It's life Jim but not as we know it

Scenario You've got to create a presentation using data from multiple CSV files. Typically, this means merging files into a single spreadsheet, generating charts, and copying everything into your presentation—an absolute time sink! Let’s fix that. Here’s a free, no-code approach using Google Workspace tools and a sprinkle of automation. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. The Problem Simplified: Multiple CSV files in a consistent format (I used stock data). The goal: Combine into one Spreadsheet for easy analysis and charting. How: Instead of manual copy-pasting, we’ll automate the process using Google Apps Script and Chat-GPT for code generation. What You'll Need: Google Apps account: A free Gmail account will work perfectly. Access to Google Drive , Google Sheets , and Google Slides. Chat-GPT 's free edition for code snippets. Step-by-Step Solution: 1. Collect your data Upload the CSV files to Google Drive. Copy the Drive folder ID. The folder ID is the part of the URL

Part 3: Setting and Reaching Financial Goals Introduction Congratulations! Your portfolio is set up, diversified, and growing. But investing isn’t a “set it and forget it” approach. To truly succeed, it’s crucial to monitor your progress, set clear financial goals, and make adjustments as needed. In this section, we’ll cover strategies to help you stay on track and reach your financial milestones. Goal Setting: Short-Term vs. Long-Term Investment Goals Investing without clear goals is like taking a road trip without a destination in mind. You need to set both short-term and long-term goals to guide your financial journey. Short-Term Goals: These are typically achieved within 1 to 5 years. Examples include saving for a vacation, a down payment on a house, or building an emergency fund. For short-term goals, consider safer investments like bonds or high-yield savings accounts. Long-Term Goals: These span 5 years or more, such as saving for retirement or funding your child’s education.

  Part 2: Building a Strong Portfolio Introduction: Imagine you’re building a house. You wouldn’t construct it using only one type of material, right? The same concept applies to investing. A solid investment portfolio requires a mix of different assets to balance risk and reward, ensuring that if one investment stumbles, others can help keep your overall financial health intact. In this section, we’ll explore how to create a strong and diversified portfolio that aligns with your financial goals. Diversification: Why It Matters and How to Achieve It Diversification is all about not putting all your eggs in one basket. The idea is to spread your investments across various asset types and industries. This strategy helps reduce risk—if one investment performs poorly, others can cushion the impact. Across Asset Classes: Include a variety of stocks, bonds, real estate, and cash. Each asset class reacts differently to market conditions, making your portfolio more resilient. Across Industrie

Part 1: Understanding the Basics of Investing Introduction Ever wondered why your savings account balance seems to grow at a snail’s pace? The reason is simple—while your money sits in a low-interest account, inflation is sneaking in and eating away its value. To outsmart inflation, it’s time to shift from just saving to actually *investing*. In this first part, we’ll dive into the building blocks of investing so you can start putting your money to work for a brighter financial future. Savings vs. Investing: The Inflation Game Imagine inflation as a slow but relentless monster. It erodes your money’s purchasing power over time, making what you saved worth less in the future. So, while a savings account might be safe, it often doesn’t offer enough growth to keep up with inflation. Investing, on the other hand, allows your money to grow at a much faster rate, potentially outpacing inflation and increasing your wealth. It’s like upgrading from a bicycle (savings) to a sports car (inve

Sometimes you just need the basics. This post walks you through the simplest, quickest way to query data from Splunk, using plain old JavaScript. There's no 3rd party plug-ins or SDK required and no opinionated frameworks to deal with.  You will need: A splunk instance (get yours here if you don't have one) An authorisation token Node.JS and npm installed If you don't have an auth token, request one from your Administrator. If you are an admin, just create a token using the following cURL command in Terminal (replace <HOST> with your host instance). Change the +300d if you want to adjust the time before the token expires.  curl -k -u UID:PWD -X POST https://<HOST>:8089/services/authorization/tokens?output_mode=json --data name=admin --data audience=Managers --data-urlencode expires_on=+300d  for example, if your userid was Susan, your password was Wibble! and your Splunk instance was running on acme.com, then you would enter curl -k -u

Another day, another data breach. Emails, passwords hacked and put online for sale. The breaches have become so common that we don't pay attention anymore. Old news. Yawn. You get an email asking you to change your password. You go to the offending website, change your password and then forget about it - feeling safe in the knowledge that you've protected yourself from those fiendish hackers. But wait. That's not nearly enough. Ask yourself - do you use the same email and password combination on any other site? What about that cheepo.com service you signed up for 3 years ago using the exact strong password as your bank website? The email didn't mention that, did it? Here's the problem. Anyone can take your email and password combination and use it to get access to your secure bank website. "Hello sir/madam, welcome back. Take all you want. It's been great doing business with you. Bye". So what can you do about it? First, find out if your ac