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Tag Archives: always

My hands are always so cold

January 28, 2021   Humor

Posted by Krisgo

via

About Krisgo

I’m a mom, that has worn many different hats in this life; from scout leader, camp craft teacher, parents group president, colorguard coach, member of the community band, stay-at-home-mom to full time worker, I’ve done it all– almost! I still love learning new things, especially creating and cooking. Most of all I love to laugh! Thanks for visiting – come back soon icon smile My hands are always so cold


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Deep Fried Bits

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#PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

January 22, 2020   Self-Service BI

Well – creating measures in the Power BI desktop is usually doing a lot of copying and pasting of measures.

And unfortunately, we haven’t yet gotten a Copy measure in the shortcut menu when we right click a measure

 #PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

Here is an idea you can vote for if you would find it useful as well – https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/13219620-duplicate-measure-and-format-copy

So we end up copying the formula from text in the formula bar

 #PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

And click new measure and Paste it into the formula bar

 #PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

 

But 8 of 10 times nothing is pasted (at least when I select) – WHY ???

 

And now I finally took me the time to find out why –

 #PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

Notice the colour of the selection in the picture above compare to this

 #PowerBI – Copy a measure in the desktop – Why it doesn’t always work – mystery solved

If the colour is darker blue you can copy and paste but if its lighter blue – you can’t – and this is properly because you use your mouse to select the formula and if you release the mouse outside of the formula bar area – the selection will be light blue and when you then press CTRL + C to copy the formula text isn’t copied to the clipboard.

Solution

So, either make sure you don’t move your pointer outside the area or use CTRL + A to select all and then press CTRL + C to copy the formula.

 

Hope this can save you a couple of clicks and please vote for the idea – https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/13219620-duplicate-measure-and-format-copy – this also includes the idea that the formatting of the value should be included.

 

Power On!

 

 

 

 

 

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Is The Best Customer Experience Always The Right Customer Experience?

August 24, 2019   BI News and Info
 Is The Best Customer Experience Always The Right Customer Experience?

My local independent grocery store has gone all fancy, and I’m not happy. Don’t get me wrong, it looks beautiful after the renovation. The scuffed linoleum floors are now gleaming polished concrete. The check-out counters are topped with marble. Natural light streams in from floor-to-ceiling windows. I can now shop with a cappuccino held securely in a specially designed cart. And the place is three times bigger than before. It should mean a better experience. But it’s the reason I’m now shopping elsewhere, as are a number of my friends and neighbors. Let me explain…

Pre-renovation, I could whip through and tick everything off my weekly shopping list in 15 minutes flat. The value in the experience for me was all about convenience and good quality for reasonable (not necessarily the cheapest) prices. Post-renovation, the trip takes nearly twice as long. There isn’t a broader selection, just more of the same items filling the longer shelves, spread further apart. The new marble check-outs don’t operate as efficiently as the old conveyor belt ones. And prices have gone up noticeably – I presume to help pay for renovation costs. Value is gone for me, the experience diminished – and probably likewise for many other long-time customers, given I saw fewer people there each time I stopped in. I’m sure the store will eventually attract new shoppers who value luxury in their grocery shopping experiences, but I hope the owners were prepared to lose long-time customers like me.

While working in marketing and customer experience, I’ve seen many versions of this scenario: brands making what they think are enhancements to customer experience, only to find out customers don’t see the changes as enhancements at all. And that’s assuming they even notice the changes. The reason? The experience isn’t aligned with the brand promise and customer expectations. Customers don’t always want luxurious experiences, high-quality products, or high-touch service if it means they’re sacrificing what they do value, such as convenience and cost. It’s the reason online retail and banking proliferates, the reason Qantas and Singapore Air have separate low-cost carriers in Jetstar and Scoot, and the reason Aldi stocks goods in shipping boxes on the shelves.

If a brand’s value proposition isn’t about five-star experiences and high-end luxury, then the ROI on funds spent trying to offer the “best” experience is unlikely to be high. It’s much more important to simply meet your customers’ expectations in the moments that matter in their customer journeys than to try to exceed expectations in areas they don’t care about. If Aldi were suddenly to display lovely shelf arrangements in the name of improving the experience but their prices stay the same, would their customers care or even take much notice? A brand needs to stay true to its value propositions and focus on enhancements that provide the “right” experience, not the “best” experience, based on what customers value most in their interactions with the brand.

