Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with reporting

Time Tracking and Estimation Software for Herding Cats

sleslie — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:20:52 -0800

New Boss. I'm a programmer. The Boss doesn't like programmers, principally because of time related issues. So, I'm looking for project time software that will quantify the work done towards accomplishing goals in units of hours. Some additional details: I'm thinking for this to be successful, I'd need it to email once a week the status of projects and how many hours are left and how many hours have been spent (because any time spent on this would be 'wasted time'). I'd like it to not take a lot of my time, of course. I'd be willing to justify spending money for a solution. And the biggie, and why I'm doing this: When you're in the middle of trying to figure out why the scope of a variable changes and your internal iterators in the XML class are reset (or whatever), being asked how many more hours, exactly, are left to do this is the last question one wishes to answer. So it should adjust the hours to account for that ever present flux.

It's R+D, not creating 1,000 similar widgets. Help me look like I'm making widgets.

And, ya, I know, not the ideal situation for a job. Google + Goldman Sachs don't wanna hire me right now, and it's a very interesting application. With Equity + base that allows me to buy food and stuff. So I wanna solve this problem before it becomes a bigger problem.

Looking ideas on what systems can be used for efficient internal business reporting in a small / medium business

shalam — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:27:08 -0800

What efficient systems can one use to report different internal working data generated in a small / medium sized business - excel is too clumsy and a customized database based application feels like an overkill? in my company, we have numerous excel sheets fly around every day with different performance data. i would like to have that data presented online so that good information about the business is one click away and does not come to me in multiple attached files - reading which files require me to launch Excel and then I need to worry about storing the file.

i tried to move those excel sheets to google spreadsheet, but google spreadsheets are very basic and i am not able to master basic charting. Editgrid is another option - more powerful and Excel like - current candidate.

But, I am thinking of a scenario where 5+ people enter information and not every information should be seen by all entering information and neither should all information go to every person. So some sort of database and presentation from that database, seems like the ideal option. While technically one can leverage MySQL, create forms in MySQL and create multiple reports from that database, that feels like both - 1) a large undertaking, and 2) feels like it will be a repeat of something that likely already exists either as a commercial solution or even possibly as an open source solution.

Any ideas?

The best of the best in journalism

Nonce — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:28:34 -0800

Please link me to famous and/or great journalism pieces. I read this article from a post on the front page, and it contained this following line:

I grew up reading a New York Times that no longer exists: Tom Wicker reporting from the Attica prison truthfully and in solidarity with the rebelling inmates, Max Frankel ordering expensive investigations into government wrongdoing, the publication of The Pentagon Papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, and I’ll never regret following music critic John Rockwell down Bleeker Street to The Bowery and through those graffiti-covered doors into the future that we inhabit today.

I realized that I have never experienced real journalism, am entirely unfamiliar with the above events, and would like to see how journalism is at its best.

Print or video, it makes no difference to me.

Disputing credit report in Canada

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:40:38 -0800

Please help me *effectively* dispute several items on my credit report (in Canada) Short explanation - checked my credit report, and there are a number of items that are incorrect, accounts that have been 90 days past due for years that were closed 3-4 years ago, accounts that were closed as uncollectable, an account that refers to a bankruptcy that I never had - but they are all real accounts that I actually had, no fraud or identity theft involved. It seems like my creditors just got lazy and somehow never registered closed and paid accounts, or ticked the wrong boxes or something. I never knew because I never use credit or apply for it. I've had one account open for years that I use and it's fine and current. Just to be clear, I have never declared bankrupcty, and I have no accounts that are open for collection or were closed as uncollectable. Basically I have several items that are incorrectly derogatory for various reasons. Also, I'm not desperate for credit for any reason, there's no imminent mortgage or anything like that. I just noticed it and want it cleared up. I have credit cards and all the credit products I need.

There are plenty of sites dedicated to disputing credit report items in the states, but not a good one that I've found for Canadians. I know I have to formally dispute each item, know to send an letter registered mail, and wait for 30 (60?) days. I've seen lists that tell you to go in order for each item, listing excuses (not mine, wrong account number, wrong this or that) trying to wear down (I guess?) the investigative abilities of the credit agency/creditor, does this make any sense? I can't believe it does in the computer age.

