My 50 Most Recent Tableau Articles

I have expanded the list to contain more than just the most recent 50 Tableau articles!

1. Using Alteryx To Understand Climate Change (8/30/2023) - This is my second appearance on the Alteryx podcast. In this episode, I talk about my decade of work on climate change. It isn't very technical, but I hope people appreciate the insights.
2. The Timing of Global Warming Development (11/2/2022) - This article investigates the sensitivity of my global warming simulator to the length of the simulations. I wanted to understand if 10, 20 , 30 or more years of data would be required before stable temperature predictions would be achieved.
3. Article 400 – Decoding The Global Warming Book (5/12/2022) - This article summarizes eight years of global warming research. It also happens to be my 400th article. There is a lot of information packed into the links.
4. Global Warming Insights In Small Pieces (Part 3) (12/8/2021) - This is part 3 of a story that documents a recent trip to California.
5. Truthful Global Warming Insights (12/3/2021) - Eight years of data-driven global warming research is wrapped up in this article. You can unpack a half-a-billion data points in this article to explore the ideas for yourself. You can download Tableau dashboards that will teach you a thing or two about linear modeling. Most of all, you will gain a better understanding of what is going on across our beautiful planet if you take the time to study this work.
6. Global Warming Insights In Small Pieces (Part 2) (11/4/2021) - We were already down two strikes by the end of day 1. Mother nature was throwing curveballs at us that we could not have hit. Who would have thought that a National Park could be on fire on the day that you traveled thousands of miles to see it?
7. Global Warming Insights In Small Pieces (Part 1) (10/21/2021) - This is going to be a multi-part story about my global warming research and how my insights can be interpreted and understood. I think this series will be a good one.

   View post to subscribe to site newsletter.

8. The Value of Alteryx (8/24/2021) - Is Alteryx valuable enough for you? To help you decide, I've written a few thoughts on the topic. Please read the article to learn more.
9. A Useful DMA Shapefile For #Tableau and #Alteryx (1/14/2021) - In this article, the technique of polygon generalization is used to reduce the complexity of DMA boundaries. This boundary change makes preparing and displaying DMA-based data much faster in Tableau.
10. The Making of A Home Office (8/14/2020) - It took a month to make a new home office for me. This is the story of how that happened.
11. Why You Should Consider Becoming A Volunteer Software Tester (4/24/2020) - For four decades, I've been a volunteer software tester. Looking back on these experiences has shown me that I learned a lot about software. This knowledge helped me be a better developer. During some recent testing, I realized how important volunteer software testers can be to companies that use them.
12. I Wonder What is Causing This Weird USA April Warming and Cooling Pattern (4/22/2020) - Today is Earth day which reminded me that I wanted to talk about a peculiar temperature change pattern I've detected. I don't have the answer of why it has occurred over a four-day window in April. This pattern is revealing itself over 60 years through millions of temperature readings. Be sure to get to the end of the file to see the baby birdies!
13. A 12 Month Calendar of Global Warming For the United States (1/9/2020) - I have been conducting focused work for six years that has allowed me to create something interesting. I can now produce global warming calendars that allow me to track how global warming is impacting temperatures in any region of the world. In this article, I show monthly calendars for the United States.
14. How Colton’s Accomplishments Became One of My Proud Moments in 2019 (1/7/2020) - This story spans more than two decades. I have watched our beautiful baby boy grow up to be a fine young man. It is now time for Colton to find his place in the working world. It is my hope that he is able to find a job that will allow him to use his education and creativity to do great things for the company that hires him.
15. Many Tableau Vizzes Used To Make Other Pictures (11/4/2019) - I have always wanted to create photo mosaics. I think they are cool. In this article, I show some examples I made this week with a program called TurboMosaic.
16. How Alteryx Took Me to the Edge of Comprehension and Sanity But Tableau Saved Me (10/2/2019) - Learning to solve complex problems takes time, practice and patience. It also requires great software like Alteryx and Tableau. For the past two months, I've taken a deep dive into a naturally complex system. I feel like a deep diver that needs to come up for a breath of fresh air.
17. Why @Alteryx and @Tableau Are Sticky Products (8/7/2019) - It has taken me a while to understand something important about Alteryx and Tableau. Each of these products are very sticky. By sticky, I mean that I have become dependent upon them to do a lot of different jobs. They both are great products for different reasons, but the combination of them is hard to beat when working with data.
18. #Globalwarming Signals in Germany (7/31/2019) - Germany has been hit harder than a lot of countries by global warming. It has passed the dreaded 2 degree C change in annual temperatures between 1960 and 2017. This article shows how the global warming signals have been detected in Germany.
19. The Daily Digest of Worldwide Global Warming (7/8/2019) - I have been on a mission for five years. This mission continues to fascinate me as Mother Nature is sharing her secrets with me. I have been working to understand global warming so that I can teach people about what is really happening on our planet. This is my story.
20. What Happens When Tableau Sends A Boy A Rock and The Rock Begins to Roll (6/17/2019) - Over many years, I dreamed of this day. The interesting thing about this story, however, is that my dreams never included what actually happened. Becoming a Tableau Zen Master continues to be a mystical experience for me.
21. Living the Analytics Dream Via Global Warming, Mapbox, Tableau, Alteryx, Anya and Allan (6/8/2019) - Each day I get to fulfill my analytics dreams. This occurs because of great software from Alteryx, Tableau, and Mapbox, as well as having very talented friends like Allan Walker and Anya A'Hearn. To learn about my latest global warming insights, read this article.
22. KC Special Episode #3: How Speed Leads To Success In The NFL (4/30/2019) - As part of the NFL Big Data Bowl in late 2018, I created a presentation that discusses how I explored game data to uncover insights on how NFL player speed can lead to NFL success. The results weren't always what I expected them to be!
23. KC Special Episode #1 – Zen and the Art of Acealytics (2/6/2019) - In the first Kenny Cool special edition video, I thank Tableau for choosing me to be a 2019 Zen Master. I explain some behind the scenes attempts I made to work for Tableau. Even though I was never hired, I continued to pursue my Tableau passions ,and now I am a bit of a Tableau historian.
24. KC Episode #4 – How To Use The Data Blends Blog (2/5/2019) - In Kenny Cool Episode #4, I discuss the various methods available for using the Data Blends Blog.
25. KC Episode #2 – The NFL Big Data Bowl (2/1/2019) - In Kenny Cool episode #2, I discuss how much fun I recently had working with real NFL data as part of a competition.
26. How We Battled And Beat Preeclampsia Using Blood Pressure Data (1/9/2019) - Preeclampsia (pre-e-CLAMP-si-a) is a condition unique to human pregnancy. It is diagnosed by the elevation of the expectant mother’s blood pressure usually after the 20th week of pregnancy. In this story, we used data collection and visualization to help our doctor make the right choices for my wife during our high-risk pregnancy.
27. The Happiness of an Education (1/8/2019) - Contrary to the "Agony of an Eduction", this article expresses the joy of an education. The joy comes from first learning to use Tableau.
28. Can You Spot The Anomaly In This 10-Year Happiness Evaluation? (12/7/2018) - Ten years of happiness data is what I used to find something interesting. I didn't plan on writing this article, but an anomaly I detected really made me think about the significance of this data.
29. How I Am Making Changes to Live Longer (Project Reset – Part 1) (12/3/2018) - I am going to reset my biological age. This article describes what I plan to do. I don't know how how long it will take, so you should subscribe to this blog to follow this story!
30. The Agony of an Education (10/24/2018) - Some stories just pop out of my mind. Other stories take time. This one has been forming for the past three months. It should have a subtitle: Why Using Alteryx and Tableau is a lot more fun than using SQL and R.
31. How to Label Only Every Nth Data Point in #Tableau (8/18/2018) - This article explains how to show every Nth data label along a line. This extends some work I explained three years ago.
