If your wanting to kill some time, try this. Took me about 10 or 15 min to find a good one.
Ask Patents puts out recent software patents for the public to dispute. You think of an existing software or website that does what the patent says and submit it as prior art.
Poof - The patent is dismissed.
Awesomeness.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html
How to Read a Patent in 60 Seconds
Saturday, May 31
Wednesday, May 28
Thanks for nothing US Airlines!
A rant....
I had a job late year where I flew every other weekend on a consulting gig. Must have paid upward of $20,000 in airfare. As a "reward" I got 35,000 miles. Yeah for me!!! OR NOT!
I want to take a trip to Vegas, according to Orbitz I can buy a flight cash for $550. Hummm, I guess I'll use those reward miles and save some money. OR NOT!
A flight cost me 60,000 miles. I have the option to buy additional miles. Guess how much 25,000 miles cost....you guessed it....$550.
What a freakin rip-off!
Thanks for nothing US Airways!
Monday, May 26
Interesting Startups in Charlotte
I like to see IT take off in Charlotte, having said that here are some folks, in no particular order, doing it big in startups in IT in Charlotte (my home town):
Data Sharing - http://www.Mytradeabledata.com - Not online yet, but coming soon...maybe
Online TV - http://www.dailybalancewithkim.tv/
Breathalyzer Phone App - http://www.alcohoot.com/
iOS Factory Floor Apps - http://www.faktory.co/
HR Software - http://canopyssi.com/ - Very Cool site
Connexio Labs - http://www.connexiolabs.com/
eComDash - Inventory Management and Order Fulfillment Software for Multi-Channel Ecommerce Sellers
DataLakes - Datalakes offers a comprehensive Self-Service Big Data Analytics Platform that enables enterprises to make faster accurate data driven decisions for business. (Check out the blog as well)
Dc74 - Data Center Services
BeanStalkData - CRM Applications and B2B or B2C??/ solutions
NexTable - Restaurant table reservation app(s)
2014 Startup Companies - From Venture Challenge.
I hope to add to this list in the future.
eComDash - Inventory Management and Order Fulfillment Software for Multi-Channel Ecommerce Sellers
DataLakes - Datalakes offers a comprehensive Self-Service Big Data Analytics Platform that enables enterprises to make faster accurate data driven decisions for business. (Check out the blog as well)
Dc74 - Data Center Services
BeanStalkData - CRM Applications and B2B or B2C??/ solutions
NexTable - Restaurant table reservation app(s)
2014 Startup Companies - From Venture Challenge.
I hope to add to this list in the future.
Quote
The fewer secrets I keep, the better I get at keeping them.
If somone said this to you, would you think them honest? Think on that for a while....
If somone said this to you, would you think them honest? Think on that for a while....
Saturday, May 24
Recent Bookmarks
http://www.pubnub.com/blog/javascript-php-real-time-stock-quote-app/
SQL to create a line from a number of points
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1171521/linear-regression-confidence-intervals-in-sql
SQL to create a line from a number of points
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1171521/linear-regression-confidence-intervals-in-sql
Friday, May 23
What is "Big Data"?
I get asked this often, usually by management level types who have heard it as a buzz word and really want to understand how it affects their business. Here's how I broke it down to my 14 year old.
If you look at the press (news, TV, commentators) big press means anything that has to do with the words, pictures and connections that people put on "social sites".
In the business world Big Data means ... well ... a lot of data. And I don't mean a little, I mean a ton. Think on the order of Billions of rows of data. A good rule of thumb would be any data that is over a Tera-byte in size. And that's the minimum.
The third thing "Big Data" could refer to is volume speed. It might not be huge in size, but how fast does the data get generated.
For example, let's say you record the date and time for any phone ring that happens within the United States in the next 30 min. And you had to pinpoint the busiest phone out of all the phones in the US. The data volume size is small. But the volume of data that comes in is crazy, your talking 2 million data points a second. And your "Big Data Solution" has to make some decision on that data within 60 seconds.
This is really the "new" and revolutionary part of Big Data as only recently (in the last 5 years) has the average computing power been strong enough to handle this volume at that speed.
The other reason "Big Data" is considered as new is because businesses have started to take new approaches to it. The goal is to figure out how all this data can be used to "hit" the bottom line.
Personal Opinion:
The challenge that I see with Big Data is letting your solutions be driven by a measurable ROI or a measurable impact to customer.
The "Big Data" solutions that succeed are those that start with one of those two objectives in mind and move from there.
