In the spirit of DC Rainmaker, the month in review is an index to the posts from the previous month (he does it weekly, but monthly seems better for me.)  In addition will be links and small topics that have accumulated over the course of the month.

Alteryx Related

• Mapping: US at night:  A fun new way of presenting thematic information on a map.
• Reading XLSX Directly:  Demonstrates the power of Alteryx by bypassing the built in XLSX driver and reading the files directly.
• Ensuring Fields are in a Data Stream:  A tips & tricks type post for Alteryx users.
• Encrypting Data:  A novel way of encrypting data within Alteryx regardless of what backend DB it will be stored it.

Personal:

• Teaching Kids to Program:  Some autobiography of my learning how to program and exploration of teaching my kids.
• Teaching Kids to Program – Pong:  2nd in the series of teaching kids to program.  Gets into the specifics about Scratch.
• Zen of Road Biking:  A self indulgent post about how much cycling means to me.

Some Interesting Links and Small Thoughts

• Lenovo Chief Shares Bonus:  Even if this is just for PR, it is good PR.
• A Data Broker Offers a Peek Behind the Curtain:  Acxiom is going to allow people to see the data that is collected on them.  I’m not sure about this.  If the data is bad, the marketing is bad.  If the data is good, people might protest based on the creep factor.  Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
• Power Meter Buyers Guide:  Power meters are becoming a must for serious training on a bike.  DC Rainmaker as usual  does a nice job summing up the options.
• John Scalzi Won a Hugo:  Another non work related blog that I often read.  An excellent writer and a well deserved Hugo.
• Scratch 2.0 Download:  The 2.0 version has up until now only been a cloud service.  Now you can run it locally.

Thanks for reading,

ned.