32. Using Temperature Anomalies to Visualize Global Warming Via #Alteryx, #Tableau, and #Mapbox (8/1/2018) - Global warming has been visualized using world-wide temperature anomaly data. This work uses a pre-computed data set to understand temperature changes over the past 7 decades.
33. Five Ways Power BI Is Now Better Than Tableau! (6/19/2018) - In this article, I describe the motivation behind my previous article. The clickbait method was used to entice people to read the article. In this article, I describe where I got the idea to do this.
34. How To Achieve Rapid Analytical Insights Via #Alteryx and #Tableau (4/30/2018) - In this article, I benchmark an Alteryx workflow to show how Alteryx can be a very valuable tool in a large enterprise setting.
35. Tableau, Earth Day, Climate Change and Flying Things (4/24/2018) - I gave a presentation at the Atlanta Tableau User's Group and had a great time at the Delta Airlines museum. It was a nice day.
36. The Making of Episode 2 of the Alter Everything Podcast (@Alteryx) (4/4/2018) - Making a podcast is not an easy thing to do. Even with mental preparation, saying all that is important is difficult when the microphone is in your face. This article includes some additional thoughts I have on the topics we covered in the Alter Everything Podcast Episode #2.
37. Solving Problems By Blending Data (3/29/2018) - I'm saying goodbye to 3danim8's Blog and replacing it with a new website that will be more comprehensive and dynamic. You will have to read this short article to understand why I am doing this.
38. A Short #Tableau Data Story – #3 (Circa 1996) (3/2/2018) - Determining how to characterize vehicle performance has been a life-long passion of mine, even if I didn't realize it until the second half of my working career. I have multiple examples of long-lasting data collection activities that point me in a certain direction. You must read the story to find out what that is.
39. My Fifty Most Recent #Tableau Articles (2/24/2018) - This article will always have my 50 most recent Tableau articles. It uses a Wordpress technique known as shortcodes to produce a list of articles. I have been wanting a capability like this for a long time!
40. Proof of How Tableau Has Transformed Careers (2/5/2018) - It is unquestionable that Tableau has impacted many people. In fact, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people that have had career transformations because of Tableau. In this article, I give some cases of people that have been Tableau transformed.
41. #MyTableauVoice (2/2/2018) - I really suck at making videos. That is all I have to say about that.
42. Benchmark Results of the Tableau Hyper Data Engine (1/31/2018) - I revised a Tableau data engine benchmark study from 2013. I compared the new hyper data engine to the original Tableau data engine to see how much speed improvement was gained with the change.
43. Tableau #HyPeR – Is High Performance Real, or is this just HyPeRbole? (1/13/2018) - Years fly by faster than I can believe. In this article, which is number 300 for me, I go back to the beginning of this blog to examine Tableau performance using the new hyper data engine. The results should be very interesting to see.
44. Data Science: Why Data Comes Before Science (1/2/2018) - Doing data science work means a lot of different things to different people. Many techniques exist for accomplishing the tasks that are needed to solve data science problems. Getting the data right, however, is important in all projects and Alteryx allows us to accomplish that goal.
45. How to Add Geographies to Lat/Long Data for Better #Tableau Mapping (12/14/2017) - This article shows how it is possible to add larger scale geographical information to your data when all you have are latitudes and longitudes.
46. Sometimes #Tableau Just Lets Me Visualize Something I’m Wondering About (12/12/2017) - I've been watching billions of miles of driving accumulate this year. I wondered where it was happening. I wondered where the drivers were going on road trips and whether or not they were following the interstate system.
47. Lessons Learned From a Decade of Using #Tableau (12/5/2017) - Ten years have passed and my Tableau passion has not subsided. How can this be, I wonder? How can Tableau continue to be such an important and profound part of my working life? To find the answers, I took a few minutes to think about what Tableau means to me and what I have learned over these 10 years. These are my insights and I believe them to be true.
48. Techniques for Efficiently Handling Big Data in @Alteryx and @Tableau (11/7/2017) - When data comes flying at you at nearly the speed of light, you have to have fast processing capabilities for using the data to make effective decisions and predictions. In this article, I present some techniques I use to process large data sets in Alteryx and Tableau to be able to see the truth of what lies within the data.
49. The Magic That Happens When It All Comes Together (9/15/2017) - I can call it many things, but when the right technologies are coupled with seemingly insurmountable challenges, greatness can happen. Over the past couple of months I have been able to achieve some remarkable insights by using Alteryx and Tableau on some really fun project work.
50. Three Aces Talk About The 2017 @Alteryx Inspire Conference (8/9/2017) - Three Alteryx Aces spent some time together talking about their Inspire 2017 conference experiences. This article has a link to that dicussion.
51. A Useful USA County Shapefile For #Tableau and #Alteryx (8/4/2017) - I constructed a USA county shapefile by blending two files together to create a more useful item for Tableau and Alteryx. You can download the source files and the final product, as well as a Tableau 10.4 file that holds the information.
52. A Useful USA Zip Code Shapefile For #Tableau and #Alteryx (7/31/2017) - I constructed a zip code shapefile by blending two files together to create a more useful item for Tableau and Alteryx. You can download the source files and the final product, as well as a Tableau 10.4 file that holds the information.
53. How To Do Trend Modeling In #Alteryx (7/28/2017) - This is the second of a three part series showing how Tableau, Alteryx and Power BI can be used to perform trend modeling of data. In this article, Alteryx is used to perform the work.
54. How To Do Trend Modeling In #Tableau (7/20/2017) - This is the first of a three part series showing how Tableau, Alteryx and Power BI can be used to perform trend modeling of data. After these three demonstrations are complete, a competition using worldwide data will be completed to see which software platform performs the best on completing this type of work.
55. Buckled Roads and Melting Permafrost in Bethel, Alaska (7/13/2017) - A climate skeptic recently wrote a snide article that sent me into action. This article is a rebuttal to his work and explains why roads can be buckling in Bethel, AK.
56. My Work on Quora (6/30/2017) - It is very easy to get lost in time as you read questions and answers in the site called Quora. Over time, I find myself reading more content on this site because it has a uniqueness that I haven't found anywhere else.
57. The Allure of Data Visualization Via #Tableau (6/29/2017) - I like to play with pictures by turning numbers into visualizations. It is a passion of mine and I am proud of it.
58. How To Use Hadoop With #Tableau and #Alteryx (6/26/2017) - We recently made a discovery that allows us to use Alteryx and Tableau with the IBM BigInsights Hadoop platform. This article describes how that happens.
59. The Big Book Of Dashboards is Big, But The Workshop Is Bad To The Bone! (6/21/2017) - The workshop that accompanies the Big Book of Dashboards is excellent. I had a great time during the inaugural course and I encourage anyone interested in this topic to attend a future workshop, if possible.
60. Temperature Changes Over the Past 50 Years: A Visual Tour Country by Country (6/21/2017) - Three years have come down to this article. I now feel that I have a good grasp on the spatial and temporal changes in temperature over the past 50 years. I feel like I have now achieved one of my goals in doing this work.
61. Global Climate Data Set 2 – Monthly and Decade Average Temperatures (6/15/2017) - In this article, I give links to monthly aggregated temperatures, as well as decade aggregated results. These files are much smaller than the daily data files and should be easier for most people to render in Tableau or their favorite graphics package.
62. Global Climate Data Set 1 – Daily Temperatures (6/12/2017) - This is the first article of a series that will give download links to the processed global climate data sets I have developed. This article contains daily temperatures from monitoring stations around the world.
63. My #Alteryx17 Climate Change Presentation (6/7/2017) - June 6, 2017 was a great day for me. I was able to discuss three years of work with a room full of people at the Alteryx 2017 Inspire Conference. It was dream come true.
64. How To Achieve Better Data Comprehension, Part 3 (5/24/2017) - It has taken me eight months to finish this series on achieving data comprehension. This is the third and final installment that explains how I have learned to be a data exploiter. You will need to read the article to find out what that means.
