Wow ... Microsoft

Ther are very few recent examples where Micrososft makes you dream of the possibilities of software. This article in the nytimes.com is a great example of the pay off from investment in R&D. Microsoft is likely to create a new revenue stream with it's entry into the big data scene.

HBR on Big Data

Harvard Business Review has a 'big' segment on Big Data. This link is rich with Collection of articles documenting experiences from retailers, social networking sites, management perspectives, emerging careers in the field and a host of opinions on the impact of analytics on decision making.

A 'go to' for the latest tech news

I always wonder which is the best place to see what is buzzing in technology. Traditional sources like nytimes.com, wsj.com, forbes.com all cover tech in detail but most news makes it to these papers only after they have been news for a while. Where can we hear about it when it is just a concept or an idea that is popular among techies? I stumbled across Hacker News following something mentioned in an article on Forbes.com. So far, it has proved to be a reliable source.

Who is a Data Scientist?

A data scientist is central to extracting facts and figures from large volumes of data. Apart from being able to find patterns from large data sets, the data scientist should be able to mine for the most important and business-focused parts and present it to business users from all levels of the enterprise. They are part geek, part story-teller and part graphic illustrator as they deal with algorithms, use narratives to explain their findings and make visual/graphic illustrations to communicate it all. Charles Roe tackles this question in an article published at Dataversity. Ray Rivera, Director, Solutions Management, Workforce Planning and Analytics, SAP has written a Forbes guest article on this very subject. He chooses to call data scientists 'analytical wizards'!

A look at the possibilities of R

Came across an article, written about three years back, talking about the possibilites of R. It is well written and touches on many of the striking features of R that makes it attactive to users.