Moving to the Cloud.

Tech
No, this isn't going to be all about sneezing while making cake icing - sorry! It'll be about a project I was on recently and why this sort of thing, while time-consuming, really is worthwhile.

The company I was working with had a rather old Pick system completely custom-written for all customer-facing functions, newer warehouse controls, and a variety of reporting systems. They already had an on-premises SQL Server instance to provide an acceptable interface for all the reporting software, and the Pick Basic programmers had created the output software to fill it with data.

Their problem had been that the Pick system was becoming more demanding of maintenance in its old age, so they had decided to upgrade their whole system by replacing the Pick system with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 system, which, of course, lives in the cloud.

Happily, one of the features of the Dynamics system is that pretty much any entity within it can be set to export values every so may seconds (or minutes, ...) to an external instance of Azure SQL Database (named by default "BYOD" !!). The database records (stored in tables defined in the export) include indications of source, date, and time of creation. This allows the developer of an SSIS package on-premises to pull the data, transform it, and use it to update tables in a local SQL Server instance.

The transformation processes can, of course, include not just aggregation by time or by customer, supplier, warehouse, article, etc., but also the change of units - singles to dozens or kg to lbs and oz ! For example, Dynamics might record that 12 items were picked from the warehouse whereas the reporting systems might work in units of a dozen.

So, to convert to using the Dynamics system one must first connect it to the various electronic reporting systems from warehouses, etc. But .... connect it in such a way that what it produces in terms of data resulting from any specific event must be identical to that produced by the legacy system. This sounds simple, but that's as far as the simplicity goes!

So in mid 2018 Microsoft announced an add-on to Dynamics 365 called "BYOD". This would be an Azure SQL Database instance, running beside the Dynamics instance. Entities withing Dynamics could be modified to maintain tables in the BYOD with their values, updating at regular time intervals.
The result of this is that an on-prem system can be fitted with some SQL Server jobs written using SSIS and these jobs used to pull data from the BYOD database. The data can be pulled down, loaded into local staging tables, and then transformed into the formats expected by the programs running off the on-prem system. Once you've got all that designed, implemented, tested, and working then you're ready to move over from your old system to the new cloud one.
The key word here is designed - that includes determining all the pieces of data that the down-stream programs (reporting, etc.) need and then finding them in the new cloud data system. Once you've done that then the job is relatively simple, although tedious and needing a lot of patience.

[UPDATE] March, 2020; It looks like I'm going to be doing another similar project soon ... more info to come. Just keep away from CoViD-19 !!

A Drop In Poverty ?

The content of this post is something that a friend of mine posted on Facebook and which I do not want to lose. Facebook posts are notoriously good at vanishing, never to be found again.
The author goes by Debby Dootson on Facebook.

I took a big ol' hour and a half step-out while a certain someone was counting how many lies and half-truths they could pack into a speech, but thanks to social media I got to see this tidbit.

"Poverty is plummeting."

The poverty level is around $11,000 for a single person under 65 years in the US. The minimum wages in several states have been going up during the last 4 years due to state regulations being passed, which would bring even a part-time minimum wage worker over $11,000. Obviously the rate is going to go down. Nobody talks about the fact that the poverty rate is set INSANELY low, to a point where no one could survive in any part of America on that amount anyways unless they had someone else supporting them.

From the Census Bureau: "The official poverty rate in 2018 was 11.8 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from 12.3 percent in 2017. This is the fourth consecutive annual decline in poverty. Since 2014, the poverty rate has fallen 3.0 percentage points, from 14.8 percent to 11.8 percent."

Whoopty-fking-doo you managed to get it so over 10% of America still can't manage to make $11,000 a year. A 3 percentage point decrease in poverty. Let's see what the percentage point increase is in the top quintile's median income in the meantime, shall we? I'll just throw a chart in. People like them better and I think they have a bit more impact. Decide on your own. You have to look holistically to get the whole story.

In case you want to see the it in adjusted dollars, see below. This is a perfect example of numbers not telling the whole story. Someone could say to you: 
"The 4th quintile is reaping the largest benefits from Trump's tax plan! See? They saw a 5% increase while the top 5% of households only saw 2.5%!" 
Then you look at the numbers, and realize how much more 2% of $400,000 is than 5% of $35,000. Hmm.

Also notice that little dip on the top quintile? This is genius. It makes the powerful people with lots of money feel like they are losing out, so they will keep voting for policies that appear to support them while mainly benefiting only the highest echelon. We need to be taking notes for our next life just in case. This is brilliant. 
The upper class feels victimized by the policies and sees gains being made by the lower classes (which are minimal and largely token) and therefore ask for even lower taxes and less restrictions because GAWD can't you see the poor people are making more money and here we are stagnating when we work just as hard! 
God!, the longer I look at it the more genius it is. Look at that slope uptick on the top 5%. Royal scam.

I would just like to say that I am immensely grateful to have friends such as Debby. They make life so much easier to live.

Chicken Rubs

This post definitely comes under the heading of food! It's a catch-up from the summer where I prepped a fair amount of chicken for people to grill and eat.

All the quantities are in teaspoons, but are ratios so that you can easily make more ... a quarter of a teaspoon of a powder is going to be a pain to measure .... multiply everything in the recipe by four, use what you need, and pput the rest in a Zip-lock baggie in the freezer for next time!

Coffee and Fennel

Ingredients
This turned out to be a popular mix, with a lot of positive comments about the "strange taste in the background" (the fennel !)

Coffee	24
Brown Sugar	6
Salt	2
Chile Powder	2
Fennel	3
Chocolate Powder	6

Sweet Garlic and Onion

This one has the potential for heat - be careful of the amount of Cayenne Pepper.