Nebulously built "repositories"/"reporting ware houses"/"business data troughs" don't really thrive in the long run. (Notice I said thrive, they serve a purpose and can be of value, but they don't generate that spark that makes the C-Level executives go nuts.)
So to put it concisely
Check my Facts:
IBM Article - Analytics-The real-world use of big data
If you look at the press (news, TV, commentators) big press means anything that has to do with the words, pictures and connections that people put on "social sites".
In the business world Big Data means ... well ... a lot of data. And I don't mean a little, I mean a ton. Think on the order of Billions of rows of data. A good rule of thumb would be any data that is over a Tera-byte in size. And that's the minimum.
The third thing "Big Data" could refer to is volume speed. It might not be huge in size, but how fast does the data get generated.
For example, let's say you record the date and time for any phone ring that happens within the United States in the next 30 min. And you had to pinpoint the busiest phone out of all the phones in the US. The data volume size is small. But the volume of data that comes in is crazy, your talking 2 million data points a second. And your "Big Data Solution" has to make some decision on that data within 60 seconds.
This is really the "new" and revolutionary part of Big Data as only recently (in the last 5 years) has the average computing power been strong enough to handle this volume at that speed.
The other reason "Big Data" is considered as new is because businesses have started to take new approaches to it. The goal is to figure out how all this data can be used to "hit" the bottom line.
Personal Opinion:
The challenge that I see with Big Data is letting your solutions be driven by a measurable ROI or a measurable impact to customer.
The "Big Data" solutions that succeed are those that start with one of those two objectives in mind and move from there.
Nebulously built "repositories"/"reporting ware houses"/"business data troughs" don't really thrive in the long run. (Notice I said thrive, they serve a purpose and can be of value, but they don't generate that spark that makes the C-Level executives go nuts.)
So to put it concisely
- Big Data is not social data
- Big Data can refer to physical data size
- Big Data can refer to the speed of incoming data
- The goal is to use Big Data to affect the bottom line
Check my Facts:
IBM Article - Analytics-The real-world use of big data
Saturday, May 17
More Interesting Javascript Libraries
JQuery - Spark Lines - http://omnipotent.net/jquery.sparkline/#s-about - free
Peity - Spark Lines - http://benpickles.github.io/peity/ - free
SigmaJS - Draw Graphs/Node Map - http://sigmajs.org/ - free (might be nice to draw an AI's node interface)
D3js - Just cool - http://d3js.org/
http://www.profitspi.com - Stock Analyser Site
Jquery Dashboard Library - http://cube3x.com/sdashboard-simple-jquery-dashboard-plugin/
Saturday, May 10
Stock Charting Library
A few stock charting libraries and their cost
This is in order or my preference and I typically like free *grin*
HumbleFinance - http://www.humblesoftware.com/finance/index - free
Uses Flotr and Prototype
Dcjs - http://nickqizhu.github.io/dc.js/ - Free but uses svg not compatable with IE 8 or lower
HighCharts - http://www.highcharts.com/stock/demo/ - The best around but runs around $1,000
Dygraphs - http://dygraphs.com/ - seems to be free
AnyCharts - http://www.anychart.com - $399
AmCharts - http://www.amcharts.com/demos/multiple-data-sets/ - $150
Koolchart - http://www.koolchart.com/ - $600
JsCharts - http://www.jscharts.com/examples - $79
ZinCharts - http://zingchart.com/gallery/ - $2500
Fusion Charts - http://www.fusioncharts.com/buy/ - $3000 and higher
This is in order or my preference and I typically like free *grin*
HumbleFinance - http://www.humblesoftware.com/finance/index - free
Uses Flotr and Prototype
Dcjs - http://nickqizhu.github.io/dc.js/ - Free but uses svg not compatable with IE 8 or lower
HighCharts - http://www.highcharts.com/stock/demo/ - The best around but runs around $1,000
Dygraphs - http://dygraphs.com/ - seems to be free
AnyCharts - http://www.anychart.com - $399
AmCharts - http://www.amcharts.com/demos/multiple-data-sets/ - $150
Koolchart - http://www.koolchart.com/ - $600
JsCharts - http://www.jscharts.com/examples - $79
ZinCharts - http://zingchart.com/gallery/ - $2500
Fusion Charts - http://www.fusioncharts.com/buy/ - $3000 and higher
Saturday, May 3
Best Stock Charting Sites:
These sites seem to be stock charting right
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=AAPL
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/
http://www.freestockcharts.com/
