Pentaho Reporting 3.5 for Java Developers

So, it seems I can't get used to write in my blog often. Lately I've been working with monitoring tools (cacti, nagios, snmptt, etc), so I have left BI and pentaho a little bit aside.

A couple of weeks ago I had the oportunity to review the Pentaho Reporting for Java Developers book, so It reminds me about the cool open source BI platform again.

So far, I've read half of the book and all the insides of this nice reporting tool are very well explained. I haven't used pentaho reporting before but I used Crystal Reports a couple of years ago so I knew the basics of the reporting tool.

When you use reporting tools, the learning curve is slow, so if you can get the insides and details to accomplish not only the basic stuff but things like subreporting, complex styles, etc it would be much better. And I think that's the objective of the book...explain you how to do useful things with reporting.

I'll review the complete book later when I finish reading it.

Infobright goes open source!

Long time without write in this blog...have been too too busy in my new job.

Anyway since yesterday I'm glad to see that infobright, a data warehousing storage engine for mysql has been released as open source.

You can see the news here .

To the mysqlers that are using this good database for data warehousing this is a pretty good new one. As Robin states in the article when you reach the 1-2 TB in your mysql db you must begin to do lot of tricks to make things works.

Please check the Infobright website! http://www.infobright.org/

Office, visio, project

Seems like when you are in a non technical position you must use these Microsoft tools very often....which is sad because I don't want lose my Linux desktop as the main os I use in the work...

So in these last days I basically tested: vmware and wine.

• Vmware

The thing with vmware...it works fine but you must startup windows every time inside vm...and...the applications aren't integrated into the desktop.

• Wine

The good thing with wine is that windows apps are integrated in the window manager....the bad...make programs works is a pain....Now it seems that word is running but not sure what surprise it will give when I use it with more detail....

Thanks to my friend Tom for the support...

A good new one

I think this post will be quite large...sorry if You get bored with it......
The good one: I will change my job. I resigned yesterday to my current job as an information system analyst in a telco operator. I will move to a big cable and tv company as Traffic and Dwh Director.

First, I have to say I'm quite happy about the change but I have a mix of feelings as is natural. I was engineer there for three years and a half. In that time I made a lot of good friends and workmates. Also I think this three years was a period where I learn a LOT of useful things. In this job I had the opportunity to play with linux, MySQL, tomcat, mondrian, pentaho, kettle, clusters, SANs etc. and while I am not an expert in any of those things I have a good knowledge in each of them.

Sadly things have been going to the wrong side in the area ( caution note: these are personal opinions :) ). Since Millicom bought the company and the managers went off the area has become less and less relevant for the organization. The hope that our developed software and knowledge can be extended to other operations worldwide (a thing that can be possible because Millicom have more than twenty operations around the world) is almost lost. I have to say Millicom doesn't like home development teams so our existance is practically hidden from the headquarters.

Moreover the new management style is very precipitated (the high level management not my direct boss...my direct boss is a very good leader and friend). Today we have a new project, tomorrow is canceled, today we exist, tomorrow not. Things were needed in 4 hours no matters the quality cost and the entropy added to the team.

You would think that my ex job was a bad job. That is not true. As I said i faced a lot of interesting problems, and learn lot of things. Also there are good organizational practices there.

Anyway I'm pretty happy because:

• I will manage the dwh cycle
  
• I will have the opportunity to lead a technical team
• Is a demostration that the good job is rewarded sooner or later
• I will have to show that peter principle is wrong

And many other reasons! so expect technical and managerial posts from now! My desire is not to abandon the technical skills only to use them to lead software projects to the expected results...so my leadership will be from a technical perspective.

And to my good friends in ##pentaho irc channel....I will ask a lot there!...be prepared! :)

Back from holidays

Hey!
Today is my first job day after the holidays and I have to say: I'm out of form.

Anyway...holidays were great, as I told in the last post I went to Valledupar and to Santa Marta. There I take a very good rest. The two weeks I stayed in Bogotá I did this:

Bought a new pc: Intel Quad Core 64 bits, 4GB Ram, 320GB, Nvidia graphics card, etc...This pc will be my home development server.

Did the eye surgery: I no longer use lens!

Played a LOT of squash: Two times a day!

I'm very happy with the holidays I took..I feel they changed my daily routine and now I'm ready to work.

Btw...Colombia is a great place to take holidays!

Holidays!

Is official tomorrow my holidays vacations begin!...I will take 14 work days which are like 3 weeks in calendar days...

The last year and the current has been very heavy in work load terms...The managers of the area and the vice-presidency where I work for were changed. The new managers came with new ideas, strategies, etc. Furthermore we had to implement several SOX controls in the area.

I really feet tired in this year and I think I really need a time to rest...What will I do in the holidays? I'll go a week to Valledupar and the other weeks I will spend some time mounting my home wlan, buying a new desktop computer and practicing squash.

Squash Tournament

I just entered to the squash tournament of the company I work for. Its a very big tournament with 6 extreme players (3 from TI, 3 from Network) :-). We will use English scoring and double yellow dot balls. I

hope to post some interesting reports about the games I will play, hope my not so disciplined drilling practices will serve in the games.

Regarding squash this is another cool website for reading tips and watching videos: squash club