James Kobielus' Blog

Friday, January 15, 2010

Stuff I vaguely glanced at January 11-15 2010

Aweekstweets January 11-15 2010

"Integration and Analytics: The Online Shopper's Best Friends" (http://bit.ly/4R2D08): JK--Yes, indeed-y. BI = buyer's intelligence. 5 minutes ago from TweetDeck
@craignewmark Odd street address for IAD. Yes, Dulles main terminal designed by Eero Saarinen, but no circle there, and closer to Herndon. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to craignewmark
How Much Intelligence Can You Pack Into a Tweet? In case you all haven't noticed, I try to pack each one full of juicy nuance. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
Whew...10 in 10...I knew I cold do it...take a breather now about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
New blogpost: "How Much Intelligence Can You Pack Into a Tweet?" (http://bit.ly/64faGJ) (http://bit.ly/7QZ2bL) about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
RT @rwang0: "Realizing you could actually spend your whole day in #linkedin these days." JK--Improving, but Twitter a better buzz source. about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck
Yahoo helps IIT Bombay set up Hadoop cluster lab (http://bit.ly/4Yu9lX) JK--Similar efforts in Germany&Singapore: clusters of Hadoop experts about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck
"Scientists experiment with liquid invisibility cloak theory" (http://bit.ly/67Un5o): JK--Will infrared cameras see cloaked objects? about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
"How Hadoop startup Cloudera is evolving" (http://bit.ly/4yrSPl: JK--Hopefully, they evolve away from dissing rivals in talks with reporters about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
"Football Games Have 11 Minutes of Action" (http://bit.ly/7XByez): JK-Baseball has more action: players rarely interrupt to discuss strategy about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
RT @craignewmark: "IAD, 1 Saarinen Circle, Sterling": JK--Really? Been here for years and never heard of Saarinen Circle. about 18 hours ago from TweetDeck
RT @datamartist "If you were a data type, what data type would you be?" JK--A blob. Or maybe a string. Oh, hell, any character. 12:12 PM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
Will be attending TDWI Las Vegas, Feb 22-23. Making arrangements 12:09 PM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
Net-net @SethGrimes: Oracle Exadata diff is intelligent storage w/ query predicate proc pushdown. Netezza does roughly similar. Dataupia not 9:14 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
Just verified it. 5 rows of 6 alternating w/ 4 rows of 5. The arrangement of stars in US flag. Of all the dumb things to puzzle over at 3am. 9:05 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
New blogpost: "Next Best Models: The Process Agility Equation" (http://bit.ly/5192Mp) (http://bit.ly/6ATT2T) 8:52 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
This is the week we see if Conan gets self booted from NBC, and Google from China. 8:05 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
RT @SethGrimes @Dana_Gardner "Wasn't Datupia closer to being a SQL Server equivalent of Exadata than DATallegro is?" JK--Nope. Long story 8:04 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
Hmmm....Microsoft & HP....in terms of potential mergers, that would make sense on some level. 6:48 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
Interesting. I hadn't tried to retweet (under this new service) from browser. Doing so juxtaposed me & @Dana_Gardner portraits in TweetDeck. 6:42 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
RT @Dana_Gardner: "Exadata equivalent for SQL Server?" JK--DATAllegro tech already incorp into SS 2008 PDW, which needs intelligent storage 6:40 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
It also makes sense for HP and MSFT to so some cha-cha-cha around appliances ... An Exadata equivalent for SQL Server and/or DATAllegro? 2:49 PM Jan 13th from web Retweeted by you
Still puzzling over persistent banner ad in My Yahoo: "Mortgage APRs Hit 3.62%" w/ mugshot of surly bearded dude. Homeless? 'Twould be irony 6:33 AM Jan 14th from TweetDeck
RT @justinflitter "wow its hot in auckland now" JK--Really? Is it much cooler across the bay in Saun Frauncisco? 9:02 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Oh, cool...I see the 9th in my mind's eye. 6:50 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
What adv analytics pros call "social network analysis," some dub "computational social science." Just as econometrics = computational econ. 6:48 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
RT @CurtMonash "Nigeria VP named "Goodluck Jonathan"..]keeping straight face is hard" JK: If sick prez was named Jonathan, would be perfect 6:41 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Everybody morph your Twitter photo to show solidarity. Fans of Jay: enlarge your chins. Fans of Conan: do a wavy red bouffant-ish do! 6:39 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
