Author Topic: IT Secrets thread!  (Read 15751 times)

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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IT Secrets thread!
« on: January 24, 2022, 12:36:26 am »
I've been doing it for about 40 odd years.

The more I learn, the more I realise I don't know, but I somehow still struggle on with a wide range of er.. shit doing er.. more er.. shit :)


This is a tecchy thread!

Post your questions here. RAWK has a wide range of dudesses and dudeadudes that are awesome and can probably help.


My Secret #1

It's all very well Googling shit or going to answer sites, but if you know little about what you're looking up, then the answers you get might not be able to put into context of your current experience.



Ask any tech questions here and I'm sure someone will/can help :)
« Last Edit: January 24, 2022, 04:34:13 pm by Andy @ Allerton! »
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline NarutoReds

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2022, 07:26:25 am »
I've been doing it for about 40 odd years.

The more I learn, the more I realise I don't know, but I somehow still struggle on with a wide range of er.. shit doing er.. more er.. shit :)

This is a tecchy thread!

Post your questions here. RAWK has a wide range of dudesses and dudeadudes that are awesome and can probably help.
Do you mind if I ask, mate... Are you are programmer OR software engineer OR software architect OR network administrator OR network engineer?  :)

Would love to know that. 40 years is a long, long time, mate...
It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for and to remind the opposition who they're playing against!

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2022, 08:54:13 am »
Do you mind if I ask, mate... Are you are programmer OR software engineer OR software architect OR network administrator OR network engineer?  :)

Would love to know that. 40 years is a long, long time, mate...

Been quite a few things over the years :)   Programmer, Analyst, Designer, Business Analyst, Tester, Network bod, Support, Operations, SysOps, DevOps, Cloud Engineer..

Probably used a couple of hundred technologies/languages over the years
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2022, 08:57:16 am »
He’s actually an alien, not a clown.

Online Elmo!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2022, 08:58:42 am »
Been quite a few things over the years :)   Programmer, Analyst, Designer, Business Analyst, Tester, Network bod, Support, Operations, SysOps, DevOps, Cloud Engineer..

Probably used a couple of hundred technologies/languages over the years

I presumed you were an expert on multithreading.

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2022, 09:04:12 am »
I presumed you were an expert on multithreading.

I'm an expert on quaffing Stella.
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline ChaChaMooMoo

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2022, 09:05:03 am »
I'm an expert on quaffing Stella.

Euphamism?

Offline NarutoReds

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2022, 09:31:45 am »
He’s actually an alien, not a clown.
Hahahahah!!!!  ;D  ;D

** Need an army of Mars to bring Liverpool FC down in the game.  8)
It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for and to remind the opposition who they're playing against!

Offline NarutoReds

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2022, 09:35:51 am »
Been quite a few things over the years :)   Programmer, Analyst, Designer, Business Analyst, Tester, Network bod, Support, Operations, SysOps, DevOps, Cloud Engineer..

Probably used a couple of hundred technologies/languages over the years
Just sharing. I am a programmer. Is building a React JS apps right now, talking to an API powered by Microsoft dotNET (C# language).

One man show, my boss asked me to build both, front-end (React JS) and back-end (dotNET) with MSSQL Server...

On another note, you sound like a genius, Andy. Seriously.

p/s: They do not want to hire a front-end developer, I think I should request a raise in salary, I guess - in doing both.
It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for and to remind the opposition who they're playing against!

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2022, 10:05:28 am »
Just sharing. I am a programmer. Is building a React JS apps right now, talking to an API powered by Microsoft dotNET (C# language).

One man show, my boss asked me to build both, front-end (React JS) and back-end (dotNET) with MSSQL Server...

On another note, you sound like a genius, Andy. Seriously.

p/s: They do not want to hire a front-end developer, I think I should request a raise in salary, I guess - in doing both.


