March 2008 - Posts

Quick and Dirty, Part Four
March 25, 2008 10:04 AM by Scott Warner

We've seen that the lowly batch file can help capture quality data with little programming. Let's examine how this batch file works. Here it is: @ECHO OFF ECHO 1 - Smith ECHO 2 - Jones ECHO 3 - Doe ECHO . SET /P CHOICE=Enter choice SET /P ACCT=Enter account Read More...

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Quick and Dirty, Part Three
March 19, 2008 12:44 PM by Scott Warner

Recently, 3-hour long evening classes were locally offered to managers to learn Microsoft Word. That seems excessive for a fancy typewriter, except that Word 2003 for Dummies is 432 pages. Technology meant to save us so much work shouldn't be this complicated. Read More...

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Quick and Dirty, Part Two
March 17, 2008 12:15 PM by Scott Warner

(Read Part One .) The beauty of a quick and dirty solution is its simplicity. I'll admit it isn't always preferable--many times it amounts to a hack--but if it works, it works. Data mining problems don't necessarily need cumbersome, complex or paperwork Read More...

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Quick and Dirty, Part One
March 13, 2008 1:21 PM by Scott Warner

As a programmer on the coast of Maine 20 years ago, I liked a quick and dirty solution--the inelegant, simplistic, but often workable idea. Scientists call this lex parsimoniae or Occam's Razor (after a 14 th century English logician), which states the Read More...

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Fire Plans
March 11, 2008 11:30 AM by Scott Warner

The Hindu reports a fire at Railway Hospital in Perambur , the fourth largest city in India, that began from a spark generated by a window air conditioner. There were no casualties, although the laboratory runs parallel to the hospital's children's wing. Read More...

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