The Swamp

I realize this doesn't work in every situation. But I wonder if you've considered writing an article for publication in an industry magazine? In some cases it yields sales leads, or at least serves as a credibility generator when used as a handout.

Your angle might be your background as a doctor. MD and IT whiz team up to provide miracle computing cures.

Maybe get a quote from Barry about this being the way forward for medicine?

That is an excellent idea. Thanks.

I'm a bit late to the show. I've looked at splunk before, but it was mainly as a security tool. It was deemed to costly for our data size. At least in the edu market. I think it was in the thousands of $/GB.

I've been working on the big data side in edu for a few years. There is a big problem where much of the edu data is no longer in house. Tools like TinCan are finally coming along to help aggregate the data from places like coursera, google, twitter, etc...

DC47... It's interesting that you point out coursera. We have a few MOOC's up there. That's been big data since it was implemented. You may want to look at SPSS if she's interested in stats. It's costly though. If your daughter has significant interest have her enroll in a college course. UM should have it installed in some computer labs or you can go through the Univ IT store.

MOOCS are awesome for being free. I'm sure your daughter started after she turned 15. I think all MOOC's have an age limit. There are a bunch more out there than the big ones(coursera, udacity, edx). Each major LMS vendor has their own platform(coursesites, canvas, opencourses). http://www.mooc-list.com/tags/genetics

Another good site that you may have access to is lynda.com. PSU has a contract with them and UM may have the same. All courses are free. They would have R/SPSS training.

testuser2 wrote:Another good site that you may have access to is lynda.com. PSU has a contract with them and UM may have the same. All courses are free. They would have R/SPSS training.

Lynda.com isn't free. It's something like $25 a month for Joe Six-Pack. But you fancy, schmancy academic types must get some kind of free ride for that site. (It is a good training site, though.)

My guess is it ain't close to free for the university, just for the employees/students.

I didn't care much for Lynda, but I usually just need to know how to do something specific that google will help me with and not get an all immersive knowledge of a piece of software.

AB_skin_test wrote:My guess is it ain't close to free for the university, just for the employees/students.

It's amazing how much you get for free/discounts at large universities. We get a lot of stuff through the CIC. I mentioned this before, but it's the non-athletic portion of the Big Ten. They use it for collective bargaining with vendors. The same goes for other orgs like Internet2/InCommon.

testuser2 wrote: It's amazing how much you get for free/discounts at large universities.

Ya, I get discounts all over the county, plus discounted software, AAA and cell phone discounts, etc. etc.

Shame we only get 9 credits per year, but we do have great views. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

So my wife runs the inhouse ad agency at her company. My son really enjoys acting, so my wife cast him in a commercial they filmed yesterday. He doesn't quite get how the process works, so it is great listening to him talk about it. His first comment to my daughter was "how cool would it be if you were watching TV and saw my commercial before I even got home!" After the filming, one of my wife's employees asked my son for his autograph. He took this very seriously. I told him he should have charged a dollar, so when he got home he grabbed a pack of post-its and signed 10 autographs. He immediately tried to sell one to me and my daughter. She became excited and asked me to borrow a dollar to buy an autograph. Then asked for another because it wasn't fair that he got money and she didn't. After filming, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I noticed my son nervously looking around, so I asked what he was doing. He said that now he is famous, he was worried about being mobbed by his fans.

That's hilarious. Reminds me of a story my Dad tells about me. He signed me up for Tball and after the first practice, I asked how much money I was going to make playing Tball. That's what he gets for letting me read the sports page as a little guy.

govmentchedda wrote:That's hilarious. Reminds me of a story my Dad tells about me. He signed me up for Tball and after the first practice, I asked how much money I was going to make playing Tball. That's what he gets for letting me read the sports page as a little guy.

My wife said she was going to pay him $1 for his services, so on the ride to school I told him when he gets there to tell her that he demands minimum wage. She said if she doesn't see a SAG card, he isn't getting paid. I'm not cut out for talent management.

The Sybian wrote:

govmentchedda wrote:That's hilarious. Reminds me of a story my Dad tells about me. He signed me up for Tball and after the first practice, I asked how much money I was going to make playing Tball. That's what he gets for letting me read the sports page as a little guy.

My wife said she was going to pay him $1 for his services, so on the ride to school I told him when he gets there to tell her that he demands minimum wage. She said if she doesn't see a SAG card, he isn't getting paid. I'm not cut out for talent management.

Fucking unions. Hope your kid stands up for the rights of the unrepresented.

First one with SAG is free because you gotta pay those dues. Better get off your ass and open that Coogan account, too.

Youngest kid's output by quarter in her first rec league soccer game:

1st - Played goal, needed constant supervision to make sure she faced the correct direction, made a couple of saves, gave up a couple of goals, definitely wasn't afraid of contact.

