https://ryrob.es/Ryan Robitaille builds data tools: visual canvases, flow systems and semantic SQL. Data work since 1999, two Facebook patents, and an independent builder since 2023. Available for hire.en https://ryrob.es/blog/the-first-time-business-intelligence-felt-intelligent/https://ryrob.es/blog/the-first-time-business-intelligence-felt-intelligent/Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:51:23 GMTBusiness Intelligence never delivered intelligence - it delivered retrospection with charts. Yesterday with frosting. It was always aspirational. But I… https://ryrob.es/blog/the-shape-of-a-question-teaching-sql-to-understand-intent/https://ryrob.es/blog/the-shape-of-a-question-teaching-sql-to-understand-intent/Sat, 17 Jan 2026 07:58:21 GMTThere’s a particular frustration that hits when you’re staring at a dataset, knowing exactly what you want… conceptually... but it's not "shaped" like a… https://ryrob.es/blog/flowmaps-flow-based-programming-in-clojure-with-a-rabbit-twist/https://ryrob.es/blog/flowmaps-flow-based-programming-in-clojure-with-a-rabbit-twist/Tue, 19 Sep 2023 17:32:11 GMTIdeas are a funny thing. We ponder, plan, visualize, iterate, and then (hopefully) execute. But often in creative works what you end up with is not what you… https://ryrob.es/blog/flowmaps-mapping-clojure-flows-space-time/https://ryrob.es/blog/flowmaps-mapping-clojure-flows-space-time/Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:36:11 GMTA Clojure DSL for flow-based-programs with an advanced debugger UI, drawing inspiration from J. Paul Morrison's pioneering FBP concepts. https://ryrob.es/blog/the-color-and-shape-of-data/https://ryrob.es/blog/the-color-and-shape-of-data/Mon, 03 Jul 2023 23:24:08 GMTWhat do you see when you are creating? Do you keep a model in your head or does your tool or language impose one upon you? What does it look like? Does it… https://ryrob.es/blog/quick-viz-project-release-tableau-flow-maps/https://ryrob.es/blog/quick-viz-project-release-tableau-flow-maps/Wed, 08 Feb 2023 08:01:51 GMTSomething that has always bugged me - is its ability to create a very unique form of opaque cascading spaghetti logic - due to the nature of it's… https://ryrob.es/blog/pivoting-into-a-new-flow-in-life-and-rabbits/https://ryrob.es/blog/pivoting-into-a-new-flow-in-life-and-rabbits/Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:40:19 GMTThe true life blood of a "data app" is the flow of data through all the components + how they relate to each other in the world... https://ryrob.es/blog/editing-the-editor-user-space-extending-of-the-ux/https://ryrob.es/blog/editing-the-editor-user-space-extending-of-the-ux/Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:29:14 GMTOne of the things that I get excited about with any kind of "hackable creative tool" is how users can potentially use it to build interfaces & experiences… https://ryrob.es/blog/can-a-super-flexible-layout-interface-be-understandable/https://ryrob.es/blog/can-a-super-flexible-layout-interface-be-understandable/Wed, 05 Aug 2020 12:46:45 GMTThe search for balance between flexibility and control - can we do it without making things too much of a absolute pizdiec in the process? https://ryrob.es/blog/august-of-rabbit-posts-begins/https://ryrob.es/blog/august-of-rabbit-posts-begins/Sat, 01 Aug 2020 18:11:52 GMTA story, a mission, and a new way forward. Where have I been and what now? What a long and eye-opening journey it has all been. Plus a thread about the… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/connecting-tableau-to-elasticsearch-read-how-to-query-elasticsearch-with-hive-sql-and-hadoop/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/connecting-tableau-to-elasticsearch-read-how-to-query-elasticsearch-with-hive-sql-and-hadoop/Tue, 17 Dec 2013 07:15:56 GMTI've been a big fan of ElasticSearch the since last Spring - using it on my RiffBank project as well as various other "data collection" experiments. Put… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/enterprise-it-why-does-having-a-job-and-good-software-have-to-be-mutually-exclusive/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/enterprise-it-why-does-having-a-job-and-good-software-have-to-be-mutually-exclusive/Fri, 30 Aug 2013 20:14:01 GMTWe've all heard that 'witty' interjection - usually after explaining (or complaining about) a very complicated software procedure (typically… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/riffbank-parsing-arbitrary-text-based-guitar-tab-into-an-indexable-queryable-riffcode-for-elasticsearch/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/riffbank-parsing-arbitrary-text-based-guitar-tab-into-an-indexable-queryable-riffcode-for-elasticsearch/Thu, 29 Aug 2013 23:13:09 GMTQuick Links: This post is on the approach taken to get guitar tab into a normalized and data-structured form. See previous posts for more context. Part 0:… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/riffbank-searching-guitar-tab-data-as-a-pseudo-language-with-elasticsearch/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/riffbank-searching-guitar-tab-data-as-a-pseudo-language-with-elasticsearch/Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:32:31 GMTQuick Links: This post is the "Why" and background on my motivation for this project. Separate posts breakdown the implementation. Links coming as… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/facts-stories-conveyance-postmortem-data-viz-advice-from-a-famous-american-street-photographer/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/facts-stories-conveyance-postmortem-data-viz-advice-from-a-famous-american-street-photographer/Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:47:28 