Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Why is it so difficult to find basic database speed information? (comasdf.html) 2

Submitted by DidgetMaster
DidgetMaster writes: I am developing a new general-purpose data management system that handles unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data well, so it has features found in file systems, relational databases, and NoSQL solutions. I am a file system expert so it is very easy for me to see how my system outperforms traditional file systems (e.g. search is 1000x+ times faster), but although I have moderate DB experience it is tough to tell just how my database features compare to the likes of MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc.. I have tried to find simple performance metrics on sites that compare various database products, but none of them seem to give any basic information.

I realize that every setup is different and you can tune most databases to get benchmarks to make a particular product look good against the competition, but something simple like "good performance today means you can insert 10 column rows into a table at a rate of 25,000 rows per second" or "a simple database view for finding all customer names that start with the letter 'B' on a 10 million row table should take 3.5 seconds or less". Using my software on a desktop system (intel i7), I can read, parse, and insert 5 million rows (10 columns each) into a table in 1 minute 6 seconds. Queries against that table (e.g. SELECT * FROM table WHERE customerName LIKE '%au%';) usually take less than 2 seconds. (My custom database is a column store that de-dupes all data and does not need any indexes.)

It seems fast to me but is it really? I tried doing the same thing using MySQL Workbench and it always took much longer (sometimes 17 seconds or more for each query), but I can't tell if I am just not doing it right. How long should it take on a desktop machine to import a 5 million row, 10 column .CSV file into a database table? How long should it take to execute simple views against that table? I don't need exact millisecond numbers, just ballpark figures.

Submission + - New Technology for Building Homes Lower Costs by 50%! (i24news.tv)

Submitted by Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth writes: An Israeli entrepreneur has developed a smart building block that has the potential to revolutionize the construction industry, reducing building and running costs for new homes.

The new block, currently under development, is called S-brick. It looks like a large concrete Lego piece with built in holes and a v-shape part which can be removed, exposing the inner porous structure. This design combines several distinct advantages. The S-block is made from a special concrete developed in Germany that is as strong as steal — eliminating the need for expensive and time consuming metal reinforcements in the building. Each block has holes for running pipes, plumbing and electrical wires. The outer part of the block is removable, allowing easy access for inserting the pipes during construction and inspecting and maintaining them later on. These are just two of almost a dozen unique advantages of the S-brick compared to any existing comparable building technology which according to the developers could reduce building costs by as much as 50%.

Submission + - US Court Rules Against Government for Using Seized Data Beyond Scope of Warrant

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit last week reversed a tax evasion conviction against an accountant because the government had used data from his computers that were seized under a warrant targeting different suspects. The Fourth Amendment, the court pointed out, 'prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another.' Law enforcement originally made copies of his hard drives and during off-site processing, separated his personal files from data related to the original warrant. However, 1.5 years later, the government sifted through his personal files and used what it found to build a case against him. The appeals court held that '[i]f the Government could seize and retain non-responsive electronic records indefinitely, so it could search them whenever it later developed probable cause, every warrant to search for particular electronic data would become, in essence, a general warrant', which the Fourth Amendment protects against. The EFF hopes that the outcome of this appeal will have implications for the NSA's dragnet surveillance practice.

Submission + - Social Movie Nerd (runpee.com)

Submitted by fleebait
fleebait writes: For the guy who does movies the old fashioned theatre way, here's an application to use after paid for a high priced theatre ticket, and you can't hit the pause button.

Runpee

Submission + - Employees who stay more than 2 years paid 50% less (forbes.com)

Submitted by fleebait
fleebait writes: According to Forbes:

The worst kept secret is that employees are making less on average every year. There are millions of reasons for this, but we’re going to focus on one that we can control. Staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.

Submission + - NIgerian born UK TV repairman sentenced 16 months prison for 91% reuse (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by retroworks
retroworks writes: The Guardian uses a stock photo of obvious electronic junk in its coverage of the sentencing of Joseph Benson of BJ Electronics. But film of the actual containers showed fairly uniform, sorted televisions which typically work for 20 years. In 2013, the Basel Convention Secretariat released findings on a two-year study of the seized sea containers containing the alleged "e-waste", including Benson's in Nigeria, and found 91% working and repaired product. The study, covered in Slashdot last February, declared the shipments legal, and further reported that they were more likely to work than new product sent to Africa (which may be shelf returns from bad lots, part of the reason Africans prefer used TVs from nations with strong warranty laws).