"One-liners fly as NBC's late-night plot thickens" (http://bit.ly/6BHCHw): JK--Late-nite hosts dig into Jay/Conan drama (WashPost regis req) 5:32 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Good to see that H1N1 vaccine available in my area. Also good to see, per WSJ, that H1N1 cases in rapid decline. 4:31 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
OK, Facebook, quit asking me to "find your friends." That's why God gave us Google. 4:29 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
It would be cool to build a Large Hadoop Collider to smash advanced analytics apps at high speed down to their component tools & algorithms. 2:25 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
8 in 8...curious whether I'll be able to pull off a cool fortnight. 2:18 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
New blogpost: "Mining the Cloud? Are You Allowed?" (http://bit.ly/5edXn6) (http://bit.ly/6Oxrtj) 1:31 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Just took excellent briefing from Chordiant on conversation mgt and pred analytics. Sophisticated next best offer & next best model features 12:33 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
RT @ChannelWeb: "Forrester: Bring On Tech Turnaround" http://bit.ly/8aRZms: JK--Yrs truly seconds this observation: IT activity heating up. 11:00 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Will do #Forrester podcast the end of this month on: "The New Decade of Advanced Analytics: Roll Over Rocket Scientists!" 9:23 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
RT @TonyBaer "Just because u can put your IP in the #cloud doesn't mean u should" JK--So true. Dare I invoke "digital rights management"? 9:00 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
RT @kexpplaylist: Giving Up The Gun by Vampire Weekend #KEXP: JK--Hmmm: 2008's "it-indie-band" avoided sophomore jinx. 2nd album even better 8:25 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Survey: Social media not useful for BI yet (http://bit.ly/5Utt1i): JK--Most still undecided re BI value of tweets etc, didn't say not useful 7:18 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
"Google's OpenSocial Fueling Atlassian's SaaS Development Shift" (http://bit.ly/6d35D0): JK--Who else is implementing OpenSocial? 7:10 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Undoubtedly, Conan will "do a Letterman," by which I mean jump to another (non-NBC) network that pays him his value & his propers. 7:06 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Glad to see Conan's standing up for himself, and protecting the Tonight Show franchise (which has already been damaged by this fiasco). 6:52 AM Jan 13th from TweetDeck
Listening to Lady Gaga "Paparazzi" from "The Fame Monster." Predict it will take 1-2 more albums before she finds own voice, loses Madonna's 7:31 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
New blogpost: "Razor, Blades, and 10x: Key to Value-Based Pricing in the DW Appliance Market" (http://bit.ly/5cttOi) (http://bit.ly/8uiIhu) 2:53 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Zoho.com plans to add advanced analytics, interactive data exploration, analytic apps to SaaS/cloud starting late 2010 1:25 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Zoho.com's Zoho Reports SaaS-based BI/analytics service incorporates proprietary parallel cloud/grid DW with master-slave architecture. 1:22 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Being briefed by Zoho about Zoho Reports 1:11 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Taking briefing from Visual MIning on their SMB- and CFO-focused BI/dashboarding suite with interactive visualization. 12:21 PM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Being an analyst means always wondering whether others' friendships are contingent on your opinions being in line with their interests. 9:03 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
@rwang0 #quote Actually, not true. If use Wayne's World as your ur-text, ounces eclipse kilos in parlance of garden-variety suburban stoner 8:59 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck in reply to rwang0
RT @JGabrielGarcia @jameskobielus: "Mining the Cloud" (http://bit.ly/7krf5E): JK--My original tweet focused on article's misrepresentations 8:56 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
"Facebook CEO: Privacy Not 'Social Norm'" (http://bit.ly/6EWYba): JK--Hypersensitivity to privacy is Web 2.0 norm. Feel the flames & storms. 8:51 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
"Mining the Cloud" (http://bit.ly/7krf5E): JK--Article misrepresents Azure capability: no data mining & no true DW alternative in that cloud 7:36 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
"10 Current Products That Will Shape the 2010s " (http://bit.ly/60OIkk): JK--Just call it the Teens, OK? Issue here? Your own awkward Teens? 7:32 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
"Warning Will Robinson! Robotic girlfriends hit the market" (http://bit.ly/7dcN5b): JK--Danger Will Robinson! Smutty tech jokes approaching! 7:28 AM Jan 12th from TweetDeck