GMTI just got back from spending the last week in the beautiful San Francisco Bay area. If you've never been, seriously, go there. As an obnoxious East Coast… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/going-yard-using-mlb-data-and-tableau-8-to-re-imagine-homeruns-in-petco-park-the-business-case/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/going-yard-using-mlb-data-and-tableau-8-to-re-imagine-homeruns-in-petco-park-the-business-case/Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:10:00 GMTGreetings, it's been awhile since I published anything - my apologies! I've been hella busy this year, but finally have dedicated some time to a… https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/mapping-san-diego-padres-hits-petco-park-changes-tableau-8/https://ryrob.es/archive/2013/mapping-san-diego-padres-hits-petco-park-changes-tableau-8/Fri, 22 Mar 2013 03:22:20 GMTAnyone who was at the Tableau Customer Conference in November 2012 has seen this beautiful ballpark. It's where we had the "Official Customer Party" at… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/the-anatomy-of-a-tableau-8-dashboard-or-a-floating-tile-grid-autopsy/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/the-anatomy-of-a-tableau-8-dashboard-or-a-floating-tile-grid-autopsy/Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:58:21 GMTTCC 2013 Workbook Link With the release of Tableau 8 just around the corner, and the Tableau 8 Public servers in a (very) limited release beta - I figured… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/quick-dirty-address-geocoding-and-formatting-with-google-maps-api/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/quick-dirty-address-geocoding-and-formatting-with-google-maps-api/Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:19:32 GMTHowdy. Cheers to all ya'll down there in internet land. I got in a conversation earlier today regarding geocoding addresses in data-sets - it's a pretty… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/build-tableau-data-extracts-out-of-csv-files-more-python-tde-api-madness/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/build-tableau-data-extracts-out-of-csv-files-more-python-tde-api-madness/Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:10:17 GMTSo here we have the 3rd in a series about using Tableau 8's 'Data Extract' API to automatically create TDE files from various data sources without using… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/sql-server-query-to-tableau-data-extract-more-tde-api-fun-with-python-tableau-8/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/sql-server-query-to-tableau-data-extract-more-tde-api-fun-with-python-tableau-8/Wed, 05 Dec 2012 01:20:30 GMTComing off the excitement of my last post about writing a simple bare-bones python usage of Tableau's brand-new Data Extracts API from version 8.0 - I… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/building-tableau-data-extract-files-with-python-in-tableau-8-sample-usage/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/building-tableau-data-extract-files-with-python-in-tableau-8-sample-usage/Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:11:16 GMTSee also: Tableau Data Extracts from SQL Server or from CSV files If you were learning (and / or partying) with us at the Tableau Customer Conference 2012… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/face-harvesting-download-your-facebook-data-for-external-reporting-and-visualization/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/face-harvesting-download-your-facebook-data-for-external-reporting-and-visualization/Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:11:34 GMTI'm always on the lookout for cool new data feeds that I can mess with - as you can clearly see from some of the other posts on this site. Usually it… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/getfacedata/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/getfacedata/Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:49:24 GMTinclude('face-harvie.inc.php'); //include our custom functions $time = microtime(); $time = explode(' ', $time); $time = $time + $time; $start = $time;… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/turning-guitar-tabs-into-structured-data-silicon-crunching-metal/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/turning-guitar-tabs-into-structured-data-silicon-crunching-metal/Tue, 07 Aug 2012 23:46:43 GMTI'm always looking for data from unlikely sources, especially sources that are close to my own bizarre (and predictable) interests. Anyone who grew up… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/enter-tableauman-creating-useful-datavisualizations-with-old-school-guitar-tab-and-metallica/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/enter-tableauman-creating-useful-datavisualizations-with-old-school-guitar-tab-and-metallica/Tue, 07 Aug 2012 06:43:02 GMTOff to Never Never Land... I've always been a big guitar dork and the other day I had a weird idea. I thought what if I took some of the massive amount of… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/python-snippet-sending-html-email-with-an-attachment-via-google-apps-smtp-or-gmail/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/python-snippet-sending-html-email-with-an-attachment-via-google-apps-smtp-or-gmail/Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:14:42 GMTThis is just one of those things that I had to do in a