Big data applications bring new database choices, challenges

The volumes of data that had to be handled back then seem amusingly modest by today’s “big data” applications standards, with IBM’s 3380 mainframe able to store what seemed like a capacious 2.5 GB of data when it was launched in 1980. To put data into IMS, you needed to understand how to navigate the physical structure of the database itself, and it was a radical step indeed when IBM launched DB2 in 1983. In this new approach, programmers would write in a language called SQL and the database management system itself would figure out the best access path to the data via an “optimiser.”

Big data: A great way for database management

Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes 

difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data 
processing applications. The challenges include capture, curation, storage,search, 
sharing, transfer, analysis,and visualization. The trend to larger data sets is due to the 
additional information derivable from analysis of a single large set of related data, as 
compared to separate smaller sets with the same total amount of data, allowing 
correlations to be found to "spot business trends, determine quality of research, 
prevent diseases, link legal citations, combat crime, and determine real-time roadway 
traffic conditions."

As of 2012, limits on the size of data sets that are feasible to process in a reasonable 
amount of time were on the order of exabytes of data.Scientists regularly encounter 
limitations due to large data sets in many areas, including meteorology, genomics,
connectomics, complex physics simulations,and biological and environmental research.
The limitations also affect Internet search, finance and business informatics. Data sets 
grow in size in part because they are increasingly being gathered by ubiquitous information-
sensing mobile devices, aerial sensory technologies (remote sensing), software logs, 
cameras, microphones, radio-frequency identification readers, and wireless sensor 
networks.^[The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly 
doubled every 40 months since the 1980s;as of 2012, every day 2.5 quintillion (2.5×10¹⁸) 
bytes of data were created.The challenge for large enterprises is determining who should 
own big data initiatives that straddle the entire organization.

Big data is difficult to work with using most relational database management systems 
and desktop statistics and visualization packages, requiring instead "massively parallel 
software running on tens, hundreds, or even thousands of servers".What is considered 
"big data" varies depending on the capabilities of the organization managing the set, and 
on the capabilities of the applications that are traditionally used to process and analyze the 
data set in its domain. "For some organizations, facing hundreds of gigabytes of data for the
first time may trigger a need to reconsider data management options. For others, it may take 
tens or hundreds of terabytes before data size becomes a significant consideration."

Cloud Computing:Hot trend in computer field.

Cloud computing is a colloquial expression used to describe a variety of different 

typesof computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected 

through a real-time communication network (typically the Internet).Cloud computing 

is a jargon term[citation needed] without a commonly accepted non-ambiguous
scientific or technical definition. In science, cloud computing is a synonym for
distributed computing over a network and means the ability to run a program on
many connected computers at the same time. The phrase is also, more commonly
used to refer to network-based services which appear to be provided by real
server hardware, which in fact are served up by virtual hardware, simulated by
software running on one or more real machines. Such virtual servers do not
physically exist and can therefore be moved around and scaled up (or down)
on the fly without affecting the end user - arguably, rather like a cloud.

The popularity of the term can be attributed to its use in marketing to sell hosted
services in the sense of application service provisioning that run client server
software on a remote location.

Advantages:-

Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and
economies of scale similar to a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network.
At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged
infrastructure and shared services.The cloud also focuses on maximizing the
effectiveness of the shared resources. Cloud resources are usually not only
shared by multiple users but as dynamically re-allocated per demand. This
can work for allocating resources to users. For example, a cloud computer 

facility, which serves European users during European business hours with a
specific application (e.g. email) while the same resources are getting reall-
ocated and serve North American users during North America's business
hours with another application (e.g. web server). This approach should
maximize the use of computing powers thus environmental damage as well
since less power, air conditioning, rackspace, etc. is required for a variety
of functions.

The term "moving to cloud" also refers to an organization moving away from a 

traditional CAPEX model (buy the dedicated hardware and depreciate it over
a period of time) to the OPEX model (use a shared cloud infrastructure and
pay as you use it).Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to
avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their
businesses instead of infrastructure.Proponents also claim that cloud computing
allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved
manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust
resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.

Latest Techno-Mania: Cloud Computing.

Overview:--

Cloud computing delivers the ability to provision resources on demand to your

users.Cloud computing is enabling a major transformation in which you can

turn your datacenter into an IT-as-a-Service platform. This means you can

deliver applications to your end users faster than ever, without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud

computing also helps your organization compete in new markets and 

communicate with customers in new ways. You can drive down the costs 

of doing business and increase your ability to adapt to changing market 

conditions.

Because cloud computing changes the way your organization consumes IT, 

you can change the role of IT in your organization and the way your team thinks 

about and delivers business success.

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latest studies and reasearches in the technical field will be updated time to

time.

Hackers hijack Google Palestine site with

 anti-Israel message.

Google says servers not hacked, instead Web users redirected to 

site that reminds 'Uncle Google' that the country shown on Google

Maps is Palestine, not Israel.

Pro-Palestinian hackers on Monday hijacked the Google Palestine domain (google.ps), redirecting Web users to a hacked version of the page that called for removing Israel from Google Maps and renaming it Palestine.

Google officials said their servers were not hacked. Instead it appears the hackers managed to break into the domain name registry for Palestine -- a database in which domains (web addresses such as google.ps) are converted to the unique IP addresses where the domain is located. The hackers changed the IP address to which google.ps directs users, sending users to a different website showing what appeared to be a hacked version of Google’s homepage. That site featured the hackers’ apparent protest against the use of the word “Israel” on Google Maps.

