new Radiohead "Harry Patch (in memory of)." Thom Yorke is one lonesome English choirboy.10:17 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--My guess is that Thom will also live into his 100s. You can never tell. He looks sickly, but I’ll bet that’s an illusion.
58. Sorry for the clouds? Who says clouds are anything to be sorry for? Some day we’ll all live in the clouds? At least it’s cushy in there.10:16 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Not only cushy, but flush with VC money these days.
59. I’m wondering how the tallest redwood tree compares in height to, say, yonder Foster City tower where Forrester has Bay area offices.10:14 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I wonder if they can genetically engineer a tree, maybe splice some bamboo DNA in there, to sprout up to skyscraper proportions in weeks or months.
60. Were there ever really redwood trees in what is now Redwood City/Redwood Shores CA? Isn't that all north of the Bay?10:13 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Someone tweeted that redwoods are south of the bay as well. The wife and I definitely need to explore the California coast one of these days.
61. Sitting here overlooking one of those lagoons in Redwood Shores CA, the gleaming towers of Oracle in the near distance.10:12 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Excuse me, but “lagoon” always suggest Gilligan’s Island. My bad. My generation.
62. Doing an advisory with Aster Data today. Among other distinctions, they have a MapReduce DW appliance for scalable in-database analytics.10:10 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--DW appliances will increasingly be custom-optimized for a long list of analytic pipeline processes--including regression analysis, transforming, profiling, cleansing, etc.
63. First I get idiotically lost on my way to the hotel. Then my mouse screws up. Then TweetDeck goes nuts. What next? (yikes, shouldna asked).1:43 AM Aug 12th from web
JK2--My nerves recovered quickly. The mouse was better in a few days. Otherwise, the trip went well. Whew!
64. NYT story by Brad Stone: "Technology takes over morning rituals": "After 6-8 hours of network deprivation--also known as 'sleep'". LOL!!!!!9:26 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--However, my body has taken back one morning ritual. I’m more inclined now to wake up before the alarm clock rings. Is that a good or bad thing?
65. I love southern California weather maps. Their jumble of microclimates. The sharp temperature, barometer, precip gradients. Coastal oblivion9:23 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--California really feels like a subcontinent on North America.
66. Does anybody read USA Today online? I mean for real. I don't. I barely read the paper version. It's just a complimentary time-filler. Pulp.9:19 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Name a columnist you read regularly in USA Today? Name an article you clipped and kept?
67. San Diego Union-Tribune: Excellent. Full of interesting stories. Well-written, edited, laid out. Can't say same for every big city paper.9:13 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--They had an excellent graphics/text spread that morning on some scientific topic. Something to do with the environment. It’ll come back to me if I think long and hard.
68. Spending an advisory/briefing day with the fine people of Teradata. Their turf.9:07 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Rancho Bernardo CA. The outer reaches of San Diego. A very pleasant community in its own right.
69. “Data Mining & Stock Market” (http://bit.ly/fVGlC): jk--Blogger puzzled at SPSS “PASW” solution rename. Makes me wonder. “IBM SPSS PASW”?8:05 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Product nomenclature is the most painful, least rewarding sub-branch of marketing. Good luck, folks!
70. RT @cnn: Breaking: Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead at 88. http://bit.ly/ATO3D #eunice (via @cnnbrk): jk--Great lady. My favorite Kennedy.7:49 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Special Olympics was a truly transformative institution. It enfranchised and gave long-overdue self-respect to a people--in our families, our neighborhoods--who have been treated, in almost every culture, as not fully human. Talk about civil rights initiatives: this beats anything her brothers ever accomplished.
71. "SAP CEO Apotheker Says No Hardware In SAP's Future" (http://bit.ly/ex30q): jk--What other solution segments is SAP never going to enter?7:48 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--This time next year, I’d like to hear what Leo has to say, after Oracle absorbs Sun and leverages that hardware vendor into its DW, BI, advanced analytics, and other solution portfolios.
72. I had two formative writing teachers in highschool. Mr. Quick instilled my inner editor. Mrs. Hacker unleashed my inner idiot.7:43 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--The best written work is always a dialogue--or hissy fit--between the two.
73. Would it be premature to pronounce AOL Instant Messenger dead? My buddy list has mostly gone dark. Can't remember last time I got/sent AIM.1:27 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Then again, can’t remember the last time I got an e-mail--rather than a Facebook status update--from a family member.
