Tim.McGuinn.es/s

Just spell it out

Starting off with MIT Big Data Certificate

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MIT Big Data Certificate

Making the Grade: Tackling the Challenges of Big Data from MIT Professional Educational

My plan for 2016 focuses on moving my career by building out my skills. My experience working with large media properties, like AOL, IMG, Lycos and SuperBowl.com, has provided me the foundation of leading the product development team, but now I want to veer back to those days where I got my hands dirty and then built solutions on top of that.

The first step on the path toward moving into the data storytelling world is locking down the big picture. As of this week, I have completed Tackling the Challenges of Big Data, an MIT Professional Educational course. And for this I received a certificate. 🙂

It was a great combination of topics, some that I could get thru easily thanks to past work experience, like visualization (Maxus) and machine learning (AOL / Hakia), and then the more technical aspects which made me buckle down to learn, like database architecture and cryptology. I never had to deal with these directly, but now feel more comfortable knowing how they all fit together.

I’ll add updated posts here as I move more toward this goal where I can work side-by-side with the advanced data scientists and turn their findings into new products and user experiences. This does not have to be on-line, as it would be great to expand opportunities by using data to uncover and predict more everyday activities. We are doing this somewhat at VitalBriefing today; however, the scale is much smaller than the 20 million page views from the AOL days, which even at 20M can still seem small to some of the IoT projects going on today.

Up next: I’ve had a good start with the data architect project at Maxus, but next up is to learn more about the tools, including visualization tools like Tableau which I used at Maxus, but it evolves so fast that you have to stay ahead, and Python which I want to use to crunch my own numbers.

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year - 2016

The 2016 New Year Pizza

It’s the annual New Year Pizza. This year I was able to sneak pepperoni on it, and folk lore says that means a great year ahead.

Holding the Trophy High (while Wearing Gloves)

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Dick's Open Trophy Champions Tour Sr PGA

Walking off the 18th green with the winner’s trophy at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open — in this case the winner was Bernhard Langer.

I came through on my prediction from earlier this week — when the week is over I will be holding the winner’s trophy for the 2014 Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.  Players on the Champions Tour usually are not so brash, but I’m no player — just they guy that carries the trophy from the ceremony on the green back to the press room.

In Honor of Ang

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We think this was sometime around 2000 on a visit home from Boston. I could count on a full sheet waiting for me.

We think this was sometime around 2000 on a visit home from Boston. I could count on a full sheet waiting for me.

It’s been a long week since my mother passed away early Monday morning.  It’s hard to think about a bright side, but I know that she is in a far better place than she has been over the last few months, and so many people have opened their hearts to my family and shared stories about the kind things Ang had done for them.

I never realized how many people use these online obituary tools to, but I sat down today and read through them all.

Ralph Kiner’s Place in History

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NelsonMurphyKinerLegends_medium

Mets Broadcast Team – Lindsay Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner

If you’re not a NY Mets fan, Ralph Kiner’s passing may not be as big a part of your childhood as it is to those of us that grew up in the WOR-9 area.   For those of us that waited every night for Kiner’s Korner following the night’s broadcast this is a great loss.

For baseball fans, Kiner’s place in history is overlooked as current day numbers pile up. When Kiner retired in 1955 after just 10 seasons. He was #6 in career HRs. Check out the Top 6 list at the time:
1. Babe Ruth (714)
2. Jimmie Foxx (534)
3. Mel Ott (511)
4. Lou Gehrig (493)
5. Ted Williams (394)
6. Ralph Kiner (369)
He led the NL in HRs in each of his first 7 seasons in the majors. No rookie has ever led his league since 1905, and Kiner did it his first 7 years.

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Meeting Mr. Tony

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Today was my first day at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open where I volunteer each year in the media room — and sometimes I see golf.  Since today was Pro-Am day, I looked down the list of amateurs to see if I knew anyone playing in case I go for a walk.

About half way down the list, I see “Tony Kornheiser.” Mr. Tony is in Endicott and I don’t know this? This is the same town that advertised a Roy White appearance for a month. Can’t be Tony from PTI.

His playing partner: Harvey Stenger. The President at Binghamton University.  I guess that was Mr. Tony.

If you follow this blog, you may remember how I had my letter read on Tony’s show, and the premise of that note was that they would send me a “TK” sticker that I would then pass along to President Stenger.

So I ran out and found them on the 5th hole. After they finished the hole, I introduced myself and told them the story.  Now I have President Stenger AND Tony, but the sticker was at home. They were both very nice and laughed at how this worked out.

The best line: I told Tony I don’t have know what to do between 10 am – noon since I can’t listen while he’s off for the summer. His response: “Now I’m here in person.”

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Do You Know Who I Am!?!

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That question is one of many inside jokes known to regular listeners of The Tony Kornheiser Show heard on ESPN 980 out of Washington. His show is my regular 10 am – noon listening via their website or the podcast if I’m busy.

Recently he started offering “TK” stickers, but the trick is that you can’t just ask for one; you have to work for it. Some people go as far as to record gag versions of the show’s theme song or send in gifts — I wrote a note.

Knowing that Tony went to school in Binghamton, I loaded it with Binghamton University references. The premise is that I have found myself recently attending events that BU President Harvey Stenger also attended, but I needed an excuse to speak with him.

Enter the sticker. Listen to Tony read my letter.

Please note – In my letter I’m joking when I say I left President Stenger’s speech early. Again an inside joke based on Tony’s habit of leaving dinner parties before the dinner is served.

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Irish It Up

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From The Onion

From: Irish-Americans Gear Up For 'The Reinforcin' O' The Stereotypes'

Nothing big today except for the expectations set by my forefathers that today I will drink an excessive amount of Guinness. Unfortunately to bystanders this is one (another) of those expectations that I never fulfill. Part of the enigma of being Tim McGuinness.

Maybe it’s the phoniness of the season. Yesterday I received an email promo from a big website addressed to “Timothy O’McGuinness”. Seriously, if you Google “Tim+Mc+Guinness,” the top result is a bar fight. Do we really have to add the “O’whatever” to Irish-up my name?