Episode 190 – Sometimes The Waveforms Lie

In Episode 190, Ben and Scott talk about the difficulties of naming human genes when Excel gets in the way, improvements coming to the automatic cleanup of deployment history within Azure Resource Manager, and the automatic enablement of App Lock in the Microsoft Authenticator app. Transcript Email Download New Tab - Welcome to episode 190 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast recorded live on August 7th, 2020. This is a show about Microsoft 365 and Azure, from the perspective of IT pros and end users, where we discuss the topic or recent news and how it relates to you. In this episode, Ben and Scott talk about Excel getting in the way of naming human genes, Azure resource manager deployment cleanup, and the Microsoft Authenticator app among other recent Microsoft Cloud news. Had to make sure it wasn't picking up my audio somewhere else because the waveforms can lie. - The wave, okay. - Well, you just kinda see the waveforms there. You don't know which mic it's coming from. - The waveforms can lie. That's gonna become my new motto mantra. - The waveforms can lie, not human genes are really dates. - This is like, super fun because we all know that Excel makes the world go round. And, - Absolutely. - Excel not only makes the world go round. I mean, it's a database, it's a defacto kind of business driver. It does so many things that people don't think about in so many industries and so many businesses to the point that it impacts the way scientists on a global scale name human genes, so that they can continue their research, which is just amazing. - I had not seen this article until you sent it to me this morning. - It's an issue with the way that Excel automatically parses data. So, I'm sure we've all been there where you paste a number into Excel, or you Paste a string that has a number on it and Excel decides it is, something else. So, some genes have alphanumeric symbols, like there'll be a mix of uppercase alphas and a number such as MARCH1, which is short for membrane associated ring-CH-type finger 1. But, Excel doesn't know that MARCH1 is membrane associated ring-CH-type finger 1. It thinks that that is the 1st of March. So, it will change it into a date column with formatting that is appropriate for what you put in, which was MARCH1. So, it'll be 1-Mar, one March, right? And you go to the next column and the next column could be one April and then one May, but that's not what you were trying to do. You were trying to do another thing. So, you would think as a rational person, you would come back and say, "Okay, auto formatting is getting in the way of me putting my gene data into Excel so that I can do whatever manipulations or visualizations of the data that I want to there." Well, Excel does not offer the option to turn off auto formatting. And the only way that you could really avoid it is to remember that you'd have to change the data type for each individual column before you went and pasted that data in there. So, that would certainly be a way around it, but you'd have to teach every scientist in the world how to do this, that uses Excel. And that might not be the most scalable thing. So, how do you fix this problem? Excel, well can't be fixed, but you can fix the way or change the way that you name things to better accommodate the tools that your users use. So therefore, the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee or the HGNC has recently published new guidelines for gene naming, including that any symbols that affect data handling and retrieval like MARCH1, would fall into that category. They will now be renamed, so MARCH1 is gonna become MARCHF1, SEPT1, S-E-P-T-1, has become SEPTIN1 and a number of others along the way. So, as of right now, 27 genes have been renamed to accommodate this. And of course there will potentially be more. - Huh? - Yeah. - So now do they have to go back and rename all these genes and all these different databases everywhere or is it just kind of okay going forward from this date, whatever date they actually renamed them, August 6th or whatever, it's going to be the new name and everything with the old name remains the old name? - Well, like, unlike many things, you're gonna be in a period of time where you've got the old spreadsheets and the old databases and everything that have MARCH1 and MARCHF1. So, you've got to now potentially accommodate for both of them. But if you were sitting down and doing genetic research today, and you're following the guidelines from this standards body, you would go down the new path and you'd be a little bit safer. - Maybe we should just stop using Excel as a database. - Let's not be drastic. - Oh my, can you imagine being the person at Microsoft saying, "Hey, you know this update I made to Excel, I just forced everybody to rename human genes." The stories they can tell their grandkids someday. - Right? - I don't even know where to go from here. - Well, - I think my brain's still on vacation. I got back yesterday morning. I woke my kids up at 4:30 a.m. to get on the plane and come home. - Well, you made it. - We made it. Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to manage your Office 365 environment? Are you facing unexpected issues that disrupt your company's productivity? Intelligink is here to help much like you take your car to the mechanic that has specialized knowledge on how to best keep your car running, Intelligink helps you with your Microsoft Cloud environment because that's their expertise. Intelligink keeps up with the latest updates in the Microsoft Cloud to help keep your business running smoothly and ahead of the curve. Whether you are a small organization with just a few users up to an organization of several thousand employees, they want to partner with you to implement and administer your Microsoft Cloud technology. Visit them at intelligink.com/podcast. That's I-N-T-E-L-L-I-G-I-N-K .com/podcast for more information or to schedule a 30 minute call to get started with them today. Remember Intelligink focuses on the Microsoft Cloud so you can focus on your business. - Let's talk about some Azure stuff since, - Azure stuff, - Yes. - or Event stuff? - Since your brain is fine, Event stuff. - Since my brain is fine. What's event stuff? - What's event stuff? - What's event stuff? Ignite. That's about all. Ignite, it's coming. And we will not be there live in-person because there is no live in-person, which we already knew. However, it's gonna be September 22 through 24, which is three days, but it's 48 hours straight of streaming Ignite presentations. So, similar to how they did Build, jump on and just watch Ignite for 48 hours. Although I'm guessing in there, there's gonna be replays of sessions so they can get various sessions and various time zones and, all of that. So, you won't need to try to figure out how to stay up for 48 hours if you want to watch it all. - That is genuinely the intent, is not to have you, Ben, staying up for 48 hours, but providing coverage for a potentially worldwide audience. - Yes, however, we will be live from our homes where there is no lines for food and no lines for restrooms. - Yeah. - And, - I'm trying to figure out, do I broadcast from the desk or the couch? What's the optimal situation there? - See I was going for the pool. I might just go sit up by the pool, kick my feet up, listen to the waterfall trickle, in the 95 degree Florida heat. That's the disadvantage, right? Although it was gonna be in New Orleans this year. - Which also would be hot. - Which also would be hot. But unfortunately here by having it go virtual, it does not allow us to escape the heat that is usually associated with Microsoft Ignite. We are still gonna be attending Microsoft Ignite in the sweltering heat of the Southern United States. - Yeah, well, you cannot get away from that one. - All right, enough about that one. We also have GlobalCon coming up too. That was the other event I was gonna say. The Collab365 guys, Mark Jones, the whole team over there are doing GlobalCon3 that I'm doing some stuff for. There's a, Power Platform day coming up that I have a Power Platform fundamental session at, and then they're doing a full five-day conference later this year and I don't have the dates off the top of my head even though I should. - GlobalCon - Con. - 3. - is, - Yes. - September 8 through September 11. - So, my whole month of September is just pretty much gonna be conferences because Mark Rackley is still planning on doing his conference as well. Last I have heard at the end of September, shortly after Ignite. - You have not escaped conference season. - We have not. We just have escaped traveling for conference season, but that's all the conference events news I have. ♪ Tu tu tuli ♪ Yeah, most of it's all virtual. So enjoy virtual conferences from the comfort of your own home, without the flights, the lines for the bathroom, the lines for food, and sleeping in hotels. - Those are all the fun parts of conferences. - Yeah, okay. - I'm running out of conference shirts to wear. - I see you're wearing a conference shirt today, - I am. - Because that's, - the way it goes. And I've had to go back to regular T-shirts and things during the workweek and, it's getting rough. - I don't have many. Did I tell you this story when we walked past one of the Microsoft Stores a few months back when Microsoft Stores were still a thing? My daughter saw the Microsoft sign on the store and said, "Hey daddy, that's what's on all of your shirts." - Yeah. - Oops. - Yeah, we gotta get you some new shirts. - Apparently, okay. With that, should we talk Azure stuff now? - Yeah, let's, let's talk some Azure stuff. So, there are some changes potentially coming to ARM, which could be beneficial to certain types of customers. So, when I say ARM, Azure Resource Manager,...