Smoked Paprika	16
Brown Sugar	16
Salt	16
Chile Powder	8
Black Pepper	12
Garlic Powder	12
Onion Powder	12
Cumin Powder	1
Celery Salt	4
Cayenne Pepper	1

Mediterranean Garlic and Onion

This one is similar to the one above, but with a Mediterranean flavour  rather than a more New World one.

Smoked Paprika	6
Salt	6
Garlic Powder	6
Brown Sugar	6
Cumin Powder	1
Sage	2
Oregano	2
Cayenne Pepper	1
Black Pepper	2
Coriander	1

Method

• In all cases, mix your herbs first.
• Open your (thawed, if necessary) chicken
• Cut chicken breasts to desired size - about 4 to 5 inch pieces (2 or 3 per breast)
• Rub herb mixture in to the meat, applying generously
• Pack meat into plastic food savers, add a little olive oil,  and stash in fridge
• Keep for about three days before use
• Every twelve hours bring meat from stash, add a little more rub mixture, and rub into the meat
• Remove from fridge at least four hours before cooking, and allow to warm
• Grill on medium-high heat
• To check for completion cut into thickest part of largest piece after about 10 minutes on grill

Winter Food - Slow Cooker Happiness

 Hot Food After Christmas
After Christmas is always a tough time for cooking. You're stuffed with so much bird that you really can't stand to see turkey for at least another 10 months. Mountains of Christmas Pudding, in lakes of whiskey, drift across your fevered dreams.

So, in the midst of this, food was required, and I was the one volunteered to shop at the local supermarket (here in Spokane, where we're staying for a few days) and make something to stop the incessant background rumbling of tummies !

Ingredients

Leeks	4
Celery	1 head
Chicken Broth	1 litre
Sweet Corn	2 cans
Chicken Breast	2
Andouille	1 large

Herbs and Spices

Fennel	6 tbsp
Herbes de Provence	4 tbsp
Garlic	2 tbsp
Parsley	4 tbsp
Salt and Pepper	1 tsp each

Instructions

• Chop the celery and leeks into small pieces.
• Rinse the leek well to remove and sand or mud.
• Add the greens and the chicken broth to the slow cooker.
• Start the slow cooker at maximum heat.
• Cut the chicken breasts into small (2 cm) pieces and fry them gently in oil (olive oil or even butter will do fine) with more Herbes de Provence added to flavour.
• Slice the Andouille and fry this gently also.
• Add the meat to the slow cooker, and then the balance of the herbs and spices. 
• Mix well and then add the corn and blend well into the mix.
• Leave to cook for two or three hours and then serve.

Bon Appetit!!

TTFN

Autumn Morning

Good Morning!

Obviously we have a small leak of warm air from our house, that our little friend here found last night.

TTFN

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This was made for an Easter lunch, and everyone seemed to like it very much, which was very gratifying!

The Meat

I took the loins (there were four in all), trimmed any excess fat off the outsides, rubbed them in onion salt and white pepper, and left them overnight in the fridge.

The next day I sliced them length-ways as far through as I could without ending up with two pieces.

Some more salt and pepper seasoning was applied to the new surfaces.


The Stuffing

The stuffing was made with:

• young spinach leaves
• dried cranberries (buy in bag at Target!)
• chestnuts (buy in bag at Target!)
• 2 or 3 fresh eggs
• mushrooms
• sausage meat (Jimmy Dean's)
• olive oil

All this was chopped up and mixed up well into a paste.


















Each loin was laid out, topped with a good thick layer of stuffing mix, folded over, and then gently tied by looping string around it, spiraling from one end to the other. My darling wife was engaged for this task, as I only have two hands!

The stuffed loins were then placed onto a large baking tray, covered with alu-foil, and cooked at 375F for an hour.

Bon Appetit !

Mike

Chicken to Grill

It's been a long time since I was here - sorry!
Here's something to try on your grill or barbeque now that nice warm summer temperatures are here
The star of the show is, of course, the chicken - whatever cut you like, skinned.
The supporting act is this:
Ingredients:

Black Pepper	1
White Pepper	2
Salt	1
Onion Powder	2
Garlic Powder or Flakes	1
Oregano	2
Paprika	1
Coriander	3
Fennel Seed or Powder	3

There aren't any units because they're all the same units - whatever you like! - just make heaps and save what's over for next time!

Notes:

• You'll notice in the photo that there's no salt - I used Onion Salt instead of the Onion and the Salt.
• You'll also notice that there 's two jars to the right - Fennel Seed and Fennel Powder. You can use either or both equally well.

Method:

1. Wash of and dry the chicken pieces
2. If you have chicken breasts decide if and how you're going to cut them up
3. Get the chicken into the right-sized pieces
4. Sprinkle mixture onto one side of a piece of chicken and rub in all over. Turn, and repeat
5. Repeat for each piece of chicken
6. Put chickens into food-savers and sprinkle more mixture over the top of each.
7. Put the lid on and shake the container to make sure all chicken bits are well covered
8. Stash the containers in the fridge for a couple of days

On The Day you'll probably find that the chicken pieces cook a little more slowly that you expect if they're on an out-doors grill. A George Foreman grill, as it cooks from both sides, is definitely quicker.
Make sure that you cut into the thickest part of the thickest piece of each batch put onto the grill in order to make sure that the chickens are done before serving!

As you can see to the left, I've cut off a small piece of the meat, right through the thickest point.

This piece has been cooked on a George Foreman grill, so it browner than it would be on a "normal" grill. It's fairly hard - not quite crisp - on the outside but soft an juicy on the inside. This is from letting the grill heat up well before placing the meat on it.








To the right now you can see that the meat is cooked to be just white all through. I put it back for about another minute after this photo.
The meat is firm but also easy to cut in this condition - after about 4 days marinading in the fridge.

Bon Apetit!

 Mike