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ok, Yesterday someone asked about statistics packages and programming languages.
In my experience that has been heavily and I mean heavily tied to reporting. Or pushed to create reports.
In my own opinion about things and how things work.
Excel Probably #1 used, Easiest for the end user to get a handle on, Works 80% of the time for what needs to be delivered.
SSRS - My personal favorite, You can do pretty much anything and get a pretty report to hand to people that you can reproduce time and time again with little effort by the programmer, Has not been updated in forever. In serious need of some TLC from MS.
SAS - more statistical than anything, I have watched many companies try to force this to be a reporting tool to produce pretty reports rather than using it as a data number cruncher that the program is designed to be used for. It does work though and once you get the hang of using it, getting information is pretty easy you just proc it.
SPSS - See SAS. LOL
Information Builders(WebFocus) - THE WORST and most horrible package I have ever had to deal with, bad documentation, expensive as all get out, Just the worst reporting package that I have ever had to deal with, I have been very involved with watching two organizations just implode from this package producing horrible data results in a bad time frame. Run away if you ever encounter this package.
So I know there are more packages out there. What other ones should we check out that might be awesomer than SSRS and Excel.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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I've been using Crystal Reports for about 15 years. I'm sure there are better packages out there, but it has been adequate for our needs. Frustrating at times, but adequate.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Look at SSRS on top of SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services), SQL Server Analysis Services[^]
Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.
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For statistics I've never seen anything that can compare to MiniTab, but it's pricey, and has limited reporting capabilities.
Will Rogers never met me.
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I;m sitting with a dilemma. I want to write a Hotel Management System but now do I go with asp.net or wpf? Both are great technologies but each has its own pros and cons? Any advice with which one to go with?
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That will rather depend on the System. I personally wouldn't use WPF but that is just my own irrational bias. Where is your user base - if they are spread around then a web-based solution may be best ... as long as the Hotels are in locations where there is good internet access. Are they going to be sharing data with another hotel in the group - if not then a desktop solution might be more appropriate.
Work out your "business requirements" first then choose the tool that is most appropriate to satisfy them, not the tool that someones says is "best"
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Member 9244203 wrote: each has its own pros and cons
Try to know about that and match it with your requirements. The one that best suits your need is the answer.
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly"- SoMad
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Dilemma would matter to your techno brain.. instead make from what u know as an Expertise 
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Member 9244203 wrote: each has its own pros and cons
The most important of which is that ASP.NET is for web based applications, and WPF for desktop. So that should make it easy to decide.
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Member 9244203 wrote: I want to write a Hotel Management System
I have trouble believing that. Maybe you have to write one. But you want to? That's like saying "yes I'd like step on a lego please".
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Oooo! That's surprisingly painful... not as bad as a UK mains plug: http://www.ashdistribution.co.uk/images/products/large/140-4964_02.jpg[^] but a nasty surprise in the dark none the less!
Worse thing I stepped on? Part of a wasp. We used to have a cat that liked catching them, but she would discard the sting and it's venom sac because they tasted nasty. Finding one by getting stung by the carpet was an experience I do not wish to repeat...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Ee-ouch!
As a teenager I was awoken by a searing pain in the middle of my back I simply couldn't understand. It felt like what I'd imagine having a cigarette stubbed out would feel like. Bewildered and 1/2 awake I just couldn't make sense of it. Was this real? Had I drunkenly fallen on a burning smoke? Isn't it the middle of the week? What the elephant is going on?
I turned on the light to be greeted by a wasp indignantly staring back at me. As it turned out my flipping brother had been painting the house that day and neglected to re-apply the fly-screens to the windows.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Worse thing I stepped on? Part of a wasp
I did that once when I was five or six. My foot swelled up to double its normal size, and I couldn't walk for a week.
Software Zen: delete this;
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You really need to identify the business requirements. The biggest question here is, what is their tolerance for an internet outage? Do you still need the business units to function when they are offline? Answer this question, and you know which direction you need to go.
I previously worked for a company that wrote software for the food service industry. We had a similar dilemma. The managers at the restaurant still had to be able to run their business when in disconnected mode (place inventory orders, reconcile cash, etc.) We ended up going with a hybrid solution. An in store client that allowed the managers to keep things running (even if offline). This client used a queue and WCF to communicate business reporting information to the web. We also provided a web client to provide upper management access to the consolidated data. The web client was also available to employees for self service features such as picking up/dropping shifts.
Sometimes the best answer is a compromise between the two. Is a hybrid solution worth the effort? Will it provide you a competitive advantage?
Hope this was helpful.
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littleGreenDude wrote: Sometimes the best answer is a compromise between the two. Is a hybrid solution worth the effort? Will it provide you a competitive advantage?