Is there anything I'm missing? Should I speak to the creditors first to get them to change the items or go right to the credit agency? Are there different rules in Canada? Are equifax and transunion up here total separate from their US friends (experian is apparently no longer operating in Canada)? Anyone have a good checklist of things to do to most effectively challenge erroneous items? I have a feeling this is going to be somewhat of a fruitless and painful exercise in being on hold on the phone for a long time. Any help appreciated, bonus marks if you know of a reputable law firm, or paralegal or bankruptcy trustee (in Toronto) who offers a service to deal with all of this if I hand over the information.

What are some sources of peace journalism?

Deathalicious — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:46:33 -0800

Are there any sources out there for Peace Journalism? I was at a talk discussion the concept, and they showed a sampling of two broadcasts for the same conflict (a war in Africa): one standard, one using concepts from peace journalism. The second report showed a deeper understanding of the situation and was able to really avoid an "us-them" stance. So peace journalism must be out there; the question is, where? Does anyone know reporters who are known for writing in this style?

Recommendation for reporting tools for MySQL database

gaharrington — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:26:07 -0800

Need recommendations for tools (e.g. Crystal Reports) to build reports from a MySQL database. Should be easy enough for a non-programmer to use. What are the pro's and con's of the tool(s)?

Configured, Boiled Down Numbers Please

rokusan — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:36:20 -0800

A good, modern, local website traffic stats solution? I used to know this stuff, but it's been many years and technology changes, yadda yadda, and this has some special odd requirements... so I prefer some hive mind opinions...

I have a colleague looking for a good solution to traffic stats reporting. He is responsible for dozens of websites, with new ones being added/removed every couple of weeks -- promotions and projects from various departments. He has access to combined/extended Apache logs (regular + referrer) already, but since he controls the websites, he is also open to a javascript-triggered thingie on each page, and a custom server that logs things itself. Either is fine as long as it churns out the results.

For results, he'd need an assortment of the usual hits/views/referrers stuff (visitors from Chile, most popular pages this week, hits on this certain link), but boiled down nicely like so:

1) takes raw logs and turns them into something human-readable.
2) scheduled (weekly or monthly) reports automatically saved as fixed files (auditable, this not recreated each time it's run).
3) reports showing just the info he wants* e-mailed to him as attachments (PDF, ideally, but text files would work) so he can present to management.
4) the ability to request custom reports (the period from Sept 1 to Sept 14, users from China only) on demand, presumably from some kind of web interface -- an on-the-fly config run one-off.
5) the ability to combine or separate data from diff sites/logs by configuration. (that is: these two sites are the same, but these four are all to be tracked separately)

* I don't have a list, but he says it will be one or two pages and NOT change over time. A template of certain reports?

He is considering hiring a human being part-time to do this with some offline program as a secretarial task every week... but that struck me as crazy since it's automatable, right? Right? Hm.

It can't be Google Analytics, sadly for me (I know how to use that) and for privacy/security reasons he'd prefer something running on his own Un*x server rather than a web service.... whether it's the same server as the websites or another doesn't matter, as long as he can control access and keep the data private.

In the old days, I would say this all called for urchin or awstats, I think... plus some magic I don't know about to turn the results into pretty reports and mail them from a big old cron job.

From my perspective (helping find/source/make/install this), I'd be fine with something very complicated that I can tweak the configuration of to produce just what he's asking for -- and no more.

Or if something does all the processing, will run reports on a schedule and produce some kind of manageable (parsable?) output like plain flat tables, I can probably manage turning that into pretty documents and mailing them out with additional scripty code that I can stumble through.

Open source and hackable preferred, because of the configurability and tweakiness required... or guidance to existing things that can be cobbled together. If someone has built/integrated one of these before, or something similar, please mefi-mail me and maybe it's easy work, too. I may have overcommitted myself in trying to help.

