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The real reason they're keeping the data is the way google's distributed file system work

That argument is bunk.

With a system like that, you could implement a system where "deleted" chunks get purged or overwritten on some semi-regular basis.

HIPAA (U.S. law which includes penalties for disclosing confidential health information)and other regulations have caused serious concerns in the database and data mining research community (contrary to popular opinion not all data miners want to strip you of your privacy). Rakesh Agrawal, Jerry Kiernan and Ramakrishnan Srikant (major data base researchers, Srikant and Agrawal made groundbreaking contributions to the field of data mining) published recently (well about 2 years ago or so) on Hippocratic Databases (in gzipped PostScript), where he describes the hard problem of making the database forget information to conform to legal and ethical restrictions.

The real reason they're keeping the data is the way google's distributed file system work

That argument is bunk.

With a system like that, you could implement a system where "deleted" chunks get purged or overwritten on some semi-regular basis.

HIPAA (U.S. law which includes penalties for disclosing confidential health information)and other regulations have caused serious concerns in the database and data mining research community (contrary to popular opinion not all data miners want to strip you of your privacy). Rakesh Agrawal, Jerry Kiernan and Ramakrishnan Srikant (major data base researchers, Srikant and Agrawal made groundbreaking contributions to the field of data mining) published recently (well about 2 years ago or so) on Hippocratic Databases (in gzipped PostScript), where he describes the hard problem of making the database forget information to conform to legal and ethical restrictions.

The real reason they're keeping the data is the way google's distributed file system work

That argument is bunk.

With a system like that, you could implement a system where "deleted" chunks get purged or overwritten on some semi-regular basis.

HIPAA (U.S. law which includes penalties for disclosing confidential health information)and other regulations have caused serious concerns in the database and data mining research community (contrary to popular opinion not all data miners want to strip you of your privacy). Rakesh Agrawal, Jerry Kiernan and Ramakrishnan Srikant (major data base researchers, Srikant and Agrawal made groundbreaking contributions to the field of data mining) published recently (well about 2 years ago or so) on Hippocratic Databases (in gzipped PostScript), where he describes the hard problem of making the database forget information to conform to legal and ethical restrictions.

The real reason they're keeping the data is the way google's distributed file system work

That argument is bunk.

With a system like that, you could implement a system where "deleted" chunks get purged or overwritten on some semi-regular basis.

HIPAA (U.S. law which includes penalties for disclosing confidential health information)and other regulations have caused serious concerns in the database and data mining research community (contrary to popular opinion not all data miners want to strip you of your privacy). Rakesh Agrawal, Jerry Kiernan and Ramakrishnan Srikant (major data base researchers, Srikant and Agrawal made groundbreaking contributions to the field of data mining) published recently (well about 2 years ago or so) on Hippocratic Databases (in gzipped PostScript), where he describes the hard problem of making the database forget information to conform to legal and ethical restrictions.

Let me guess. You've never worked on 3270, IRMA, twinax, DB-2, HDLC, SDLC, or SNA, huh? DB-2 has ODBC connections. That's hardly "locked up".

There are several reasons to use a mainframe computer, some are:

Speed (Try doing dependent calculations on a cluster. Doesn't work well.

Cost containment (for existing equipment)

Reliabillity (Failed CPU? Restart the task elsewhere.)

Documentation (IBM documents the proper way to wash your hands after using the bathroom. In detail. With pictures. And a support number if you misplace the soap. One vendor of main frames, since out of business, frequently beat me to the office with a replacement part when something failed. Try that with your on site Dell waranty!)

Auditable security

control over what happens, by whom, and when.

Geographic dispersal

Support

Support

Did I mention Support?

That said, and AGAIN, there are some tasks that do not lend themselves to a mainframe environment. Just as there are some tasks that do. Being an absolutist and stating things that are untrue undermine your legitmate point that mainframes were not always so easy to get data out of by other systems.

This is the same machine that Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, predicted "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers" in 1943.

"God, yes. You hardly ever see [MRAM] anymore, and [Millipede] are being phased out right and left."

"God, yes. You hardly ever see [MRAM] anymore, and [Millipede] are being phased out right and left."

