Imagine a dis-United States split into independent North and South with a breakaway state in the west. Great Britain attacking America, swirled alliances in Europe and warfare breaking out all over the place. Put the fascist governments in new locations with a different race as the scapegoat. Add fuel and ignite.

I think of it as World War II with an edge that we do not get in North America during History classes. The edge is that the worst fighting is happening at home – not overseas. It is civil war, world war, fascism, extremists, terrorism and sabotage rolled into one.

The first response when starting this book was antagonism – I felt like it was going to be cheap shots at sacred cows and not much character building or storyline. I am not too proud to admit I was wrong.

This book did develop some real characters. Perhaps overly flawed. Perhaps too real because of it. These characters became real enough to me that I understood their thought processes. I didn’t agree with them, but they were logical and understandable.

If all the characters were that real this book would earn a five star rating. Unfortunately, the cast of characters being developed was too big, and history was still being expounded upon towards the end of the book. Knowing that this is the first of a trilogy, it is easy to see how Mr. Turtledove is setting things up for the next books. I just wish it did not feel quite as formulaic.

Despite these complaints, I enjoyed this book and will probably look to the other two in the series if I ever run low on books to read.

4 stars.

Return Engagement (Settling Accounts, Book 1)

Harry Turtledove. Del Rey 2005, Paperback, 656 pages, $3.76

Drive to the East (Settling Accounts, Book 2)

Harry Turtledove. Del Rey 2006, Paperback, 640 pages, $6.45

The Grapple (Settling Accounts, Book 3)

Harry Turtledove. Del Rey 2007, Paperback, 640 pages, $5.97

This books looks at the easiest to join, most common online tournament: the Sit-N-Go (SNG). A Sit-N-Go tournament is a 9 or 10 player, single-table tournament that pays out to only the last 3 players. First place earns 50% of the prize pool. Second place earns 30% and third place earns 20%.

This guide takes a view that it is the result that is most important. It details a particular strategy that is intended to help a player increase the frequency with which they finish in the money. Along the way it delves (lightly) into the math behind the strategy, offers up personal insights, and includes specific examples to illuminate the points.

This book is split into three primary sections: Low Blind Play, Mid Blind Play and High Blind Play. Within these sections, different categories of hands are discussed, and the impact of the blinds on solid strategy at each level is covered. The fourth section discusses concepts for anybody considering playing sit-n-go tournaments for a living.

In a nutshell, Collin recommends a conservative start with aggression levels rising as the blinds increase and additional players are eliminated. The focus is on winning these small tournaments, as additional First Place finishes will more than offset a slight increase in out-of-the money finishes.

Overall, I am glad that I purchased this book. I enjoyed the read, and the concepts are not difficult to apply. Unfortunately, I did not get this book until after I had played in a number of sit-n-go tournaments and only managed to break-even. Since reading this book, I am much more successful.

I strongly recommend this book.

Sit ‘n Go Strategy

Collin Moshman. Two Plus Two Publishing LLC 2007, Paperback, 281 pages, $15.18

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. For anybody who likes to have some story around the adult sections, this one delivers. I will admit that there were quite a few pages I rapidly skimmed – especially in the second half of the book. As I said – I generally avoid romance, and this book was not enough to change that.

Merry Gentry, a.k.a. Meredith NicEssus is the heroine of this tale. As a multi-racial (human, elven, brownie) sidthe princess, she does not fit into the Unseelie court she has been born into. When her enemies try to kill her, she flees and chooses to hide in a detective agency in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, as far as she runs, escape is only temporary.

This story begins a multi-volume storyline on what happens once she is found.

While I have only read the first book, I have linked to additional volumes in the series for anybody who desires more.

A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Book 1)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine Books 2002, Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages, $4.19

A Caress of Twilight (Meredith Gentry, Book 2)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Fawcett 2003, Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages, $2.00

Seduced by Moonlight (Meredith Gentry, Book 3)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine Books 2004, Mass Market Paperback, 432 pages, $4.08

A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Book 4)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine Books 2006, Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages, $3.50

Mistral’s Kiss (Meredith Gentry, Book 5)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine Books 2006, Mass Market Paperback, 336 pages, $3.83

A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6)

Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine Books 2008, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, $3.96

I actually saw the movie (several times) before reading the book, which is very unusual for me. At first, it was because I did not know that Bladerunner was based on a book. Later, it was because I did not want to be disappointed – either in the book or that the movie wasn’t as good as the book.