This requires listening to customers to understand not just what they’re doing, but what they’re feeling. What really motivated your customer at what point to choose your brand, select that particular product, decide to shop in your store versus on your website, or give that rating on your call center service? At what point in the interaction did a pain point surface or did they feel a process wasn’t as effortless as they thought it should be, and what impact did that have on their actions?

Only by understanding what your customers truly prioritize in the experiences they have with your brand can you then prioritize what CX enhancements will return the biggest bang for your buck and what to do to keep customers loyal.

If I wanted marble counters and cappuccino when I grocery shop and was willing to pay the price for luxury, I would have chosen a store that offered those amenities all along. But this Sunday, you’ll see me in Aldi.

To learn more about how you can provide the right customer experiences through understanding what your customers are feeling as well as what they’re doing, check out SAP Experience Management.

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Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

May 15, 2017   Self-Service BI

I got an interesting question today about using Always Encrypted columns with SSAS and Power BI and it turns out it this just works. Let’s take a look at how we can set this up.

The way that Always Encrypted works is that a SQL client driver (provider) transparently decrypts the data after reading it from the column. The data, stored in the encrypted column, never appears in plaintext inside SQL Server or over the wire. To be able to decrypt and read the data, the client connecting to SQL Server needs to have access to a column master key, such a certificate installed on the client machine, which is then used to decrypt a column encryption key, which subsequently allows the provider to decrypt the data locally. For more please read this article: https://aka.ms/AlwaysEncrypted.

To start I need to create some encrypted data. I created a database and create a single table where I encrypted two columns using the Always Encrypted wizard:

 Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

That takes care of generating the keys, including the certificate I will be using as the column master key, and encrypting the data. Of course this is not an in-depth post on how you should set up Always Encrypted – I would recommend reading the best practices and considerations at BOL. One side note here is that you can only use certificates, the Azure key vault option doesn’t work with SSAS.

Next I created a SSAS model in SSDT in Direct Query mode (as described here) pointing to this table in SQL Server using the general steps. When I now connect Power BI desktop to my model I get what I expected – encrypted data:

 Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

Now here comes the trick. In this case Analysis Services is our SQL client, it receives DAX queries from the client tools and then translates these into SQL queries and then sends them to SQL on the BI clients (Excel / Power BI desktop / Power BI service) behalf. This means we can use SSAS to do the decryption, to configure this I need to do 3 things:

  1. Install the client certificate I am using as the column master key on my AS Server. In my case, the AS Server is running on the machine I generated the certificate on by running the Always Encrypted wizard, so I don’t have to do anything. If your AS Server is running on a different machine than the computer you generated the certificate on, you will need to install the certificate on the AS Server machine and make sure the AS Server has a permission to access the certificate. More on this here.
  2. The second thing is that I need to switch the provider in SSAS from the default, the SQL Native client, to the .Net Framework provider. Note: the  .NET Framework 4.6.1 or later, needs to be present on the AS Server machine. Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI
  3. The last thing I need to do, is to change the provider setting “Column Encryption Setting” to “Enabled”
     Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

That’s it. I now just deploy the changes and refresh my Power BI desktop file:

 Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

Now instead of encrypted data I see the plaintext values.  Now just to show you, this also works when I publish my report to Power BI and use the gateway:

 Use Always Encrypted data with SSAS and Power BI

The reason for this, and I want to make sure this is clear, is that the data is decrypted at the AS Server and then transported to the clients connecting to AS in plain text. In this case the data is still in encrypted text between AS and SQL but in plain text between AS and the Gateway and then on to Power BI, of course the data still goes through encrypted network communication (thanks Greg for pointing this out).

Just a note, this works for both Direct Query and import mode but importing the data kind of defeats the purpose as the data is now stored in SSAS unencrypted. It also works for Multi dimensional models where you can follow the same steps as above to set the provider settings to support AE.

