Category: Custom Applications

In some ways, technology has had a negative impact on the environment. The inexorable march of mechanization hasn't always been kind to the earth or to the other animals that live on it. Now, however, Hewlett-Packard is focusing its managed IT services software on mitigating or reversing those issues entirely.

The company announced "Earth Insights" on Tuesday, a program that seeks to apply the analytical power afforded by Big Data to help aid in environmental efforts. 

"HP Earth Insights uses our products and services to deliver near real-time analytics to provide scientists with more accurate and more actionable environmental information," HP president and CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement.

The software can identify trends in animal endangerment in real time. This capability creates a sort of "early warning system" for threatened species: rather than being reactive, and attempting to save an animal after it is already too late, conservationists can address threats before they become catastrophes. What used to take a team months to gather and analyze can now be done by a single person, in just a matter of hours.

So far, about 1,000 cameras and sensors have been installed in forest areas around the world, providing a wide range of information, including vegetation, precipitation, temperature, carbon stocks, humidity and solar radiation. This data is then distributed to area managers, governments and researchers for analysis. Working together, they can help not only protect animals, they can also develop policies that best support their habitats.

HP has already reported valuable insights. With all of the negative effects innovation can have on the environment, it's heartening to see it used to protect it. 

When it comes to information, weather forecasting is inundated. Not only are more data points being added every day, they're coming from around the world, interacting in a highly delicate pattern. A butterfly flapping its wings, the old saying goes, can set off a chain of reactions that ends in a tornado. 

So when it comes to large scale analysis, the field is a perfect fit.

"Weather is the original big data application," says Bryson Koehler, executive VP and CIO at the Weather Company. "When mainframes first came about, one of the first applications was a weather forecasting model."

Today, his company processes some 20 terabytes of data every day, resulting in what Koehler boasts are the world's most prescient forecasts. However, not content with simply being in poll position, they are in the process of implementing an entirely new platform that will bring the company's analytic capabilities to new levels. 

Currently, the Weather Company uses a structure that comprises a collection of applications and 13 data centers. While mainframes aren't currently part of their plan, a wide range of other databases are, including including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Cassandra, MongoDB and PostgreSQL. This melange allows them to capture 2.2 million points of information every 15 minutes, from centers globally.

The new system, however, will be built on Basho's Riak NoSQL database and run on Amazon's cloud, upgrades which will allow for significantly faster and easier processing. Use of Amazon's cloud allows Koehler to move to what he describes as a "infrastructure-as-a-service model." The new platform splits up the world (from land, to sea, to ice caps) into 30,000 chunks of four square miles each, whose weather can be predicted even weeks in advance.

For a brand as expansive as The Weather company, this raw computational power is a big boon. The parent behind brands like Weather Channel, WeatherFX, Weather Underground and Intellicast, hundreds of thousands of customers rely on the information it provides, including 30 airlines. In all, it receives billions of computer-based requests daily, and they all need to be delivered quickly. 

Even if you're not responsible for delivering weather information to large groups of people, you might still want to be able to track patterns, especially if you farm or garden. Filemaker Consultants can help you to create a custom database that will organize all of your weather information, along with any other variables that might pop up. 

Big Data is taking to the skies. Literally.

A new start-up is applying sophisticated information analysis to the construction of solar structures. Using databases and web-based tools, Sun Number is helping millions of households determine how eligible they are to get energy from roof-mounted panels.

The software works by gathering data about a particular area, including surrounding buildings, tree heights and roof angles. Ryan Miller, the company’s co-founder and its chief technology officer, described some of the information that goes into their determinations.

“With our three-dimensional model, we will get the roof characteristics, orientation, shading from vegetation, shading from buildings — all of the things that impact the local solar conditions — and we bring in some regional climate factors and that ultimately goes into the score,” Miller said in an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Once Sun Number has mapped out a metropolitan area, residents can log into the website and plug in their address. The software will give their house a score on a scale of zero to 100, based on how much sun they can expect to get on their rooftop. Any score of above 70 qualifies the owner as a good candidate for a solar installation.

This appraisal is free of charge, as the business is currently supported in large part by a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Sun Number is currently in eight locations, with plans to expand to over 20 more in the coming months, including New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

While this program hasn’t reached every state yet, the principles behind it can be applied anywhere. If you’re a Connecticut Filemaker Developer looking to make a difference in the field of alternative energy, consider a similar local project.

