May 10, 2019IAM Roles for Loading Data From S3 into RedshiftIf you’re using Amazon Redshift, you’re likely loading in high volumes of data on a regular basis. The most efficient, and common, way to get data into Redshift is by putting it into an S3 bucket and using the COPY command to load it into a Redshift table. Here’s an…AWS4 min readAWS4 min read
Mar 20, 2019You Probably Don’t Need Personally Identifiable Info (PII) in Your Data WarehouseIt’s no secret that regulations such as GDPR are impacting how companies are handing personal data. It’s not just impacting marketers and those in charge of production databases either. …Data Science4 min readData Science4 min read
Jan 1, 2019What I learned from scraping over 15,000 web pagesIn the grand scheme of the web, 15,000 web pages is a drop in the bucket. However, you can learn a lot by sourcing and scraping that many from across a diverse set of sites. In building a Python app to find and Tweet out interesting data science content, I…Web Scraping5 min readWeb Scraping5 min read
Nov 29, 2018Machine Learning — No Data Scientist Required?I’m still digesting all the news out of AWS re:Invent 2018, but boy is there a lot to like if you’re a software engineer and have an interest in machine learning. For years, engineers working on data science teams have essentially been working on data pipelines and supporting the work…Data Science2 min readData Science2 min read
Dec 23, 2017My week away from social mediaAdd my voice to the chorus of those taking breaks or fully walking away from social media. I just completed one week away from the two social media platforms I had been spending time on, Twitter and Facebook. …Social Media3 min readSocial Media3 min read
Oct 29, 2017There are two types of data scientists — and two types of problems to solveOnce in a while, an answer on Quora really speaks to me. It’s rare I grant you, but when it happens it provides a sense of clarity around a question I’ve had rattling around my head for a while. …Data Science4 min readData Science4 min read
Published inTowards Data Science·Sep 3, 2017Good Enough Data ScienceOne symptom of the hype surrounding data science is the feeling that we as practitioners need to live up to it. It’s easy to blame Marketing, Sales, bloggers and even investors but we are just as guilty in making what we do more complicated than it needs to be. If…Data Science6 min readData Science6 min read
Published inTowards Data Science·Jul 23, 2017Ethics in Web ScrapingWe all scrape web data. Well, those of us who work with data do. Data scientists, marketers, data journalists, and the data curious alike. Lately, I’ve been thinking more about the ethics of the practice and have been dissatisfied by the lack of consensus on the topic. Let me be…Web Scraping3 min readWeb Scraping3 min read
Published inThe Future of Work·Jul 1, 2017Want to work remotely? Don’t compromiseMaybe you haven’t heard, but working from somewhere besides the same office everyday is more than just a fad. Despite some of the old guard (looking at you IBM) pulling back, remote work really is thriving. The thing is though, there’s a big difference between working from home every Friday…Remote Working3 min readRemote Working3 min read