74. Thing is, my Indonesia relations are most active now....there's no resting for the extended global Kobielus/Aliman clan.1:25 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Asia is totally plugged in. And leading the way in many areas of the online experience.
75. Far past my east-coast bedtime, here on the west coast. Graphically outlining my thoughts on basic vs. advanced analytics. Boris/Leslie?1:24 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Look for the upcoming Forrester report, authored by myself, Boris Evelson, and Leslie Owens.
76. Never thought I'd use the word "sepulchral" as a compliment. But Bon Iver (good winter) is the most sepulchral folk sound I've ever heard.11:18 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Yes, I do keep www.merriam-webster.com nailed up in a browser window.
77. RT @NeilRaden "Will HP acquire Cadbury-Schweppes?" jk--Neil, are you tweeting all this from a party somewhere?11:07 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Tweets are so impulsive, and so embedded in somebody’s current local/head situation, that they’re always slipping out of any context you try to assign to them.
78. RT @NeilRaden: "It's a good thing it's late in the day and mo one is reading this" jk--That's why I tweet my poems. Nobody reads, so why not11:05 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Haven’t written any of those in a while. Why? Haven’t written any blog posts in a while. Why? No, this one doesn’t count. Why not? Twitter is usurping all other forms of Kobelian conceptual noodling--stop this madness, now!
79. RT @NeilRaden "Is there an incompleteness proof for 3rd Normal Form?" jk--Yes--the very existence of 4th & 5th normal forms.11:04 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Deep sustained meditation is what will get you to the 6th normal form and beyond.
80. Just had very pleasant dinner on the veranda here in Rancho Bernardo with Teradata's Bobby D'Arcy & Angie Norris. Shivered, but with delight10:57 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--That twilight summertime golf course behind us was so California it almost made me cry with joy!
JK2--Full URL at http://jeromepineau.blogspot.com/2009/08/oh-yeah-well-my-database-is-smaller.html. V-stick is essentially a USB-flashdrive-based data warehouse (DW) appliance platform for very small, very portable, very subject-, application-, and/or role-specific data marts. But it’s more than that: it’s also potentially a complete business intelligence (BI) appliance in a thumb drive, considering that, currently, it also includes Apache/Tomcat Web Server, LogiXML Dashboard Reporting, and sample data and dashboards. Dock a bunch of these micro-marts in any portable client with multiple USB drives and, voila, an enterprise DW hub with prebuilt analytic applications. Plug some USB-based extract transform load (ETL) software in another port and you’ve got a portable EDW for rapid branch-office provisioning.
2.Taking briefing from text mining/search pure-play Cormine right now. Geared to crawling Web-based market intelligence.about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Web-based market intelligence--gushing from the ever-enlarging fountain called social networks--beats any customer focus group for candor. Yes, it’s the same mix of flames, bias, lies, manipulation, distortions, ignorance, and herdthink as the rest of human creation. But it’s organic. It just flows and flows from spontaneous interaction.
3.By the way, why are some Twitterers still greening their photos? Hey gang-green, Iran democracy's a tough nut. Stop holding your breath.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I have my own opinions about the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of various governments in power around the world. I prefer not to let any of them color the face I present to the world.
4.Weird when Twitter gives you a quick status update on the BPM market and your grown children living elsewhere in a single glance.about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--You realize that your own life is just an event cloud, blurring into others, some of them reaching very high into the heavens, others a tad ominous.
5.RT @lancewalter "for spending time in airport...and MCO (Orlando) has bars and free wi-fi." jk--Re free wi-fi, try Phoenix Sky Harbor.about 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--I find Sky Harbor’s gates fairly quiet and relaxing. I can sit there for hours, focus, and de-stress.
6.RT @kexpplaylist: Cannonball by The Breeders #KEXP: jk--Of course you crank this as loud as speakers/ears allow. Perfect powerdrink songabout 6 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This was a mid-90s rock-radio song that caught my attention after a 10-year-period of not listening to rock radio. Helped to revive my interest in music made by people a half-generation younger than me.
7.RT @joeharris76 "re highschool class...disappointed at how little people change views " jk--Not surprised. Highschool's where adults congealabout 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Highschool’s where you sense people’s true political and sexual orientations. Adulthood’s where they’re confirmed.