OLAP O'MY

SirStan — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:22:51 -0800

How does one get their head around OLAP? Our agency has a large amount of data in an SQL server that covers all aspects of our business processes. Our CFO is looking at reporting packages, and ways to build reports from this data for management staff. We currently have no one who understands SQL outside of the CFO's elementary knowledge (Access), and my understanding from the world web development.

I am looking to leverage this opportunity and introduce reporting internally without having to spend who knows what on consulting services. In the past I have never had an issue picking up new technology and running with it, but OLAP is kicking my butt.

Is there a good primer for BI, OLAP, and solid examples? The Microsoft SQL Server book from Microsoft Press comes with some examples, but that isn't really doing it for me. All of the OLAP examples I have google'd dont seem to really explain what they are doing.. they just jump in with facts and dimensions.

How does one learn OLAP and presenting OLAP in a BI framework?! I have been producing flat reports, but OLAP is kicking my butt!

Report please.

NekulturnY — Sun, 27 May 2007 06:26:10 -0800

Bookfilter. I'm looking for recommendations on great nonfiction writing by reporters. Browsing through amazon.com's non fiction list is a bit unsatisfactory, especially in the "true crimes" section. There's a lot of five starred books that are supposed to be great, but I'm not looking for gore, or macho tales by mobsters breathlessly written down by a Rent-A-Hack.

I'm looking for great reporting, a story that's been fleshed out to perfection. I promise I won't get upset if the author isn't the greatest stylist in the world.

Examples I've enjoyed: a few books by Mark Bowden ('Black Hawk Down', 'Doctor Dealer', to a lesser extent: 'Bringing the Heat'); Robert Caro's writing on Lyndon Johnson and Robert Moses, David Simon's 'Homicide' and 'The Corner'. 'Fast Food Nation' by Schlosser.

I like crime writing, but will read anything if it's well done, even books on American sports that I don't understand (I hear good things about 'Paper Lion'). Recommendations, HiveMind?

Tracking a URL's ranking for specific keywords?

aebaxter — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:20:22 -0800

I need a piece of software or a web application that will help me track a URL's performance relative to specific keywords over time. Searching through previous questions tagged with SEO, I have already found several applications (googlerankings.com and Keyword Tracker, specifically) that do exactly what I'm after, except for only one site, i.e. you need a Google API key.

I need something that will let me put in the URL of any site (not just my own) and a keyword (or several), and it will give me the ranking of that URL for that specific keyword. Ideally the application would track changes in the rankings for the keyword(s) over time. Does this functionality exist?

Paid services are fine.

MS Access Reporting for an Interval

SirStan — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:29:26 -0800

Microsoft Access: How to query data with a variable that is a time value, and incremented. I have a bunch of data (specifically call logs) that I would like to create a trunk usage report from. The data is simply dropped into Access for each outbound/inbound call (TrunkDirection = 2, or 3).

So I have this form (sorry if my SQL is horrible):

SELECT count(*) from Connect
WHERE TrunkDirection = '2' // run again with 3 here
AND PortNumber != '0' // 0 means internal call
AND ConnectTime < $time and disconnecttime> $time
GROUP BY SwitchID // Meaning 'site'

I would like $time to be 0:00:00, 1/1/07, and increment every 60 seconds to create a report that lists my 5 sites (5 switch ID's) and a count of the calls that are occuring at that minute interval.

My concern is how to implement the $time in Access. I don't know VBS, and could do this with Perl/PHP, but would rather not due that. Externally I would simply run 89280 queries against the data, and create a new 89280 table to report on.

(89280 = 60 minutes * 24 hours * 31 days * 2 call states)

I've got the low-down weblog blues

missmobtown — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:56:16 -0800

Hullo. I'm compiling some weblog traffic reports for a site running on two servers (for load balancing). As they are wont to do, each server has collected differnt data... I'm ok as far as the hard numbers go (visitors, views, etc.) but I'm having trouble with figuring out how to present data on things like top ten pages visited, top referrers, etc., since the data for each server is different. Unfortunately these older weblogs are crunched in Webalizer, not a particularly robust compiling program. Any tips or advice from anyone else who does these types of reports about how to lay this out clearly for a persnickety client?

