Monthly Archives: December 2015

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 11:10 am on December 31, 2015  

Life in the Clouds

Here is my year, presented in word cloud format from my three feeds.

There’s a lot of overlap, as you’d expect, but each platform presents its own slice of my life.

Blog

Blog Wordle 2015

Twitter

Twitter Wordle 2015

Facebook

Facebook Wordle 2015

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 2:28 pm on December 30, 2015  

Master Data

Master Data Management (MDM) is a way of keeping your data accurate.

I’ve spoken about MDM at companies, technology groups, business groups, database groups, conferences, college classes, and more.

Here’s the general overview that I typically give (download the PowerPoint file).

Overview

“Too much information is driving me insane.” (Too Much Information, The Police, 1981)

“Two men say they’re Jesus. One of them must be wrong.” (Industrial Disease, Dire Straits, 1982)

“A man with one watch always knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” (San Diego Union, Lee Segall, 9/30/1930)

To master your data, take these steps:

  • look at each record of incoming data
  • standardize the formatting (phone numbers, addresses, etc.)
  • validate that it is allowable in your system (sure, 1/1/1900 is a real birthdate, but is it really the date that you made a sale?)
  • have a human being look through the edge cases (this John Smith might be the same as that other John Smith)
  • integrate the good/new/updated record into your master
  • communicate the update/entry to any systems that are interested

Benefits

When this is done, it opens up many possibilities for improvement.

When you know that your data is correct, you can:

  • govern it (lock down who can add/change data, and make it adhere to your own rules)
  • synchronize it (keep all your systems in tune with each other)
  • centralize it (set up a single master ID that keeps pointers to other systems and IDs)
  • log it (see how and when data changed, and which system and person did it)
  • analyze it (for meaningful results)
  • mine it (for unexpected insights)
  • act on it (make faster and better decisions)
  • enrich it (roll in data from outside sources like the Better Business Bureau, US Census Bureau, and others)
  • adapt it (if you acquire a new company, merging their data with your becomes much more manageable)
  • scale it (if you need to process 100x more information, it becomes a matter of adding new hardware as needed)

Horizon

Once it’s all running smoothly, you could also:

  • improve retention by finding existing customers who feel ignored
  • prevent fraud by comparing new data with old, according to patterns that you expect
  • minimize returned mail and packages by ensuring that addresses are accurate
  • identify your best customers (least effort, most profit = cash cows) and keep them happier
  • find mismatched data (do John Sr, John Jr, and John III all live at the same address? separate them)
  • absorb new sources and new types of data easily
  • stop wasting time with yoyos (customers who come and go and come and go)
  • find the key influencers in your network of customers and leads
  • grab the low-hanging fruit (least effort, big payoff)

Download the slides here

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 4:24 pm on December 21, 2015  

Post Mortem

Sometimes called a retrospective or autopsy, a post mortem is a means of looking back at an event or period of time, to determine what can be learned from it with an eye towards improving what doesn’t work, and keeping what does.

So, here’s how 2015 looked for me and my family — body, heart, mind, and soul.

Body / Personal / Family

There was a lot of loss this year. I lost my job, our home was robbed (twice!), we lost five(!) cars. Thanks to the robberies, our home insurance company ended their coverage, even though they didn’t pay us anything for either robbery, and we bought and installed a hidden camera motion-detecting system after the second robbery (which was a week after the first).  We ended up finding insurance through Liberty Mutual at an even better rate than we were getting.

To make the thefts even more annoying, they took nearly all of our medications, which we had just refilled three-month supplies of. And since my health care coverage had just ended (thanks to losing my job), the day that we lost all those medicines, we had to pay for a month of COBRA just to be able to get those medicines refilled.

Linda nearly died in an emergency room visit when they injected her with a substance that she was allergic to. So instead of a five-hour visit, it turned into a five-day stay in ICU and recovery. We checked with an attorney who said we didn’t have enough proof of wrongdoing/incompetence to do anything.