2nd - Played some mishmash of forward/midfield in the first time coach's (not me) disorganized system. Missed out on a sure goal when she stopped running ten feet from the goal, only to watch a teammate roll a ball across an empty goal. Highlight might have been her running, grabbing the ball and tossing it at the right corner for a kick by the other team that they were supposed to take from the other corner, because both corners taken while she was in goal were from that same side.

3rd - Played defense, ended up being pretty sweeper-ish as she sat in the box the whole time. Only forgot she wasn't in goal anymore twice. Only managed to grab the ball one of those times. Just outside the box, but the defense didn't line up correctly so the other team had a de facto penalty kick. The kid who took the kick missed wide (and this girl is pretty good, was on my older daughter's team last season, and her current coach's strategy consisted of "GO <this girl's name>!!!"). Apparently picked a really interesting handful of rubber out of the field turf.

4th - Spent five minutes or so wandering around, somehow found a stick on the field turf and waved that around for a bit. Got yelled at by dad for that. Followed a rush downfield, ball got gummed up on the goal line, she got the last foot on it and put it in. A couple of minutes later she got the ball all alone, took off and scored on a breakaway. Based on the report from my wife, that might have been the first time big sister was ever genuinely excited/proud of little sister. Then she scored again a couple of minutes later on an honest to goodness cross from a teammate. They scored again, and I believe her team, once down 0-3 ended up tied 5-5.

rass wrote:Based on the report from my wife, that might have been the first time big sister was ever genuinely excited/proud of little sister.

Straight A's boom!

Oldest just asked me to play that "streetlight song, with the boy and girl". Nice.

rass wrote:Oldest just asked me to play that "streetlight song, with the boy and girl". Nice.

Nice!

Earlier today I caught my 10-yr-old daughter singing the chorus to All Nightmare Long while I Guitar Hero'd Metallica. For the 250th time.

"Feel us breath upon your - fayce-ah"

It's cooler when she writes it.

rass wrote:Youngest kid's output by quarter in her first rec league soccer game:

1st - Played goal, needed constant supervision to make sure she faced the correct direction, made a couple of saves, gave up a couple of goals, definitely wasn't afraid of contact.

2nd - Played some mishmash of forward/midfield in the first time coach's (not me) disorganized system. Missed out on a sure goal when she stopped running ten feet from the goal, only to watch a teammate roll a ball across an empty goal. Highlight might have been her running, grabbing the ball and tossing it at the right corner for a kick by the other team that they were supposed to take from the other corner, because both corners taken while she was in goal were from that same side.

3rd - Played defense, ended up being pretty sweeper-ish as she sat in the box the whole time. Only forgot she wasn't in goal anymore twice. Only managed to grab the ball one of those times. Just outside the box, but the defense didn't line up correctly so the other team had a de facto penalty kick. The kid who took the kick missed wide (and this girl is pretty good, was on my older daughter's team last season, and her current coach's strategy consisted of "GO <this girl's name>!!!"). Apparently picked a really interesting handful of rubber out of the field turf.

4th - Spent five minutes or so wandering around, somehow found a stick on the field turf and waved that around for a bit. Got yelled at by dad for that. Followed a rush downfield, ball got gummed up on the goal line, she got the last foot on it and put it in. A couple of minutes later she got the ball all alone, took off and scored on a breakaway. Based on the report from my wife, that might have been the first time big sister was ever genuinely excited/proud of little sister. Then she scored again a couple of minutes later on an honest to goodness cross from a teammate. They scored again, and I believe her team, once down 0-3 ended up tied 5-5.

That is an amazing improvement curve. And I thought my team improved fast. My son finally won his first soccer game ever. Last year he played in a 5 v 5 mini goal, no goalie league. 0-10 season. This year I am coaching, and my team really sucked hard. I think I wrote about it in the Jim Zorn thread, but we lost 10-3 and 7-1, or something like that. 8v8, big goal with goalies. Most of the travel kids no longer play in the PAL league, but the other 3 teams in my league all have 2 or 3. I have none. Well, I have one, but he hasn't showed up yet and his parents haven't responded to any e-mails. Too bad, I hear he is a great player. The majority of my players have never played before, and it showed. I've actually been running practices for the kids who want to come, or more likely whose parents can get them there on week days. Incredible improvement, my 3 kids who never moved to get the ball even when it was right next to them all actually move to defend. They often make a half-hearted attempt and flinch as the opposing player walks past them, but it's a start. I don't know if it is just that I have kids who don't know the game or are afraid of the ball, but goaltending is atrocious. They don't come out for a ball 5 feet in front of them with no forward within range. They rarely move towards a shot, seemingly hoping it doesn't hit them. I thought by 8 or 9 years old, they would be attempting to play goalie.

Anyways, we finally won a game against a team with 3 travel players. We have one really good player with the most incredible work rate I have ever seen. He scored our first six out of 7 goals, and assisted on the last one. I'm just glad the kids got to win, so they don't get their self esteem crushed and lose interest.