65. How I Use #Alteryx and #Tableau to Comprehend Climate Change (5/18/2017) - I presented this talk on May 4, 2017 in Austin, TX, at the Tableau customer summit. I want to say thanks to Brenda Akers for asking me to do this because it gave me a chance to share my work from the past few years.
66. How To Perform Multi-Field Searching In #Tableau (5/16/2017) - There might be a time when you want to search for something in a dashboard, and this something might come from different fields. For example, you might want to search for someone based on their name OR their email address. A solution to this problem is shown in this article.
67. A Short #Tableau Data Story – #2 (circa 1985) (5/11/2017) - This is my second short Tableau data story. The theme is motorcycles and being a data dork. You have to read the article for proof of why I believe I am a naturally born data dork.
68. A Short #Tableau Data Story – #1 (circa 1986) (5/8/2017) - Now over 30 years ago, the summer of 1986 was a fun one for me. In this short story, I relate some climate data back to my life, with the focus being on July 31, 1986.
69. Lessons Learned About #Tableau From The Excel Battlefield (4/28/2017) - Some stories do not need pictures. This is one of them. I don't often write them this way, but sometimes the truth must be told without accoutrements and embellishments.
70. How #Tableau Helps Visualize Environmental Cleanup Data (4/27/2017) - Tableau was used to visualize about eight years of groundwater cleanup data. The total volume of groundwater that was remediated and the total mass of contaminants removed was visualized in Tableau dashboards.
71. A Nightmare on Excel Street (4/26/2017) - One night after getting frustrated with helping my son complete some Excel homework, my dreaming brain made me watch a movie called "A Nightmare on Excel Street". You have to read the article to understand what that means.
72. Using #Alteryx and #Tableau to Visualize and Understand Population Density (4/20/2017) - Sometimes real work leads to auxillary work that is needed for another purpose. That was the case in this article in which I took a deep dive into computing and visualizing population densities across the US. The results were fascinating and made a good case to share in this blog.
73. How The VizPainter Blazes #Tableau Trails (4/4/2017) - The VizPainter has delivered another masterpiece. This trail-blazing Tableau master used a shape file that had a time series history of the United States to win the most recent Iron Viz Competition against some amazing Tableau artists.
74. Test 6 of Tableau Vs Power BI: The Shapefile Showdown (3/16/2017) - This is test 6 of a series that compares Tableau to Power BI. The purpose of this test is to compare and contrast each program's ability to read and work with shapefiles.
75. Do You Live In An Area Impacted By Global Warming? (3/2/2017) - This is a fun article. I created a Tableau dashboard that allows us to view 55 years of temperature data to see if global warming is impacting where we live. When you spend a little time using this tool, you will have a better appreciation of the variability of weather and the difficulty of concluding anything about global warming.
76. A Descriptive and Predictive Study of North American Air Temperature Changes Using #Alteryx and #Tableau (3/1/2017) - In my continuing series of understanding air temperature changes over time, I go deep to develop predictive models of air temperature changes at over 3200 monitoring stations. Alteryx and Tableau simply were outstanding in allowing me to perform this work in a couple of nights.
77. Tableau vs Power BI – Summary to Date (2/20/2017) - This is a summary article that contains links to the Tableau vs Power BI series I have been working on. I also include some impressions about using the software tools in real-world situations.
78. How I Use #Tableau As A Search Engine (2/6/2017) - The vision formed 2 years ago. Many months of experimentation and testing went into completing the vision. You need to read the article to understand what I mean.
79. Test 5 of Tableau Vs Power BI: Pure Computational Speed (2/2/2017) - This is test 5 of a series that compares Tableau to Power BI. The purpose of this test is to see which program has a faster computational engine.
80. How #Alteryx And #Tableau Can Produce Word Clouds (2/1/2017) - It has taken me nearly 4 years and writing over 300,000 words to create a word cloud. The data processing behind this word cloud is pretty cool, too.
81. How to Draw Simulated Topographic Contours in #Tableau (1/25/2017) - This article presents a couple of techniques for drawing contour lines in Tableau. These are not simply connected polylines, but rather are simulated topographic lines represented by a series of points extracted from the mathematical surfaces used to represent topography.
82. Visualizing Warming and Cooling Patterns in North America, Compliments of #Alteryx and #Tableau (1/24/2017) - I take a detailed look at maximum air temperature changes over North America. I wanted to see what has happened over my lifetime, or over the past 5 decades. The results are very interesting, at least to me.
83. Visualizing Observed Worldwide Air Temperature Changes (1/18/2017) - The more I work with this data set, the more I want to know about how our climate is changing. There are so many questions I have and in this article, I have been able to answer a few of them.
84. Uncovering Surprising Global Temperature Changes Via #Alteryx and #Tableau (1/4/2017) - I had an idea about global climate changes that I wanted to investigate. When the analysis was finished, the results surprised me and have helped me begin to understand the air temperature changes that are occurring around the world.
85. Using #Alteryx and #Tableau to Investigate Global Climate Change (12/31/2016) - I am on a quest to learn about global climate changes. I am using the power of Alteryx and Tableau to analyze various types of climactic data from around the world.
86. #Alteryx + #Tableau = Creativity and Passion (12/8/2016) - This article is part 5 of the 3danim8 Blogging Experimental analysis, although I didn't intend it to be. It just happened. A good life can be made a great life if you understand the role of creativity in your life. In this article, I have come full-circle in understanding something that has eluded me for my whole lifetime. This something is called Big Magic.
87. How I Use #Tableau LOD’s To Process Asynchronous Time Series Data (11/29/2016) - This is part 4 of 3danim8’s blogging experimental analysis. This article investigates how I use level of detail calculations to help me visualize three key measures that describe blog article readership performance.
88. Sensory Overload Via #Tableau (11/17/2016) - Tableau stimulates my senses. It has been doing that for a very long time. I think this is one of the reasons that this piece of software has been so transformative for so many people.
89. Test 4 of Tableau Vs Power BI: Speed (11/15/2016) - This is test 4 of a series that compares Tableau to Power BI. The purpose of this test is to see which program could read a file fastest and allow the generation of a simple time series graphic.
90. How to Convert Shapefiles to #Tableau Polygons (11/7/2016) - This article gives some technical approaches to converting shapefiles to polygons that can be drawn in Tableau. Two methods are reviewed.
91. Test 3 of Tableau Vs Power BI: Charting Basic Time Series Data (11/4/2016) - In part 3 of this series, I compare the ability of Power BI and Tableau to produce dual-axis time series charts. I never know what is going to happen when I do these tests. I create them and then let the chips fall as they may.
92. DATA is to Life, as Math is to Science (11/1/2016) - I can't even begin to express how deep this article is. It spans decades and it exploded from deep within my brain one day. My life and a long-term study of life is featured in this article. The story is big, deep and more bloated than I wanted it to be, but sometimes that just happens. I tried but I was not able to cut it down to size without losing meaning. I think if you read it, it will be a thoughtful experience.
93. A Letter to George (10/28/2016) - This article started out as a comment to a comment to a comment. etc. I just got tired of this senseless series of personal attacks by a man named George. So instead of burying my response down deep in my comment section, I thought I'd raise the visibility up a bit so that people can see for themselves what can happen when a good deed gets transformed into a personal attack.
94. Test 2 of Tableau Vs Power BI: Visualizing Surface Water Flow (10/25/2016) - This is test #2 of Tableau vs Power BI using real-world data. The goal in this test was to see how each package could visualize flowing water as it moves across the 3D topographic surface of the Livingstone District.
95. Why Tableau is the Great Equalizer (10/20/2016) - In this brief story, I offer to you an insight that took me a long time and a lot of practice to uncover. I think this insight in one of the secrets of why Tableau has become so popular with so many people.
