Mar/Apr 2014
Business Tech: Snowmagedon
The same data can have many different meanings to different people, depending on their business focus and outlook. Take the weather forecast for example. Predictions of heavy snow will give ski resort operators elation and big smiles. The reactions of insurance agents, on the other hand, will be somewhat different. But first, somebody has to figure out how to obtain and present the data to the target audience to use in their projections. (That's you.)
Big Data
Everybody is talking about Big Data. But a lot of people have trouble defining exactly what that means. Are we talking about "tons and tons" of data? (Volume) Are we talking about terabytes of data that is changing every few minutes? (Velocity) do we capture it in a traditional data warehouse or some other structure? And what tools are available to process this stuff? Here is an overview of some of the problems that big data presents and a couple of tools that have been developed to deal with them.
User Experience and User Interfaces are not the same!
We have been hearing for years that we need to modernize our user interface by getting rid of the green screens and using GUIs. That might have worked a few years ago, but the world has changed - again. Users are no longer satisfied with the "putting lipstick on a pig" approach. Their experiences with their own personal computers, tablets, phones, etc. have caused them to raise the bar. They now demand a completely new User Experience.
Tech Tip: Number to Word conversion
Some of your business processes are complex, some are simple. Let's look at check writing as an example. This is a really simple process, but you can run into one small snag.
From the Inside March/April 2014
There has been an issue that our community has been battling for years — the The lack of junior and entry level developers. One of the things that I noticed this year at the Spectrum Conference was that the age demographic of our senior developers is dropping. What this tells me is that our junior level developers are becoming our senior level developers.
Clif Notes: You Ain't Rid of Me Yet!
We are going to be making an announcement at the 2014 International Spectrum Conference during the "Writing for Professional Development" presentation.