My Random notes n thoughts

Started off this week, with some quite interesting learning about this IBM tool called "Dynamic ReportSpec Updater [DRU]".

While currently involved in migrating some Cognos 8.3 reports to Cognos 10.1, We have faced some issues with our applications reports. This is because almost 100% of the application reports are designed to use the JavaScript. None of the migrated reports were working because of links used in the javascripts which requires updates. We found the problem and the solution is to update the links used in the Javascripts to the new URLs after the migration. During this time, we were actively searching for a tool capable of doing massive update to the ReportSpecs(XMLS). With this specific requirement in mind, we were searching for a tool which have this capability and this quest leads us to DRU tool from IBM.

Further details about this tool can be found below:
https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/basupportlink/entry/the_dynamic_reportspec_updater_dru7?lang=en_us

Learnt a drawback of this tool already from the below comment from one of the user:
"The tool does not list the reports in which the transformation effectively has been performed. The folder 'UpdatedSpecifications' contains all the reports that were searched and not only the modified reports. In Cognos Connection all reports that were searched have an updated modification date."

I ought to think being in Enterprise Information management/Analytics profession as a consultant, you have to familiarize yourselves with plethora of tools across the following streams: Business Intelligence (IBM Cognos, SAP BO, MSTR, Qlikview etc), ETL (Infa, IBM's Data Stage etc) and Databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase etc) and DB Appliances (GreenPlum, Netezza, Exadata, HANA etc)

Over the last few recent years, the hype and craving about Big-Data Analytics/Hadoop causes more confusions and tensions to keep abreast about latest technology and trends. This is because of the advancements and interesting use-cases about the Big-Data/Hadoop and the ways these technologies enhances the traditional Enterprise Datawarehousing/Business Analytics applications with crunched data/KPIs derived from unstructured and semi-structured data.

Above situations explains the craving in the professionals to learn and familiarize themselves with more and more technologies and tools. Because of one such craving, starting my journey to learn about "Pivotal Greenplum DB" - A shared Nothing, Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) DB Appliance. Fortunately the learning department in my Organization is conducting learning sessions on GreenPlum, which I have been utilizing from the beginning of this week.

Following link provides details about Key-Features, Architecture, Support for Hadoop, R, Java, Python etc. Backup and Restore, Interfaces and DB Applicance Management tools.
http://www.gopivotal.com/sites/default/files/Pivotal_Greenplum_DB_DS_05032013.pdf

Interesting features which I am planning to explore over the next few weeks :
gNet for Hadoop : A Connector for Hadoop environments which enables to exchange data between DB and Hadoop clusters, Provides Direct Query interoperability between Hadoop Nodes and GP DB nodes and supports Conversion of Custom format data (Pig, Hive etc) into GPDB format via apReduce which can be imported into GP.Programmable Analytics (Support for R) and Pivotal Extensions (support for Geo-Spatial, Python, Perl and Java functions)

Here you can find the technical podcasts by IBM Analysts,which talks about Analytics and Big Data.
http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/podcast/big-data-all-data

Maybe you can spend this weekend listening and exploring about some new Big Data related technology and tools.

We all might have noticed(atleast the EIM members) that the Hadoop/Big Data has become the talk of the town. While we come across all these jargon, first thing is anxiety and confusion with all these terms. I am sure some of you might have been intrigued by the below questions like me:

How am i going to use it with my data warehouse?
How it is going to enhance the analytical applications in my enterprise or client place?
How can I breakdown the unstructured data using Hadoop for analytical needs?

The key to these questions is familiarizing ourselves with these Big Data technologies (Hadoop and Mapreduce).

There are lots of open source tools and Commercial Hadoop distributions offered by different vendors which are available as free downloads online. To name a few : Cloudera, HortonWorks, IBM BigInsights etc are famous Hadoop Distributions which I came across.

Recently I have downloaded Sandbox (Personal Hadoop Distribution) provided by Hortonworks and installed in my personal laptop and started exploring.
[Tip: By default, Virtualization is disabled in our laptops. Depending on whether the processor supports virtualization, I would recommend enabling this feature before trying to install Personal Hadoop distributions in your laptop.]

