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Apr 9

How to Use and Refresh Power BI Using OneDrive Data Sources

One of the challenges for users with Power BI is being able to use a data source that you can update and flow those changes to your Power BI dashboards and reports. Using an Excel file in OneDrive for Business allows you to have multiple users update data, connect to a data source and schedule an automated refresh without having a lot of infrastructure. The following walkthrough will show you how you can leverage this feature for your own solution.

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Mar 24

Late Night Database Audits and eBay don’t Mix Or How Steve Jobs, Apple Engineers and $60 Reignited My Passion

So, I just unpacked my “new” Apple Macintosh Classic. My line I gave my family today is that “Lates nights, balancing databases and eBay don’t mix”. But as it sits there, I am finding an amazing flood of emotion and inspiration that has been missing of late, let me explain.

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Mar 11

Learning Resources to get you Started in Microsoft Azure Data Projects

As companies move data workloads to the cloud, more and more resources are available online to help you get up to speed. The following learning map provides a path to these online resources not only to give you an overview but also to provide an experience of these technologies .

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Feb 13

When is 22 true? – PowerBI DAX Search Within IF Statements

I needed to quickly create a calculation that tested for the presence of a string in another column's text values. There are two ways to solve this, but the first one is an interesting example that you can use in several situations.  This solution plays on the true-false values of the DAX IF function in PowerBI.

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Feb 11

A Quiz to Measure Your Work-Life Balance

A few years ago a manager at work circulated the "Work-Life Balance Quiz",  from the Canadian Mental Health Association which tries to quantify your balance.  A great quote from the quiz; "Achieving work/life balance means having equilibrium among all the priorities in your life – this state of balance is different for every person."

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Feb 8

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SQL Azure Stored Procedure Automation Using Runbooks and Email

Minimize the impact on SQL Automation workflows when migrating to SQL Azure by automating stored procedures using Runbooks and E-mail.  This step by step tutorial and walkthrough will review a solution to provide scheduling via Azure Runbooks with integrated O365 email alerts.

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Jan 25

Effective Data Visualization – My 3 Key Lessons

I must say that I enjoy articles that teach me something new from people who have a great depth of knowledge about a topic.  I read an article by Avinash Kaushik,  Create High-Impact Data Visualizations: Nine Effective Strategies, which covers nine strategies while reviewing sixteen visualizations. It reminded me of three key learnings I have had over my career.

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Jan 17

Fuzzy Matching for PowerBI with RScripts

PowerBI has the ability to mashup data from different sources; this may introduce problems when joining or matching data between systems. I was able to get around this issue by leveraging an R script from an article in the community. As a consultant there is a rule that if you use something from the community, you need to give back and particularly if you use it twice, you have to write a blog post. This is such a post.

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Dec 28

Accomplishment Log
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Accomplishment Logs Track Your Success and Improves Solution Reuse

We are all busy and jumping between tasks and projects.  This makes it easy for your accomplishments to get left behind as you move on to the next thing.  Keeping an accomplishment log will help you track what you have completed, your successes and will also serve as a resource for items you can reuse later.

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Dec 5

Data Visualization Case Study: Pie Charts are Evil?

Pie Charts are evil? Well, given the correct situation, pie charts can be used to your advantage.  The following case study uses Power BI samples to provide recommendations to get the most out an often misused visualization.   

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