It was an unnecessary worry. There are differences, as there always are. Yet both are high quality, entertaining and worth the time.

The storyline focuses on a future earth that is contaminated. Science has continued to make progress – even to the point of being able to make short-lived humans called Replicants who live and help out off-world. This progression of science did not lead to a utopian existence. Deckard is a detective whose job is to find replicants who have come to earth and deal with them.

Throughout the book several themes are developed, all of which center around the questions of: What makes somebody human? and What does being human mean?

Bottom line, if you enjoy science fiction with depth, read and watch.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Philip K. Dick. Easton Press 2008, Leather Bound, 244 pages,

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Andy Hopkins (Editor). Oxford University Press 2007, Paperback, 128 pages, $8.40

Blade Runner – The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Warner Home Video 2007, DVD, $4.37

Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray]

Warner Brothers 2007, Blu-ray, $28.49

Like many – perhaps most – it was after writing for a little while that I began to question why I was trying to build a blog and what the goal for it is. All of the usual suspects came to mind: to contribute, to have my own say, to earn money, and even to encourage myself to learn more about different topics.

Unfortunately, none of these really struck a chord. The effort did not match up with the rewards, and even what I was contributing did not feel like it was going to have enough of an impact.

So exjackly.com stagnated. There was enough time invested to make it worth leaving it up, but no internal incentive to add more to it.

Until Now.

Lately, the number of books that I have read has increased.  I attribute most of it to the amount of travel that I do, and how much time it gives me to just sit back and power through more and more books.  It has been a nice perk.

Another contributing factor has been getting an Amazon Kindle.  The Kindle has allowed me to carry more books with me at a time, while being just as easy to read as a regular book (and much easier long term than trying to read e-books on a computer or phone).

Book Reviews

Since I have always loved to read, have read a lot of books, and am reading as many as I can now, I want to give back.  Specifically, the thought is to review the books I am reading (and as many of the ones that I have read in the past as I can recall).  By reviewing these books, hopefully I can help people find new books and authors.

Full Disclosure: At the end of these reviews there will be links to Amazon for these books.  Partially, this is to offer people an easy way to find these books for themselves.  The other part is in the hope to offset the cost of maintaining this web site.  While I hope this becomes self-sustaining, it is the secondary goal.  I would rather hear other people’s opinions in the comments – especially if they enjoy a book I recommend.

I have a record in this format
H,0002
L,B254,4
L,B221,19
L,B064,4
H,0001
L,B208,1
L,B186,8
H,0004
L,B178,17
L,B132,19
L,B121,17
L,B025,12

H,xxxx (xxxx represents the customer unique no)
L, yyyy.z (yyyy is the product part no, and z is the quantity. A customer could order more than one product, as a result so many Ls below H.

I want to transform this, so that the target file has the customer number(No H), the quantity of each products ordered, with the part number.

In order to get to the output column, though, the part no, of each product is checked against a part master that contain only part numbers

The reject file, must have the same format as the input file.

I have formatted the quote to make it clearer what is being sought.

My Approach

Parallel DataStage Job showing one solution

SEQ_Input

This is our starting point.  We read in the file as a 2 column input file, as we will parse out the additional product line data later in the process.  The first column, Record_Type (REC_TYPE) will be used immediately in the attached transformer.

XFM_Cust_No

Using the REC_TYPE to identify when our customer number changes (REC_TYPE = ‘H’), we duplicate that customer number as a new field on the product/quantity records.  The other task we do with this stage is to only allow the ‘L’ (Product Records) to continue on.  This is set to be a Sequential operation, so that we can be certain that the product records are tied to the correct customer record.

We assume the first record is a customer record.  If it is not, the customer number for the first Product Records is undefined.  For a production system, I would define a default value that could be checked later.