Big data has been making big news, and software developing companies aren’t the only ones taking note. The increased ease of collecting and analyzing large amounts of information has caught the attention of academics.

One major concern for these researchers is the ethicality of collection processes. Thus, they decided to form a council, partially in response to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) request for innovative projects in the field.

The Council for Big Data, Ethics and Society will meet for the first time in 2014, and will include contribution from the NSF. Co-directing the efforts will be Microsoft researchers Kate Crawford and Danah Boyd and two computer-science-savvy professors: Geoffrey Bowker from the University of California, Irvine, and Helen Nissenbaum of New York University.

Fen Zhao, and NSF staffer, described the need for a project like this in an interview with Venture Beat.

“We’re doing all of these major investments in next-generation internet (projects), in big data,” said Fen. “How do we in the research-and-development phase make sure they’re aware and cognizant of any issues that may come up?”

The council hopes to guide future researchers in proactively considering the ethical implications of work they might pursue. Rather than a blanket edict on what practices are “good” or “bad”, it hopes to work with methodologies that are appropriate for specific projects. The group doesn’t want to constantly stifle innovation: rather, it hopes to guide new ideas forward in a way that is consistent with big-picture ideals.

The timing is perfect. As more and more software developing companies discover the efficacy of large-scale data operations, this outside council will enable creative thinking while helping to provide a moral framework.

From gardeners looking to make their flowers bloom to athletes trying to perfect their jump shots, a wide range of people have found help with FileMaker and other data management programs. However, for all of its power and function, Big Data software can't replace the human brain — no matter how much processing power it can harness.

It's true — the top computers already outpace the best humans in endeavors as complex as chess. But the apples to apples comparison does both the technology and people a disservice. 

Computers excel at repetition. A machine can take the same input, perform the same processes and spit out consistent answers. It never gets tired, it never wanders from its task and it never gets distracted by a bird that landed outside its window. It delivers consistency and speed.

Humans, on the other hand, excel at innovation. We have a unique ability to contextualize the information we've received, and point out outliers and create narratives. In order to create a truly new experience, there needs to be a departure from the standard formula, which is an area that people far outshine machines in.

What does this tell you about how to use FileMaker?

Ultimately, it means that databases are valuable, but only as valuable as the analysis that you can glean from them. It's not just enough to know (for example) which defenders are giving up the most points. You then have to figure out a way to score. Figuring out what you want to get out of the program is an important step in effectively using a software like FileMaker.

Big Data can tell you which flowers need the most sunlight. But arranging them in a beautiful bouquet?

That's a human task. 

Have you ever managed to kill a fake house plant? Never been able to make your flowers flourish? Just don't have that green thumb?

You're in luck. Now, all you need to know for a wonderful garden is how to use FileMaker.

Setting up a custom database is easy with FileMaker. You can input the type of plant, the light requirements and how much water it needs and when. Then, you can easily mark off when each plant has gotten exactly what is required, which can take the guesswork out of gardening. It's even simple to add a category that tracks weather patterns, so you can easily remember which days have given your buds the most sunlight.

If you use FileMaker Pro for iPad, uploading pictures is a cinch. You simply take a snapshot of the flower in question, and it can be immediately uploaded into your database. This functionality makes real time tracking a possibility: you don't need to rack your brain to determine how your garden is progressing, you can just scroll through a series of pictures. Any wilting or drooping can be caught early, before it becomes a serious problem. 

Maybe the best part of all is the opportunities for analysis. The software allows you to sift through a ton of information and organize your plants by which need the most attention. Not only will you have a better garden, you'll become a better gardener by being able to look back and correct any previous mistakes you might have made. With FileMaker, you just might have more of a green thumb than you ever realized. 

Stopping crime before it starts sounds like the domain of a science fiction movie. In fact, the implications of this exact ability were the basis of the plot behind the film Minority Report. 

Now, custom database software has turned the notion of preventative police work into a reality.

While this initiative doesn't involve psychics or Tom Cruise, it does allow police to use a greater range of information to deduce when and where crime is most likely to occur. While a particular instance of crime might be random, it, as a whole, tends to follow certain patterns. Combining analysis of variables (like weather patterns, concerts, sporting events) with historical crime data can let police departments know the best times and places to deploy officers.