96. Medical Knowledge and Very Powerful Analytics (10/15/2016) - It was the best time of my professional career. The potential good that could come from this work is monumental. Unfortunately, I don't do this type of work anymore. Such is life.
97. Test 1 of Tableau Vs Power BI: Topographic Mapping (10/11/2016) - This is test #1 of Tableau vs Power BI using real-world data. The goal in this test was to see how each package could visualize high-resolution topographic data.
98. Impressions From Our First Month Of Using #PowerBI (10/6/2016) - After a bit of cooperation between friends, I decided to continue the Power BI analysis. We want to document how Power BI stacks-up against the Alteryx + Tableau combination that is so successful at producing great data comprehension and visualizations. This series should be interesting over the next few months as we try to document what it is like to learn Power BI when you are a Power Alteryx and Tableau users.
99. Investigating India With Tableau 10 Custom Regions (9/21/2016) - Working on charitable endeavors has its advantages. Sometimes you get to work with data that is so unexpectedly beautiful that it takes your breath away. This happened to me the other day, so I thought I'd share a new Tableau 10 feature called custom regions to show how powerful this feature can be.
100. How To Achieve Better Data Comprehension, Part 1 (9/20/2016) - Some articles form quickly, some take a long time to gel. Twenty, thirty, forty drafts of this one have not been enough. I don't know how I can possibly explain to people who might be interested in learning how to become better workers with data, but I have tried to do it with this writing. I have tried to explain what has taken me 30 years to realize. This work is borderline philosophical but it is based in experience and backed by my observations on what works and what does not work when it comes to achieving better data comprehension.
101. Impressions From My First Day Of Using #PowerBI (9/8/2016) - Life is a funny thing. One day you are up, the next day you are down. The only question remaining is this: Will Power BI be able to recover from today's disaster enough to change my opinion of its value?
102. Who Is More Important To Your Blog: A Hare or A Tortoise? (8/31/2016) - This is part 3 of 3danim8's blogging experimental analysis. This article investigates how important speed-burner articles are compared to slow-burners. I can create speed burner articles by writing about Rich Roll, shown above. In contrast to his ultra-endurance performance, these articles fade quickly.
103. How Sorting of Incoming Data Can Confuse Tableau (and You!) (8/24/2016) - When you present your data to Tableau, it is possible to fool the data interpreter. When this happens to you, you can become frustrated. To learn how to understand and then resolve the problem, just read this article.
104. How To Effectively Use Tableau 10 Highlighting In Big Data Sets (8/22/2016) - Tableau 10 highlighting can be very useful for big data sets. In this example, I show how highlighting quickly reveals differences in consumer behavior by state. Some of the behavioral difference are caused by the geographical settings the consumers live within.
105. Proof of Why Alteryx Is Great Software (8/17/2016) - This is 3danim8 article #200. It took 2 years for me to write the previous 100 articles on the usage of Alteryx plus Tableau. The next 100 articles will go into a deeper exploration of the power of these two tremendous tools to achieve great things.
106. How To Use and Have Fun With Baby Name Data (8/5/2016) - This story goes back to the 1970's, the 1990's, and the 2010's. It contains references to the famous John Travolta and naming popularity. It is a cool story, at least I think so.
107. Text Analytics Improved With Tableau Clustering (8/4/2016) - In Part 2 of my blogging experimental analysis, I use Alteryx coupled with Tableau 10 clustering to perform some text analytics. This work answers a single question related to how certain words can improve blog readership rates.
108. Tableau Visualizes Jett’s Grossery Gang Collection (7/26/2016) - The Grossery Gang is a toy collection that was released this month (July 2016). My 4-yr old son, Jett, is totally mesmerized with this collection. This story is the beginning of our journey with Tableau and the Grossery Gang.
109. In Three Days of Teaching Tableau… (7/20/2016) - When I teach Tableau, I hit the wall. It happens to me every time. For this reason I am now asking myself: "Am I going insane?".
110. Software Development Excellence At Tableau (7/18/2016) - The Tableau Desktop software development history exhibits several salient features that indicate excellent strategy, planning, vision, execution, and dogged determination. In this article, I explain why I believe this statement is true.
111. Alteryx Strategies For Solving Tough Problems (7/1/2016) - This article describes some concepts and methods I use when building more advanced workflows. In some ways, writing workflows is analogous to writing computer programs. You have think critically about what you want to accomplish. By breaking the problem down into small pieces and solving those, complex workflows become more manageable.
112. Tableau and Backwards Compatibility (6/9/2016) - This article discusses how you can make changes to the XML codes in a *.twb file to move a workbook to an earlier version of Tableau. The technique can help you get out of a jam at times if you inadvertently used a version of Tableau that is too new for your Tableau Server or for Tableau Public publications.
113. Using Tableau to Animate Great Circle Flight Paths (5/26/2016) - I built upon an approach published by James Dunkerley to animate flight paths using a great circle approach. I'm going to use this method to introduce nice visualizations at my workplace.
114. Benchmarking the Alteryx Fuzzy Matching Tool (5/24/2016) - I'm a guy that likes to know how things work. By its very nature, interpreting results from a fuzzy matching algorithm can be a bit fuzzy. The reduce the fuzziness, I got down and dirty and did a couple of sensitivity analyses on the fuzzy matching tool to gain a better understanding of how it works.
115. The Emergence of Popular Baby Names in 2015 (5/14/2016) - In part 2 of my baby name series, I determine the emerging popular baby names for boys and girls in 2015.
116. Why Data Science Is One Reason I Love My Life (5/5/2016) - This is a short story of why I love data science. This story was written deep in my brain during one night of restless sleep.
117. The 3danim8 BEAP1 – Visualizing Geographical Blog Expansion (4/28/2016) - Title Definition 3danim8 BEAP1 = 3danim8 Blogging Experiment Analysis Part 1 – Visualizing Geographical Blog Expansion
118. How To Videos For Tableau Training (4/27/2016) - These are Tableau technique and application videos that supplement my Tableau training course.
119. A Dynamic Image and Web Page Viewer Using Tableau (4/13/2016) - I had a feeling I could use Tableau to make an image and blog viewer that was dynamic and fully functional, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. Well, today, I revisited the concept and accomplished the task.
120. Using Tableau to Check Accuracy of Acurite Weather Station Data (4/12/2016) - I really like weather data. I also really hate inaccurate weather data. If you have an Acurite Weather Station at your house, you might want to be wary of the data it is collecting.
121. Using Tableau to Visualize Healing After Skin Cancer (BCC) Surgery (4/11/2016) - This is definitely one of my more obscure and somewhat creepy Tableau applications. I visualize the skin healing process after a skin cancer operation I had to remove a Basal Cell Carcinoma.
122. My General Motors Story (4/7/2016) - In this article, I give answers to three questions I was recently asked on a General Motors podcast. The questions were: (1) What brought you here? (2) What keeps me here? and (3) How does my job move GM forward?.
123. A Tableau-Based Photo Viewer (3/8/2016) - It took me 20 years to collect the data for this idea. It only took me a couple of hours in Tableau to complete the idea.
124. Tableaupedia, Part 1 (1/14/2016) - Tableaupedia is a tool that I have built to save me time. Since I teach people to use Tableau, I have to have quick access to information and this tool allows me to find what I need very fast.
125. Epilogue (12/9/2015) - This article explains why I feel like my Blogging Experiment was a failure. You have to read the article to understand what I mean.
126. The Conclusion of My #Tableau Blogging Experiment (11/11/2015) - By writing this blog, I was simply pursuing my passions. I allowed the blog to meander across topics because my passion is widespread. I wrote about techniques in math, science, Tableau and Alteryx. I solved problems and I shared stories. I met many new friends. I got better in the field of analytics because I connected to a wide group of really talented people. I loved that experience and as I now know, I was driven to learn. It was fantastic journey that included 1/8 of a million blog hits and one that I will always be glad that I took.