8.Taking briefing from Jedox, German vendor of in-memory real-time collab s.s/brwsr-oriented BI, OLAP, perf mgt w/ open-sc & cloud...very coolabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--This is one of many vendors who are pioneering the next generation of collaborative, self-service, mashup-style BI.
9."Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" (http://bit.ly/ndCEx): jk--Most of it unlamented. I do miss record stores, though. Great hangouts.about 11 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s Obsolete Technology #26 “Putting in a Videotape to Watch a Movie... Status: On life support” Yeah, and the home movies of my children’s entire childhood are thereby imperiled. Thank you technological advance.
10.Noticing how my highschool graduating class splits down the liberal/conservative spectrum.about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--Very few surprises there. I sensed a lot of that back then. I’m more liberal and felt disenfranchised when Reagan and the Bushes won. Some are more conservative, and hate both Clinton and Obama. Funny how people let this crap stand in the way of something as simple as being nice to each other.
11.Hmmm. Morning’s sports headlines: “Tiger Woods Loses to Virtual Unknown at PGA.” When will the story NOT be about Tiger?about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
JK2--The media is essentially running with Tiger Woods as an ongoing hero-worship story, an odyssey in which his every failure somehow burnishes his legend with sanctifying struggle. Oh, please! It’s just a guy whacking a little ball into a cup from a long distance.
12.I also saw signs that the analytics industry, not hard hit by the recession, is tighter, more focused than ever. Plenty of vision.10:53 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--One sign of that is their relentless focus on ever greater scalability, performance, and affordability.
13.What I saw this week on my consulting trip impressed me that key DW appliance vendors are taking the next evolutionary leap.10:52 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The next leap is toward the DW appliance as core architectural component of scalable, flexible, virtualized analytic cloud in which complex application logic will be embedded with rich content.
14.RT @stoweboyd: Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt, with Melissa Leo & MIsty Upham -- awesome: jk--Yes. Excellent native American drama.10:48 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--The frozen river is, I believe, the St. Lawrence in winter, forming a solid drive-able smuggler-friendly border between the US, a Mohawk nation, and Canada.
15.North American airports. Which is most pleasant to spend any time in? My vote goes to Minneapolis. Best shopping/dining mall environment.10:22 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Any airport with a Quiznos Subs is my favorite. No they didn’t pay me to blog this. I do indeed love their sandwiches, all of which are delicious and filling--perfect for grabbing quick and eating on the plane--or just relaxing at the gate listening to my Zune.
16.Bounceback is something I’m teaching my knees and spine, in particular. They’re the weak links in the whole upright biped hominid bit.10:16 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It’s all about knowing how to keep them balanced, when to keep them soft, and how to roll your gait to keep them from feeling concussed by the repetitive rhythm of life on the go.
17.I've noticed that my nervous system bounces back more quickly from long road trips, ever since Egidia and I got serious on yoga.10:08 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Ah, yes, I’ve become the most insufferable yoga prig.
18. One of the other nice things about doing work administrivia on Saturday night is that tedium frees the mind to roam where it will. Try it.10:06 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Where it will is, more often than not, is inattention.
19.Love nothing more than to submit an expense report on Saturday night. At least it gives excuse to shut self away, sip wine, listen to music.10:05 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Love something more. Which is to do the last two things but not the first two things.
20.Wondering how childhood buddy William "Biz" Reynolds ended up a folksinger. Facebook pops surprises. Somehow, Kobielus ended up in high-tech10:03 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Waiting for Biz’ response. Perhaps he sings rock. The photo with acoustic guitar and beret suggests almost anything these days.
21.Thinking about the pool party tomorrow at Juan & Mel's...the perfect party house with a great Maryland-side view of the mighty Potomac.10:00 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--It was certainly a cool party. Didn’t realize how close they are--walking distance--to the river, and National Harbor, site of October’s Teradata Partners Conference. I’ve never seen the Wilson Bridge from that vantage before. Surprised the feds never built a fort there back in the day, or maybe they did. They built one downriver at Fort Washington, I know.
22.Definitely was a good week of west coast consulting with leading & innovating DW vendors. My most forward thinking fell on receptive minds.7:10 PM Aug 15th from TweetDeck
JK2--Never quite sure who’ll respond to my most forward thinking. Sometimes people get it right away and see the obvious practical import. Others call it “theoretical.” I take my chances.
