Computers are supposed to make things easier for us. Too often, however, the data we get from other humans is designed to make our lives miserable. We spend too much time as the intermediary between eager computer software and demanding humans—supervisors, clients, colleagues and customers. Wouldn't it be great to stick someone else in the middle?

No! That's not nice. You shouldn't wish tedium on anyone. We need to ask our eager computers to take on more work. They won't complain. Their little quad core processors barely break a sweat, even with dozens of programs running.

The idea is to find simple, everyday automation tools that do one or two things very well. If we can get the computers to run these automation tools when we need them to be run and, if we select tools that fix the messy data we have been getting, then we no longer have to do those dull, dreary tasks ourselves.

Here at ParserMonster, I will be exploring such tools. Some of them are mine, some are gems found on the web. All of them have the potential to wrangle messy data, so that you and I won't have to. You'll find stories about projects that I've done for clients, personal projects I've completed for fun or out of desperate need and stories that masquerade as product reviews.

If you're just here to see if I know what the heck I'm talking about, don't take my word for it. See what some of my clients have to say about their projects. Look through the portfolio and stay for the stories.

Cheers,

Mitch