Data, data en nog eens data

Author: tom

  • PIN code

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    A few days ago, I got the suggestion to protect a transaction with a PIN number. But how does that mechanism work? It looks as if this mechanism is used to describe several situations. One situation (the simplest) looks a bit like a password. On the client side, a user enters a PIN code. This…

  • Strange characters

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    In some cases, you get unexpected weird results being returned from your database like: Testù�Summary. This may be expected as one inserted TestùęSummary. Apparently symbols like ę were not recognised and were subsequently translated into �. A likely reason is that the so-called codepage is wrong. Characters like ę are not included in the common…

  • Starting vbscript

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    I recently came across vbscript. I was a bit curious to see how this works. As a first step, I created a small batch file (“tom.bat”) that invokes a vbscript. This script reads as: cscript C:\Users\TOM.VAN-MAANEN\tom.vbs “KINLW7D6LPVM1” exit %ERRORLEVEL% This script shows how such vbscripts can be invoked. One may start a script from the…

  • Security certificates

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    I got interested in security certificates. What are these? How does it work? It is possible to use it on your own website? Those were my questions. The principle is somewhat confusing, but is works. The idea is that a security certificate exists of two elements. One element is a so-called private key. This private…

  • Security and compliance

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    Security and compliance has many different aspects. In the list below, I try to provide an overview on these aspects. We have seen: Authentication. Is the person really the person that he says he is. Principal Propagation. If someone from system A issues a command that system B will start, system B will need to…

  • A check list for the assessment of a data warehouse

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      Yet another checklist Regularly, one comes across an assignment whereby one has to assess a data warehouse. (at least in my type of work). I found a nice checklist that allows a quick overview on a data warehouse. It is composed of several sections, each one covering a certain area. Going through this list,…

  • Skeleton Functional Design

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    Quite often, I have to write a functional design. Such a design can be a tedious job. Part of time is spent is spent on how to represent the findings. One would like to present a nice / concise report. The writing process itself is made easier if a template is available. To this end,…

  • Data Warehouse and allocated cost data

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    In a previous post, I showed that costs data may be allocated to other departments or levels of granularity to enable cost analysis. The allocated cost data are artificial data: the data are only a part of costs for which the data are collected at other levels of the organisation, These data are then intermediate…

  • Cost Allocation

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    In most organisations, cost data are collected on a different level of granularity or attached to another dimension as we would like to see the cost data. Two examples. Cost data, such as advertisements or publicity may be collected at product group level whereas we would like to present the cost data on individual products.…

  • XML records in Oracle tables

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    It is possible to store XML records in an Oracle table. This is one (of the many) way to retrieve XML information from an Oracle environment. It is actually quite simple. An Oracle table may contain columns that allows us to store XML records. An example is: CREATE TABLE “OE”.”TPERSON_DATA” ( “PERSON_ID” NUMBER(3,0), “PERSON_DATA” “XMLTYPE”…