Misc

Finding Patterns in Corporate Chatter

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 26 May 2005 00:08:00 GMT

Email traffic - showing the patterns of email at Enron (click image)

Email keywords - showing what subjects were discussed at Enron (click image)

My co-worker, Terence, found this article in the New York Times about a statistical analysis of email traffic at Enron during the time the company was collapsing. One shows who was talking to whom and another shows, via common key words, what subjects were being discussed.

For example, the first chart shows the linkages between employees based on their email traffic. In this chart it shows how a new person pops up, who is a focus of a high number of emails, who's email address has changed. Investigators can use this kind of analysis to find relationships among employees.

In the HR world, the business I'm involved in, there have been discussions of using this kind of email analysis to understand the relationships among employees. While employees are normally organized around formal, hierarchical departments, it may be possible to understand the informal relationships within an organization and find ways to support naturally occurring collaborative groups.

With this kind of data, it would be interesting to combine this analytical approach with the TouchGraph interactive charts. See other references on this blog at:

Touch Graph Browser - http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/archive/2003/09/20/196.aspx
Mark Lombardi: Global Networks - http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/archive/2004/01/23/580.aspx
Mark Lombardi - Cartographies of Capital - http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/archive/2004/03/05/750.aspx

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/weekinreview/22kola.html?pagewanted=2

Local copy: http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/articles/1923.aspx

Got my GUID workin'

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 12 May 2005 15:56:00 GMT

Here's my GUID. I have decided that this number will be MY GUID from here on.

In case you don't know, a GUID is a Global Unique ID. We use it for unique identification in progamming data applications. Whenever you need a unique ID there is a function that you can call that genertates this random number, that supposedly won't come up again for 700 years. It isn't perfect, but it is pretty unique.

Google definitions for GUID - WikiPedia definition of GUID

In the future, I suspect we'll all have some kind of unique ID and I figure I'll get mine early.

{C7FA509D-40CF-4da3-9FA2-4CBC6B93394E}

Read it and weep!

All Data is Dead

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 05 May 2005 16:50:00 GMT

I was having a conversation with my co-workers yesterday and we were discussing the idea that data, once collected into a database is, by the fact of having been moved from it's source, suspect and potentially out of date. That's When Chris Buscovich said,

“All data is dead.”

Silly Chicken brings chuckle to jaded Internet hack

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:12:00 GMT

Here's a silly one that Lisa found. See if you can challenge the chicken to do things...

hop,
moon walk,
do the funky chicken,
skip,
YMCA dance
hokey pokey, anyone?

I think it's a commercial setup from Burger King, but have fun anyway.

http://www.subserviantchicken.com

You do the math...

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:09:00 GMT

One, two, ... er, too many

Chris Jefferies — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 01:02:00 GMT

People who have no words for number find it difficult to count... who would've guessed.

Read this article about the Piraha of the Amazon from the Guardian Unlimited:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4997705-103681,00.html

I got this from Creative Chaos - Dina Mehta's Blog at:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2004/07/07.html#a459

My Tombstone

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 19:03:00 GMT

Here's a good idea for my tombstone...

You can make up your own here.

Funnel Cloud in the Sierras

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:47:00 GMT

Forming Tornado, Rockwell Pass
Sequoia National Park, July 7, 2004
Possibly Highest Elevation Tornado Ever Observed in U.S.

I would hate to see this developing above me in the Sierras. Read about this rare phenomenon here.

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/RockwellPassTornado/index.html

Our little wild pets - twins

Chris Jefferies — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 12:02:00 GMT

Aurora and I woke up yesterday and looked out our back window to see our little wild pets waking from a restful sleep in our back yard.

Sweet little things, aren't they?

My computer broke...

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 01:02:00 GMT

This morning I went to close the top of my Laptop and the left hinge got stuck and broke. ARGHHHH!

I think I can get another and fix it, but I'm freaking out...

This poor old (in computer years) Inspiron 7500 (P4-700Mhz w/ 512Mb RAM and a 20 mb HD) has served me very well for almost 4 years now and is starting to show it's age.