Ha ha, I'm not a genius - fairly average I'd say - but to be in this game for as long as I have, you have to reinvent you several times as technology, science and language change.

I've had to reinvent myself four times so far - but it's fantastic if you love the tech to be able to play with new stuff and to change the paradigm in every era.

I've never wanted ever to be a manager, so I've been a tecchie in all that time as that's what I love doing.
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline AndyInVA

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2022, 01:51:53 am »
What has been your work environment for the last few years. Are you purely a work at home tech guy or are you in an office in a team. What is your primary communication method. Do you voice call, text or video. Are you self employed with multiple clients, staff or a consultant to one company. Or how has your employment situation changed down the years. I just find it interesting to know a little more about a profession that I don’t know a whole lot about what people do.

Offline Kashinoda

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2022, 06:00:21 am »
Just sharing. I am a programmer. Is building a React JS apps right now, talking to an API powered by Microsoft dotNET (C# language).

One man show, my boss asked me to build both, front-end (React JS) and back-end (dotNET) with MSSQL Server...

On another note, you sound like a genius, Andy. Seriously.

p/s: They do not want to hire a front-end developer, I think I should request a raise in salary, I guess - in doing both.

If your front end is Javascript why don't you opt for Node.js as the backend and do the whole thing in Javascript? Though I'm not sure how well Node.js integrates with SQL Server.

If there's a Microsoft platform consideration you could do this all in PowerApps in about 1/20th the time too, you are subject to license costs but its very powerful.

-----

In the spirit of the thread, Windows Key + E  :wave

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« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 07:51:05 am by Kashinoda »
:D

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2022, 06:41:04 am »
Windows? Install Launchy!

Offline rob1966

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2022, 08:40:09 am »
What has been your work environment for the last few years. Are you purely a work at home tech guy or are you in an office in a team. What is your primary communication method. Do you voice call, text or video. Are you self employed with multiple clients, staff or a consultant to one company. Or how has your employment situation changed down the years. I just find it interesting to know a little more about a profession that I don’t know a whole lot about what people do.

Work at home, initially used Webex but now on MS Teams. Video call every morning at 10am as a catch up, then the odd voice call, or messages on Slack.
Jurgen, you made us laugh, you made us cry, you made Liverpool a bastion of invincibilty, now leave us on a high - YNWA

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2022, 09:17:30 am »
Windows? Install Launchy!

Or chocolatey or WSL2 :)
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #15 on: January 28, 2022, 09:19:59 am »
What has been your work environment for the last few years. Are you purely a work at home tech guy or are you in an office in a team. What is your primary communication method. Do you voice call, text or video. Are you self employed with multiple clients, staff or a consultant to one company. Or how has your employment situation changed down the years. I just find it interesting to know a little more about a profession that I don’t know a whole lot about what people do.

I've been WFH

Comms channels are Slack and MS Teams.

Meeting people face to face or remotely is the same thing to me. I can type as quickly as I can talk and I'd say that 99% of my communication is short messages back and forth.

I tend to do my own planning and have a reasonable handle on the stuff I've doing at any given time and when working with others, as you are always able to get a message away without disturbing them I find that better than if you are in an office and maybe being 'pestered' (for want of a better word)

If five people ask you a question via slack or whatever and you're busy then you can always check your messages when you get a minute and get back to everyone without disrupting your work.
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline Kashinoda

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #16 on: January 28, 2022, 09:20:38 am »
Or chocolatey or WSL2 :)

Outside of Enterprise/Business, what use are package managers for Windows?
:D

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #17 on: January 28, 2022, 09:21:48 am »
Also if you use bash (Mac/Linux/WSL2) then you REALLY want to get ohmyzsh and use a zsh shell instead

https://ohmyz.sh/

https://linuxhint.com/install-use-oh-my-zsh/


I'd recommend you use powerlevel10k with it too (Shows you how on the second link)

Also make sure you turn on completions in your .zshrc file for stuff you use

Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #18 on: January 28, 2022, 09:24:06 am »
Outside of Enterprise/Business, what use are package managers for Windows?

