Slides from my keynote at YOWData in Sydney, Australia.
To try out the VariantSpark HipsterIndex notebook go here.
Category: Data Science
Beyond Relational
Here’s the .pdf of my full-day workshop from QCon London ‘Beyond Relational: Cloud Big Data Design Patterns’
#HappyBuilding
Whitepaper – Practical Machine Learning
Here’s a whitepaper I wrote on the ‘state of Machine Learning’. It includes information about implementation via various cloud-based ML services (AWS, Azure, IBM) as well as category information (for architects). Your are welcome to read this whitepaper online or to download it if you prefer (linked to Slideshare source).
Enjoy!
AWS for the SQL Server Pro
Updated core deck (includes video at end with demos) on AWS services of interest for the SQL Server professional – enjoy!
Microsoft Machine Learning Smackdown
Deck from a talk I will be giving this Saturday at SQLSaturday in Mountain View, CA — hope to see you there!
Quandl and Excel – Public Data you can use
I found a great tool for integrating Quandl free, public data into Excel PowerBI. I made a quick screencast too. There are over 8,000,000 datasets to pick from and everything is free, so lots to work with here.
Enjoy!
Where is Lynn? March-May 2014
I’ll be speaking at and/or attending a number of technical events this spring. I decided to make a short video to list all of them – if you are attending any of these events, stop over and say ‘hi’.
Using PowerQuery and D&B Data to get more Customers
Enjoy my short screencast on how to use Excel PowerQuery and D&B Data APIs from the Windows Azure Datamarket to turn public data (in this case a list of CA-based companies) into a verified prospect customer list.
Looking at Slideshare data with Excel PowerBI
I’ll admit it, I am really hooked on PowerBI in Excel 2013 – in particular, I find many uses for PowerQuery (shown below).
To that end, I was playing around with my Slideshare analytics data in PowerBI and I learned a thing or two. Below is a screen of my data as I was filtering and shaping it in PowerQuery. You may note some of the transformation steps to the right of the screen below.
If you are a scripting kind of person, here’s a look at part of the transformation script generated by PowerQuery.
I also made a short screencast, showing the process I used in more detail.
In case you don’t want to watch the video, here’s what I found – database people tweet!
Using D&B Company Cleanse Match with PowerBI and SSIS
I’ve been doing some work with the Dun & Bradstreet Company Cleanse & Match offer in the Windows Azure Marketplace. A common data quality scenario I encounter is the business need to create more complete customer (company) records for various business reasons (marketing, collection, etc…).
Shown below is a sample of how this offer works. You can see that three records with different types and amounts of information have been combined into one completed record. You may also note that the D&B D-U-N-S number has been associated with the identified company.
This D&B offer brings three important concepts to this table:
1) The D&B business database is global, comprehensive and verified.
2) D&B uses a proprietary, powerful and configurable cleanse/match algorithm to correct, complete and de-duplicate records.
3) D&B offers flexibility in terms of integration with Microsoft APIs and Tools.
I’ve already blogged (and screencasted) about the integration between D&B Cleanse & Match and SQL Server 2012 Data Quality Services. In today’s blog, I’ll include information about working with SQL Server 2012 SSIS and about integration with PowerBI.
Note: In addition to the D&B Cleanse & Match offer, D&B has several other offers in the Windows Azure Marketplace and also in the Windows Azure Store. For example, here is a screenshot of the integration of their ‘Business Insight’ offer from within the Windows Azure Store (in the Windows Azure portal).
If you are at the SQL Pass Summit this week, be sure to stop by the D&B booth to get access to the preview SSIS component and to learn more about their many offers on the Windows Azure Marketplace. They are also running some fun contests (for cash!) at the show.
Below are a series of screencasts which show the integration between D&B Cleanse & Match and Microsoft products in greater detail. First is the SSIS component demo.
Next is a series of 3 demos, which provide a detailed use case (creating a rich customer contact list for a growing business in a particular industry) using public data, PowerBI and D&B data and algorithms to produce a complete, validated, useful prospect list.
In part one, I use PowerQuery to shape public (US Census) data
In part two, I use PowerQuery and D&B data to create a targeted company contact list, with the attributes I value for this scenario (such as ‘green-certified’) and those that I’ve identified based on my earlier data research (such as which US States I was to focus on).
In part three, I again use PowerQuery and D&B data to further enrich the prospect list, by adding actual contact information (names, email addresses and phone numbers) to produce an actionable prospect list for my marketing team. I also show the new Data Gateway (Eldorado) from Office 365.
Are you interested in learning more? Check out this information page.
Lynn Langit 