Caught TCM's showing of "Plaza Suite" (1971) last night. Still blown away by what an awesomely charismatic actor the late Walter Matthau was 8:50 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Well, well, old dogs learn new tricks. I prevailed in Rummikub tonight. The Jokers all came my way. Because they recognize me as kin. 8:44 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Another example of potentially useful Facebook notification: e.g,"Hey [product manager], your [largest customer] says your [product} sucks!" 8:42 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Would be nice if Facebook turned these lame-o notifications into business tools: eg, "Hey [James], connect with your [team] on that [task]!" 8:40 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Listening to Beatles' "Words of Love" (1964). Their tightest 3-pt harmony. Most faithful of all their covers. As perfect as Buddy's original 6:45 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @mashable: "Google” Is Word of the Decade" JK--Whoa! That's moving fast. The decade's only 11 days old and already has its word locked in 4:56 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
People are the same everywhere & there are 2 types: those who divide people into 2 types, and those who don't. We're all the same, down deep 4:53 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @HowardKurtz "Fox News signs Sarah Palin as a commentator" JK--This was obviously the job she was preening herself for. 4:47 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
New blogpost: "Self-Service BI: Dissolving Barriers to Creative Decision-Support Solutions" (http://bit.ly/6W0bDU) (http://bit.ly/5CStsL) 4:23 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
In terms of "wow" factor, CES has advantage of showcasing cool gadgets. But re "clouds," reporters often strain to make it sexy. Abstract. 2:25 PM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Taking briefing on Capgemini Business Information Management initiatives, w/ colleagues @bevelson, Liz Herbert, & Chris Andrews 10:10 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Progress always seemed like more of a federation of ISVs than a truly comprehensive SOA solution stack vendor. 9:23 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @TonyBaer "With Savvion, #Progress becoming more of selective stack vendor #BPM": JK--They've always been that. Need to get comprehensive 9:20 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @glennhilton @jimmywim "people associate Twitter with idleness" JK--Huh? Just the opposite! Tweeting demands intense focus. 9:18 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"Netezza’s Retail Analytic Appliance Premiers" (http://bit.ly/5JerEI): JK--Netezza getting quite serious about analytic solution appliances. 8:40 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"Pitney Bowes Business Insight Unveils Enterprise Routing" (http://bit.ly/57ibXL): JK--Location intel should be integral to pervasive BI. 8:37 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @SethGrimes: "Indexed Database API. 'Work on the Web SQL DB has seemingly come to halt'": JK--Perhaps more industry participation needed. 8:35 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"Arch shift joins app logic to take adv analytics into real-time" (http://bit.ly/4YsgnY): JK--Recent podcast w/ @Dana_Gardner & @asterdata 8:20 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"W3C posts draft standard for local database storage" (http://bit.ly/4N2EBP): JK--Interesting. Any DBMS, DW, or analytics vendors involved? 8:12 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"St. Ignace MI Residents to Benefit From Verizon Wireless Network Enhancement" (http://bit.ly/50XFRP): JK--My fave childhood vacation spot. 7:59 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
RT @kexpplaylist: My Sweet Lord by George Harrison #KEXP: JK--Great song highlights Harrison's beautiful slide guitar textures. 7:56 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
What I'm wondering about Progress is whether/when they plan to acquire a BI or DW vendor. Can't be full SOA stack without those. 7:54 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Loving this frigid weather. No, really! Winter's intensities make me feel warmer inside. That's the Michigan-raised snowbird in me talking. 7:53 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"The Best Acq Of Decade" (http://bit.ly/5nArxW): JK--They pick EMC/VMWare. I go with AOL Time Warner: perfect book-ends to disaster decade. 7:50 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
"Brooke Shields: The InformationWeek Interview" (http://bit.ly/7jUyCp): JK--The guilty "U know U'll clickthru" headline of the week so far. 7:48 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Droid's momentum in mobile data marketplace interesting to watch. Could Google have homegrown hit? That would be unusual, for them. 7:46 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Still in what comedian Rich Hall referred to as month of Check-uary: weeks at start of new year when you still mindlessly write old year. 7:35 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Walked out midway thru "Daybreakers." A screamingly stupid "Bladerunner" world populated by vampires feasting on "Matrix" of human blood. 7:13 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck
Caught Michael Cera in mildly diverting "Youth In Revolt." Young actor so nondescript he may some day distinguish himself. 7:13 AM Jan 11th from TweetDeck

