Lockdown started on the March 26 here in New Zealand, and following the Prime Minister's announcement on April 20th, we're looking at just an extra 2 business days in Level 4, before we move to Level 3 after the ANZAC long weekend. Level 3 means that...

In part two of my Adobe equivalent Free Open Source Software (FOSS) blog I thought I would look at the video editing pipeline and find some free alternatives for your video editing needs. You can read Part One which covers Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign here....

Reporting and analytics computations are usually very resource-consuming, therefore they are never executed on the same server where the crucial business application is running. Instead, data is copied into dedicated servers to be dissected and studied for insights....

Many places all over the world are currently in self-isolation mode in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In New Zealand, lock down started on Thursday March 26, which means that some people are able to work from home. At OptimalBI, we are working from home and on the...

Woohoo we've got a new website!  If you're reading this blog you're already on it and we reckon you should click a few extra buttons than you were planning to and go check it out... Data really does make anything possible, and we're here to help you harness data...

We find ourselves in unprecedented times. All across the globe the impact of COVID-19 is being felt, it’s heart-breaking reading the stories of loss, the impact on societies, businesses and individuals as a result of measures put in place to restrict the momentum of...

One of the things many developers love about MongoDB and other NoSQL databases is the ability to store flexible objects in their native format. When you walk around the office singing its praises, experienced developers chime in and tell you that this is a quick path...

You might have heard this term thrown about a bit recently.  Perhaps it's because you've heard politicians referring to it when discussing educational reform, or you've noticed how your job has you doing more with spreadsheets than you did five years ago.  What ever...

What is algorithmic bias? A systematic error in computer algorithms which leads to unfair outcomes and giving privileges to one of the groups of users over all others. An algorithm is a set of instructions designed to perform a specific task.  This can be a simple...

I've spent the last 8 years of my life surrounded by data nerds, and while I've learned so many new things about data, I can not even pretend I'm a data nerd myself.  An enthusiast for sure, but a nerd... no way! I lack what my peers would consider the hammer and...

Have you ever needed data for a work or academic project? If so, are there any good sites on the internet where you can easily access data? I have had to complete several projects at work where I had to build reports in various BI tool (Qlik and PowerBI). I needed to...

This month OptimalBI is hosting a Data Science Pioneers documentary screening. The first screening was crowded and the rest of the sessions are booking up very quickly, so you might have heard about it already. I'm guessing, the selling point (although it's completely...

We like making life a little bit easier here at OptimalBI and one of the ways we have found to do that is by making quick how to guides. The standard text bullet point style guides isn’t what we do, we do cool sh!t. Below is a guide we have on the SAS function INTNX....

Are you new to Power BI? If the answer is yes, where do you start to learn how to use it? There is a lot of useful information on the Internet, but how do you know if it is any good? Look no further, I have compiled a list of useful resources that I have used over the...

I have used Business Event Analysis and Modelling (BEAM*) many times at work over that last five years.  So, what makes it great and why do I use it time and again? First of all, I should explain what  BEAM* is. What is BEAM*? BEAM* is a flexible methodology allowing...

Probably you know that our boss Victoria supports many digital initiatives across New Zealand. One day she has shared with us one of the latest Digital Future Aotearoa initiative called Electric Garden. This is an Internet of Things solution for garden monitoring...

Earlier this year in a Christchurch auditorium packed with girls, their mothers, fathers and brothers - I learned just what a big deal Ada Lovelace was from the live performance show ADA ADA ADA. And WOW what a show it was. Employing the power of a programmable LED...

If you have ever had to export pictures from any of the major image editing software (Photoshop etc) then you will know that there are quite a few image types you can use. What many people don't know is when to use each format, and what some formats can do that others...