Help me be a better college instructor

printchick — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:38:47 -0800

They say good teachers beg, borrow and steal from one another, so I'm asking you for ideas. I'm teaching a college-level reporting and editorial writing class this spring. I've taught it before, but I'm looking for new and creative ideas to make things interesting. I'm also looking for some techniques to ward off/prevent bad habits--I've had problems in the past with students pushing the attendance policy, and problems of the "but I e-mailed my paper to you! You didn't get it?" variety. We've done some fun stuff in the past--tours of the local newspaper building and newsroom, tours of a local tv news station. I've found a breaking news simulator/CD rom that's also pretty cool. I'm looking for new ways to approach lessons on finding story ideas, leads, interviewing techniques, piecing stories together, etc. I'm also looking specifically for editorial-writing lesson ideas.

My solution to the "but I e-mailed my paper to you!" problem has been that unless they get a confirmation from me that I got their assignment, they can assume I didn't get it. That's seemed to work. Any other ideas?

I'm not sure what to do about the attendance issue--the school's policy is that if you miss more than three sessions of a class that meets weekly, you get an F. I've had to fail one student in the past because she absolutely pushed it. Any ways to help avoid this? I suppose I can make the class so awesome that nobody would ever want to miss it, but I also suppose I could grab them by the backpacks before class and force them to come as well. Frankly, I've been pretty taken aback by the lax attitude some students have had.

I can have the local paper delivered to school so we can use that for a weekly tool. I try to keep things interesting with a healthy dose of humor and stories from my own experiences. Any other ideas? For those who took such classes in the past, what kind of assingments/exercises were memorable and what actually stuck with you and worked?

How Do you 'Make' a Story Timely?

clairezulkey — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:01:52 -0800

How do you make an idea timely? For you freelance writers out there, I wanted to know how you take a magazine/newspaper story idea of yours and make it timely. Do you investigate current events tie-ins and somehow smush the ideas together? Or wait to see if something arises that would make your idea more relevant?

Or, do you only pitch ideas based on timely issues? (To me this seems like it would be less likely to result in assignments, i.e. "Gee how can I turn Nicole Richie's skinniness into a story?" vs. "Hmm I have this article about eating disorders, maybe I can mention Nicole Richie since that's in the news.) Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe that IS the better way to go!

Anyway, just wondering if any writers out there have special little tricks on taking a good idea and making it irrisistable to editors looking for unique ideas on timely topics

Information wants to be freed from my current lack of imagination

planetthoughtful — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:07:34 -0800

WebDesignFilter: I'm wondering if any of the MeFites know of inspirational web design sites that focus on what works in information presentation (e.g., reports etc) as opposed to making attractive home and blog pages? I'm in the process of building a number of pages on a company's intranet that will be used to present and navigate through report data. Some of this data will be presented in tabular format, some in descriptive text format, some a mixture of both; and while the web seems to abound with sites that highlight other sites that have made creative and attractive use of design and CSS etc, I haven't had much luck in finding sites / pages from which I can draw inspiration for designing pages intended to convey business reporting information. Obviously heavy emphasis should be made of ease of absorbing the information being presented, but I suspect that presentation can make a big difference to ease of use, and it would be helpful to look at how others have approached this task. Any help appreciated!

Im having trouble with my 90 year old neighbour. HELP

spinko — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 01:58:03 -0800

Problems with my Neighbour Filter: Im having trouble with my 90 year old neighbour. I live in a ground floor flat and she lives above us. I play music in the daytime as I work from home at a normal level. She is always reporting me to the council saying that I am a nuisance neighbour, HELP! The contract stats that I cannot play music between the hours of 11pm to 7am, so I dont. I have been living in the same ground floor flat for over 6 years and my neighbour makes it a habbit to report me every 6 months. She is a 90 year old that doesnt like neighbours.

The last time she got the council around was because we installed a ceiling fan and she didnt like it. We are now forced to not use the fan at all.

Before we moved in we found out that she used to report the previous tenant all the time. She has nothing better to do as she is always in the house and never leaves.