FORRESTER blogpost redirect How Much Intelligence Can You Pack Into a Tweet?

How Much Intelligence Can You Pack Into a Tweet?

By James Kobielus

Thursday, January 14, 2010

FORRESTER blogpost redirect Next Best Models: The Process Agility Equation

Next Best Models: The Process Agility Equation

By James Kobielus

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

FORRESTER blogpost redirect Mining the Cloud? Are You Allowed?

Mining the Cloud? Are You Allowed?

By James Kobielus

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

FORRESTER blogpost redirect Razor, Blades, and 10x: Key to Value-Based Pricing in the Data Warehousing Appliance Market

Razor, Blades, and 10x: Key to Value-Based Pricing in the Data Warehousing Appliance Market

By James Kobielus

Monday, January 11, 2010

FORRESTER blogpost redirect Self-Service Business Intelligence: Dissolving the Barriers to Creative Decision-Support Solutions

Self-Service Business Intelligence: Dissolving the Barriers to Creative Decision-Support Solutions

By James Kobielus

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Kommentary on Wine 3

All:

Having been raised Roman Catholic, I know wine. Having seen a mere beverage raised to sacramental and metaphysical importance by all my elders, it always struck me as odd. If you believe in transubstantiation, why would the incarnated deity’s bloodstream be infused from the fermented juice of grapes? Why not directly from some more simple, elemental fluid, rather than one that’s been polluted by the waste products of micro-organisms? Why not from mineral water, perhaps with a dose of oxygenation and carbonation? That would echo the infusion of iron, oxygen, and life into the tissues of inert matter—in other words, the miracles of life and spirit.

Anyway, having addicted myself to carbonated caffeinated cold beverages from a young age, it always struck me as odd that people should quibble over which was best: Coke or Pepsi. For the life of me, I’ve never tasted enough of a difference to care. Likewise, fussing over the merits of various strains of non-sacramental wine feels similarly pointless: a bogus sophistication that serves only to impress others with your pretensions to worldliness. Similarly, I have no time to indulge in the other beverage cults—such as those around designer coffees and micro-brews—that pervade our post-modern culture.

I like all of those drinks, and have no beef with sacramental uses of any intoxicating substance. It’s just that I don’t personally regard beverages as worth analyzing to death, and don’t spend much time trying to cultivate whatever magical savvy will help me savor these drinks to the fullest of my powers.

I’ll take whatever’s available and/or on sale.

Jim

Kommentary on Obama 3

All:

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal showed a commercial billboard in a Chinese city. On the billboard, there was a photo of our president, wearing a nice jacket and standing on the Great Wall in his recent visit to that country. There were no words other than the name of whatever company makes that brand of jacket. Nice jacket, nice picture, nice-looking middle-aged man standing there, looking serious.

Of course Obama didn’t authorize that commercial use of his photo, and the White House took pains to point that out. The article left unaddressed the issue of whether Chinese authorities would crack down on the advertiser. I seriously doubt they would appreciate a photo of their president to be used in the US to, say, shill for Coke.