Now if you want to use other SQL Server security features like data masking or RLS you need to make sure you pass on the username of the user connecting to SSAS on to SQL, then the correct security features will be in effect. This is possible as I described here: https://www.kasperonbi.com/use-sql-server-rls-with-ssas-and-power-bi/

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8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in the New Year … and Always

February 4, 2017   CRM News and Info
8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in the New Year … and Always 351x200 8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in the New Year … and Always

Marketing requires us to play the long game. Only a handful of marketers are able to hit a home run every time they step up to bat. Let’s face it, we’ve all had our share of flops. But failures can be learning experiences, and a mistake or misstep can provide valuable insight into what to avoid in the future.

The start of a new year is a good time to re-evaluate what you’re doing right ‒ and, perhaps more importantly, what you can improve upon. We asked marketing experts to give us their input on what blunders and misguided strategies we should all be avoiding. These experienced professionals are:

  • Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions;
  • Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing;
  • Carmen Hill of Babcock & Jenkins;
  • Craig Rosenberg of The Funnelholic; and
  • Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion.

Albee, Heinz, Hill, Rosenberg, and Sheridan offer us key insights into achieving great success by avoiding common marketing pitfalls.

1. Don’t neglect to do the groundwork:

“Before you start any marketing activity (no matter how strategic or tactical), you have to know why you’re doing it. What does success look like? How does this activity translate to immediate or eventual sales and revenue?” (Heinz)

“I think the biggest mistake is not doing the foundational, big-picture work. You have to know whom you’re talking to, what they need and want to know, and where their interests intersect with yours. All the other mistakes we make emanate from that void.” (Hill)

2. Don’t focus on yourself ‒ focus on the buyer instead:

“I’d argue that marketers who do not build buyer insights or develop personas will forever revert to content that’s oriented around products, because that’s what they know best. Focusing on buyers is a shift of skill sets that takes applied effort.” (Albee)

“Think like the end user, not like a business owner. Too many business owners and marketers are writing more for “their” way of seeing the world. They talk too much about themselves; I always like to say it’s a blog, not a brag. Great content marketing is about education. It’s about teaching. And it’s about good old-fashioned communication. To be great at content marketing, the focus has to be about the reader, and not the company/writer.” (Sheridan)

“Try as we might, we tend to see things through the lens of our company, our product, our need to get a bunch of leads in the pipeline by the end of the quarter, etc. Nobody else cares that much about us. Our content needs a lot less ‘we’ and a lot more ‘you.’” (Hill)

3. Don’t pitch your product at every stage:

“Content marketers can be overly sales-y at inappropriate times. Whitepapers and datasheets have their place at the right point in the sales cycle. In the meantime, give the people what they want: interesting content that makes their life better.” (Rosenberg)

“Too many content programs focus on new features, chest beating on company milestones, and otherwise weaving strong product tie-ins into every new piece of content created. That content has its place, but your readers (customers and prospects) will gravitate toward content that independently provides value. What are your customer’s issues? What do they need help with, right now? That’s the content that will spread like wildfire for you.” (Heinz)

4. Don’t overlook calls to action:

“Every content asset should have a call to action. This does not mean “have a sales rep call me” (unless this is late stage). It means providing access to the next step. What would your prospect be interested in given the content they have just viewed? Build pathways and tell connected stories that help to build momentum through the pipe.” (Albee)

5. Don’t forget that effective content marketing is a two-way street:

“Creating content isn’t enough. To really accelerate your audience and impact, you must devote time to responding, commenting, engaging questions, and so on. If you’re just a one-way communication channel, even with good content, your prospects will go elsewhere for the interaction they crave.” (Heinz)

6. Don’t produce content that lacks substance:

“Too often, we focus on platforms, channels, and formats, rather than the substance of the information and the story it supports. At this year’s SXSW [festival], Audrey Gray of American Express advised that we put our energy into what we’re making rather than the platform: ‘Create content that makes you feel smarter, celebrates human artistry, or has real-world value.’” (Hill)

“They are afraid to produce gutsy content that actually gives an opinion. We have too many boring blogs living in the world of gray, with not enough black-and-white.” (Sheridan)