23.Congrats to Sonya, and kudos to Virginia DMV, for granting her her driver's license on the first try. Way to go girl!3:14 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--The girl’s got wheels now. Glad I don’t have to chauffeur her to GMU in the fall.
24.Ah...with all the other Twitterers I’m following, my TweetDeck “all friends” column is now an absolutely incongruous jumble--perfect!!!!!!!3:12 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Don’t stare at your TweetDeck columns--or try to search for specific tweets--you’ll go blind.
25. Always pushing myself to see how many distinct tasks I can accomplish in a tight space, tight time, tight constraints.3:05 PM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--All of which explains why I’m the twisted little man that I am.
26. RT @fastcompany: Les Paul Guitar Legend http://su.pr/2QDBZF: jk--Electrifying he gave guitar penetrating power to outbrass the brass section9:30 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--I heard an NPR interview with him. The man was brilliant, fearless, determined, indefatigable, upbeat--the Thomas Edison of music! The modern age would sound very different now--and not half as exciting--if it weren’t for Les Paul.
27. "Stop the presses! 40% of tweets are 'pointless babble'" (http://bit.ly/1u8l2X): jk--Stop the presses! 90% of social life is small talk.7:39 AM Aug 14th from TweetDeck
JK2--Pointless babble is a big part of the creative process. Random stimuli spark the unanticipated.
28.ORCL HQ campus purely symbolic. Grid parking ramps = data centers. Glass towers = storage. Lagoon = resource pool. Fountain = data streams.8:24 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Oracle’s George Lumpkin and Peter Urban saw this tweet and mentioned it over dinner/drinks that evening. Clearly, I’m far from the first person to entertain these thoughts.
29. Check my Facebook for my cameraphone captures this morn round ORCL's lagoon. BTW, MGMT is name of band. "Oracular Spectacular" their album.7:50 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Standout MGMT song from “Oracular Spectacular”: “Electric Feel.” It just shimmers with multicolored electronic power-pop choral funk.
30. Just completed a fine advisory day with Oracle. Presented my thoughts, research on the DW market etc. @nyuhanna on the DBMS market.7:48 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I love the simplicity of their on-campus conference center. A two-story L-shape on the outer road, with an inviting glass atrium.
31.IT vendors’ us-uber-alles strategies vs. more limited, less grandiose, but undeniably innovative efforts. “In-niche-atives.”5:41 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Idle wordplay. A minor conceptual doodle.
32. Every market’s a prediction market. Predicting demand & placing bets. Doing “predictive analytics,” i.e., shifting mix of SWAGs and/or stats5:35 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Here’s a good article in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The New, Faster Face of Innovation” (http://bit.ly/2ZyII). Nutshell: “Technology is allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago.” In other words, predictions are tested in real-time through decision support technology (i.e., data warehouses, data mining, predictive modeling, interactive visualization) that drives in-the-field limited projects in such areas as merchandising, marketing, pricing, and supply chain management), which return immediate feedback on what actually works. A way of hedging riskier business bets before major resources get committed.
33.RT @metadaddy: “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexy’s Midnight Runners: 1980...remote now” jk--I bought it on vinyl: now THAT’S OLD!5:28 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--I think I sold that one long ago. But I still have a hardcore of cherished vinyl that, unfortunately, I have no working phonograph to play.
34.RT @gappy3000 “Will is a conservative for sure, but “thoughtful”?” jk--I like George Will’s columns in the WashPost. Thought provoking.5:23 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Charles Krauthammer is good too.
35. Forrester's BT Forum, Oct. 8-9 in Chicago. Learn how to tap into technologies that propel Lean IT: http://snipurl.com/ptsp55:22 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Natalie Petouhoff and I will be speaking on the convergence of social media and BAM.
36. "NYT: Solid-State Drives Get Warmer Reception From Businesses" (http://bit.ly/L3ktN): jk--SSD "hottest" drives from ILM/multi-temp POV too.5:21 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--SSD/flash drives will become the core storage tech for all enterprise data warehouses within the next 2-3 years.
37. RT @sdutCustomer “Thank you for the compliment.” Jk--And thanks for the great morning reading to accompany my Starbucks experience.5:17 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s me giving further kudos to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Maybe I shouldn’t treat Starbucks as an “experience.” Morning alone in a café with coffee--that’s an experience that, say, Caribou or Panera or Dunkin could stoke just as well. What’s with dark color schemas at Starbucks? I prefer more lemony fresh.
