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Excel and VBA for SQL Server Reporting

By Ryan Lambert -- Published April 03, 2015

Let’s imagine that you have a database that contains some data in it that you want to share. Maybe you’ve inherited a SQL Server database and want to provide some basic reports to other users. Does that scenario sounds somewhat familiar?

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Installing Scipy? You Need Swap!

By Ryan Lambert -- Published March 30, 2015

I have been working in Python a lot lately. In fact, I've written my own new blog application, RustProof Content, in Python using Flask. It's a Flask app serving almost-static content that is converted to HTML and Jinja2 tags from Markdown. In fact, if you're reading this now, you're looking at RustProof Content!

I've also done quite a bit of work with spatial data, and even dabbled with a bunch of weather data! Most of that was done in IPython Notebooks and I always end up wanting SciPy at some point. SciPy is great, but installing it on a small virtual machine can cause some headaches...

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Ode to "The Database"

By Ryan Lambert -- Published February 01, 2015

I'm a big fan of relational databases. Over the years I have tried out various ways to work with and manage data without utilizing a database. Every time I try to do that, I am reminded why I love databases so much... they do one job, and do it well. Manage your data. It's hard to argue with decades of success!

In this post I will be referencing PostgreSQL 9.4 specifically, but most of my arguments and examples should translate to any of the major RDMSs, such as MS SQL Server, Oracle Database, or MySQL.

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Colorado Unemployment: Making the Maps

By Ryan Lambert -- Published January 18, 2015

Earlier this month I wrote about a few different software options for GIS related needs. In this post I will give a high-level overview of how I used PostGIS and TileMill to make the maps for the video below.  The video shows the unemployment rate for the state of Colorado by county for the years 2000 through 2013.

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Maps! ArcGIS, QGIS, and TileMill

By Ryan Lambert -- Published January 09, 2015

In this post I will discuss some of the various options for working with spatial data.  I have been using ESRI's ArcGIS suite for roughly four years now but have also recently started working with some more freely available tools, QGIS and TileMill, and thought this would be a good time to write about some of my experiences.  You can see an example of what I've done with TileMill at my post here.

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