7. Don’t treat content marketing as an afterthought:

“Content marketing is not a bolt-on to other marketing efforts. Content marketing is a practice that integrates all of your content-driven initiative into a consistent and holistic experience for your target markets. Or it should be. I see it implemented as an also-ran with webinars, white paper efforts, and social media run separately. This creates a fragmented experience for your audience. Content marketing is at its best when it’s used to pull everything together so that an experience in one channel makes sense or adds value when the audience switches to another channel. This is one reason why editorial calendars are so important.” (Albee)

“They aren’t relentless in their pursuit of producing great content. In other words, it’s not a culture of the company, it’s a ‘If we have time to write a blog post, let’s try to get it done…’” (Sheridan)

8. Don’t underestimate the power of various formats:

“Written content may be the core of your content strategy, but don’t forget video. Or podcasts. Or short, embedded slide presentations. Or whatever other formats your audience naturally gravitates toward.” (Heinz)

“Content is an asset. Using it once and then relegating it to a resource list page on the corporate website is a shame. Marketers will benefit tremendously by embracing the Rule of 5. This means that for every piece of content developed, there should be five uses, applications, or reinvention options. Turn a webinar into a white paper. Then break the white paper into a series of articles and blog posts and connect them via hyperlinks. Take one topic and develop five different angles to approach it, creating five different formats of content.” (Albee)

As we’ve seen, good content marketing is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time investment. If you focus on eliminating these “don’ts” from your work, you can get closer to hitting a home run with every campaign. You will find that quality content builds upon itself, delivering consistent long-term engagement, and creating brand loyalty within your customer base.

At the same time, there’s one more major “don’t” we must mention: Please don’t ponder every step you take so much that you become paralyzed by the fear of making a misstep. As Heinz points out, “it’s best to not overthink your content marketing strategy. It’s more important to have a bias for action and get rolling.”

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.Net 4.6.2. Framework client driver for Always Encrypted resulting in intermittent failures to decrypt individual rows

November 10, 2016   BI News and Info

The SQL Product team has identified an issue with .Net 4.6.2 framework client driver for Always Encrypted enabled database on SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database. The issue can lead to intermittent failure while trying to decrypt the records from the Always Encrypted enabled database with following error message

Decryption failed. The last 10 bytes of the encrypted column encryption key are: ‘7E-0B-E6-D3-39-CE-35-86-2F-AA’.The first 10 bytes of ciphertext are: ’01-C3-D7-39-33-2F-E6-44-C3-B1′.Specified ciphertext has an invalid authentication tag. 

The above failure to decrypt may potentially lead to incorrect query results which in turn may trigger incorrect behavior in the app, for example, attempts to insert missing values or to perform any other updates that will either produce further errors or produce inconsistent data in the database.

The SQL Product team is aware of the issue and is actively working on the fix which may be made available soon. In the interim, we have following recommendation for the users

  • Users who are on .Net framework 4.6.1 are not impacted by this issue and can ignore this. We recommend not to upgrade to .Net framework 4.6.2 if you are using Always Encrypted database feature until the fix for the issue is released.
  • Users who have the latest version of .Net framework 4.6.2 installed, we recommend, if possible to rollback to previous version of .Net framework 4.6.1. Note: In general, you should not uninstall any versions of the .NET Framework that are installed on your computer without testing,  because the application dependent on that version can potentially break and may not function as desired.
  • If you are unable to uninstall .Net framework 4.6.2 due to application dependency, you can workaround the issue by turning off column key encryption (CEK) by setting the SqlConnection.ColumnEncryptionKeyCacheTtl property to 0 in the .Net framework 4.6.2 driver.

After uninstalling .Net framework 4.6.2 or turning off Column Encryption Key (CEK) caching, users can confirm that the error does not reappear during a table scan (e.g., SELECT * FROM < table with Always Encrypted>) executed from a query window in SSMS. Executing this scan will help validate the error doesn’t occur.

Customers who encounter the above error during the validation scan and are unable to resolve the issue, should contact sqlalwaysencrypted@microsoft.com.  The team will be able to help access and recover all previously encrypted rows that were affected by this bug. There will be no permanent data loss caused as a result of this defect.

To determine which versions of the .NET Framework are installed on a system, see How to: Determine Which .NET Framework Versions Are Installed.