38.RT @NeilRaden “thoughtful [conservatives]...Ike,Kissinger,George Will,WFBuckley” jk--Agreed. Need more analysis, less anal-ness, from r-wing2:42 PM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Somehow, the public faces of the Republican party are all screaming and snarky, arranged in a split-screen on a 24x7 cable news channel that usually includes one attractive female and one balding white middle-aged male (I, by the way, fit that latter description).
39. RT @areyoustanding: "listening to media" jk4--I'll advise you to advise your friend RLimbaugh to have constructive proposals for a change.10:35 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Seriously, when was the last time Rush Limbaugh actually engaged in a thoughtful debate with someone, even someone of his ideological leaning?
40. RT @areyoustanding "listening to media" jk3: The media's bought into Republican "borrow&spend" as preferable to pay-as-go "tax& spend."
JK2--Somehow, defense spending, which the right wing does with great wasteful megabucks abandon, never qualifies as “government spending:” when the discussion turns to the budget and deficit. The military is, in fact, the largest branch of the US government by budget.
41. RT @areyoustanding: “you seem to be listening to the media” jk2--Fox is hopeless case. Ever notice that Lou Dobbs is still employed at CNN?10:30 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--If that xenophobic anti-immigrant trumped-up issue wasn’t bad enough, now Dobbs is aiding and abetting the “birthers” without having the decency to admit that it’s clinically insane.
42. RT @areyoustanding: "you seem to be listening to the media" jk--That's the problem. The media is largely conservative. Especially TV/radio.10:29 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Even when supposedly “liberal” viewpoints are allowed to express themselves on cable news channels, they’re always paired up with some conservative counterpointer who essentially attempts to shout them down. But conservative commentators, such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs, more or less rule the roost on their televised pulpits.
43.RT @kexpplaylist: Kashmir by Led Zeppelin #KEXP: jk--This classic languid-Donovan-meets-stalking-steroid-blues rock riff just stays ever ...10:27 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Stays ever-boss.
44. RT @areyoustanding “not talking to your conservative friends. I wonder, do you have any?” jk--Does extended family count as “friends”?10:25 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That Twitter attack was from the usual “liberals are divorced from real America” lunkheads. There are conservatives on both my father and mother’s sides of the family. Yes, I’m well aware of their views on all matters political and cultural. Have long been. Thanks for your concern.
45. For another, healthcare insurance coverage needs to be portable. Wish we could roll it over like we can a 401k to an IRA--without gap.10:17 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Right. It’s not so important that I can roll it over to a government-run vs. private-sector health-insurance plan. A range of private-sector choices is fine. As long as my health insurance doesn’t get de-provisioned when my employment ends with this or that firm, as if it were, say, equivalent to a corporate e-mail account.
46. If nothing else, this "pre-existing condition" exclusion needs to be banned by law.10:15 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--That’s absolutely essential. If no health insurer could impose a pre-existing condition exclusion, then no health insurer will suffer financially, net-net, from a great horde of very sick people coming onto their rolls.
47. Republicans seem to be pretending that the US healthcare system is perfect. When any of our daily personal experience argues otherwise.10:14 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--Just the complexity of the policies, restrictions, and the like is daunting. It’s not quite as complex as the US tax code, but it’s not far behind.
48. Just noticed: Julia Child looked and sounded a bit like Hyacinth Bucket from BBC series "Keeping Up Appearances."9:41 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--“Richard, Richard, come here, dear, Sheridan’s trying to cook blancmange and he’s asking mummy for advice! Oh, isn’t that precious, Richard!”
49. "What Does MapReduce & In-db Tech Mean For Data Warehouses?" (http://bit.ly/NAdCl): jk--My commentary. What does MR mean for app servers?9:01 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--MapReduce, as the first open framework for defining advanced-analytic application logic for virtualized, federated data/content warehousing environments, is paving the way toward evolution of the EDW into an analytic application server.
50. My advisory day with Aster Data yesterday confirmed for me one truth: My intuitions about in-database analytics’ evolution are sound.8:54 AM Aug 13th from TweetDeck
JK2--It also confirmed that visionaries still abound in Silicon Valley.
