Monthly Archives: March 2011

Why Data Modeling Fall Sideways?

One of the most surprising aspects I have come to expect during the years of data integration and warehousing consulting is how little data modeling is actually being practiced in this field. While it is hard to find a database … Continue reading

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Data Visualization Lesson from 6 Years Old

“Daddy, you have a lot of audio, not a lot of photos, a little more apps then photos, and you have free space more than the photos and apps, but not as much as the audio”. That is what my … Continue reading

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How I got flash to run on my iPad and iPhone

Like so many others, I really like my iPhone and my iPad, but I get very annoyed when I try to browse to a web site that is flash based, or try to even pull up some of my blog … Continue reading

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Defuse the tension between designers and technologists – educate on your BI tools capabilities upfront

When working with designers, or users who are interested in designing their dashboards, you will undoubtedly run into tensions between what “should be” and what “can be”. While you can argue that with software there are really no limitations, and … Continue reading

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Good to Great Dashboard

In his famous book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins describes his research into eleven great companies that presented consistent outstanding results, compared to other companies that were in seemingly similar situation, but failed to achieve sustainable greatness. Collins describes the … Continue reading

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Scale matters

Charts have become an invaluable way to communicate information and articulate data. Charts help us not just convey data, but to also “tell a story”. With Charts, we can highlight certain points and help the people who need to act … Continue reading

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Broken windows theory applied to BI – clean up your reports so they don’t end up in the trash

The broken windows theory is a social sciences theory. It claims that maintaining the form of the environment prevents crime and social disorder. Malcolm Gladwell discusses this theory in his book The Tipping Point and examines how it was used … Continue reading

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Spin the bike wheel and track your performance

While working out at the gym today, I thought up this little Xcelsius dashboard to track biking performance. While the hardware components needed are a bit out of reach for me right now, the illustration below would have to suffice … Continue reading

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Automatically Close Xcelsius Dashboard When User Is Idle

A colleague approached me the other day with a requirement to “Logoff” users when they have not been active in an Xcelsius dashboard for a certain amount of time. I am sure there are many approaches and ways to accommodate … Continue reading

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