Rob Paller http://robpaller.com A blog about databases, business intelligence, and an outlet for my inner geek Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:30:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ 42.876661-85.62856http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifSome Rights Reserved Earth Hour 2010 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobPaller/~3/VRoFMi0RRro/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/earth-hour-2010/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:42:36 +0000 Rob Paller http://robpaller.com/?p=329 You probably have noticed the small banner across the top of my site recently. I have decided as part of Earth Hour 2010  - March 27, 2010 at 8:30PM EST - that my website will go dark during Earth Hour. On Earth Hour millions of people across the world join together in solidarity for climate change in one simple act, turning of their lights. This simple act shows that we can join together and have a positive impact on the climate.

Ironically, LCD monitors may require more power to generate a black pixel vs a white pixel. A comparison of 27 LCD monitors was done and confirmed that in most instance a small increase in wattage was required to display Blackle vs Google. You can find more information about the comparison performed by Darren Yates.

If you would like to support Earth Hour on your Wordpress blog you can get more information about the Earth Hour plugin at Brave New Code. For more information about Earth Hour and how you can show your support in your community you can check out MyEarthHour.org.

Regardless of your personal opinion about global warming, it can not be argued that we can be better stewards of our natural resources and the impact we have on our planet. There are plenty of things within our ability to leave this planet a better place for generations to come.

]]> http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/earth-hour-2010/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/earth-hour-2010/ Let the Data Geeks Play http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobPaller/~3/prg8NtjuT-E/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/let-the-data-geeks-play/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:39:01 +0000 Rob Paller http://robpaller.com/?p=306 Recently there have been several music parodies posted by members of the MDM, Data Quality, and Data Governance community. These parodies have used songs from Rush, Styx, and George Thorogood as their muse. Jim Harris and I discussed the idea of holding a contest where members of the community could submit their own parody.

What's in it for you?

Bragging rights! (That is until the next challenge...) Sure there is always the chance your YouTube video goes viral. (You were going to submit a YouTube video, right?)

Rules?

We don't need no stinkin' rules... Just a few suggested guidelines is all we have to offer:

  • Your song can be original or may parody an existing song.
  • Your song has to be related to MDM, Data Governance, or Data Quality.
  • You may submit your song via a comment to this post or as a post on your own blog. If you post it on your own blog you must link back to this post or risk not being included in the vote.
  • Video or audio submissions are permitted but not required.

Celebrity Panel of Judges?

Due to prior engagements and personality conflicts we were unable to arrange for Simon Cowell, Ellen Degeneres, or Howard Stern to participate in the judging of the best song. So instead we are going to let you, the community, be the judge of contest. In a subsequent post we will provide a list to all of the submissions and a poll to allow you to vote.

Submission Deadline

In order to be included in the poll your submission must be completed by March 20, 2010 at 20:00 EST. Any submission received after that will made available for everyone to enjoy, but will not be included in the poll.

]]> http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/let-the-data-geeks-play/feed/ 5 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/let-the-data-geeks-play/ MDM to the Bone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobPaller/~3/LpYzIzb1LP0/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/mdm-to-the-bone/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:08:30 +0000 Rob Paller http://robpaller.com/?p=293 As I was reading Jim Harris excellent post, Data Quality is a Rush over at the Data Flux Community of Experts I started thinking about theme songs for data related technologies such as data quality, master data management, data governance or data warehousing. If you uttered the name of one of those technologies in the company of a non-data geek their eyes would quickly glaze over. But set to the tune of a head bobbing, foot tapping song?

The following music parody is set to the tune of George Thorogood and the Destroyers' Bad to the Bone (via Last.fm).

MDM to the Bone

Bad to the Bone

On the day I was born
The analysts all gathered 'round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found
The lead analyst spoke
Said "leave this one alone".
She could tell right away
That I was MDM to the bone.

MDM to the bone
MDM to the bone
M-M-M-M-MDM
M-M-M-M-MDM
M-M-M-M-MDM
MDM to the bone

I mastered countless rows
Before I met you
I'll master countless more data
Before I am through
I'll master your messy data
Yours and yours alone
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm MDM to the bone
MDM to the bone
M-M-M-M-MDM
M-M-M-M-MDM
MDM to the bone

I make data analysts beg
I'll make the data warehouse steal
I'll make board members blush
And make the auditors squeal
I wanna integrate your data
Yours and yours alone
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm MDM to the bone
MDM to the bone
M-M-M-M-MDM
M-M-M-M-MDM
MDM to the bone

And when I master your data
SMEs and Stewards step aside
Every system I beta
They all stay satisfied
Well Ya see I make my own
I'm here to tell ya honey
That I'm MDM to the bone
MDM to the bone
M-M-M-M-MDM
M-M-M-M-MDM
MDM to the bone

What song would you parody to get your fellow geeks tapping their feet and bobbing their heads?

]]> http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/mdm-to-the-bone/feed/ 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/mdm-to-the-bone/ Data Quality Mad Libs http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobPaller/~3/B4rhWfeNldI/ http://robpaller.com/archive/2010/02/data-quality-mad-libs/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:34:30 +0000 Rob Paller http://robpaller.com/?p=272

Mad Lib

Jim Harris has started a Data Quality Mad Lib series over at OCDQ Blog. I decided instead of leaving my version of the Mad Lib in his comment section to share it with everyone here.

In case you have forgotten how a Mad Lib works, it is a short story or phrase with several key words or phrases missing. Often you are asked to provide the missing items ahead of time before you see the phrase or short story. This increases the chances that the result is purely random and often amusing to read.

For Jim's Mad Lib he asked for the following to be provided by his readers:

  • an adjective - unflattering
  • a noun - a data warehouse
  • a verb - propogates
  • a noun or phrase - multiple versions of the truth
  • a phrase - ineffectively managing the master data produced by

A Data Quality Mad Lib

“The most

_______________ (adjective)

thing about

_______________ (noun or phrase)

is that it

_______________ (verb)

your

_______________ (noun or phrase)

by essentially

_______________ (phrase)

your enterprise systems.”

My Data Quality Mad Lib

The unflattering thing about a data warehouse is that it propogates your multiple versions of the truth by essentially ineffectively managing the master data produced by your enterprise systems.

Share Your Version

If you would like to share your version of a Data Quality Mad Lib please do so either by leaving a comment on  Jim's OCDQ Blog or blog about it while providing a trackback to Jim's original blog post.

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