HortonWorks Sandbox - http://hortonworks.com/products/hortonworks-sandbox/
IBM Big Insights Quick Start edition - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/biginsights/quick-start/

We certainly need a much clear picture and might required to explore a lot online about the landscape of all the tools, capabilities, purposes of each tools. Would like to share a nice link which I have came across which provides good picture about the Big-Data tools.
http://www.bigdatalandscape.com/
http://www.kernel-labs.org/node/2

You can also start your e-learning using the free course offered in the site ==> bigdatauniversity.com

For those of you who are familiar/well versed with Big Data/Hadoop related technologies, here is a interesting discussion about Cloudera vs IBM Bigsights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQVMTmUgCj0

Happy Learning, Appreciate your comments, feedback and valuable experiences!

Qlikview has this interesting demo based on the Movies data, you can find this in the link : http://us.demo.qlikview.com/detail.aspx?appName=Movies%20Database.qvw This demo has the list of movies based on rating/ director/year/ actor/ title. I just did the quick analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's movies; and I found Vertigo is the top rated movie directed by him. Definitely planning to watch this movie tonight or over the weekend.Non Techie movie aficionado dont have to feel jealous, yes this link doesn't need any technical knowledge. That's the power of Self service BI!

Going to try these steps suggested in the below links. I tried multiple times for installation of BigInsights on VMWare in my person laptop. All my attempts were failure.. :(

Part1: http://www.thecloudavenue.com/2013/12/InstallingVirtualBoxOnAWindowsMachine.html
Part2: http://www.thecloudavenue.com/2013/12/InstallingUbuntuOnTopOfVirtualBox.html
Part3: http://www.thecloudavenue.com/2014/01/InstallationAndConfigurationOfApacheBigtop.html

Thanks N Happy Learning!

Today I took a bold step in retirement planning, Yes I opted for the 401(K) plan offered by my employer. I was reading through the plan documents, trying to understand the jargons. Added my wife as a primary beneficiary (100%) for the returns.

Though I am starting this baby step/investment with a small contribution, you are also getting your employer contribution towards this plan. This is very good thing, similar to our Employee Provident Fund (EPF) in India.

Also I learnt the differences between the Traditional 401(K) plan and ROTH schemes. In ROTH schemes, the final lump sum you will get is not taxable. In Traditional schemes, your contribution to 401 (K) is pretax and the final lump sum is taxable. Dont know which one is best, still do need to analyze it. For Now, I am happy that I took this baby step towards retirement planning since I already turned 30.

The bad thing is, not utilizing such provisions. I should have used this provision 2 yrs back, By now I will have considerable savings for my retirement if I acted earlier.

Of course, you can take loans from 401 (k) plans if you are badly in need of money too.

Happy learning and investing! Wish you all Healthy, Happy N Prosperous 2014!!

I like Christopher Boone Character, Following are the reasons why I like this book...* Interestingly chapters in this book are numbered based on the prime numbers. * His views on things around, world, the hound of Baskerville, Sherlock Holmes, Malaysia, Oranguatan, Maths, stars etc are phenomenal and exceptional observation. * Also his concepts and theories: To name a few White lie, Light pollution, stranger danger, glancing, time table N "good day vs Bad day" etc are nice.Overall a interesting read and experience to see the world from Christopher's eyes/view points.I also felt a bit of hatred for Mom character and Kudos to the father character for the patience expressed.nice to see other's comments in Goodreads.com!!Regards,

Hi, Following are the list of books, I have started reading in December which I still need to complete. "Sycamore Row" - John Grisham"The Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime" - Mark HaddonThanks and Regards,

Often we wonder,

1) What are the things in my life which I should have done better?
2) Skills which should be concentrating for my next promotion at work place?
3) Better decision making/managing our Personal Finances?
4) What should be considered as Short term goals? Long term goals?
5) Do I have both Short term/Long Term goals defined which I should be focusing on? Does the goals align with my priorities and values?

It's true that there is no gain in mulling over the things that went wrong in our life. We can't correct the past, but we should be looking forward and think how can we make sure to set it right next time. I call it "Internal Feedback system" - a key system for correcting our mistakes and improving our productivity and life style.

I came across the below blog today, related to the above topic which I thought of sharing.
http://scottberkun.com/2012/how-to-be-good-at-anything/