Parikshit Savjani
Senior Program Manager (@talktosavjani)

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Sports data analytics isn't always a slam dunk

October 8, 2016   BI News and Info
TTlogo 379x201 Sports data analytics isn't always a slam dunk

One time back in college, I found myself embroiled in a debate with a math major over the role of predictability in sports. The “Moneyball” approach to building and managing baseball teams was relatively new back then.

“So you actually believe there is anything that happens in any game that can’t be predicted?” he asked with a hint of incredulity. I answered yes, though at the time, I couldn’t quite explain why sports data analytics didn’t seem to have all the answers. Today, I’d still answer the question the same way, only now I have reasons.

Take, for instance, pro basketball’s Houston Rockets of the last few years. The team was one of the highest scoring in the NBA for the 2012-2013 season, thanks in large part to superstar James Harden, the darling of basketball analytics geeks. After that season, the Rockets added Dwight Howard, one of the most skilled centers in the league and a player who was considered a perfect fit for the team’s analytics-driven playbook.

Emotional X-factors

But things didn’t go as well as the analysts had expected. After a Western Conference finals appearance in the 2014-2015 season, the team exited in the first round of the 2016 playoffs and Howard subsequently left Houston and signed with the Atlanta Hawks. So what went wrong? Reports indicate that Howard was upset about his role in the offense and didn’t like the coach the team brought in for the upcoming 2016-2017 season. Issues of human personality often affect in-game performances. In the case of Howard, who has had a history of disunity with teammates, his personality traits might have been foreseen, though impossible to predict with data.

There’s another problem with sports data analytics, and it’s not so much that outcomes are unpredictable in an absolute sense. An article published in 2014 in the journal EPJ Data Science found that, in fact, the timing of scoring events and the outcome of games are remarkably predictable in American football — both collegiate and professional — and ice hockey. Basketball games tend to be less predictable, though they still adhere loosely to a discernable pattern.

No, the problem is that knowing likely outcomes matters little to in-game decisions. A coach may know with a high degree of certainty that teams facing a scoring deficit similar to the one his team is facing go on to lose games 65% of the time. But does that mean it’s time to pack up and go home? Of course not, the coach will try to optimize every play to help his team be among the 35% that go on to win.

Just because you know the general likelihood of something happening doesn’t mean you know precisely what will happen in a specific case. Regardless of whether we’re talking about football or basketball, you try to score when you possess the ball and keep the other team from scoring when they have the ball. In most cases, the decisions don’t change substantially just because you know your chances of winning or losing.

A game of inches and gigabytes

Overall, I still think it’s a good thing that sports teams are becoming more data-driven. Sports data analytics can show baseball teams where player investments tend to pay off according to a player’s position. It can help basketball teams understand the right mix of two- and three-point shots to optimize scoring. It can help football teams determine the amount of practice and training a player can handle before his risk of injury increases.

But today’s vogue of proclaiming that everything in sports is predictable ignores substantial problems for which analytics poorly redresses. It also drives an unnecessary wedge between the people who have adopted analytics into their understanding of sports and those who haven’t. There’s a lot of talk these days about people who “believe” in analytics.

Statistical methods that have been around for centuries aren’t something in which individuals can choose to believe or disbelieve. But the believers have turned it into a partisan issue. Instead of pushing an ever-expanding one-sided agenda, proponents of analytics in sports should acknowledge that data is useful in some areas and not in others.

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Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

March 25, 2016   Self-Service BI

Access your most relevant data in seconds using the new Power BI app for Apple Watch.

This app brings Power BI card and KPI tiles directly to your wrist, giving you easy access to your data from anywhere — even in the shower! Access your critical information and insights directly from the watch face without opening the Power BI app itself. All of your most valuable KPIs are right on your wrist

83c4a564 118e 41bb 915b aaa6bf9a4594 Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

Keep a close eye on your most important metrics

The Power BI app for Apple Watch supports both KPI and card tiles. These types of tiles are ideal for a small screen and provide you with a heartbeat measure of your business.