Not sure what you mean? If you use python, you'll want pip. If you use node.js then you'll want npm

WSL2 is literally Ubuntu running on your machine (That you can use directly with stuff like Docker)

brew and chcolately are available and let you install stuff to your Ubuntu WSL2 instance or Powershell

I use Docker and Kubernetes all the time on my own machne for testing (Mac/Windows)
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline Kashinoda

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #19 on: January 28, 2022, 10:09:37 am »
Fair enough, I do indeed do have both PIP and NPM. I guess I was referring to the likes of Choclately more specifically, but I don't mess around with the Linux subsystem.

Some other recommendations,
MobaXterm for SSH: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/
WinSCP for all things file transfer related: https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

For those wanting cheap dedicated servers, look out for sales on: https://www.soyoustart.com/en/essential-servers/, you can change the region to 'World' to get them even cheaper.

I have one of their 'Game' servers with 4790K, 240GB SSD, 32GB RAM with 1Gbps Up/Down for £27 a month.

« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 10:12:56 am by Kashinoda »
:D

Offline rob1966

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #20 on: January 28, 2022, 10:12:17 am »
I'll tell you a secret, I crashed the live server last year running a select from the DB and brought down the Branch system. Caused 3 days of chaos ;D
Jurgen, you made us laugh, you made us cry, you made Liverpool a bastion of invincibilty, now leave us on a high - YNWA

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2022, 10:24:58 am »
I'll tell you a secret, I crashed the live server last year running a select from the DB and brought down the Branch system. Caused 3 days of chaos ;D

LIMIT 1000 is your friend :)
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

Offline Malaysian Kopite

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2022, 10:51:10 am »
I'll tell you a secret, I crashed the live server last year running a select from the DB and brought down the Branch system. Caused 3 days of chaos ;D
Football without fans is nothing.

We've won 18 titles, 5 European Cups, 7 FA Cups, but today must be the greatest victory of all.

Offline rob1966

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #23 on: January 28, 2022, 10:54:56 am »
LIMIT 1000 is your friend :)

The DBAs got an arse kicking for not putting limits in 😂
Jurgen, you made us laugh, you made us cry, you made Liverpool a bastion of invincibilty, now leave us on a high - YNWA

Offline RainbowFlick

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2022, 12:22:18 pm »
Hypothetically...

If you download a UK VPN on your iPhone whilst on holiday abroad and then use said iPhone as a Personal Hotspot for your work laptop... does work laptop show a location in the UK?

Just want to avoid paying a premium for a Monday return and I can work remotely fine anyway. No idea if my company even checks/cares but I'd rather not chance it.
YNWA.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #25 on: January 28, 2022, 12:34:35 pm »
When in doubt, hit it hard on the side. If that doesn't work then unplug it and reboot.

That's 30 years of knowledge in the IT industry right there. You're welcome.

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #26 on: January 28, 2022, 12:59:24 pm »
Hypothetically...

If you download a UK VPN on your iPhone whilst on holiday abroad and then use said iPhone as a Personal Hotspot for your work laptop... does work laptop show a location in the UK?

Just want to avoid paying a premium for a Monday return and I can work remotely fine anyway. No idea if my company even checks/cares but I'd rather not chance it.

Depends what your network team have set up

Quite a few businessed would get the latest list of VPNs (Nord or whatever) and would routinely block them

Can you not logon to your Work VPN?
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #27 on: January 28, 2022, 01:30:11 pm »
Hypothetically...

If you download a UK VPN on your iPhone whilst on holiday abroad and then use said iPhone as a Personal Hotspot for your work laptop... does work laptop show a location in the UK?

Just want to avoid paying a premium for a Monday return and I can work remotely fine anyway. No idea if my company even checks/cares but I'd rather not chance it.

