Wiki Tools

Wiki’s ranked according to popularity on opensourcecms.com

1) DokuWiki (Data stored in a file. NOT Available on Hostmonster)
2) MediaWiki (Complex. Hard to customize.)
3) PmWiki (Data stored in a file. Available on hostmonster)
4) WikkaWiki (Data stored in MySQL. Available on hostmonster)

I am not a huge fan of WikkaWiki…..but I like storing data in MySQL.

TikiWiki is huge, and really more than a Wiki, but it is an option.

ETL Tools

Database
A list of ETL (Extract, transform, load) tools. ETL Tools are used to transfer data between one data source (database) and another, frequently into a data warehouse environment.

Pentaho http://www.pentaho.com/
talend http://www.talend.com/
ApatarForge http://www.apatarforge.org/
CloverETL http://www.cloveretl.com/
Scriptella http://scriptella.javaforge.com/
Jitterbit http://www.jitterbit.com/

Talend Open Studio and Pentaho Kettle (Pentaho data integration) are considered to be the best. Both are Java based and run on Linux and Windows (Talend is Eclipse-based). Pentaho is older and seems to have a larger community. Free and open source.

The biggest difference between the two is in the way they approach ETL. Talend Open Studio basically creates a script for you, either in Perl of Java. Pentaho creates an XML file of a transformations, and you run a Kettle bat or sh script. Pentaho might be superior. Pentaho Data Integration is also included in OpenOffice Base.

The tools come into their own when data requires cleansing, complex matching, de-duplication, and tasks of such complexity that scripting just couldn’t possibly be a cost-effective approach. These tools allow tasks which would take weeks to do by scripting to be done in hours.

Gustave Flaubert – Sentimental Education

I just finished reading, Sentimental Education. Much better than I expected. The book is basically about bourgeois youth living in Paris in the 1840’s (especially the revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire). Gustave eloquently tied in historical events of the 1840’s into the novel. Unlike many historical novels, there was no hero. There was no permanent love, no good art, and really no power. It was at the tail end of the romantic period, and the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Gustave began writing this novel in 1865. He had written a different version earlier in his life. Since Paris was practically rebuilt in the 1850’s, the author creates 1840’s Paris from memory and via other people’s anecdotes from that period.

The downside, which really was not a downside for me, was frequent references to google maps in order to find locations in Paris. Overall, I don’t think exact geographic locations mattered that much, nor keeping track of all the various characters. Besides, Paris has changed a bit since the 1840’s.

Sentimental EducationSentimental Education

“Muralido” Visit

Laura, Mike, Amani, and Leela came down to visit on July 18th.  They visited the beach on Saturday and Sunday, which was a hit with the kids.

On Sunday, we went to Del Mar beach.

Pictures of the house in San Diego

Front Yard

Front Yard

Back Patio

Back Patio

Looking towards the house from the backyard.

Looking towards the house from the backyard.

Backyard

Backyard

Backyard Canyon

Backyard Canyon

Palm Trees

Palm Trees

Going Away LBCC Scrapbook

Here are pictures from the LBCC Scrapbook.

Title Page

Title Page

Meena's Page

Meena's Page

Diane's Page

Diane's Page

Maria's Page

Maria's Page

Brent's Shirt

Brent's New Attire!

Cheryl's Page

Cheryl's Page

Nancy's Page

Nancy the "Access Maven's" Page

Janice's Page

Janice's Page

Hannah's Page

Hannah's Page

Julie's Page

Julie's Page

Joanne's Page

Joanne's Page

The Journey

The Journey

Daniel's Page

Daniel's Page

Monique's Page

Monique's Page (LMAO!)

Eva's Page

Eva's Page (See you on PCH!)

And I especially like these.  Thanks Joleena!

Class Schedule

Spring 2009 Class Schedule

The Dreaded Final Exam Schedule

The Dreaded Final Exam Schedule

Map

Campus Map

Business Cards

Business Cards 1

Business Cards 2

Business Cards 2

College Schedule

College Catalog

Schedule Listing

Catalog Listing

Sayings

Sayings

Back Page

Back Page

A turtle farewell!

A turtle farewell!

Grandpa’s 88th Birthday

88th

The 88th

Grandpa (Bob Rende)

Grandpa (Bob Rende)

Family

Family

Family

Family

Mom

Mom

Granpda and Aunt Dale

Granpda and Aunt Dale

Cake

Cake

Singing Happy Birthday

Singing Happy Birthday

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Above the Clouds

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the term used to represent computing as a service (utility computing).  Rather than running your own servers, cloud computing provides computer/server/grid resources as a utility over the internet that you can rent.  Software-as-a-Services (Saas) is a component of this model, where applications are hosted on the internet and provided as a service (such as Google Apps).

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/38547

The Reliable Adaptive Distributed Systems Laboratory (RAD Lab) at UC Berkeley wrote a paper on the 10 obstacles facing cloud computing.

The paper outlines 10 obstacles to cloud computing:

  1. Availability of service
  2. Data lock-in
  3. Data confidentiality and auditability
  4. Data transfer bottlenecks
  5. Performance unpredictability
  6. Scalable storage
  7. Bugs in large distributed systems
  8. Scaling quickly
  9. Reputation fate sharing
  10. Software licensing

Personally, I find cloud computing interesting, especially within a large organization, to smooth out costs.  Servers often sit idle, except during peak times, so if these cycles can be shared by multiple groups, it could reduce costs and improve peak demand service.  The biggest downside from my perspective is the possibility of vendor lock-in (limited API/services) and limits in software advancement (due to strict standards that lag general availability in the market).  Even so, this will be a growth area in the IT industry.

Meena and Maria’s Party

Pictures from Maria and Meena’s Party

Decorating

Decorating

Surprise!!!!!

Surprise!!!!!

Meena's Cake

Meena's Cake

Maria's Cake

Maria's Cake

Maria cutting her cake.

Maria cutting her cake.

Meena cutting her cake.

Meena cutting her cake.

Parks around Santa Cruz

After doing a little bit of research, here are the major parks around Santa Cruz.

Lighthouse Field State Beach

Lighthouse Field State Beach

- The Wilder Ranch State Park is 7,000 acres, much of it on the coast-line.
- Henry Cowell State Park (combined) is 4,140 acres.
- Pogonip City Park is 650 acres.
- The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park is 10,000 acres.
- Big Basin Redwoods State Park is 18,000 acres.
- University of California campus itself is 2,000 acres, much of that open space.
- Natural Bridges State Beach is 65 acres

This park area represents over 40,000 acres of open space.

Of course, there are many other parks in the Santa Cruz area, such as Lighthouse Field State Beach, Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, Twin Lakes State Beach, Seabright State Beach, Sand Hill Bluff. This list does not include city parks, nor parks in neighboring cities.

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