I had a “UEO”, an unidentified encephalic occurrence. Basically, a stroke that wasn’t a stroke. My brain got all weird and slow, my limbs went numb and tingly, and my speech became less intelligible. The U part of UEO means that the neurologist couldn’t find the cause, and by the time (seven weeks later) that I saw him, the symptoms were all gone.

Heart / Emotional / Arts

Boy, there were plenty of funerals this year. My aunt Dale passed away, and we helped her family with the estate. My friends Steve Goldberg, Ryan Kemp, Elizabeth Burnley, Debi Magnes, and Darren Routt passed away. Plus a few celebrities I looked up to, like Roddy Piper and Mick Lynch.

I attended the Sing-Off at the Louisville Palace, the Nutcracker Suite at KY Center for the Arts (with my niece dancing on stage!), the Real Inspector Hound (a play-within-a-play), Superman: the Musical, the Connect|Disconnect art exhibit, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, The Tick!, Project KempProv, the Theater Alliance of Louisville meeting, Market of Mischief with Louis-Villainz.

I cut back on the sci-fi / comic / literary shows that I attend, but this year I still went to ConGlomeration, Mo*Con, WonderFest, Origins Game Fair, GenCon, Imaginarium, and the Louisville Comic Con.

Mind / Technical / Career

I started a new job at Baptist Health. There were several irons in the fire, and it was wonderful to be able to choose among some good offers (tech exec at a startup, budding data scientist at a large insurance company, or data master at a chain of hospitals). Baptist is a great company to work for. I get to do cool stuff with great people, and learn a lot as I go.

I launched TechFest Louisville! That’s a post for another time.

I spoke at a lot of conferences. I spoke at CodepaLOUsa, the Louisville Agile Forum, SQL Saturdays in Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville, and Dress for Success.

I was there for many other big events, like VEX Worlds (the worldwide championship of robotic competitions) and the opening of Chattanooga’s TechTown (an amazing makerspace/creative studio for kids).

I attended gobs of other events, like half a dozen Open Coffees, two Startup Weekends, Gear-Up, S#*! I Wish I Knew, the Tech Security Conference, two Non-Profit Toolbox conferences, the SBIR/STTR Road Show, the IoT Developer’s Workshop, the How-To Festival, MapTime, the CIO Symposium, the JDRF Diabetes Summit, GeoEd 15, XlerateHealth Demo Day, Mini-Maker Faire, DerbyCon, World Trade Day, TALK‘s tour of the BioAssemblyBot, the Vogt Awards, the Civic Data Alliance party, the Louisville Digital Association party, and TALK’s panel on EMV and retail tech.

Soul / Spiritual

I taught several classes at Southeast Christian, I preached at Bible Abridged: the Complete Word of God in 90 Minutes, ConGlomeration, Imaginarium, and the Louisville Comic Con. I helped the Grave Robbers ministry (an outreach to goths and punks) at Ichthus Festival, and met a variety of ministries at the Global Missions Health Conference.

The Year in Photos

Prosthetic Fist-Bump TechTown Farkin' TechFest TechFest Gadgetry TechFest Kickoff TechFest Fun SQL Saturday Atlanta Mini-Me RIP Ryan Kemp Beth Cannon Mike Stackpole Buddy Christ GenCon Church Service GenCon Booth

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 3:51 pm on December 16, 2015  

Louisville Music

I used to be a radio DJ back in the ’80s and ’90s, focusing mostly on punk and comedy. In a way, I guess my whole life continues to focus on punk and comedy…

One of my favorite Louisville singers, Joan Shelley, just made the LA Times’ Best Albums of 2015 list.

And Houndmouth just made David “World Cafe” Dye’s Top Ten Albums of 2015.

Here are some local bands that I like, organized vaguely by genre:

Here are some likely radio stations where you might hear some of these groups:

  • WFPK, the NPR king of indie radio
  • WNAS, broadcast from a high school for 75 years
  • ARTxFM, online station with a radio frequency forthcoming
  • Crescent Hill Radio, all local all the time
  • Ville TV, online TV that also covers the local music scene

The blog Backseat Sandbar keeps an extensive list of local talent, venues, shops, etc.