When you open the Power BI app for Apple Watch, you will see an Index screen with a quick overview of all applicable tiles from the synced dashboard. Keep a close eye on your most important metrics. You can drill into a specific tile by tapping on it to get more data:

38367167 b177 463c 865a 0a7a275d909c Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

 

Stay up to date with dashboard syncing

To sync a Power BI dashboard to your Apple Watch, first open the Power BI app on your phone, load a dashboard, and tap the dashboard actions menu:

ca890c1f c789 4c4f ae4b 113176c000a3 Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

Next, open the Power BI app from the Apple Watch springboard :

f9e37376 3ea5 4317 869f 0c97a12bce67 Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

 

Have your KPIs within reach

The Power BI app for Apple Watch also supports displaying a tile directly on the watch face so it is visible and accessible at all times. This display will stay up to date, and will update shortly after your Power BI datasets are scheduled to update. You’ll always have the latest information at your fingertips!

6dd612eb b069 48a8 b04b 97ac80f35d3a Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

e002775c 7538 4688 b651 3e58ccd2b869 Always have your KPIs on hand with the Power BI for Apple Watch

Please update your Power BI mobile app to get these latest changes, other improvements and bug fixes. Your feedback will help us decide what to implement in the future, so please don’t forget to vote for other features that you would like to see in Power BI mobile apps. 

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It's always nice to remember that people that are politically aligned with U can also be trash fires

March 15, 2016   Humor
fb default It's always nice to remember that people that are politically aligned with U can also be trash fires

One of the nice things about being a man is that I never have to worry about being told I’ve betrayed my entire gender with some minor decision.

Ask yourself: Am I living the best life possible without actually killing all my enemies? The answer may surprise you.

BREAKING: Trump announces latest campaign promise to build an underground railroad and make black people pay for it.

Do you think GOP Convention sponsors Google, AT&T, Cisco, Xerox and Coke are concerned that they’re about to bankroll a Nuremberg Rally?

To do list if Trump and Hillary are nominated:

1. Change my name to “None of the Above”

2. Run for president

3. Quietly sail into office

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“The Writer-Producer Always Was Considered Brilliant But Also Eccentric”

February 19, 2016   Humor

david milch “The Writer Producer Always Was Considered Brilliant But Also Eccentric”

Gifted television writer David Milch gambled and lost so much that he pretty much ruined schadenfreude for everyone.

The former Yale Literature professor, who co-created of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, had lavish homes, $ 100 million and the esteem of the industry, but a rabid racetrack habit has left him with only the latter. He continues working as he lives in shadows of his former life, subsisting on a $ 40-a-week allowance and hopelessly in arrears to the IRS. Milch is the subject of a jaw-dropping Hollywood Reporter story by Stephen Galloway with Scott Johnson, which could be called a cautionary tale, except it probably can only be fully understood by those drawn to wagering every last comfort on the nose of a horse. In other words, if you can see yourself in it, you probably won’t be able to see yourself out of it. 

An excerpt:

The writer-producer always was considered brilliant but also eccentric: His writing style consists of dictating his thoughts, sometimes while lying prone on the ground, often surrounded by other writers.

“He’s obviously a genius and extraordinarily talented, and he’s got a fire that burns in him brighter than anyone else,” says horse trainer Darrell Vienna, who helped Milch connect with real-life cowboys and horse wranglers while doing research forDeadwood. “But it can cause a lot of damage. He’s an extraordinary person. He’s insightful in everything he does — people, horses, everything — and he’s very insightful about himself, and therein lies the rub. He’s a person of extremes.”

A self-confessed former drug user in the ’80s (“I was a bitter heroin addict at the time,” he told an MIT communications forum in 2006) as well as a gambler, Milch is well-known at racetracks, where he once owned several horses. Racing and gambling were the themes of his HBO series Luck, canceled in 2012 after three horses died during filming.

“He was one of the most devoted gamblers,” says John Perrotta, an author and adviser on that show. “He was very serious about it, and he was a very good handicapper.”

Handicapping is the process by which odds are analyzed in a way that improves the chances of winning. You can, for instance, make what’s called an “exotic bet,” in which you guess which two or three or four horses will be the first to cross the finish line and in what order. The formation of these exotic bets was the subject of the first scenes of Luck, which Milch once described as his “love letter” to horse racing. Perrotta says they came directly from his experiences with the writer.

One acquaintance familiar with Milch’s gambling habits describes a man who couldn’t stop betting once he got started: “He was crazy. He’d bet thousands and thousands of dollars. He’d bet every race.”•

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