The problem I now have is that my wife is pregnant and whenever she reports us it gets her really stressed. I havnt told my wife as she will do her nut and I cant afford her to get stressed this early in the pregnancy. My housing accociation is not coming around to talk with me, this sounds serious even though we havnt done anything wrong. I dont know what I can do to start reporting the 90 year old of stress, im even thinking of taking legal action against her.

I get on well with the other tenants and Im thinking of getting a report from them about the problem neighbour. I know she is 90 but she is a pain in the arse.

Another problem is that I play the Acoustic Guitar, I only play it in the daytime. Im now scared of playing it because of the neighbour.

Is their any advice you can give me about what I can do?

A newspeak / new language question.

snailer — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:32:54 -0800

A newspeak / new language question. On the news last week I heard (yet another) sad story about a suicide bombing in Iraq. The reporter said:

"Two suicide bombers dressed as police officers approached the crowd at the gate, one detonated his bomb vest and killed x people. The other bomber was confronted by police officers and was shot dead, but managed to detonate his bomb nonetheless"

Or words to that effect. While I certainly do not wish to detract from the utter horror of the situation on the ground, I feel this is yet another example of "newspeak".

Was this guy a suicide bomber? I know he was of course (he did intend to kill himself and others), but did he accomplish his aim of being a suicide bomber, or is the newsreader's statement simply another bland, ill-thought-out non-sequitur?

Who killed him? Did he kill himself or did the police?

Reporting Spam

NorthCoastCafe — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:47:58 -0800

How to report unwanted e-mail to sender's ISP? I've asked not to be sent any more emails but sender continues--just to annoy me. Besides reporting to the FTC, how can I report it, should I report it to the senders ISP?

How to report offensive people

SparkyPine — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 11:21:31 -0800

I have an 11 year old son who is active in a couple of Yu-Gi-Oh message boards. There are a group of people who frequent these places and post inappropriate web links on occasion. One time, someone posted a porn site disguised as a harmless link. Doing that seems like there is a some kind of law being broken yet I did not know where to turn to report it (yeah, like going to the city police will really help...pppthhh). Another time, someone posted this link (this just can't be legal): http://www.bonsaikitten.com/ My kid was very upset about the bonzai kitty thing and the porn. I want to be able to do something about this but do not know what, where, how. I am wondering if there is an online mechanism to turn to. These Yu-Gi-Oh sites are otherwise great for my kid and I do not want to restrict his access just because of a few perv's and/or freaks.

Stringing Along

drezdn — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 19:17:22 -0800

How do you get work as a stringer? I've been told that places are always looking for stringers to cover the political conventions, and I'm really interested in doing it this year. How does one get their foot in the door for this sort of work- either print or broadcast would work.

I want to report a spammer, but I am having trouble figuring out where to direct my complaint.

TheIrreverend — Mon, 03 May 2004 04:46:09 -0800

I want to report a spammer, but I am having trouble figuring out where to direct my complaint. I have googled this and looked at a lot of anti-spam sites, but I still have questions. [more inside] I know there are some sites/programs that semi-automate the reporting process, but I kinda want to figure this out.

1) In the email header, the last "Received:" line says:
Received: (from www@localhost) by host.foobar.com ... [I have changed the domain name]
Does this mean the spam is probably coming from foobar.com?

2) A lot of anti-spam sites say I should complain to foobar.com, but I have been to foobar.com, and it looks sketchy. Couldn't the spammer own the domain? Should I try it anyway?

3) Assuming I should try elsewhere, I have tracerouted foobar.com, but I can't find any information about the second-to-last ip address. What now? Keep going up the list?

4) This is one of those scams where the spammer wants me to click on a fake link to "verify" some personal information. Let's say that the link goes to barfoo.com. Should I also complain to barfoo.com or their service provider?

Would anyone like to take a look at the email?

Who do I report child pornography spam to?

jalexei — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 11:15:33 -0800

Among the usual deluge of spam to my hotmail account, received a rather graphic solicitation for what appears to be actual kiddie pr0n. I'd like to report this but I'm not sure to whom and how, and I'm reluctant to google on the topic or forward indiscriminately. FBI? (slightly uncomfortable using their online submission form) or someone more local?