Read the blog series Dave Mattingly: The Musical

Unknown's avatar Dave Mattingly 2:45 pm on December 8, 2015  

Sheep Versus Goats

I’m a Christian, and sometimes a teacher/preacher.

I wanted to focus on ways that we can help those in need. To throw on a goofy nerdy spin, I gave the lesson an odd title.

SHEEP VERSUS GOATS!

DISCUSS

  • What do you think are some of God’s priorities for church ministry?
  • What gets in the way of us following them?

SCRIPTURE

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and with all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered, and he will separate people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

He will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance: the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me water; homeless and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; sick and you tended to me; in prison and you visited me.”

The righteous will ask, “When did we see you like that and do that stuff you said?”

The King will reply, “Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.”

To those on his left he will say, “Away with you, cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry and thirsty, homeless and naked, and you gave me nothing. I was sick and jailed, and you did not visit.”

They will ask, “When did we not help you?”

He will reply, “Weren’t you just listening when I told the sheep? Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Then he will send the wicked to eternal punishment, and bring the righteous to eternal life.”

(Matthew 25:31-46, the unauthorized “Dave’s summary of stuff so it all fits well on slides” translation)

IN CONTEXT

The sheep/goat story was the unifying conclusion of several stories that Jesus told in (apparently) a single sermon.

  • The end times will come (Matthew 24:1-35)
    WATCH — there is a deadline to all of this
  • Unknown hour (Matthew 24:35-51)
    WAIT — you won’t know when it’s coming
  • Ten bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13)
    PREPARE — be ready to act
  • The talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
    GIVE — to whom much is given, much is required
  • Sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46)
    GET — we’ll all get what’s coming to us

COMING BACK

This was not the only time that Christ’s return and judgment were brought up. Here are a few others.

  • The Son of Man will come in his Father’s glory with his angels to reward each person for what they have done. (Matthew 16:27)
  • The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
  • Enoch* prophesied, “See, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict them of all the ungodly acts they have committed and the defiant words they have spoken.” (Jude 1:14-15)
    • Enoch was old school Old Testament, from the pre-flood days, and went to heaven without dying first.

HELP THE NEEDY

  • Share your food with the hungry and provide shelter to the homeless. When you see the naked, provide them with clothing. (Isaiah 58:7)
  • Share with the Lord’s people in need. Practice hospitality. (Romans 12:13)
  • If your brother is without clothes and food, but you do nothing about his physical needs, what good is that? (James 2:15)
  • If you see your brother in need, yet close your heart against him, does God’s love truly abide in you? (1 John 3:17)
  • God will remember the love you have shown to him by helping his people. (Hebrews 6:10)
  • When you host a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind, who cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection. (Luke 14:12-14)
  • Remember those in prison as if you were together with them, and those who are mistreated as if you suffer with them. (Hebrews 13:3)
  • Visit orphans and widows in their suffering, to keep yourself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
  • Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none. (Luke 3:10)
  • A young man followed Jesus wearing nothing but a linen garment. When the soldiers seized him, he left his garment behind and ran away naked.* (Mark 14:51)
    * Say what? Yes, there was a streaker with Jesus when he was arrested…
  • It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)
  • God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
  • Oppressing the poor scorns their Maker, but kindness to the needy honors God. (Proverbs 14:31)

JESUS SUFFERED

“For I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me water; homeless and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; sick and you tended to me; in prison and you visited me.”

  • After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:2)
  • Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28)
  • Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)
  • Once the soldiers crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. (John 19:23)
  • Jesus prayed fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.* (Luke 22:44)
    * Luke (a doctor) described a medical condition known as hematohidrosis. Blood vessels are all around our body, including near the sweat glands. Under stress these vessels constrict. In rare cases of extremely intense stress, they constrict so much that they close off. When that happens, the pumping blood escapes into the sweat glands and mixes with sweat.
  • Then the soldiers arrested Jesusand bound him. (John 18:12)

DISCUSS

  • Who are the least of these?
  • How can you help them?