Or, in this case "Will it get a passing grade as my homework?" 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Member 9244203 wrote: Both are great technologies
Riiiight.
Personally, if you've never done web development before, and you have the time to discover just how awful it is, I'd suggest going for it. That's what I did, and every time I work on a web site, I can't believe that grown men and women are actually tolerant of the crap that web development is. Yeah, it's fun in a sort of geeky, SM way.
That said, if you go the web development route, pick up and learn a couple decent technologies, like jQuery and Telerik's asp.net web controls.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: Personally, if you've never done web development before, and you have the time to discover just how awful it is
It's crazy but so true. The technologies are so kiddie-like compared to real development. Always the crux of the "average mindset" you know. But the web is a changing. We've only just begun to see what it's going to be in the future.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: But the web is a changing. We've only just begun to see what it's going to be in the future.
Agreed.
[ramble]
It seems like we're on the cusp of some very interesting things. The recent "Insider" posts on some of the AI work is quite intriguing in terms of turning information into knowledge. One thing that still bugs me though is how monolithic these applications are. For example, there's no way (that I know of) to automate the parsing of say, KickStarter projects, to things that just interest me. I have to actually visit the site and search for keywords. Same thing with all sorts of interesting information out there. What ever happened to the idea that web services would make information accessible to everyone? Another example: what I'm working on now with HOPE is to scrape the APOD site so I don't actually have to visit the site to see today's astronomy picture. Why should I have to visit the site? Why can't there be a web service that delivers the information directly to me? Why can't I take, say, a post in spaceflightnow.com, parse the text and do an automated lookup in APOD for relevant photos or deliver wikipedia content on related keywords? The ability to associate information from disparate sites is ridiculously limited to Google in a very manual way.
The web needs to become something much more alive, so that, for example, I could create correlated feeds on say, Ukraine, the latest political maneuverings, the global financial impact, etc.
How much longer do we have to wait for content to essentially "self-tag" so it becomes suitable for correlation and deep "computation?" Google must have that already, IMO, but is it exposed as a service for others?
[/ramble]
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: The web needs to become something much more alive, so that, for example, I could create correlated feeds on say, Ukraine, the latest political maneuverings, the global financial impact, etc.
You do realize, you just almost nailed on the head what Web 3.0 is going to be all about? In a high level nutshell, here are the philosophies behind "what the web is"...
Web 1.0
Gopher sucks. This public directory listing crap is like a phone book. We have phone books already! Let's take the concept, create HTML, and instead of one huge-arse public directory listing we're gonna get fancy. Sure its plain old static, stateless content. We can link to stuff, spruce it up with fonts and pictures. Basically really awesome looking documents that form a "web" like structure due to their interdependence on other public documents to create a "whole".
Web 2.0
Stateless documents suck. We've had JavaScript and hell even Java applets for a while. Flash wants in on the interactive action, but it's about as closed off as a nun in a bikini contest. So, let's run with this and get really dynamic - DHTML FTW! And while we're at it, let's make it a bit more personalized to seem more "alive". I want my users to know I remember their name and social status and especially their CC number. Hell let's even personalize ads. We're just that crazy. And while we're at it, let's take layout and design more seriously since we're tired of gloried word processor type documents. That ship has sailed.
Web 3.0
The web is growing up, we got hardware acceleration, multi-threading, and it's almost like we're a live development platform that magically exist somewhere out there in the magical "cloud". We're still interdependent on other sites to be a "web" much like a cell is alive and interdependent on another in the human body, but you know what would be cool, if everyone got their act together with standards so we can finally share real data. So these sites / cells could actually start working as one. We need a new buzzword of course, let's call this the Semantic Web[^], toss up Content Delivery Networks, etc, so people have access to everything always and start taking this web thing seriously.
In short, that's the exact direction it's heading, the web is just a slow moving beast (comparative to most technology that is). Even MS is getting their act together with standards, finally.
Jeremy Falcon
modified 29-May-14 11:29am.
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From what I've heard, hotels are not early adopters in technology.
WPF has the following disadvantages:
1. It requires reasonably strong graphic cards.
2. It requires a Windows machine.
If you want to actually sell software to hotels, IMHO, it should be accessible to Android tablets, and to ancient (XP) Windows machines.
Just my two bits,
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Quote: 1. It requires reasonably strong graphic cards.
2. It requires a Windows machine.
1. WPF doesn't seem to take too much power. I have a couple year old computer with just an integrated graphics card and I wouldn't think twice about running a WPF application.
2. You nailed it there. With WPF, you're definitely not targeting something that Android will like.
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Surely that's easy, it depends whether the client wants a web app or a standalone desktop app?
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