127. An Interesting Result from My #Tableau and #Alteryx Blogging Experiment (10/14/2015) - Sometimes I have an idea that I want to investigate. I think I know what the answer will be, but every once in a while the result blows me away. This is one of those cases. Tableau makes it really easy to find the answer to these kinds of questions.
128. The Secret of Joe Mako (10/10/2015) - Where do we derive inspiration and passion to help others? I think I now have a clearer picture in my mind of what makes Joe Mako do what he does. In this article, I will tell you a story to help you understand what I mean.
129. How to Visualize Only Every Nth Data Point in #Tableau (9/24/2015) - Sometimes there is simply too much data! Can you believe I said that? Well, if you have too much data and can't see your data marks, here is a Tableau technique that might help you.
130. How I Use #Alteryx To Simplify My #Tableau Applications (9/23/2015) - Eight years of daily Tableau usage. Check. One and a half years of Alteryx usage. Check. Learning how to make my Tableau life easier by using Alteryx. Ongoing. Here is one example of a Top N and Others technique I moved from Tableau to Alteryx.
131. One Year Later – New Predictive Analytics for My #Tableau and #Alteryx Blog (9/9/2015) - My blog has been a science experiment in the making for about 2.5 years. I've been collecting data to analyze the experiment. Recently my life changed and the experiment changed. Read why that happened and what I had to do about it.
132. Using #Tableau Ver 9.1 to Display 3D Data (7/30/2015) - Introduction I worked over 20 years as a numerical modeler and scientific computer programmer. I routinely hammered all kinds of computers from PC’s to massively parallel supercomputers. I miss doing that type of work.
133. Processing Global Travel Data Part 2 – The Story Behind the Story (7/27/2015) - Introduction I have determined that I will not become a video blogger (I feel like a big dork on camera!). However, I awoke today with a thought that must be completed. I feel compelled to continue this story by doing what the great Paul Harvey used to do. He would say something to the effect…
134. Processing Global Travel Data With #Alteryx and #Tableau – A Video Blog (7/25/2015) - Introduction Chas and Ken (Figure 1) learned about Alteryx and Tableau on Saturday. We decided to create a video blog of the experience. This article includes a series of videos that take you along the journey of discovery. We decided to process global travel data to show how a complex situation can be turned into…
135. This Is My Gift To All #FantasyFootball Players (7/24/2015) - Introduction According to ESPN, it is now time to sign up for Fantasy Football (Figure 1).
136. Please Take a Look at a Couple of My Favorite New #Alteryx and/or #Tableau Blogs (7/22/2015) - Introduction There are a couple of relatively new blogs that focus on Alteryx and Tableau. I really like both of these. The insights I gain from them are meaningful. They are well-done and authors do a great job of explaining their topics.
137. Adding Custom Geocoding For Airport IATA Codes in #Tableau (7/8/2015) - This article demonstrates how to implement custom geocoding for Airport IATA codes in Tableau.
138. Four Months of Living Outside of My Comfort Zone (Part 3) (6/29/2015) - Introduction To understand this article better, you might consider clicking here to read part one of this article.  After that, you can read part two by clicking here.  
139. The Brilliance of #Alteryx In-Database Processing (5/13/2015) - Having a super fast data processing engine doesn’t help if you have to pull a terabyte of data from a data warehouse only to find a subset of it and produce a report.
140. Using Bookmarks to Visualize My #Tableau and #Alteryx Blog (4/26/2015) - Blogs are basically terrible at showing their content. Articles get buried over time and forgotten by everyone...
141. A Nice Update to the Seven Fantastic #Tableau Background Maps Article (4/22/2015) - Today (4/22/15) Omar wrote a couple of comments to the original article that provided the fix needed to make the maps appear automatically once they are selected from the map menu. This allows you to quickly toggle between background map types without having to hit those pesky check-boxes.
142. How To Install and Use Seven Fantastic #Tableau Background Maps (3/31/2015) - Allan is so cool that I sometimes get him confused with Walker, Texas Ranger, played by Chuck Norris. Figures 1 and 2 show you what I mean.
143. A Quick Big Data Excel Tip For #Tableau Users (3/17/2015) - By doing this sequence, you will save yourself a lot of time and grief. Trust me, I've had this happen more times than I care to remember.
144. Quick Links To 3danim8’s Blog (3/14/2015) - Since I use my blog about every day to find techniques I previously used, I wanted a quick way to launch my posts and to quickly show people where to find information.
145. Sharing Some Nice Views From The #Tableau Austin Office (3/13/2015) - We had a good time last night at the Tableau 9.0 event in Austin. I just had to take a few pics to show the skyline and the scene of the upcoming SXSW in Austin. It is going to be crazy in Austin over the next week or so. P.S. If you want a good…
146. The Future of #Tableau As Discussed By Three Experienced Gentlemen (2/13/2015) - Introduction It is currently 4 am and I am more than a thousand miles from home in a hotel, missing my wife and kids. Annoying interstate traffic is periodically causing me to awaken. Suddenly and old commercial from 1979 pops into my head and this blog post was instantly born. (Warning: to experience the full-effect of…
147. 3danim8 Blog Links – A Summary of the Past 8 Months (2/11/2015) - Introduction I recently realized that I created a lot of Tableau and Alteryx content over the past 8 months. Sometimes I need to reference the material and it can be hard for me to find. I figure that if it is hard for me to find, others will have no chance of finding it.
148. Today I Blasted Myself Out of the Comfort Zone (2/5/2015) - Introduction Today is the day that I officially blasted myself out of the comfort zone. It happened on February 5, 2015. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I had to make it.
149. How To Build An #Alteryx Workflow to Visualize Data in #Tableau, Part 5 (2/5/2015) - Introduction This is part 5 of a blog post series on combining Alteryx and Tableau to perform a real-world example of an ETL-based analytics project. If you want to read previous parts to this series, click on these links: part 1, part 2, part 3, or part 4.  In this article, I use Tableau to…
150. Using #Tableau to Help Visualize Temperature and Wind Variations (2/4/2015) - Introduction Over the past few months, I have been using Tableau and Alteryx to investigate world-wide climate data. This work has caused me to think about climate and local weather variability and our ability to predict what is going to happen in the future.
151. I Wish #Tableau Would Change How Annotations Work (2/4/2015) - Introduction I don’t usually gripe too much about Tableau functionality, so when I do it is usually because I have had to deal with the problem over and over and over – through many years.
152. Benchmarking Data Reshaping in #Alteryx (2/2/2015) - Introduction I have written a few articles about the necessity of data reshaping when you do a lot of work in Tableau. To read my most comprehensive article, click here. In that article, I show several examples of data reshaping, with the examples increasing in complexity throughout the article.
153. How To Build An #Alteryx Workflow to Visualize Data in #Tableau, Part 4 (2/2/2015) - Introduction This is part 4 of a blog post series on combining Alteryx and Tableau to perform a real-world example of an ETL-based analytics project. If you want to read the previous parts of this series, click the blue links for Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3. In a recent headline it was reported that, 2014 was the hottest…
154. Hard Jobs Made Easy Using #Alteryx (1/28/2015) - Introduction For four months (October 2013 to January 2014) I did a job that was tough. It was tedious, time consuming, and it caused Tableau to buckle under the pressure of multiple data sources, multiple data joins, and difficulties with data formats.
155. I Wish #Tableau Would Give Us A Way To Document Our Figures! (1/28/2015) - Introduction For me, Tableau is not just about whiz-bang dashboards and an awesome user experience. I use Tableau for a lot more than just its intended purpose of interactively exploring data.
156. How To Build An #Alteryx Workflow to Visualize Data in #Tableau, Part 3 (1/27/2015) - Introduction This is part 3 of a blog post series on combining Alteryx and Tableau to perform a real-world example of an ETL-based analytics project. You can click on the blue links if you want to read part 1 or part 2.
