Voice of the DBA

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  • Helping an English Student with R

    I got an interesting message from my daughter recently. She’s doing graduate studies in Belgium at KU Leuven. Her field is literature and linguistics, and as part of that, she has to analyze various writings. While visiting with her last month, she mentioned that her professor was using R (R Language) and giving them scripts to run to look at language usage. The other day she texted that her R script wasn’t running and could she get…


  • A New Word: Semaphorism

    semaphorism – n. a conversational hint that you have something personal to say on the subject but don’t go any further – an emphatic nod, a half-told anecdote, an enigmantic “I know the feeling” – which you place into conversations like those little flags that warn diggers of something buried unerground: an unexploded bomb, a sacred burial ground, or a high-voltage cable that secretly powers your house. The longer I work with customers in different environments and…


  • Yippee-Kai-Yay 2027 Summit in Denver

    Next year the PASS Data Community Summit is in DENVER! and London, but Denver is the big news. My hometown and I’m excited. And tickets are cheaper. $799 now, which includes a training day as well. Talk to your boss, get the conference ticket approved. It’s learning, it’s retention, it’s a chance to get others to help you solve problems and deal with the way AI is changing our world. See you in the mile high city…


  • PASS Data Community Summit 2026

    Yesterday was the first day of sessions at the PASS Data Community Summit (after pre-cons on Monday). It’s a smaller event, but fun and more intimate. A few long time attendees noticed the atmosphere was different, but nice. This reminds me of the earlier events in the 2000s, contained, everyone seeing each other multiple times. Connect. Share. Learn. To me, one of the best things is the connections. I had the chance to see a lot of…


  • Republish: Cloud Concerns

    The world of cloud computing has changed a lot in 14 years. I’m at the PASS Summit, and buried with a variety of things today, so you get to re-read Cloud Concerns. What’s different in the cloud for you today?


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