project (as part of a much bigger system), and wish I had it all laid out for me like this when I… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/cars-computers-and-software-quick-tableau-of-data-from-my-vws-on-board-diagnostic-obdii-port/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/cars-computers-and-software-quick-tableau-of-data-from-my-vws-on-board-diagnostic-obdii-port/Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:26:42 GMTJust a quick little one-off I did over the weekend while testing some stuff. I've been toying with a couple of USBOBD2 adapters and some linux scripts for… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/how-to-harvest-facebook-updates-with-python-mysql-or-sql-server/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/how-to-harvest-facebook-updates-with-python-mysql-or-sql-server/Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:14:57 GMTWhile most people focus on search.twitter.com (or automated pulls from their API) for data collection regarding the "pulse" on a particular topic or brand… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/get-some-query-mlb-gameday-data-with-odata-and-tableau-public/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/get-some-query-mlb-gameday-data-with-odata-and-tableau-public/Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:36:37 GMTCross-post from the original article I published on synergy.linium.com. Baseball. If is ANY sport in America that is "all about the data", it's baseball.… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/real-world-business-storytelling/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/real-world-business-storytelling/Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:06:35 GMTTrust me. I don't think that data is all about mythical creatures and metal bands... Stories are everywhere. https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/viz-updates-metallica-bigfoot-refreshed-plus-the-data-box/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/viz-updates-metallica-bigfoot-refreshed-plus-the-data-box/Fri, 15 Jun 2012 16:45:09 GMTDid a data refresh on 2 of my most the most popular visualizations last night - Metallica has played about 15 shows since I last ran the data-gathering… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/building-and-loading-sexy-operational-dashboards-with-ducksboard-com/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/building-and-loading-sexy-operational-dashboards-with-ducksboard-com/Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:39:26 GMTYou never know what awesome stuff you're going to find... While I was browsing the web yesterday evening, I landed upon a article explaining how 'Starting… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/stanley-cup-social-real-time-reactions-to-in-game-events/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/stanley-cup-social-real-time-reactions-to-in-game-events/Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:49:34 GMTI'm constantly fascinated by the "live stream" of updates / conversations from Facebook, Twitter, etc during a live sporting event or big TV show. It's… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/tableau-phpgrid-an-almost-instant-gratification-data-entry-tool/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/tableau-phpgrid-an-almost-instant-gratification-data-entry-tool/Tue, 15 May 2012 23:42:20 GMTImpatient? Skip down to the bottom for a brief screencast demonstration. We, over here at Linium, love Tableau Server. Big time. It takes quite the tool… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/more-data-porn-garyvee-twitter-stats/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/more-data-porn-garyvee-twitter-stats/Thu, 10 May 2012 06:04:25 GMTWhat's the hell is this? Nuthin', just tracking stuff that interests me. I harvest A bunch of different twitter keyword mentions and people, because I… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/insight-into-an-artists-spotify-payout-details/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/insight-into-an-artists-spotify-payout-details/Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:27:39 GMTEarlier today (between my Burger grilling and Jameson extravaganza; ongoing) I saw a tweet by @gah650 (George Howard), who had re-tweeted Zoe Keating's… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/a-visual-analytic-storefront-vay-ner-chuk-winelibrary-style/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/a-visual-analytic-storefront-vay-ner-chuk-winelibrary-style/Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:08:59 GMTInteractive Data Analysis (and all forms of its buzzword-laden cousins) is pretty much blowing up these days. It seems that even Gartner in 2012 is… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/between-crazy-genius-bigfoot-aliens-together-at-last/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/between-crazy-genius-bigfoot-aliens-together-at-last/Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:46:45 GMTIn honor of tonight's (3/23/2012) special Ancient Aliens program, I've thrown together a little Tableau Viz comparing (on a wicked high level) UFO… https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/visualizing-bigfoot-of-the-united-states/https://ryrob.es/archive/2012/visualizing-bigfoot-of-the-united-states/Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:11:14 GMTA fun little Viz I did about Bigfoot sightings. Check it out here. I guess you could file this under "Too Much Time on my Hands", but hey, people said…