At the top of the defaced site the words “Google Owned” were written, underneath which the hackers’ message appeared: “uncle google we say hi from palestine to remember you that the country in google map not called israel. its called Palestine .. # Question: what would happens if we changed the country title of Isreal [sic] to Palestine in google maps !!! it would be revolution So listen to rihanna and be cool :P”

The hackers signed off as Dod, Hij@ker, alzher, Mr_AnarShi-T and toxico-dz.

Hacking Web domains, which is similar to spray-painting graffiti on walls in public places, happens all the time. In most cases, such acts of hacking are generally innocuous unless the hackers exploit security flaws to infect surfers’ computers with viruses or engage in “phishing” — scams to collect usernames and passwords. The Google.ps site is back to normal, but several tech sites have pointed out that what makes this case unique is the target: Internet giant Google.

“For a short period, some users visiting google.ps were redirected to a different website,” a Google spokesman told Haaretz. “Google services for the google.ps domain were not hacked. We’ve been in contact with the organization responsible for managing this domain name and the issue should be resolved.”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has already played out on Google previously, when the company upgraded the Palestinian Authority’s status on Google Maps: the name of the PA territory was changed from “the Palestinian territories” to “Palestine” -- a move that drew an official protest from Israeli officials.

Two months ago, the Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee held a discussion on the topic in the presence of Charlie Hale, Google’s official in charge of public policy and government relations, who came especially from Google’s headquarters in California. Hale laid out Google’s official position, under which the selection of geopolitical names is based on decisions by organizations such as the United Nations, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the International Organization for Standardization.

“We have no interest in being the arbiter of political disputes,” Hale said during the meeting. “I want to make it absolutely clear that in making these decisions we are in no way taking a political stance.

Microsoft launches Office 365 University for students

Microsoft has announced Office 365 University, especially for students. The 

Application is meant for full-time and part-time students studying in various 

universities and colleges. Office 365 Universitycomprises of the latest set 

of office applications likeWord, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher 

and Access. It works on personal computers, Macintosh, comes with Office 

on Demand and an additional 20 GB Premium SkyDrive storage facility.

Office 365 University is available to students for Rs. 4199 for four years of 

subscription. The company said that Office 365 University will allow students 

to study in a better way that would result in future jobs and offering them 

an upper hand in the competitive young Indian market.

"University students will love the capabilities of new Office. Office 365 University 

will be a trusted and integral part of students' everyday always-on, always-connected 

life, taking full advantage of the cloud and touch capabilities, all at the best price,

" Ramkumar Pichai, GM,Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India said in a statement.

Microsoft has also put up a list of recognized universities and colleges, and University 

students only need to go online at www.office.com/verify to validate their eligibility 

to activate office. While the verification process is on, students will be required to fill 

in their university qualifications or international student identity card particulars. On 

the other hand, students can also submit documents via the manual verification procedure. 

After the verification process is complete, students can purchase Office 365 University from 

the online Microsoft store.

WhatsApp introduces one-press voice 

texting, to be rolled out on all operating

systems in 24 hours.

Instant messaging service WhatsApp has rolled out an update that lets you

now send voice texts by just pressing one button.

The company announced the availability of this new feature while announcing

that it has now hit the 300 million monthly active users mark.They garnered a 

whopping 50 million new active users in just 2 months.

With this new feature, you can record and send voice clips with one press of

 the mic icon.According to a report in AllThingsD, WhatsApp users now send 

11 billion messages and receive 20 billion messages per day - up from 27 billion

 total in June.

WhatsApp has began rolling out voice messaging for all of its apps, on iPhone, 

BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.

Simple and easyWhat's interesting about this feature is that it is simple with less taps on the screen

to get the job done.You just press the record button to record your message and let 

go of the mic icon once ur done to send the message.If you decide not to send the

message then you just swipe to the left to delete the recording.

There is no time length limit when recording a message therefore users can get as 

creative as they want.Another interesting feature is that the playback of a voice text

will automatically switch from handset's speakers to its earpiece when the device is

held to your ear.The mic icon also turns blue when recipients have listened to the

message .

Feature available in 24 hours
In the report it is also mentioned that WhatsApp with its strength of just 45 employees 

will push the new voice feature simultaneously on all its platforms and will make it 

available to all users within 24 hours.Facebook and WeChat already have the voice 

texting feature but what's interestingabout Whatsapp is its one press voice text feature.

Siddhartha Bhavsaar, a businessman and an active user of WhatsApp from Mumbai

is quite happy with the update, " I hate typing. Voice messaging will be so much 

easier and fun!"

One of the last useful update rolled out by WhatsApp was to allow its users to send 

batches of photos in one go.Divya Saboo, a mass media graduate from UPG College 

of Management in Mumbai feels that the realms of conversation has increased ten-folds. 

" With family, you normally conversate in your regional language. With voice text now 

on WhatsApp I can easily communicate with my mother who does not know English 

effectively."Rahil Shaikh, a design proffessional does not really think it makes much 

of a difference. "To voice chat, I will call the person. Why would I voice text and then 

wait for a reply on WhatsApp. The app is great for free texting and group chats, but 

there is no need for voice text."

This feature does not need the app updated and will automatically appear on your 

device once it is rolled out.Wonder if 'instant video' is the next update from WhatsApp. 

We can only wait and hope......