CI_Prod_Qty

We expand the Record_Value (REC_VAL) field into a PROD_NO and a QTY field.  This step could have been done with the previous transformer.  Using this stage helps make it clear what is being done, and if the file format changes later, we can add additional fields easily.

SEQ_Master_Parts_List/LKP_Master_Parts

This 2-stage combination reads in the Master Parts List and checks our records against the list.  Parts that match are allowed to proceed.  Parts that do not are rejected and sent to be reformatted and saved off as a reject file.

SEQ_Output

Handles all formatting (delimiters, quotes, etc.) for the desired output format.

XFM_Reject

Converts the Reject stream into two output streams: A Customer and a Product/Qty stream.  Each of these streams are formatted back to their original, source format.  In addition, 2 fields are added: CUST_NO and SORT_ORDER.

FNL_Rej

This is a Sorted, Sequential Funnel.  It combined the two streams into one, ordered by the CUST_NO and SORT_ORDER fields.  Those two fields are not passed on to the next stage.

RD_Rej

Since the Customer record will be duplicated coming in to the funnel – once for each product record – we want to remove duplicates looking at the full output line.  As a Sequential stage, this compares each line against the next.  With the sort order from the Funnel intact, this will remove the duplicate customer records for us.

This could have an impact on the product records if there are multiple records with the same customer, product and quantity.  If that is possible, it will be necessary to update this job to prevent that from happening.  There are multiple ways to do that.  Left out of this solution to help keep it simpler.

SEQ_Rej

Handles all formatting (delimiters, quotes, etc.) for the reject file, matching it to the input file format.

Parameterization

As is common, many parameters are defined to make it easier to handle items that regularly change.  It is possible to over-parameterize a job.  The items I chose to parameterize are all related to the input and output:

• Input Directory
• Input File Name
• Output Directory
• Output File Name
• Lookup Directory
• Lookup File Name
• Reject Directory
• Reject File Name

More items could be parameterized.  However, the remaining items are unlikely to change.  If they were added, they would begin to grow the parameter set and (possibly) environment variables.  While not a large issue, it does take time to maintain and use them when those lists begin to get large.

Other Approaches

This solution is not the only one possible. In fact, there are more ‘elegant’ and ’simpler’ solutions possible.  I chose this division of work because it makes sense to me, it is very easy to see what each stage does, and modifications will be easy to incorporate should additional requirements appear or if there is a need to incorporate data quality checks or additional logic.

With certain changes, it would be possible to solve this problem with 2 or 3 fewer stages.  It might even be doable with 4 fewer stages.  If anybody does solve it with 6 or fewer stages, I would love to see the solution.

If there are any questions about this solution, please, leave a comment and I will respond.

When I learned DataStage, I thought the class was very easy – with the exercises very simple to get through.  The classroom exercises hid a lot of the flexibility and complexity of the tool.  Primarily, this was done by looking at each of the available stages in isolation.  Exercises were setup to build simple jobs that explored the basic functionality of the stage.

What the class did very little of was discuss maintenance of jobs, parameterization, partitioning, performance tuning and common sources of errors.  I’ve learned about those with experience.  Some of this experience was easily gained, others took a lot of time to work through and figure out and there are some things that I have not used or mastered yet.

The two best tricks that I know for developing with DataStage are as follows:
1.  Be very meticulous – especially when building many similar jobs.  Having a checklist of items for every job being built is useful.
2.  Build and test incrementally.  Adding 2 stages, compiling and testing before adding more makes development easier and troubleshooting faster.

If you have any tips for development, questions about DataStage, or comparisons with other ETL tools, I welcome your feedback.

Goal setting is a good thing. I’ve known it for most of my life, even when I have not been actively practicing it. As I have gained more experience, I have found that setting goals gets harder and harder. It isn’t because the general process of setting goals has been getting more difficult. Instead, it is that my goals have been getting larger and more complex.

I am not one of those people who things that money is the scorecard of our lives. There is nothing that I do that is just for money – at least, I have convinced myself that is true. All the same, money is a significant factor in our lives. Having plenty of money makes it much easier to do a lot of things that we want to do.

Those things money lets us do are not the most important in our lives. I can still spend time with my wife and her family, even if I have no money. It is still possible to be a role model and try to teach the boys in my scout troop how to be good men no matter how much or how little money I have. There is not a toll to walk in the door at church to be a member of the community.