157. How To Build An #Alteryx Workflow to Visualize Data in #Tableau, Part 2 (1/23/2015) - Introduction This is part 2 of a blog post series on combining Alteryx and Tableau to perform a real-world example of an ETL-based analytics project. If you want to read part 1, click here. In this article, you will obtain and extract the data used in this project. This example uses free climate data available from…
158. How To Build An #Alteryx Workflow to Visualize Data in #Tableau, Part 1 (1/15/2015) - Introduction This is one of the those blog posts that is more of a novel than a short-story and it is more of a marathon than a sprint. In this series of articles, I build a detailed case study that uses the combined power of Alteryx and Tableau to investigate worldwide climate data.
159. How I Evaluate My #Tableau Blog Effectiveness (1/9/2015) - Introduction In this article, I evaluate the effectiveness of my Tableau blog. To do this, I use Tableau fueled with data that was extracted from the WordPress content management system. I did this self-evaluation to understand how I can become a better blogger and to quantify what kind of readership response a good Tableau article will receive…
160. How to Extract Hyperlinks From Excel Formulas To Use In #Tableau Dashboards (1/7/2015) - Introduction I have scraped a wide variety data from websites over the years. Many times I have had to pre-process the data before using it in Tableau.
161. You Should Consider Following These #Tableau Bloggers (1/6/2015) - Introduction If you are interested in learning about Tableau, following key bloggers is a good way to learn a lot of applied techniques quickly. In a recent blog post, I described how important it is to subscribe to bloggers that produce a significant amount of good content. In a sense, this blog post could be considered…
162. Helping You Find Value in #Tableau Blogs (1/5/2015) - Introduction I have been writing a lot of Tableau articles that are gathered together in a place called 3danim8’s Blog. I do this to help people learn how to solve data-science type problems. These problems arise in business, math and science and I use great software tools like Tableau and Alteryx to find the solutions. I…
163. Using #Tableau For Real-Time AAU Basketball Score Reporting (Knoxvegas) (12/19/2014) - Introduction For the past four years (2011-2014), I have used Tableau to produce real-time AAU basketball results during a big tournament.
164. Using #Alteryx To Process Non-Ideal Flat-Files (12/12/2014) - Introduction Flat-files have been used around the world of the past few decades to store a lot of data. Flat-files were originally designed to save space, although they do have an intrinsic inefficiency because spaces are used as placeholders instead of using a delimiter, like a comma.
165. Working Notes For Drawing Polygons Using #Alteryx and #Tableau (12/12/2014) - Introduction This post is NOT really intended to be a super-clean and comprehensive, step-by-step instruction set for how to draw Alteryx-generated polygons in Tableau. However, if you are willing to do a little work, you will be able to reproduce the results in this article.
166. Using #Alteryx to Install #Tableau Buckets In Your Data Set (12/9/2014) - Introduction One of the most popular topics I have written about in this blog is a method I call “Tableau buckets”. I have been very surprised by the number of people that have found this concept to be useful. For this reason, I am going to extend this “bucket” concept to Alteryx workflows.
167. Using #Tableau and Predictive Analytics on My Blog (12/8/2014) - Introduction About three months ago, I used Tableau to build a predictive model for my blog readership. Today I checked the accuracy of that predictive model. This short article shows the results of this fairly simplistic work.
168. Methods for Sorting Big Data (12/4/2014) - Introduction Sorting data is fundamental technique and is a skill that anyone that frequently works with data needs to possess. I have sorted a lot of data through the years, for many different reasons. Sometimes the only way to get a job done when working with a wide variety of data sources that might include periodic data…
169. 3danim’s Blog is About Solving Problems (11/18/2014) - Introduction This is blog post number 101, and I now have a clarity about 3danim8’s blog that I did not have before I started writing it a year and a half ago. It took me writing the previous 100 blog posts to gain this clear vision and to develop my mission statement. It only took me 536 days,…
170. How and Why #Alteryx and #Tableau Allow Me to Innovate – Part 2 (11/17/2014) - Introduction I have been thinking a lot about how Alteryx and Tableau work together to help me innovate when solving business and science problems. In this article, I’m going to explain what I mean by the term innovation and how I use Alteryx and Tableau to achieve this term.
171. How and Why #Alteryx and #Tableau Allow Me to Innovate – Part 1 (11/10/2014) - A New Vision This was a difficult article for me to write for a lot of reasons, but I am glad that I wrote it. In this two-part article, which will be my 99th and my 100th blog posts, I revisit my past and present a revised vision for my future as a technical blogger. 
172. Solving the Impossible Tasks with #Alteryx (and #Tableau) (10/16/2014) - Introduction I started using Alteryx in May, 2014, or less than six months ago.  I have written a few blog posts for beginners and a recent post about a very impressive result I achieved using Alteryx. Now all of a sudden, the light has shined for me. I get it and I see the brilliance…
173. Using #Tableau to Evaluate Jay Cutler’s Career (10/14/2014) - 10/14/14 - I do believe that Jay Cutler has all the skills, training and experience to be a very good NFL quarterback, possibly even an "elite" quarterback. 11/17/15 - Cutler has not thrown multiple interceptions in a contest this season, an eight-game stretch that is the longest of his 10-year NFL career. His passer ratings over the last six games have been 89.4, 88.4, 88.8, 94.4, 100.5 and 151.0. Update 1/8/16 According to ESPN, Cutler jumped 6 spots from 2014 to 2015 in total QBR. Here is the article: Cutler improves Total QBR in 2015.
174. A Truly Unbelievable #Alteryx Flat-File Reading Result (10/3/2014) - Introduction I previously wrote a blog post about strategies for reading flat-files (fixed-format, un-delimited ASCII files) to get the flat-file data ready for Tableau analysis. That post was written before I became an Alteryx user. 
175. Reflections of the Past and a Vision of a #Tableau Future (9/26/2014) - Introduction A few days ago, I published an example of of drawing a finite-element grid in Tableau.  I thought that it would be just another post that would have very little readership.
176. My Lessons Learned as a #Tableau Blogger, Part 1 (9/14/2014) - Introduction I started using Tableau with Version 3.6 way back in February, 2008. Since that time, I have continued to use Tableau about every day, with several thousand data files investigated over this time from a wide range of businesses.
177. Why Rich Roll Kicks A$$ As A Podcast Host (9/5/2014) - Update Two Years Later (Sept 6, 2016) This was the best performing article that I wrote as part of the 3danim8 blogging experiment. Now two years later, the content that I originally wrote is still valid. Rich is still, in my humble opinion, one of the best podcasters on planet earth. Rich is a national treasure…
178. Using #Tableau to Supercharge My Alteryx Experience, Part 3 (8/18/2014) - Introduction In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I showed how I use Tableau to help me understand Experian and Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) data that can be strategically accessed via Alteryx. This extracted data can then be used in quantitative business studies or for personal usage. This post provides an example of personal usage…
179. Date Aggregations and Linear Modeling With R In #Tableau (7/31/2014) - Introduction I promised to not write any more blog posts regarding mathematical modeling in Tableau, but I just could not help myself when I uncovered the Tableau/R behavior that I describe in this post.  I researched many documents to see if anyone has written about this issue, but I couldn’t find any information. If you…
180. Using #Tableau to Supercharge My Alteryx Experience, Part 2 (7/21/2014) -   Introduction This is the second of a six part series of using Tableau to help with Alteryx applications, especially for new Alteryx users. In this post, I discuss the usage of the business database that is maintained by Dunn and Bradstreet and is accessible via Alteryx. This database allows Alteryx users to access information on…
181. Using #Tableau to Supercharge My Alteryx Experience, Part 1 (7/17/2014) - Introduction If you are an experienced Alteryx user that has the privilege to use the “complete package of Alteryx”, which includes mapping, demographic and business data, you may already have techniques to handle the issues that I discuss in this blog post series.  This series will be focused on using Tableau to help with Alteryx usage, especially…
182. Insights On Reshaping Data for Use in #Tableau (5/13/2014) - Introduction The Tableau data reshaper is an outstanding tool and you should have it in your toolbox of Tableau techniques if you are serious about doing a lot of data analytics in Tableau.