On a crowing parent note, my son is actually getting involved in the play. He is running his ass off, which surprised me, as he is not an athlete and previously shown zero interest in sports, other than wearing a jersey and talking to teammates. He even went on long runs with the ball, including a foray into the box, where he dribbled through a couple of defender miskicks and took a shot just a bit wide, but it rolled over the end line, which is impressive. My good player scored a goal on a free kick just outside the corner of the box. No other kid could kick the ball that far on the ground, let alone put it over the wall and reach the goal. It's much easier to get the ball up and down when you can't kick it more that 12 yards in the air. The ball weakly rolled past the goalie, but whatever. Suck it, Cosmos!

Congrats coach/dad.

Lil late but that's a nice pic. Looks like a good day.

Tonight's bedtime story is this one:



Our daughter is yelling, "Let's Go, Bears!" as directed in the story.

Is there an "embarrassed parental unit" thread?

Could be Hello Rameses! Lets go Bears is far better. For some reason, all I can think is condom. Seem to recall one of those $0.75 deals in the bathroom.

I have no idea where she gets this shit...

Goodwill?

That's a real nice flannel.

Ok, its not my kid, but my girlfriend's daughter has just finished up her senior season of playing soccer at Univ. of Puget Sound in Tacoma. Finished on a high note...despite having a bunch of injuries (to the team, not her) the Loggers won their game on Saturday 2-0, with Robin scoring both goals, including one on a perfect diving header.

And then, after the game, we found out that Pacific Lutheran lost their game, meaning that UPS won their conference for the 14th (!!!) consecutive year. Robin finished the year with 8 goals and 5 assists.

This weekend they are off to St Louis to play Washington U (the team that knocked them out in the Sweet Sixteen last year) in the NCAA tourney.

(That's Robin on the left...)

Ok....another update: Robin, the GF's daughter, was named to the all-conference team yesterday, for the 3rd straight year (she was 2nd team her freshman year).

That's awesome, Dave. Is she planning on playing pro soccer after she graduates?

Very impressive, Dave!

This morning over breakfast, completely out of the blue, my son said "I wonder where the first person ever came from. I think a dinosaur probably morphed into a person." I started quizzing him to see if he learned or read about evolution somewhere, but I think he came up with that on his own. I explained the Theory of Evolution, and he was really excited. I told him scientists think we evolved from apes, and he said that makes a lot more sense than dinosaurs, as we are so similar to apes. Then I showed him the classic evolution of man drawing, and he declared it inappropriate because the human had no pants on. Then he handed the phone to his little sister to show her the naked man. He lost a point at the end, but still made me proud.

Then my wife swooped in and Taught the Controversy, saying that some religious people believe God just made the first man. He thought about it, then said "no, evolution makes a lot more sense. If God just made the first man, what happened before God to make God?"

I have this coffee table book:



The daughter can easily point out Dave "Mathenews" and kinda remember the rest of the names of the band. The other day she was flipping through while sitting on my lap. I was watching some sporting event on TV so I wasn't paying attention and she goes "there's Harper, there's Harper!" which is her name. I say as I start to look down, "you're not in this book oh wait that's Ben Harper!"

My son is midway through his first year at university and has landed a part time job as Social media Manager for a decent sized watch company. One of his passions is watches, so to see him heading in the right direction at 18 is very satisfying.

And my 15 year old daughter was the starting point guard on her schools JV team. She can't shoot, but man, can she pass.

Keg wrote:That's awesome, Dave. Is she planning on playing pro soccer after she graduates?

Hah...yeah, right. Not exactly a large market for small, short (but tough and speedy) forwards!

Its been a fun season for them. Robin has played great all year, but broke out a new gear at that game last weekend.

Watching online right now....in the second half of the first round of the NCAA tourney (Div III), they are tied 0-0 against Washington U. in St. Louis.

FUCK YES!!!

Robin just scored the winning goal (on a header) with 51 seconds left. Beat Washington U on their home field 1-0. Will play either U Wisc-Whitewater or Centre (KY) tomorrow.

Awesome!

Pride of Danville Centre KY but go dave's chick's spawn!

AB_skin_test wrote:Pride of Danville Centre KY but go dave's chick's spawn!

Centre killed UW-Whitewater 4-0. Going to be a tough game, but super cool that they pulled it out at the end like they did.

The WashU announcer interviewed Robin after the game. She was on Cloud Nine. And he interviewed the coach as well, and the coach had a look on his face like he knew they stole one today.

Go Puget Sound!

That's awesome.

Really cool.

Go Loggers!

DaveInSeattle wrote:FUCK YES!!!

Robin just scored the winning goal (on a header) with 51 seconds left. Beat Washington U on their home field 1-0. Will play either U Wisc-Whitewater or Centre (KY) tomorrow.

Boooooo!

(Congrats. That's a pretty cool way to nearly wrap up her career.)