> When is the last time that you saw a new IBM brand PC for sale?
Uh here you go

(also typing this message on my IBM thinkpad)

IBM has had "QBIC", Query By Image Content, for some time now. From what I read, this allows the user to specify some overall image-processing attributes of desired images, and hopefully the database will find images that meet the description. However, this applies to the domain of flat images, and not 3D shapes. Still, it's informative to know that this concept is not new, and has been around since at least 1996 or so.

http://wwwqbic.almaden.ibm.com/
http://www.seyboldreports.com/SRDP/0dp9/D0901006.H TM

IBM Ultimedia Manager already allows "fuzzy image search" (a.k.a. QBIC = Query By Image Content). Available for OS/2 Warp and AIX, with an optional Windows client (only). The Windows client is 16-bit so should be good to go on Linux (and 32-bit Windows).

I was a DB2 beta tester in a previous life. The product that you're referring to is the DB2 Image Extender, and I was fortunate enough to be able to try it out as part of their beta program. Seemed to be really cool tech, but of course IBM was in OS/2 marketing mode...meaning that they couldn't find a customer for it, even if it promised to end world hunger, find a cure for cancer/AIDS, or clean up our polluted ecosystem.

I'm not sure about the current incarnation, but at the time there was a demo that included a small sketch-pad frame where you could draw what it was that you were looking for. I drew a vertical rectangle, pointed at the top, and requested a search. It came back with images of picket fences, the Washington monument, and several other similar images that were well-classified and fit with the image I provided. Drawing a half-circle with the diameter line at the bottom yielded sunrise/sunset scenes. All in all, it seemed to have a lot of potential.

There are other extenders, as well: the sound extenders (sounds like...), text extenders (extended fuzzy searching, above and beyond SQL 'like' queries), and video extenders, the last of which is an extension of the image extender: key frames are generated of the video stream, which are points of transition in the video content. From there, you do an image search for a particular key frame, resulting in the video segment(s) of interest.

I would've really liked to have seen this hit mainstream, but in typical IBM fashion, I don't think they perceived that much of a demand for it. You suppose the fact that no one knew it was there might have had something to do with that?

This is a neural network trained to play backgammon. It plays at a world grandmaster level, and has discovered at least one strategy not known to humans before. I found my Reinforcement Learning course pretty boring until I discovered this.

IBM's QBIC image search technology has been around since 2001 or ealier and is being used on the Hermitage website. Users can select color combinations and/or draw a simple picture and the tool will locate matches from their digital collection. wwwqbic.almaden.ibm.com

The machine can dispatch one group of up to 5 instructions per cycle which limits average completion rate as well. There's lots of details here: Power4

"PowerPC is open-endian, supporting both big-endian *AND* little-endian memory models" IBM

I found that link a long time ago from this obscure website, though you may have heard of it: /.

"Aside from compatibility, one of the best things about the PowerPC architecture is that it is open: it specifies an instruction set architecture (ISA) that allows anyone to design and fabricate PowerPC-compatible processors; and source code for software modules developed in support of PowerPC is freely available." (same source)

This is a huge amount of space warez groups will no doubt use this to distribute material.

It is quite easy to do, asuming the atticment size limit is 1mb, split iso's into 650 chunks and email them to yourself.

Get your friends to sign up and forward the iso to everyone using CC.

straight from the

That Blue Gene/L machine being shown is only a small part of the full machine they are building for LLNL. When its complete, IBM estimates that it will run at 360 TFLOPS, at a fraction of the size and power consumption of the current #1 supercomputer. Even if they miss the mark by 50% it represents a fairly significant leap in processing and power consumption. And hey, since it will only occupy 64 racks, you can just about fit one in your garage! (Nuclear reactor to power it not included...)

I'm still waiting on IBM to release it's PowerPC 970 (aka G5) hardware specs so that I can see what its high-speed bus looks like. The only thing publically available now is some fairly-broad "powerpc family" software arch documents - no electrical specs or 970-specific info.

From this article on the PowerPC 970:

"The PowerPC 970 design starts by remapping one of the POWER4 processor cores to 0.13-micron technology and increasing its frequency up to 1.8 GHz. Next, one of the L2 cache banks was resized to 512 KB. These POWER4 features were then complemented with a vector-processing engine and a redesigned bus interface to keep the 970 fed with data. The result is a higher-performance single-core POWER4 derivative that includes enhanced multimedia processing on a smaller, lower-power die."

