• Cowritten by Ralph Kimball, the world's leading data warehousing authority, whose previous books have sold more than 150,000 copies
• Delivers real-world solutions for the most time- and labor-intensive portion of data warehousing-data staging, or the extract, transform, load (ETL) process
• Delineates best practices for extracting data from scattered sources, removing redundant and inaccurate data, transforming the remaining data into correctly formatted data structures, and then loading the end product into the data warehouse
• Offers proven time-saving ETL techniques, comprehensive guidance on building dimensional structures, and crucial advice on ensuring data quality

The extract, transform, and load (ETL) phase of the data warehouse development life cycle is far and away the most difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive phase of building a data warehouse. Done right, companies can maximize their use of data storage; if not, they can end up wasting millions of dollars storing obsolete and rarely used data. Bestselling author Ralph Kimball, along with Joe Caserta, shows you how a properly designed ETL system extracts the data from the source systems, enforces data quality and consistency standards, conforms the data so that separate sources can be used together, and finally delivers the data in a presentation-ready format.

Serving as a road map for planning, designing, building, and running the back-room of a data warehouse, this book provides complete coverage of proven, timesaving ETL techniques. Beginning with a quick overview of ETL fundamentals, it then looks at ETL data structures, both relational and dimensional. The authors show how to build useful dimensional structures, providing practical examples of techniques.

Along the way you’ll learn how to:

• Plan and design your ETL system
• Choose the appropriate architecture from the many possible options
• Build the development/test/production suite of ETL processes
• Build a comprehensive data cleaning subsystem
• Tune the overall ETL process for optimum performance

Kesey's theatrical metamorphosis from the distinguished author of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest to the abominable shaman of the "Acid Test" soirees that launched The Grateful Dead required Wolfe's Day-Glo prose account to endure (though Kesey's own musings in Demon Box are no slouch either). Even now, Wolfe's book gives what Wolfe clearly got from Kesey: a contact high. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
Tom Wolfe's much-discussed kaleidoscopic non-fiction novel chronicles the tale of novelist Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters. In the 1960s, Kesey led a group of psychedelic sympathizers around the country in a painted bus, presiding over LSD-induced "acid tests" all along the way. Long considered one of the greatest books about the history of the hippies, Wolfe's ability to research like a reporter and simultaneously evoke the hallucinogenic indulgence of the era ensures that this book, written in 1967, will live long in the counter-culture canon of American literature.

In this book-length conversation, French Buddhist monk Ricard and Vietnamese-born astrophysicist Trinh explore how Buddhism and modern science address life's big questions. Among the matters they touch on, sometimes fleetingly and sometimes in depth, are the illusory nature of phenomena, the guiding intelligence of nature, and the search for the mechanisms that drive planets and humans alike. Both authors, each conversant in the other's medium, argue against reductionist views of nature. And both provide plenty of data that support Albert Einstein's declaration that "if there is any religion that could correspond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism."

Hard-nosed skeptics will perhaps find Ricard and Trinh's reconciliation arguable. Still, the record of their conversation makes fascinating reading and provides a useful overview of scientific reasoning and spiritual inquiry. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
This transcribed and expanded dialogue between Buddhist monk Ricard and astrophysicist Thuan claims few original insights but provides a good general introduction to science-and-religion issues representing two notably different Buddhist perspectives. At its best, the book is animated by contrasts. Thuan, a Vietnamese-American trained at CalTech, identifies with Buddhist ethics and spirituality, but his worldview often reflects Western science and philosophy. Ricard, a French biologist who emigrated in the 1970s to become a disciple of Khyents‚ Rinpoche, speaks from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Although Thuan and Ricard find common ground on many ethical matters and agree in a general way about the "interconnectedness of phenomena," they also run into genuine disagreements about cosmic origins, the nature of consciousness and the orderliness of the universe all areas where traditional Buddhist beliefs are in tension with scientific theories or their implications as commonly understood in the West. To the authors' credit, they avoid superficial reconciliation of these differences, although Ricard, who renounces "dogmatism" but consistently defends orthodoxy, sometimes claims to "refute" opposing viewpoints a little too neatly. The conversational format also limits the precision and depth of the authors' positions and at times becomes unnecessarily repetitive. Philosophical dialogue is an ancient but exquisitely difficult art, and even the most engaging verbal exchange may occasionally appear banal or rambling in print, especially when the same points of debate arise time and again.

Copyright 2001 Cahners business Information, Inc.

Opening the Heart of the Cosmos shines sixty years of study and practice upon one of the crowning scriptures of the path of the Buddha. It is destined to be known as one of the most significant writings by Thich Nhat Hanh.

In CliffsNotes on Mythology, you'll Review the myths from seven different cultures and gain an overview of the stories that people have lived by from ancient times to the present. The gods and their stories depict life's lessons and personal relationships and present a moral code of human conduct. These stories are also a map to understanding history.

This CliffsNotes guide covers Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies, as well as the Arthurian legends. Features that help you figure out these important works include

• An introduction to mythology
• The main gods of various cultures
• Review questions
• Recommended readings
• Genealogical tables of major gods

Classic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Back Cover Copy
CLIFFS NOTES ON GREEK CLASSICS AND CLIFFS NOTES ON ROMAN CLASSICS — Two excellent guides to the ideological and literary influence of ancient civilizaion. Both students and teachers can use these reference guides to aid in understanding classical thought, culture and literature. Place authors in historical context. Review major events. Excellent for term papers and essays.

THE STUDY AID CENTER FOR EVERY AGE

CLIFFS TEST PREPARATION GUIDES — complete information for standardized qualification tests in a format that is not overwhelming. The 17 guides in the series utilize the expertise of leading test preparation authorities to help students achieve their best possible test scores. Recommended by counselors and guidance personnel.

A great way to study Shakespeare and Chaucer is provided in CLIFFS COMPLETE STUDY EDITIONS. Each book includes the complete text based on the classic Cambridge edition. The unique three-column format includes a running commentary and glossary placed alongside the pertinent text. 12 titles in print.