51. RT @morefromalan “yeah, cheer up, Thom. Why so glum?” jk--TYorke of Radiohead without his glum would be unrecognizable probably unlistenable8:14 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Thom is to gloom what Andy Partridge of XTC is to sarcasm.
52. RT @alyswoodward "wouldn't it be a bit damp to live in a cloud?!" jk--"in" a cloud? No. View's better on top. Also, closer to the Big Cheese8:09 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I laugh to think I started calling my defunct Network World column “Above the Cloud” in 1995. By the time cloud computing got going, the column was history. Hence I’m not only above the cloud, but I’m covering it from all sides. Soon, we’ll all be beyond the cloud.
53. RT @samanthastone "but I'm still a big user of AOL IM, largely for work related communications" jk--FORR uses Windows Messenger internally.8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--IM networks, like social networks, go through their life cycles. At one point in the late 90s, it seemed like AIM would rule. Now, just like AOL as a whole, it’s definitely seen better days. I have to catch myself now and then and remind myself that somebody named “Steve Case” on Twitter used to run that place--and got a major media company to buy it and put “AOL” first in their company name. What, indeed, were they thinking?
54. RT @kimstanick "that explains the aura - u r in town. Sorry for da clouds. Next time a beer..." jk--Kim--a lowercase oracle with an aura?8:07 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Next time, Kim, next time.
55. Just completed an advisory day with Aster Data. Wow! It's going to be an eventful fall announcement season.8:05 PM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--It certainly will. Lotsa folks working on lotsa cool stuff.
56. Obligatory tech snark of the morning: Calling your new product version “next generation” is like calling your newborn child that. Oh...ok.10:21 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Have to keep reminding ourselves that “next generation” is essentially a version control and configuration management designation: your version 1.0 becomes a 2.0--voila, the next coming of whatever junk you dished out last time around.
57. My obligatory music musing of morning: Listening to new Radiohead "Harry Patch (in memory of)." Thom Yorke is one lonesome English choirboy.10:17 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--My guess is that Thom will also live into his 100s. You can never tell. He looks sickly, but I’ll bet that’s an illusion.
58. Sorry for the clouds? Who says clouds are anything to be sorry for? Some day we’ll all live in the clouds? At least it’s cushy in there.10:16 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Not only cushy, but flush with VC money these days.
59. I’m wondering how the tallest redwood tree compares in height to, say, yonder Foster City tower where Forrester has Bay area offices.10:14 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--I wonder if they can genetically engineer a tree, maybe splice some bamboo DNA in there, to sprout up to skyscraper proportions in weeks or months.
60. Were there ever really redwood trees in what is now Redwood City/Redwood Shores CA? Isn't that all north of the Bay?10:13 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Someone tweeted that redwoods are south of the bay as well. The wife and I definitely need to explore the California coast one of these days.
61. Sitting here overlooking one of those lagoons in Redwood Shores CA, the gleaming towers of Oracle in the near distance.10:12 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--Excuse me, but “lagoon” always suggest Gilligan’s Island. My bad. My generation.
62. Doing an advisory with Aster Data today. Among other distinctions, they have a MapReduce DW appliance for scalable in-database analytics.10:10 AM Aug 12th from TweetDeck
JK2--DW appliances will increasingly be custom-optimized for a long list of analytic pipeline processes--including regression analysis, transforming, profiling, cleansing, etc.
63. First I get idiotically lost on my way to the hotel. Then my mouse screws up. Then TweetDeck goes nuts. What next? (yikes, shouldna asked).1:43 AM Aug 12th from web
JK2--My nerves recovered quickly. The mouse was better in a few days. Otherwise, the trip went well. Whew!
64. NYT story by Brad Stone: "Technology takes over morning rituals": "After 6-8 hours of network deprivation--also known as 'sleep'". LOL!!!!!9:26 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--However, my body has taken back one morning ritual. I’m more inclined now to wake up before the alarm clock rings. Is that a good or bad thing?
65. I love southern California weather maps. Their jumble of microclimates. The sharp temperature, barometer, precip gradients. Coastal oblivion9:23 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--California really feels like a subcontinent on North America.
66. Does anybody read USA Today online? I mean for real. I don't. I barely read the paper version. It's just a complimentary time-filler. Pulp.9:19 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Name a columnist you read regularly in USA Today? Name an article you clipped and kept?