Mostly IBM-developed schematic capture, simulation, and physical design tools. I also did some work on test structure verification using an IBM-designed tool.

Tools available in the current ASIC methodology are on the IBM website. Some of these would have been used back then, too.

These blades have a 970 (G5)

Or, you could always settle for an RS/6000.

RS/6000

Or, a Power-based IBM workstation,

Workstation

Or, you could always settle for an RS/6000.

RS/6000

Or, a Power-based IBM workstation,

Workstation

yes they are all PPC "based" now. The PS3 will be using what is called the Cell cpu which is derived from the Power ISA.

Theres a pantload of info here.

They also have a very good article about the PowerPC's three instruction levels and how to use implementation-specific deviations, while code stays compatible. This introduction to the PowerPC application-level programming model will give you an overview of the instruction set, important registers, and other details necessary for developing reliable, high performing PowerPC applications and maintaining code compatibility among processors.

I'm going to preface this by saying I'm an expert in this field, so my comments may be biased.

OLAP concepts have been around for quite some time, although as a mainstream product only since the early '90s. Today the two major players in the market are Microsoft and Hyperion Solutions, with Cognos a distant third. (To be fair, there are plenty of other players, these are just the three largest). I personally have worked extensively with both Essbase and Analysis Services, and can honestly say that both have very strong points, but generally speaking I have found Hyperion's Essbase to be superior as a whole to Microsoft's Analysis Services.
The original thread commented on how little mainstream press OLAP has received, which I wholeheartedly agree with. However, it is worth noting that many, if not most, large businesses have OLAP implementations (I can't find a source, but if I remember correctly, 499 of the Fortune 500 companies have an implementation.). Considering the market is about $3.5 billion, the products are definately being used extensively. Granted that is a drop in the bucket of the total relational marketplace, but it is hardly insignificant.
Personally, I strongly believe the lack of knowledge outside of the Finance departments of the world about the concepts is directly tied to the lack of exposure the concepts receive at the collegiate level, which continues to focus on relational databases as the primary storage of enterprise data (I am not implying that OLAP database can replace relational databases, they are truely a complimentary product tailored for specific use). The lack of a standardized API & querying languages is definately a problem for the industry, one which the large players have tried to address, with limited success. On the flip side, the industry has pushed (rightly or wrongly) toward selling the total package, with both the backend database and a suite of front end data entry & reporting tools all in one. This makes for an easy sell to many customers, but doesn't encourage much innovation from the outside (IMHO, the front ends to OLAP products are the weakest link, and really do need the most development).
Ironically, one of the best online resources I've found is IBM's web site. They repackage Hyperion's Essbase as DB2/OLAP, so their Redbooks on the concepts are slanted toward Essbase, but they have the most extensive source of free information on the concepts I've seen from a commercial vendor.

Yes, try the New Maintainers Guide and an article written by IBM

I've been debating this with a couple of friends myself, and there's no super-clear answer we've come up with that meets all of the goals. Those are:

o Ease of use/deployment (think server farm)
o Tracking (what was built where and when it was installed)
o Performance
o Reliability
o Maintainability
o Longevity

That last one is what bugs me. I came to Linux via RedHat 5.3, and I've learned how to set up a firewall, a LDAP server (for addresses mainly), Samba, Apache, etc. over the last few years. I'm no guru, but I can install the software and make it work pretty well. I like packaging like RPM except when the RPM database gets hosed, which has happened to me at least twice. No idea why, and it "sucked more than anything has ever sucked before" (okay, not THAT bad, but you know). That speaks directly to the "reliability" aspect. There was a lot of helpful info about rebuilding a RPM db at rpm.org that I found especially helpful then.

But what I run into with an older system such as my personal (behind firewall) mail & web server that's running Mandrake 8.1 is that keeping up-to-date with security fixes and upgrades is that the Mandrake spec files are full of Mandrake-specific stuff that doesn't apply to newer versions. I can usually get updated tarballs and do my own builds, but eventually the spec files need more major overhauls or newer glibc is needed or something of the sort. I haven't found a good solution for keeping the system up-to-date, and I don't want to re-install newer versions every year or so. But that's what I do...

