December 28, 2016 at 11:19 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Looking Back at 2016
December 29, 2016 at 2:01 am
Its odd that Steve considers Brexit and the 2016 presidential election result as representing one of the "craziest" years of his life - we in the UK voted to remove our country from the EU - pretty much for the same reasons that the founding fathers rebelled against Imperial rule from London - the ability to determine our own place in the world .Also , like the US election , we were tired of the "great and the good" telling us what was good for us when our own experiences told us otherwise. This was a collective revolt of the forgotton people on both sides of the Atlantic.
December 29, 2016 at 6:31 am
F*&^ 2016.
May 2017 be a happy surprise.
December 29, 2016 at 6:33 am
I don't think the non-technical issues will get any better in 2017, so I'm going to ignore the mess that is the political and social issues, since I figure we live in "Interesting Times" and look at the technology side of things. People issues are hard...
Microsoft has stumbled some, but has made some great steps with SQL Server, .NET and even cool cross platform tools like VS Code. I'm really enjoying F# and think it's something for developer types to try out. (They still need to figure out the PR issue that was the Windows 10 rollout.)
Linux and other OSS technologies haven't sat on the bench either and it's easier than ever to spin up a virtual machine or even a dedicate machine and be productive. Lots of nifty tools and languages to dig into.
Hardware is cheaper and more powerful than ever. You can build a awesome workstation or server with oodles of DRAM and SSD drives fairly cheaply. You can easily do useful things with Arduinos, RaspberryPis and that ilk. For $20.00 you can have a SDR/scanner.
There's not enough time to explore more than a fraction of any of this tech, so pick a few areas and enjoy!
December 29, 2016 at 7:16 am
Geoff.Sturdy (12/29/2016)
Its odd that Steve considers Brexit and the 2016 presidential election result as representing one of the "craziest" years of his life - we in the UK voted to remove our country from the EU - pretty much for the same reasons that the founding fathers rebelled against Imperial rule from London - the ability to determine our own place in the world .Also , like the US election , we were tired of the "great and the good" telling us what was good for us when our own experiences told us otherwise. This was a collective revolt of the forgotten people on both sides of the Atlantic.
I fully agree with you and I'm on US side.
December 29, 2016 at 7:18 am
Geoff.Sturdy (12/29/2016)
Its odd that Steve considers Brexit and the 2016 presidential election result as representing one of the "craziest" years of his life - we in the UK voted to remove our country from the EU - pretty much for the same reasons that the founding fathers rebelled against Imperial rule from London - the ability to determine our own place in the world .Also , like the US election , we were tired of the "great and the good" telling us what was good for us when our own experiences told us otherwise. This was a collective revolt of the forgotten people on both sides of the Atlantic.
They were crazy precisely for the reason you noted. These were events that weren't likely to occur. I'm not saying they were good or bad, but that they were just unexpected and shocking.
December 29, 2016 at 7:21 am
chrisn-585491 (12/29/2016)
Microsoft has stumbled some, but has made some great steps with SQL Server, .NET and even cool cross platform tools like VS Code. I'm really enjoying F# and think it's something for developer types to try out. (They still need to figure out the PR issue that was the Windows 10 rollout.)
I keep hearing about F#. Working on my C# skill rebirth, so haven't had time, but need to give this a try.
...
Hardware is cheaper and more powerful than ever. You can build a awesome workstation or server with oodles of DRAM and SSD drives fairly cheaply. You can easily do useful things with Arduinos, RaspberryPis and that ilk. For $20.00 you can have a SDR/scanner.
There's not enough time to explore more than a fraction of any of this tech, so pick a few areas and enjoy!
At the Redgate Down Tools Week, one of the projects built a mini microscope and software to detect water quality issues:
December 29, 2016 at 8:01 am
I'm not clear on how paying more for SQL Server is good for customers, but paying based on the amount of data you process is just that - increased fees by a vendor to pad the bottom line, with no clear benefit to customers. In the end, it will cost Microsoft profit, because it is an incentive to look at other technologies.
Ten to fifteen years ago we used only Microsoft products. Today we use many alternatives, both on the OS level and in other areas. Given a choice, Microsoft products are not the easy choice anymore. They are far too costly.
Further, their push to the cloud is killing performance. We recently moved to Office 2016, and I every Office product I use simply sucks in performance.
I get it, they want to make money. So do all companies. In my opinion, in the long run their pricing options are going to cost them business, not increase profit. Any time you charge more for less, customers find someone else to do business with.
Lastly, for those who struggle to understand the difference between a "fanboy" and someone intelligent enough to criticize poor choices, please try to understand that some of us are able to see both the good and the bad at the same time. To use an analogy, parents still love their children, even when they make mistakes.
Dave
December 29, 2016 at 8:01 am
Steve
I'm Sure King George III and Lord North held the same opinion of the colonial revolt in 1775/6
Brussells, Paris,Nice and Berlin were "unexpected and shocking" - Brexit and Trump were failures of the polls to take account opinions outside of London (UK brexit) and Trump (east/west coast USA) - so I would consider them failures of data accquision and analysis
December 29, 2016 at 8:13 am
Geoff.Sturdy (12/29/2016)
SteveI'm Sure King George III and Lord North held the same opinion of the colonial revolt in 1775/6
Brussells, Paris,Nice and Berlin were "unexpected and shocking" - Brexit and Trump were failures of the polls to take account opinions outside of London (UK brexit) and Trump (east/west coast USA) - so I would consider them failures of data accquision and analysis
Not to disagree with your point, but my opinion is more along the lines that deliberately lying to people is not the same thing as failing to do proper analysis.
Every time Trump caught up in the polls, they changed the methodology to exclude likely conservative voters and pad the democrat side. That is lying and cheating, or in other words, the status quo for the global main stream media. Don't let the little people know the truth, you may lose power.
Dave
December 29, 2016 at 8:43 am
2016 contained many epic watershed moments illustrating how the holy trinity of Social Media, Big Data, and Internet Enabled Consumer Devices are vulnerable to abuse. Overall, it was a very bad year for the public image of data analytics.
Regarding the issue of digital security, the leadership of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, FaceBook, Yahoo, device manufacturers, media, marketing firms, et all need to meet together for a frank and open retrospective of where we are and collaborate together on a new and better path forward.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 29, 2016 at 8:59 am
On the flip side there's even more great open data sets to build analysis skills on. Everything from census to the stars, if you want some real data to play with, it's available in all sorts and forms.
December 29, 2016 at 9:13 am
Well said!!
December 29, 2016 at 9:17 am
A crazy year indeed! If nothing else, the events that took place this year around the world only prove that we live in a evolving, ever changing world, and like most things, we have to be ready to re-adapt to our surroundings!
December 29, 2016 at 9:28 am
chrisn-585491 (12/29/2016)
On the flip side there's even more great open data sets to build analysis skills on. Everything from census to the stars, if you want some real data to play with, it's available in all sorts and forms.
:w00t:
I can't believe you just said that !!!
You think the positive flip side to all this is that we now play with it??
Ashley Madison
Voter registration records of Illinois and Arizona
US State Department emails
Democratic National Committee emails
One billion Yahoo email account logins
Live streaming video footage from millions of homes
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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