Yes if you connect to a VPN location in the UK. 

I’d try it at home first and use your phone as a hotspot while connected to a VPN to make sure you can get connected OK to make sure your firm doesn’t block that type of access.

Personally speaking we never check where users are connecting from, as long as they’re logged in and working no one cares where you’re actually located if WFH.

Offline RainbowFlick

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #28 on: January 28, 2022, 02:29:25 pm »
Depends what your network team have set up

Quite a few businessed would get the latest list of VPNs (Nord or whatever) and would routinely block them

Can you not logon to your Work VPN?

Oh I can login to my work VPN but say e.g. I'm in Spain, surely it logs your initial IP too. Not that I think it flags. Don't really want to seem like I'm taking the piss as I've already had work-from-Europe agreed for a couple other times this year if I want to use it.
YNWA.

Offline RainbowFlick

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #29 on: January 28, 2022, 02:29:56 pm »
Yes if you connect to a VPN location in the UK. 

I’d try it at home first and use your phone as a hotspot while connected to a VPN to make sure you can get connected OK to make sure your firm doesn’t block that type of access.

Personally speaking we never check where users are connecting from, as long as they’re logged in and working no one cares where you’re actually located if WFH.

Cheers. Only paro cos I saw someone on TikTok get caught  ;D
YNWA.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #30 on: January 28, 2022, 06:00:38 pm »
Oh I can login to my work VPN but say e.g. I'm in Spain, surely it logs your initial IP too. Not that I think it flags. Don't really want to seem like I'm taking the piss as I've already had work-from-Europe agreed for a couple other times this year if I want to use it.

If you are connecting directly to your work VPN, your public IP absolutely would be visible to your work's IT.

In my experience though, most IT departments don't give a shit what employees are doing, as long as it isn't an IT security risk.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #31 on: January 28, 2022, 06:08:17 pm »
Oh I can login to my work VPN but say e.g. I'm in Spain, surely it logs your initial IP too. Not that I think it flags. Don't really want to seem like I'm taking the piss as I've already had work-from-Europe agreed for a couple other times this year if I want to use it.
how are you taking the piss? If you are doing the work does it matter where you are, assuming you haven't gone over the number of days you are allowed to work abroad for tax purposes?

Our ex-CEO spent loads of time in Finland working whilst visiting his wife's family but I guess as he was the CEO nobody could stop him anyway! 😁
However if something serious happens to them I will eat my own cock.


If anyone is going to put a few fingers deep into my arse it's going to be me.

Offline RainbowFlick

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #32 on: January 29, 2022, 08:34:29 am »
how are you taking the piss? If you are doing the work does it matter where you are, assuming you haven't gone over the number of days you are allowed to work abroad for tax purposes?

Our ex-CEO spent loads of time in Finland working whilst visiting his wife's family but I guess as he was the CEO nobody could stop him anyway! 😁

we're fully remote now but some people get a bit weird about working from abroad lately, i'm probably overthinking it but have a few new dinosaurs in the business  ;D
YNWA.

Offline Andy @ Allerton!

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #33 on: January 29, 2022, 09:20:16 am »
we're fully remote now but some people get a bit weird about working from abroad lately, i'm probably overthinking it but have a few new dinosaurs in the business  ;D

I'm with the other people here.

If you are doing your work then what's the problem?
Quote from: tubby on Today at 12:45:53 pm

They both went in high, that's factually correct, both tried to play the ball at height.  Doku with his foot, Mac Allister with his chest.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #34 on: January 29, 2022, 04:36:39 pm »
I am expected to be within commuting distance of work in case I need to go in. There's leeway there so if it is agreed in advance they wouldn't mind but generally have to be at home.