But what’s interesting is that the Chinese, apparently, have warmed up Obama—at least enough to potentially want to buy products that he’s (seemingly) endorsing. I recall early last year, soon after he took office, reading articles that reported the Chinese as not knowing how to react to the fact that the US elected a black president. This historic event ran directly counter to the longstanding PRC party line of the US being thoroughly racist. Of course, the Communist Chinese have not been a paragon of multicultural, multi-racial peace and harmony on their end of the equation. For example, the Tibetans and Uighurs have stories to tell.

With China largely funding our federal deficit, I’m not surprised the Obama administration has failed to push back forcefully on this billboard issue. Also, I’m dismayed, but not surprised, that Obama has not made human rights a focus of our ongoing dialogue with the Chinese leadership. No American president, of either party, would do that. It’s not as if that doesn’t matter. It’s just that China’s economy is becoming way too big and important on the world scene to tangle with them over this issue.

Look at it with historical hindsight. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the US economy was becoming the world’s dynamo, none of the European powers ever criticized us on any sustained basis for our disgraceful oppression, segregation, and disenfranchisement of African-Americans. It’s not as if our Jim Crow laws were a national secret. It’s just that the US was too powerful, and morally blinkered, to succumb to that sort of pressure.

Jim

Kommentary on the Economy 3

All:

WSJ says job losses last month, but we’re still emerging from recession. These things swing back and forth.

WSJ also has cool article on what muscles should be strengthened and toned to support a great golf swing. What’s important is enabling strong posture through the arc of a swing and the full twist of the hips and spine to impart maximum power and control to the ball. Essentially, the glutes—trained through squats—are the core, as is good hip rotation, trained through spinal twists and similar hip-flexion exercises. Experts say that if you haven’t optimized these muscles, you’re likely to compensate with sub-optimal movements of the shoulders, biceps, wrists, and hands—suboptimal in the sense that they are less powerful, enable less fine control, and risk straining various muscles through repetition.

Somehow, that seems a good analogy for an economy. Economies swing back and forth between boom and bust. Essentially, an economy is an organism with many muscles that are moving together and/or tearing against each other in various combinations. To the extent that you’ve strengthened the deep economy with sound monetary and fiscal controls, it may swing more smoothly and quickly back to prosperity.

But to the extent that countries weaken key segments of their economies with unsound policies, the swings will have a herky-jerky start-and-stop rhythm, with some sectors leading and some lagging, dragging, and delaying the macro recovery.

Jim

Kommentary on Memory 3

All:

Memory is often the purest distraction. Sometimes it’s welcome and necessary distraction, such as when you’re trying to endure the tedium of some endless boring task and must resort to daydreaming to keep your energies flowing. Sometimes it’s unnecessary, such as when you’re trying to forgive somebody for some long-ago slight, and the slight keeps surfacing from the subconscious, stoking the embers of ancient anger once again.

All memory is muscle memory. True forgiveness manifests itself in a pervasive feeling of relaxation throughout your physical being. Teeth no longer unconsciously clench and grind. The fingers no longer grip some phantom psychic dagger. The eyes, brow, and temples no longer pinch into the frown that has for so long been the face you present to the world, whether you realize it or not.

Jim

Kommentary on Yoga 3

All:

My number one challenge is doing yoga in a crowd of people and a room of mirrors. It’s all distraction. To the extent that I find some individual distracting, that throws me off. To the extent that the distracting individual is me and my image in the mirror, even worse. The mirror in my mind’s eye is worse yet.

The worst thing would be to do yoga in isolation. Distraction is the background noise of our existence. You must train in a thoroughly distractive, self-consciousness-conducive environment in order to cultivate the purest poise.

Jim

Kommentary on Media 3

AIR

Television was
simply always there airing
and available.

Television was
simple numbers to click and
point the aerial.

Television was
once tube and tuner a box
immaterial.

Kommentary on Commentary 3

All:

Analysis is the anchor of my existence. If I couldn’t comment on everything I’m seeing, I’d burst. I’ll always seeking out new channels for putting my commentary out there. It’s relief to unburden myself. It’s also a relief to know that my thoughts are out there, crisply articulated, for I will some day need to revisit them.

Jim