Admittedly, having money to spend while doing those things is an enjoyable luxury. Having the option to take a trip with my wife to spend time together and experience a new location has created many happy memories for us. Just being able to fill up the car with gas to go camping with the scouts has helped me to know the boys better.

For that reason, I have financial goals that I express in the common denominator of cash. I don’t want money for money’s sake, but because of what it will allow me to do. So, my financial goals really tie in to a number of my life goals. Here are my primary financial goals and how I am doing on each of them.

1. Net Worth – $5,000,000 in liquid assets is my goal. This amount of funds will give me enough income, without touching the principal, to meet all of my anticipated expenses through death. This includes the impact of inflation on living expenses. Even if expenses rise faster than anticipated, or a catastrophic event occurs, the principal amount will provide a significant amount of cushion.

Current Status: Approximately $125,000 in net worth

2. Own my home free and clear. The target date for this is within 10 years of moving in to a home. Currently, this goal is not being met, as we have leveraged our current home to buy a nice lot to build our next home on. We are still well into the positive equity side of the ledger however.

Current Status: Approximately $380,000 in real estate value. Loans outstanding total approximately $325,000

As you can see, I really only have 2 major financial goals. The first one incorporatesmultiple subgoals, where I will take different actions as I reach the various milestones on the way. The second refers to wanting to own my habitation free and clear and the comfort and peace of mind it will offer once I do.

The first evening, everybody was having a great time after dinner when they were interrupted by a big ball of smoke exploding in their midst.  As the music died and the smoke cleared a small, stout man with a fat cigar and a smile on his face could be seen.

‘What madness is this?” yelled the rich man.

“I am here to show you the greatest collection of riches in the world.  It will be yours if you want it” said the rotund rascal.  “All you must do is to follow me.”

That got everybody’s attention.  There was some talk about what kind of joke it might be, but curiosity got the best of everybody.  In a matter of minutes, everybody had their coats on and car keys in hand.  “Where are we going?” was the most common question.

“You will not need your keys.  Just follow me out and up.”  With a quick whirl the man turned toward the door and ran out.  Once outside he turned back, inhaled on the cigar until everybody could see the glowing ember, and once there was motion to follow, he continued on his way.

The rich man quickly made his way to the front of the pack.  At first, the going was easy as they walked across lush lawns under bright sunlight.  Still, looking back it could be seen that the group was spreading apart.  The rich man had no problems keeping just a few yards back from their guide.

As they continued, the way became rockier and started going uphill.  It began to darken as a mist came up and the moon waned.  The guide continued on, not looking back.  The rich man looked back less and less, but each time he did there were fewer and fewer friends and family behind.  His wife was the last one he saw before the fog closed in completely and following became more about listening than seeing.

After some time the fog began to clear.  The way grew less steep and much smoother.

The portly man was waiting for him, sitting on an old stone bench, still smoking the same cigar.  Beyond him were two doors, both open, both brightly lit.

Pointing at the doors with his cigar, he said, “You must choose which one you live for.  Whichever door you choose, at some point you will regret that you did not choose the other.  One of these doors is to the friends and family that helped and followed you on your way to here.  Behind the other are the riches you thought I was going to lead you to.”

“Choose financial wealth and you will still have friends and family.  You will still enjoy time with them.  What will be less is the amount of time you spend with them and your bonds will be fewer and not as strong.”

“Choose friends and family and you will still have financial riches.  You will miss many opportunities to expand your financial holdings in exchange.  This choice is not exclusive.  Instead, it is about how you measure success.  The way you measure success determines how you will spend your time and effort, and thus how you will succeed.”

“Which do you choose?”

The rich man thought for some time.  He wanted both, but he knew that he could not strive for two goals with all his heart.  He loved his family and enjoyed his friends.  At the same time, his image of himself was measured in dollars and yen.  With resolution, he made his choice and walked through that door, knowing what he chose and why.

Do you know what door he chose?  There is not a wrong door to choose, although there is certainly a preferred one that most people will suggest to have been taken.

Think about what your choice of doors means and why you picked it.