Kenneth Cukier, the author of Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think, noted that custom database software was able to sharply reduce crime in areas where it was utilized, even relative to nearby areas that don't use the same tactics. While he cautions against drawing too direct a link between the two (since there could be other underlying factors), he points out that the systemic thinking behind the databases is an important step.

"What's critical, however, is that this is the direction of the future — and the idea is not to just identify where a crime may be committed, but who might be the criminal, down to the specific individual," Cukier told Business Insider.

It might not make for an exciting action thriller, but this kind of data-driven police work can help keep the streets safe. 

At the highest levels of basketball, every player is fast. Every player is strong and talented. What sets the truly great ones apart is how well they use the information provided to them on a day to day basis.

Mike Procopio is the man who provides that information, and FileMaker is what lets him do it with ease.

Mike is the founder of The Hoop Consultants, a basketball strategy firm that has helped NBA players like Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant hone their games throughout the year. A former scout, he watches hundreds of games a year, taking meticulous notes and gathering as much intel as he can possibly get on everything he sees. Typing and entering all that information to create a composite profile of  player would take up to six hours.

Until he got FileMaker support. 

By creating a custom database, he was able to streamline the entire process. Rather than having to build his profiles manually, he can capture and sort large amounts of data in a flash: everything from a player's age, statistics, height, weight and salary information is gathered for convenient analysis. This information is valuable not only to players themselves, but also to scouts looking to find the next big thing.

"As I'm watching college players, I can automatically pull in profiles of every player in the NBA at his position with the same height and overall profile," says Procopio. "In 10 or 15 minutes I have examples that tell a scout whether we've found a new Kobe clone or other great player that could be a tremendous asset at the professional level."

At the elite levels of basketball, every advantage counts. With FileMaker, Mike Procopio helps provide that edge. 

One of the major challenges in caring for any animal is that they can't communicate in the same way as a human might, and horses are no different. While a person might have their own health records (or at least a strong memory of recent illnesses and treatments), it falls onto an horse's owner to store all of that information and deploy it in a conscientious way. Especially over long periods of time, or if multiple horses are involved, memories can be inaccurate. That's where the FileMaker service can be vital.

While keeping important health records for a horse can be as low-fi as using a notebook, creating a custom database in FileMaker offers several crucial advantages. First, horse care can be complicated and deeply involved. Not only will you need to store information about routine health and oral exams, you will also want to have a log of farrier procedures (those related to hoof care), workout and competition notes, results of lab tests and any illnesses or abnormalities that might arise. Being able to store all of that information digitally can save time and space.

Additionally, FileMaker pro allows to analyze patterns in data over time. While a paper log might tell you when one thing happened, using database software allows you to look at a lot of data at once and organize it to reveal any underlying causality. Additionally, you can sync it to wireless devices, so you can actually thumb through the information while you interact with your horse — something that isn't easy to do with dozens of sheets of paper. The more you know about your horse, the better care you'll be able to provide for it, and a healthy horse is a happy one. 

There are few industries more straightforward, fundamentally, than trucking. You have a product and a destination, and you have to figure out the best way to get those two together. In an increasingly competitive economic landscape, however, this once-simple process could benefit from some complicated analysis. That's where custom web application development and big data could come in. 

A lot of companies already have business intelligence tools, which can effectively monitor past and present situations. The problem is, these sorts of tools are backwards-looking: They're very good at describing that a problem has already happened, but can't provide much predictive value. That's where large-scale data analysis comes in. 

Custom database models can be built to give past events greater forecasting value. Analytics can help determine the most fuel-efficient ways to travel, which in turn can give companies a better understanding of how fuel performance will affect their bottom line. Jeff Foster Trucking, a 225-truck carrier based in Superior, Wisconsin, is considering this variable heavily as it plans its purchase of 50 new trucks.

"In the purchasing world [0.1 to 0.2 miles per gallon] is a profound amount," says Dean Norrell, manager of operations and driver development in an interview to the Commercial Carrier Journal.

It can also help to map events. Knowing the likelihood of an outcome in a given situation could also prevent serious accidents. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, 456 truckers sustained fatal injuries on the job last year, the highest total of any single profession. While there is some danger inherent in any profession that involves driving, if companies can analyze patterns of when deadly accidents are most likely to happen, they can help to avoid them. 

Even for the most uncomplicated of tasks, the right application of big data principles can save time, money, and even lives.