Offline Dan The Man 28373

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #35 on: January 30, 2022, 07:25:11 pm »
How easy is it to learn basic SQL or VBA?  I'm a Data Analyst for a major cosmetics manufacturer & I'm responsible for a lot of their UK sales reporting.  We get a lot of data & I put together dashboards visualising the raw data in various formats.  I use Excel quite a lot but it's still quite manual.  Would it more be macros than SQL that would be beneficial for me to automate processes, updating the dashboards when new data files are loaded.

Raw data is basically sales data by product, category, retailer & by week.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #36 on: January 31, 2022, 10:42:38 am »
How easy is it to learn basic SQL or VBA?  I'm a Data Analyst for a major cosmetics manufacturer & I'm responsible for a lot of their UK sales reporting.  We get a lot of data & I put together dashboards visualising the raw data in various formats.  I use Excel quite a lot but it's still quite manual.  Would it more be macros than SQL that would be beneficial for me to automate processes, updating the dashboards when new data files are loaded.

Raw data is basically sales data by product, category, retailer & by week.

SQL is straight forward starting out - though while the fundamentals are the same, some versions are more powerful than others. I.e. T-SQL is Microsoft's version for SQL Server and it's easier to work witth than MySQL in my opinion.

If you're looking to enhance your reporting output I'd honestly look into Power BI, that's Microsoft's Business Intelligence platform. You'll be able to use your Excel data there too (along with any other data source you can think of, including SQL).
:D

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #37 on: February 1, 2022, 08:43:18 am »
SQL isn't too tricky. Though I'm coming from a standpoint of programming languages and development, and not data so much. I can't think of many reasons not to learn it in that field. If you're a Data Analyst then my feeling is it would be a worthwhile thing to learn, seen it mentioned enough, and I know people with that role who are still knee deep in SQL.

I think if you got your head into it you would learn a fair bit of theory and it would be a good background skill especially if you ever worry about job security

I mean in terms of what gets used most MySQL is massive. So as a question as to how hard: maybe not very. You're probably thinking in the right ways already.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #38 on: February 2, 2022, 08:52:57 am »
Dan. Vba and sql are my bread and butter.
Happy to do a half hour call with you to talk through the size of the data and the kinds of things you are doing. Power query is an option too.
No charge as long as you talk to me about data analysis as I'm hooked on learning ML but never get started.

Anyone on here , maybe Andy, able to help with configuring SQL in azure? I've got the dB running fine and connect as long as I can open the firewall to known IP addresses which is good for the use cases I've encountered so far. But if I want a public one ...   I'm assuming I need an app server with a fixed IP address but I don't see how that improves security . I assume security is the reason I can't allow access from anywhere.
"All the lads have been talking about is walking out in front of the Kop, with 40,000 singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'," Collins told BBC Radio Solent. "All the money in the world couldn't buy that feeling," he added.

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Re: IT Secrets thread!
« Reply #39 on: February 2, 2022, 09:06:27 am »
How easy is it to learn basic SQL or VBA?  I'm a Data Analyst for a major cosmetics manufacturer & I'm responsible for a lot of their UK sales reporting.  We get a lot of data & I put together dashboards visualising the raw data in various formats.  I use Excel quite a lot but it's still quite manual.  Would it more be macros than SQL that would be beneficial for me to automate processes, updating the dashboards when new data files are loaded.

Raw data is basically sales data by product, category, retailer & by week.

Longer thought, if it's this particular scenario, then power query is probably your friend here.
SQL is great , but you've got to set up a database, load data into it. Learn about table definitions and maybe indexes (*), and it's probably difficult to learn just the bits you need . Those bits will be easy to learn , but knowing what to ignore will be tough.
VBA is also easy to learn, and a sprinkling might help you, I assume you've seen the macro recorder? 

(* if you've got enough data to need indexes, then you probably don't want to be using VBA to analyse your data!)

PM me if you don't want to pollute this thread!

"All the lads have been talking about is walking out in front of the Kop, with 40,000 singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'," Collins told BBC Radio Solent. "All the money in the world couldn't buy that feeling," he added.