183. One of My Secret #Tableau Weapons Unveiled (5/8/2014) - Introduction I have a pretty good memory and I’m generally well organized, but I now have to admit that my brain gets overloaded at times with work, family, and life in general.  
184. How To Use XML and CSV Files in a #Tableau Data Blend (5/7/2014) - Introduction I was recently using Alteryx (www.alteryx.com) to blend an XML and a CSV file when a buddy at work asked me if I could do the same thing in Tableau.
185. A Tip on Using Big Data csv files with #Tableau (4/24/2014) - Introduction I have used many hundreds of comma-delimited (*.csv) files with Tableau over the past few years. I like to use csv files because Tableau reads them really fast and I can easily build gigantic files. Over the years, I have been using business-related files that have continued to increase in size from thousands, to millions,…
186. One Method For Reusing a #Tableau Workbook (4/8/2014) - Introduction The problem described herein has happened to me far too many times and I am somewhat embarrassed to have to write this post, but I feel that someone has to do it.  
187. How I Have Been Having Fun With #Tableau and Medical Data (4/5/2014) - Introduction About two months ago, I received a few files that contained patient hospitalization data from a group of  hospitals.  For this, I will be forever grateful because I’ve had a lot of fun working with the data.  After giving me the files, one senior analyst told me: “Good luck to you because no one has ever been…
188. Playing blocks with Jett (3/23/2014) - Introduction Jett is now 2.5 years old.  He knows his ABC’s, can count to 20 in English and to 10 in Spanish.  His brain is a sponge.  So tonight, we decided to play with his new group of blocks to practice learning words and the difference between small and capital letters.  It was a lot…
189. When is a “Set” Not a “Complete Set” in #Tableau? (3/18/2014) - Introduction I use the “set” functionality in Tableau for a lot of different things.  “Sets” are very useful to me and I am still trying to learning how to use them effectively in my work. Because there are multiple techniques for creating sets in Tableau, there might be better techniques available to control the set…
190. How to Prepare Alpha-Numeric Fields For Analysis in #Tableau (3/7/2014) - Introduction In the past couple of blog posts, I’ve been writing about how I get data ready for analysis in Tableau. One special data condition that arises is the data type that I’ll call an alpha-numeric field. This data type can be tricky to work with, so you have to pay attention to the details…
191. Regex Techniques for Manipulating Data Formats For Tableau (3/6/2014) - Introduction Rarely, if ever, does data arrive to me in the exact format that I need it to be in for efficient analysis in Tableau.  This means something has to be done to the data before I can use it.  In Part 1 of this series, I provide specific examples of real-world data format changes…
192. Strategies for Using Fixed-Width ASCII files with #Tableau (3/5/2014) - Introduction It does not happen often, but whenever I get a flat file (i.e., fixed-width ASCII file) to work with, I have to work some magic on the file to get it ready for Tableau. This post describes how some of that magic happens.
193. A neat #Tableau parameter technique for multiple dimensions and a bug in version 8.1 (11/26/2013) - Introduction I use Tableau for scheduling basketball games and reporting tournament results.  One of the difficulties I have faced in these applications arises because team schedules and results are stored in multiple dimensions.  This means that a team can be either a home team or a visiting team in the database, which are two different…
194. Here is one of my secret weapons in learning #Tableau techniques (11/26/2013) - Introduction Blogs are one of the best sources for learning Tableau techniques that I have found.  A couple of the problems with using Blogs as a learning tool, however, is that they are scattered throughout the web and they are not published on a routine schedule. Unless you are really diligent in subscribing to the…
195. I’m now using #Tableau Public to manage my blog content! (11/21/2013) - Introduction I think that writing a useful blog shouldn’t be too hard with the technologies we have.  But it is.
196. Using #Tableau Buckets To Compare Weekday To Weekend Data (11/18/2013) - Introduction Whether I’m exploring personal or work-related data, I frequently use a technique that I call “creating Tableau Buckets”.
197. The Origins and Power of the #Tableau Twitter Database (11/14/2013) - Introduction Earlier this year I realized that one of the absolutely most powerful features of Tableau is its ability to act as a visual interface to any type of database that I can dream of.
198. My 50/50 List (11/14/2013) - Introduction Fifty is the theme for today. This is blog post number 50 and I’m 50 years old.  Hence, my 50/50 list.
199. Where does “normal data” end and “big data” begin with #Tableau? (11/8/2013) - Introduction I guess you can say that I’ve been on a mission lately to understand and document the performance, capabilities, and limitations of Tableau Desktop software.  Today I decided to answer the following question: When is it necessary to switch from a professional workstation to a “big-data platform” to analyze large structured data files with…
200. How Fast is #Tableau in Reading Structured Data Files? (11/4/2013) - Introduction I have always liked to benchmark computer programs. For that reason, I thought it would be fun to see how fast Tableau is in reading typical structured data sets that I have used in Process Improvement work. The question I want to specifically answer is: How fast does Tableau read data from a character-separated…
201. Insights on Using #Tableau Coupled With Amazon #Redshift (10/30/2013) - Introduction Yesterday and earlier today, I had a chance to experiment with Tableau coupled to Amazon Redshift.  What I am about to write isn’t totally comprehensive, but if I had this knowledge yesterday morning, I would have saved a few hours of work. Hopefully this information will save you some time, too, if you try…
202. Results of a #Tableau Public Publishing Experiment (10/21/2013) - Introduction Over the past few years of publishing in Tableau Public, I’ve noticed something that I thought would be a good idea to test and document. The concept I wanted to tested was this:
203. Additional Insight and Clarification of #Tableau Exponential Trend Models (10/18/2013) - Introduction Earlier this week I wrote a post about how to understand all the Tableau Trend Models.  This is a follow-up to that post.
204. A #Tableau Powered Dashboard for The Rich Roll Podcast Series (10/16/2013) - Introduction Rich Roll is helping a lot of people to better understand how plant-powered nutrition can improve athletic performance and lead to better overall health and vitality.
205. A Comparison of Two Image Layering Methods in #Tableau (10/15/2013) - Introduction Blog posts are great for demonstrating a technique that you have found to be problematic and frustrating.  While completing the work for another blog post on understanding Tableau trend models, I ran into a problem in Tableau that I could not easily resolve.  I tried to resolve it for a while (even getting into…
206. A Help Guide for Better Understanding all of #Tableau Trend Models (10/15/2013) - Introduction I previously wrote about the need for better documentation on Tableau linear trend models.  At the time, I was not able to examine the other types of trend models offered by Tableau, which include linear, logarithmic, exponential, and polynomial. This weekend I remembered to get back to the subject, which has lead to content…
207. I Wish #Tableau Had These Two Capabilities (10/8/2013) - Background Just because something is trendy, don’t believe that it is good…Follow your own instincts. Donald Knuth, May 2, 2012. Over the past seven years, I have used Tableau Desktop to investigate over 1,000 different data sets. The data I have used is from many different businesses and industries. I have been very lucky to…
208. #Tableau needs a new type of axis scaling option for charts created using the Pages shelf! (10/4/2013) - Introduction For years, I have dealt with an intrinsic assumption in Tableau that really hampers my ability to get work done when using the Pages shelf. This assumption makes it nearly impossible to efficiently create publication quality charts when the pages shelf (Figure 1) is used to produce a large number of charts.
209. How to use #Tableau to clean your data using an iterative z-score approach (9/12/2013) - Introduction If you work with large, diverse data sets, you know that there will invariably be noise and erroneous data in the database you are using.  This is one reason why I treat all data as guilty until proven innocent.
