I spotted an interesting book in my local library recently:  The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [1].  I thought to myself, our government spent considerable resources on this commission.  I should at least browse through the final report.  I flipped through the first few pages.  I found a note saying that the contents are public domain.  In this blog, I reproduce some of the contents of the report to create a setting for my discussion on operational data. …

I find myself habitually using the term "metrics." When I first started blogging, I normally used this term only in reference to performance metrics. These are not ordinary "readings" but rather criteria-driven amounts - the criteria being performance. Over the years I have come to recognize that data-gathering is normally premised on some type of criteria. When compiling revenue data, it should be noted that analysts are seeking out data pertaining to revenues. The quest is predefined. The…

Probably like most people, I tend to recognize data as a stream of values. Notice that I use the term values rather than numbers although in practice I guess that values are usually numerical. A data-logger gathering one type of data would result in data all of a particular type. Perhaps the concept of “big data” surrounds this preconception of data of type except that there are much larger amounts. Consider an element of value in symbolic terms, which I present below: there is an index such…

Canada will soon be passing legislation to allow for physician-assisted suicide.  Sometime over the course of debate between our Parliament and Senate, I found what at the time seemed like a peculiar pattern of woodchips in the back of my pick-up.  It was such an interesting image, I thought I would share it here.  On closer inspection, I discovered that in fact I was looking at hundreds of tiny flower shafts and seeds.…

BERLIN stands for Behavioural Event Reconstruction Linguistic Interface for Narratives. I introduced BERLIN a few blogs ago - in my "final blog." Theoretically after one's final blog, no further blogs are forthcoming. However, I am now posting bonus blogs reflecting aspects of the same closing subject. Today, I will be elaborating on BERLIN's syntax and how its searches are facilitated. As a general rule, the objective of BERLIN is to convert human-friendly narrative into computer-friendly…

I want to interrupt my "blogging fast" in order to discuss developments to my final programming effort called Elmira. On Elmira, among other things, I hold storylines from fairytales, movies, television episodes, and real-life court cases mostly dealing with abductions, forced confinement, missing persons, sexual predators, stalkers, and serial killers. Consider a movie like "Hostel" directed by Eli Roth. With my…

I routinely ask people who have degrees the following question: "So what did you do your thesis on?" Since I routinely encounter problems outside my domain, I like to be aware of the resources around me. I have been reminded that a student doesn't necessarily have to complete a major research paper to earn a degree. A student can just "do the program." As a person who has always chosen to do the research paper, I can say that this normally takes a fair amount of collaboration. There is a…

I recall the first time I encountered the idea of "asset allocation" many years ago. As the argument goes, the perfect allocation of assets should lead to the greatest return possible in light of one's risk tolerance. Perhaps thousands of years ago, although I haven't studied this in any detail, somebody had the idea that dancing in just the right way might satisfy the spirits enough to cause it to rain. There is the similar notion of delivering the perfect incantation to invoke supernatural…

Phenomenalism is sometimes described as a type of reductionism. Information about a complex object might be reduced to simple sensory details. For example, ignoring the many interesting features of the ice cream…

Last year, I wrote a blog on "mass data assignments." For readers that lack a prototype or application to handle data using mass data assignments, the topic probably seems a bit evasive. In this blog, I will be reinforcing and developing…

In Java programming, there is the idea of a "virtual machine." A virtual machine is a computer system that doesn't exist in real life. Yet programs can be written for it. The code is interpreted by a runtime environment. Through this arrangement, Java programs can operate on different operating systems rather than one exclusively. Depending on one's background, the concept of a "…

I heard an accountant once say that people in his profession are generally bad investors. I am uncertain if this is true. I never really bothered to confirm his assertion. He said that his reasons for believing so relate to the nature in which accountants interpret data, which he implied was rather literal. I personally almost always ignore "book value" - that is to say, the cost of acquisition. For me, the book value is similar to a figure of speech: the investment value never has to be…

When I read a blog, I often find myself in deep thought as I approach the end, trying to determine if the author has said anything that I might be able to use. A blog doesn't have to say anything. Nor does it have to be useful to me specifically. It might simply offer a personal reflection on life. As a person who also writes blogs, I…

Before elaborating on my fruitless existence - about my decision to avoid fruit - I want to emphasize how this blog is actually about something that I call the "Fallacy of Rational Prerequisite." There will be some misunderstanding about this term even after my prolonged explanation. I just want to state plainly at the outset that I am not proposing that people become irrational. If they are already so, I am not suggesting that they further the situation.…

I created this blog to further discuss the issue of mass data assignments, a methodology that allows qualitative data events to be incorporated into metrics such as performance indicators. These assignments are routine for me now after having developed a prototype. However, I am unaware of the prevalence of this or similar techniques in the broader community. So I periodically work the topic into my blogs to help stimulate discussion. When quantitative data exists, it means that we had…

I was often the lone wolf among my peers in university because I supported a prominent place in society for corporations and an important social role for capital. I questioned whether the directors and executives of companies entered into boardrooms really intending to “oppress” people such as minorities and people with disabilities. Did they deliberately make bathrooms inaccessible to people in wheelchairs perhaps to advance their preconceptions of who gets to go to the bathroom, I pondered…

I tend to examine the different roles played by data. For instance, when I work on computer code, I often ask myself what the presence of data is meant to accomplish. Sometimes the analysis is not at all straightforward or simple. In society and organizations, people exist and persist in the records as data. The data survives even as employees come and go. I therefore consider it important to regard the data and its environment as a system in itself, something that has a life all of its own.…

A prominent discrimination case in Canada involves a firefighter named Tawney Meiorin.  Meiorin had successfully performed her duties as a firefighter for many years.  She lost her job after the introduction of mandatory testing to determine her fitness for the position.  The testing measured aerobic capacity, and it was developed in a manner that many would regard as scientific; that is to say, it used a highly quantitative and analytic approach.  However,…

The term "critical thinking" is often found in job postings.  Some would argue that this essentially means, "Thinking outside the box."  Karl Marx, who asserted that labourers represent a class of people, has been described as a critical thinker.  Regardless of how a person feels about Marx, it goes without saying that the phenomena of social classes is well-established.  Politicians for instance fight for the support of the "middle class."  How precisely does such an observation by this…

I have so far encountered two general types of data . . .

Reductive Data

This is data that conforms to prescribed criteria.  I sometimes describe it has the metrics of criteria or measurements of conformity.  For instance, an organization might want to measure something potentially obscure like "efficiency."  It therefore becomes necessary to establish under what conditions or criteria something is efficient.  I describe…