The term Big Data is no longer a buzzword, it’s become an institution, and businesses all over the world are hiring Data Scientists, Chief Data Officers and the like to help them make sense of it all. But Big Data shouldn’t be thought of some scary, untouchable thing. We’ve been collecting data for decades and Big Data is well, just more of it.

Considering we now have a lot more data coming in, day on day, how best can we make it work for us? The first step is to ensure that the data…

I have been using the term "mass data assignment" in my blogs. I thought I should offer the community some simulated examples. These are simple simulations: all the data is in one place in an agreeable format. The file contents are meant to be easy to peruse. When I was younger, there was a television series called "Stargate SG-1." I have a number of seasons on DVD. In this series, a special branch of the U.S. Air Force visits offworld sites using stable wormholes: teams enter the wormholes…

When the performance of an employee is evaluated, ideally there are no externalities to complicate the analysis. If the employee has a computer that is constantly freezing up - or the servers in the company frequently operate slowly - the employee's performance data will reflect the functionality and effectiveness of these systems. If the company occupies a highly competitive market, declining sales data is attributable at least in part to competition rather than the behaviours of employees.…