67. San Diego Union-Tribune: Excellent. Full of interesting stories. Well-written, edited, laid out. Can't say same for every big city paper.9:13 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--They had an excellent graphics/text spread that morning on some scientific topic. Something to do with the environment. It’ll come back to me if I think long and hard.
68. Spending an advisory/briefing day with the fine people of Teradata. Their turf.9:07 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Rancho Bernardo CA. The outer reaches of San Diego. A very pleasant community in its own right.
69. “Data Mining & Stock Market” (http://bit.ly/fVGlC): jk--Blogger puzzled at SPSS “PASW” solution rename. Makes me wonder. “IBM SPSS PASW”?8:05 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Product nomenclature is the most painful, least rewarding sub-branch of marketing. Good luck, folks!
70. RT @cnn: Breaking: Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead at 88. http://bit.ly/ATO3D #eunice (via @cnnbrk): jk--Great lady. My favorite Kennedy.7:49 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Special Olympics was a truly transformative institution. It enfranchised and gave long-overdue self-respect to a people--in our families, our neighborhoods--who have been treated, in almost every culture, as not fully human. Talk about civil rights initiatives: this beats anything her brothers ever accomplished.
71. "SAP CEO Apotheker Says No Hardware In SAP's Future" (http://bit.ly/ex30q): jk--What other solution segments is SAP never going to enter?7:48 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--This time next year, I’d like to hear what Leo has to say, after Oracle absorbs Sun and leverages that hardware vendor into its DW, BI, advanced analytics, and other solution portfolios.
72. I had two formative writing teachers in highschool. Mr. Quick instilled my inner editor. Mrs. Hacker unleashed my inner idiot.7:43 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--The best written work is always a dialogue--or hissy fit--between the two.
73. Would it be premature to pronounce AOL Instant Messenger dead? My buddy list has mostly gone dark. Can't remember last time I got/sent AIM.1:27 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Then again, can’t remember the last time I got an e-mail--rather than a Facebook status update--from a family member.
74. Thing is, my Indonesia relations are most active now....there's no resting for the extended global Kobielus/Aliman clan.1:25 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Asia is totally plugged in. And leading the way in many areas of the online experience.
75. Far past my east-coast bedtime, here on the west coast. Graphically outlining my thoughts on basic vs. advanced analytics. Boris/Leslie?1:24 AM Aug 11th from TweetDeck
JK2--Look for the upcoming Forrester report, authored by myself, Boris Evelson, and Leslie Owens.
76. Never thought I'd use the word "sepulchral" as a compliment. But Bon Iver (good winter) is the most sepulchral folk sound I've ever heard.11:18 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Yes, I do keep www.merriam-webster.com nailed up in a browser window.
77. RT @NeilRaden "Will HP acquire Cadbury-Schweppes?" jk--Neil, are you tweeting all this from a party somewhere?11:07 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Tweets are so impulsive, and so embedded in somebody’s current local/head situation, that they’re always slipping out of any context you try to assign to them.
78. RT @NeilRaden: "It's a good thing it's late in the day and mo one is reading this" jk--That's why I tweet my poems. Nobody reads, so why not11:05 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Haven’t written any of those in a while. Why? Haven’t written any blog posts in a while. Why? No, this one doesn’t count. Why not? Twitter is usurping all other forms of Kobelian conceptual noodling--stop this madness, now!
79. RT @NeilRaden "Is there an incompleteness proof for 3rd Normal Form?" jk--Yes--the very existence of 4th & 5th normal forms.11:04 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--Deep sustained meditation is what will get you to the 6th normal form and beyond.
80. Just had very pleasant dinner on the veranda here in Rancho Bernardo with Teradata's Bobby D'Arcy & Angie Norris. Shivered, but with delight10:57 PM Aug 10th from TweetDeck
JK2--That twilight summertime golf course behind us was so California it almost made me cry with joy!
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Poem Facet
FACET
Mirrors and mynah
birds remind us appearance
and hearing are it.
Are as much us as
mind and the id and all that
vain superstructure.
Much as the compound
eye our inner insect trains
on its abdomen.
Mirrors and mynah
birds remind us appearance
and hearing are it.
Are as much us as
mind and the id and all that
vain superstructure.
Much as the compound
eye our inner insect trains
on its abdomen.
Monday, August 03, 2009
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