Ross Goodman

Blog

  • The Great Gardening Project

    DSCN0399

    Whilst nowhere near as ambitious as J.D. and Kris’ project here I have decided to do some work in the garden this year. I’m a few weeks behind writing up my progress so I’ll try and summarise after the break.

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  • Tell Me When The DB Is Back

    database 2
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Tim Morgan
    Today at work the development DB went down.
    My days of fixing databases are long gone, but the guys that are are not so good at letting everyone know that the database is back up.
    I created this windows batch script to let me know.
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  • Blogging Whilst Employed – Beware!

    october05.0103
    Creative Commons License photo credit: eshm
    I was having a flick through my employment contract and I found the following clause:

    13.2
    You agree that during the course of this contract and after the termination of the contract for whatever reason without limit in point in time you will keep in confidence and shall not disclose to any person unless authorised to do so with the prior written consent of the Company the following:-
    13.2.1 Any consultancy know-how, methods, tools, techniques or intellectual capital.

    I realised that some of my blog entries or tweets could fall foul of this clause so I asked for written permission to continue blogging generic “work related” content such as Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Data Modelling and Business Objects.
    Rather than granting this and leveraging the fairly good google rankings that my posts seem to get I was asked to remove all work related posts.
    Business Objects Best Practice (higher ranking than BusinessObjects.com)
    Business Objects New Features (Page One)
    Dimensional Modelling (Ralph Kimball ?)
    As such I have password protected all of my work related posts.
    If you are struggling to find content there are a variety of searches that could turn up interesting content.
    Alternatively you can go to my company site, contact details can be found here or here.

  • Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show

    I have just seen this link on the MND Scotland web site.
    ecfs_logo-red (more…)

  • A Song For Business Intelligence ?

    What song do you think best sums up Business Intelligence?
    .... Middle...
    Creative Commons License photo credit: mistress_f
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  • Business Objects – Best Practice – Report Design

    Business Objects – Best Practice – Report Design

    The purpose of this document is to provide a description of what I consider to be best practice when designing a business intelligence report. I will also try to describe the reasoning behind the suggestion.
    Close up shot of pen
    Creative Commons License photo credit: ArtemFinland
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  • Business Objects – Best Practice – Universe Design

    Business Objects – Best Practice – Universe Design

    The purpose of this document is to provide a description of what I consider to be best practice when designing a Business Objects Universe. We will also describe the reasoning behind the suggestion.
    Startrails
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  • Valentines Gift In Glasgow – Buckie Gift Pack

    My sister in law Lynne just sent me this:
    valentinesgift

    Spotted this cheeky little gift set in Haddows, Copland Road, Govan last night – the guy at the counter says they sell like hot cakes!
    A bottle of Buckfast, 20 Mayfair and a packet of skins – you couldn’t make it up! BUCKY GIFT PACK ONLY £9.08

  • GTD and RTM – The Missing Link (Penny Drops)


    I’m a big fan of Remember The Milk (RTM) and David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD).
    The one concept that I have been missing in the whole process is how to set reminders for following up emails.
    I regularly use a waitingfor tag and a tag for each persons name but my habit of actually creating the task is not quite there yet.
    The habit is no longer needed now.
    I have “discovered” that from RTM | Settings | Info there is an “Inbox EMail Address”. For any e-mail I want to chase I simply BCC the message to this address and it creates a task in my inbox. The body of the message goes into a note attached to the task.
    All I have to do then is move it to the appropriate list and set any tags or due date.
    I would recommend using BCC, if anyone discovers your inbox e-mail address then they will be able to create tasks in your inbox too!

  • 2009 – Goal #1 – Completed !

    fitness http://www.wordle.net/
    Rather than setting resolutions I set myself goals this year.
    The first one of these was:
    “Jog For One Mile – No Stopping – No Pain”
    Tonight I managed just that.
    Next goal, complete the MND Scotland 10K Fun Run.
    I completed this last year but there was more walking than jogging, this year WILL be different.