210. How to Better Understand and Use Linear Trend Models in #Tableau (9/11/2013) - Introduction Whenever I have a recurring question asked to me about a Tableau Desktop feature, I realize that something is not quite intuitive in the software and needs to be fixed. Such is the case with the Tableau trend models as they are currently described in the software.
211. 40 Years of Hurricane Data Examined in #Tableau (9/11/2013) - Introduction Today there is a CNN headline that gives some predictions about the 2013 hurricane season.  Click here to read the story.  This reminded me of the hurricane data that I worked on recently, using Tableau to investigate spatial and temporal trends over the past 40 years. If you want to examine the data for…
212. How to add add lat/long to your data for more precise #Tableau mapping (9/3/2013) - Introduction I work with a lot of site-specific data that typically does not have latitude and longitude information included. I am generally given an address, city, state and zip for the data location.  Although Tableau will automatically map this data  at the state, city, and zip levels using generated latitude and longitude, many times I…
213. How to use a trick in #Tableau for adjusting a scatter plot trend line (8/30/2013) - Today I was creating a scatter plot in Tableau using about 1.5 years of monthly data.  All the data points looked like they correlated nicely except for the March 2013 data point.  With March 2013 included in the trend line calculation, the scatter plot looked like this and the r-squared was 59.4%: If the outlier…
214. Using #Tableau to Learn More About #Plantpower Nutrition (thanks @richroll) (8/20/2013) - Rich Roll (and his wife Julie Piatt) have been the best teachers I’ve had in a very long time.  Rich is amazing and continues to deliver incredible content to many people through his podcasts, Twitter activities, website and his book Finding Ultra.
215. Viz gone wrong – they should have used #Tableau! (8/8/2013) - Today (8/8/13), CNN Money posted a story about Golfers and the “Major Money” they make by winning Major tournaments.  Conceptually the visualization is very good but the execution is just OK (I can think of a few improvements). The biggest problem: the data is WRONG!  Check it out for yourself by clicking here!  They should…
216. Using #Tableau to Quantify The “Cruise Effect” (8/6/2013) - The Term: The Cruise Effect. Definition: Gaining weight on a cruise ship is really easy. Losing that weight is not so easy. I would like to tell you about a two-month study that I just completed.  The first month happened before I took a 5-day cruise from Charleston, S.C. to the Bahamas and back.
217. Using #Tableau to See Who is Tweeting About Tableau! (8/5/2013) - You can click here to see a Tableau dashboard that allows you to see who has been writing about Tableau on Twitter over time.  The data embedded in this visualization has been captured using the Twitter API, and another post will be written about how that is done.  You can search on any term you…
218. Save Some Time by Using This Table of Useful #Tableau Hyperlinks (8/1/2013) - The Tableau website offers an enormous amount of valuable information to its users.  The company Tableau has been very proactive in creating great training materials such as white papers, videos, articles, etc., and I’ve seen a continual buildup of this content over the past six years as a daily Tableau user.  I really appreciate what…
219. Using Tableau to Visualize Hashtag Spelling Variations for #BigData and #Tableau Using Twitter Posts (7/31/2013) - I was curious to see how valuable the use of hashtags can be in performing some basic research.  Two answer the question, I did a little study over the past couple of weeks.  Over the past 12 days (7/20 to 7/31/13), I captured all the Twitter posts that had either #BigData or #Tableau in the…
220. Using #Tableau as a Graphical Post-Processor for A Custom Program (7/22/2013) - Introduction The following work is circa October 2010, and at the time I was using Tableau version 5.2!
221. Using #Tableau to Clean My Hard-Drive! (7/19/2013) - Are you a digital hoarder?  I might be but I am committed to cleaning up my hard-drive!  If you need to do some cleaning on your system, you can use Tableau to help you find the biggest offending files and to direct your clean-up activities.  The reason for doing this is that you may be…
222. Using #Tableau to Visualize My Digital Photo and Video Storage Over Time (7/18/2013) - This post started with a simple picture from 7/11/1965 (48 years ago) that my sister posted to her Facebook page last week.  This picture is shown below. In this photo, I’m shown sitting on the bottom step of my childhood house at 4700 West Race Ave in Chicago, IL.
223. The TWB Auditor – A tool for investigating your #Tableau workbooks (7/16/2013) - Today I came across a nice tool called the TWB Auditor, by Andy Cotgreave (@acotgreave) of Tableau Software. Click here to learn about this tool.
224. Using #Tableau to Create Dashboards For Tracking Salesman Performance (7/2/2013) - In this simple example, I was developing some ideas on how to use concepts from statistical process control theory to evaluate the effectiveness of salesman over time.
225. My Twitter archive featuring some good #Tableau training tips (6/27/2013) - I’ve just captured a little bit of my history.
226. Using #Tableau to Show Performance of my 1996 Maxima SE (Part 2) (6/26/2013) - This is Part 2 of a story that has taken over 17 years to make. Now it is time to “show the beef”, so to speak.  I promised to UNLEASH this data set by visualizing it with Tableau. So here it goes…
227. Using #Tableau to Show Performance of my 1996 Maxima SE (Part 1) (6/24/2013) - This story contains data recorded over 8.5 years. It is a serious data dork story coupled with the love of vehicle performance.
228. Using #Tableau to Help the Doctor Save My Wife and Baby During a High-Risk Pregnancy (6/24/2013) - Introduction It was about 7 months into my wife’s last pregnancy when things started to get scary. This is the story from that time in August 2011.
229. #Tableau Fever – How do you know if you have it? (6/21/2013) - Introduction Growing up in Chicago, there were a few times that I had fevers. The fevers were particularly bad when it was cold outside because my body couldn’t stop shaking due to the abnormal temperature imbalance between me and the air. However, I don’t think I ever had anything as bad as the fever I…
230. #Tableau Buckets – How to create and use them (6/20/2013) - Introduction There is a technique that I frequently use in Tableau that I call “creating buckets”. Buckets represent categories that I create on the fly for a variety of data sets, for a variety of reasons. Buckets can be used instead of going into the original data sources to build additional fields to specify your…
231. Rich Roll (@richroll) has shown me the way (6/14/2013) - Introduction I have never met Rich Roll. I have never spoken to him, and I am not affiliated with him in any way.  One day I hope to meet him and I’ll do my best to make that happen. September 25, 2012 Was A Great Day For Me 2013 has been a great year for…
232. Using #Tableau to Evaluate the MMR CS-10 TCE Mass Removal History (6/13/2013) - For 10 years I worked on remediating groundwater and surface water in Cape Cod, MA. This is a short story about that project and how Tableau was used to visualize the data collected over many years of operating remediation systems.
233. #Tableau, Correlations and Scatter Plots (6/11/2013) - Introduction I frequently have to perform correlation analysis of large amounts of data.  The analysis might involve comparing sales from one store to another, or it might involve sales at the same store from one time period to another.
234. Using #Tableau to Examine 99 Years of Lake Okeechobee Rainfall Data (6/10/2013) - I think that Tableau is a great tool to use to examine large databases.  Environmental data such as climate data (temps, precip, rainfall, etc) can be very large but many times is stored in compressed formats that make it hard to visualize.  In this example, I pulled a file out of my Everglades Restoration Project archives…
235. Using daily data in #Tableau to calculate annual sales comps and generate control charts of this data (6/6/2013) - In this post, I use a combination of text and videos to show how to use daily data in Tableau to calculate a seven-day moving average and moving range Daily Comp control chart pair, with control limits shown on each.
236. X-bar and R charts with #Tableau (5/31/2013) - OK.  So it has been a couple of years since I last wrote to my blog.  I have a lot to say, so I’ll get started with a little #Tableau training.
237. A #Tableau Dashboard of Tour de France Winners (7/27/2011) - I’ve used Tableau Software to visualize the historical record of Tour de France winners from the early 1900’s to 2011.