RISC Machine

Ah yes, this is the output of my risc machine for computer architecture. I hope to go into more explanation once I get some free time (like after my bike trip).

KHA(+)S

M()NSTER - KHA(+)S - energy + juice

The monster energy drink isn't as bad as I remember...although it's not helping with any motiviation for studying for exams.

Other cool stuff: Excel 2007, wow, it worked amazingly well pulling data from a cube, displaying the data, graphing, etc... It was really easy, and I was able to gather some detailed information from the graphs. Now I just need to work on building a better cube. I'm hooked on business intelligence and how easy Microsoft has made the development process.

Reading maps

A supurb article done by Ken Kifer on reading maps (primarily for biking purposes). It is unfortunate that Ken is no longer around with all his advice on bicycle touring. Anyways, the article:
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/maps.htm

Also, it looks like I will be picking up almost the rest of my supplies for my trip Saturday. I feel like I'm spending way too much money on this trip, I'll let you know if it was worth it at the end of the trip.

Earthquake

This morning around 5:30am I was awakened by my apartment shaking. Well more like swaying side to side while I laid in my bed. The thought of an earthquake crossed my mind, however, the apartment wasn't majorly shaking, and I dismissed it with the idea "What are they doing in the apartment above me?". This morning I found out it was an earthquake (epicenter at the lower Illinois/Indiana border line with a magnitude of 5.2). To put this into perspective, I've mapped out the approximate location of the epicenter and where I am currently located, nearly 400 miles away.

Here's the link to a new article about the quake for further reading: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/illinois.earthquake/ or

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008qza6.php#details

Classes are almost over, but I still have a ton of stuff to get finished before my bike trip! Let's get it on.

Slowly Changing Dimensions

I learn something new every time I go to work. Today, the concept of slowly changing dimensions. Typically when I created a database and then a website application to go on top of the database, I had the typical select, update, and insert. The update function would overwrite the current values with the new values. So what about history of the data? It's gone obviously.

Let's say we are looking to analyze the data in our database. The database is tracking sales from users. One user buys items, then moves to another state (and updates their account information) and buys more items. If you want to know the sales by state, all the sales for that user will be linked to their current location. Maybe this is what you want, however if you want to compare sales in each state over time, history will keep changing. Solution? Slowly changing dimensions: keep a history of these dimensions that change over time (typically slowly, hence the name slowly changing dimensions).

Time to adjust my databases, as Yuri once said: "The less you know, the better you sleep".

Man who biked around the world

Man who biked around the world - BBC series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h-hjx1K3-o (Part 1 of the first Episode, I'll leave it to you to find the rest)

This guy is insane...but a very good show to say the least. A must watch!

ASP.NET Memberships and Roles

Excellent source of information for memberships and roles in asp.net:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/24/438953.aspx

It helped me move my membership and roles database from a mdf file to a sql database.