Director of regulated industry Harvey Bradshaw of the UK tells the Guardian: "This sentence is a landmark ruling because it's the first time anyone has been sent to prison for illegal waste exports." But 5 separate university research projects question what the crime was, and whether prohibition in trade is really the best way to reduce the percentage of bad product (less than 100% waste). Admittedly, I have been following this case from the beginning and interviewed both Benson and the Basel Secretariat Executive Director, and am shocked that the UK judge went ahead with the sentencing following the publication of the E-Waste Assessment Study last year. http://retroworks.blogspot.com... But what do Nerds at Slashdot think about the campaign to arrest African geeks who pay 10 times the value of scrap for used products replaced in rich nations?

Submission + - When drones fall from the sky (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation.

Submission + - Overeager Compilers Can Open Security Holes In Your Code (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Creators of compilers are in an arms race to improve performance. But according to a presentantation at this week's annual USENIX conference, those performance boosts can undermine your code's security. For instance, a compiler might find a subroutine that checks a huge bound of memory beyond what's allocated to the program, decide it's an error, and eliminate it from the compiled machine code — even though it's a necessary defense against buffer overflow attacks.

Submission + - NADA Is Terrified Of Tesla

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: It's no secret that the National Automobile Dealers Association has been trying to block Tesla from selling cars directly from consumers, but to date, it has been defeated countless times in many states. Now NADA put out a release and promotional video touting the benefits of dealer franchises, something Tesla has shunned. NADA mentions price competition, consumer safety, local economic benefits, and added value. While NADA argues its points, there's no question that Tesla could easily turn around and argue right back with valid counter points. There may be some truth to NADA's claims, but there are some gaping holes in the arguments that can't be ignored, and I'm sure Tesla won't. Hey NADA, you scared?

Submission + - Kingston and PNY caught bait-and-switching cheaper components after good reviews

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over the past few months, we’ve seen a disturbing trend from first Kingston, and now PNY. Manufacturers are launching SSDs with one hardware specification, and then quietly changing the hardware configuration after reviews have gone out. The impacts have been somewhat different (more on that) but in both cases, unhappy customers are loudly complaining that they’ve been cheated, tricked into paying for a drive they otherwise wouldn’t have purchased.

Comment Re:uh no (Score 1) 173

by fleebait (#47235937) Attached to: Dell Exec Calls HP's New 'Machine' Architecture 'Laughable'

It might be just a little more than just a game changer.

Stop thinking about computers as boxes with wires, screens and disks, and start thinking about building the nervous system of a human being. Our bodies use distributed computing all over the place, with the vagus nervous system for the organs, with their own chemical memories, and feedback loops, the localized muscle memory systems for arms, legs, fingers, locally stored programs that run semi-autonomously.

If you read about memristors on Wikipedia, you can begin to see the possibilities of interfacing with biologic systems, and the newer bioligic chemical sensors within the organs, and appendages. Distribute local semi-dedicated processors with the distributed memory systems, and now we're talking about leaps ahead for automotons, and robotics. Who needs a stupid file oriented operating system, when the information needed for a process is stored locally.

Unix is so yesterday, as well as any other file orientated storage system.

How do you organize your brain? Do you have file cabinets, with tabs, disks? pictures? No, it's some sort of random access sensory system that relates to previously accessed information. Something like the memristors they are talking about.

It's coming down to defining the complete application, before building the actual machine itself.

I imagine early prototypes may be in a metal box with wires, but interface is going to be a new problem. Most likely all fibre connections before connecting directly to sensors and embedding sensory processing at the sensor itself -- -- and so on.

Comment Re:Inspiring (Score 1) 257

by fleebait (#47235881) Attached to: HP Unveils 'The Machine,' a New Computer Architecture

It might be just a little more than just a game changer.

Stop thinking about computers as boxes with wires, screens and disks, and start thinking about building the nervous system of a human being. Our bodies use distributed computing all over the place, with the vagus nervous system for the organs, with their own chemical memories, and feedback loops, the localized muscle memory systems for arms, legs, fingers, locally stored programs that run semi-autonomously.

If you read about memristors on Wikipedia, you can begin to see the possibilities of interfacing with biologic systems, and the newer bioligic chemical sensors within the organs, and appendages. Distribute local semi-dedicated processors with the distributed memory systems, and now we're talking about leaps ahead for automotons, and robotics. Who needs a stupid file oriented operating system, when the information needed for a process is stored locally.

Unix is so yesterday, as well as any other file orientated storage system.

How do you organize your brain? Do you have file cabinets, with tabs, disks? pictures? No, it's some sort of random access sensory system that relates to previously accessed information. Something like the memristors they are talking about.

It's coming down to defining the complete application, before building the actual machine itself.

I imagine early prototypes may be in a metal box with wires, but interface is going to be a new problem. Most likely all fibre connections before connecting directly to sensors and embedding sensory processing at the sensor itself -- -- and so on.

Slashdot Top Deals

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken

Close