That's an attraction of using the source-code build strategy, but my buddy is really against this in a server farm environment because of deployment issues (not to mention requirements of specific versions of Linux for many of our apps). It seems more suited to individual users than to that sort of environment, anyway.

I installed Gentoo one time, and I liked how much less bloat it seemed to have. I am not aware how well its ports collections are maintained; if a system I install today can be gracefully updated with stable versions of updated packages over a 2 to 3 year period, I'd be interested in trying it again. I do want to install from a CD, tho (did that the first time) as I want a baseline build so I don't have to download and build quite so much.

There was an interesting program used to manage .tar installations on package-based systems at developerWorks called Stow which was also discussed on Slashdot awhile back. Like so many other things, I'm interested but haven't looked into it...

Also an article with tips for rebuilding from source code that was basic but still useful.

Anyway, kind of a ramble, but there is it just the same.

- Leo

I've been debating this with a couple of friends myself, and there's no super-clear answer we've come up with that meets all of the goals. Those are:

o Ease of use/deployment (think server farm)
o Tracking (what was built where and when it was installed)
o Performance
o Reliability
o Maintainability
o Longevity

That last one is what bugs me. I came to Linux via RedHat 5.3, and I've learned how to set up a firewall, a LDAP server (for addresses mainly), Samba, Apache, etc. over the last few years. I'm no guru, but I can install the software and make it work pretty well. I like packaging like RPM except when the RPM database gets hosed, which has happened to me at least twice. No idea why, and it "sucked more than anything has ever sucked before" (okay, not THAT bad, but you know). That speaks directly to the "reliability" aspect. There was a lot of helpful info about rebuilding a RPM db at rpm.org that I found especially helpful then.

But what I run into with an older system such as my personal (behind firewall) mail & web server that's running Mandrake 8.1 is that keeping up-to-date with security fixes and upgrades is that the Mandrake spec files are full of Mandrake-specific stuff that doesn't apply to newer versions. I can usually get updated tarballs and do my own builds, but eventually the spec files need more major overhauls or newer glibc is needed or something of the sort. I haven't found a good solution for keeping the system up-to-date, and I don't want to re-install newer versions every year or so. But that's what I do...

That's an attraction of using the source-code build strategy, but my buddy is really against this in a server farm environment because of deployment issues (not to mention requirements of specific versions of Linux for many of our apps). It seems more suited to individual users than to that sort of environment, anyway.

I installed Gentoo one time, and I liked how much less bloat it seemed to have. I am not aware how well its ports collections are maintained; if a system I install today can be gracefully updated with stable versions of updated packages over a 2 to 3 year period, I'd be interested in trying it again. I do want to install from a CD, tho (did that the first time) as I want a baseline build so I don't have to download and build quite so much.

There was an interesting program used to manage .tar installations on package-based systems at developerWorks called Stow which was also discussed on Slashdot awhile back. Like so many other things, I'm interested but haven't looked into it...

Also an article with tips for rebuilding from source code that was basic but still useful.

Anyway, kind of a ramble, but there is it just the same.

- Leo

Way to go. Many source tarball already have spec files or debian/rules, and it's not not that difficult to roll your own if they don't.

Rational Software already does this. I don't know many programmers who use it, but I do know some high level engineers who use it to dump a bunch of crap on them. I already work with programmers who use Software Programming Tools for Idiots. It doesn't change the fact they are idiots. Bill Gates and his ilk believe that with the right tool anyone can write software. I have worked with computers for a long time, and they are wrong. The truth is given the right tools anyone can build a piece of crap. Just go to your average home improvement store, or watch TLC for a while and you will see that not everyone can do home repair and improvement, but with cheap easy to use tools they will try and make a mess of it. This is even more true in computers, since everyone I know thinks that thier 12 year old kid is a computer genius, because he can install any piece of software they buy.
LET THE MASSES HAVE THEIR TOYS. IT ONLY EMBOLDENS THEM TO MAKE THE STUPID MISTAKES THAT MAKE ME MORE VALUABLE, AND ULTIMATELY DRIVE MY SALLARY UP, UP, UP

> for comparison, a 12" Powerbook is 10.9" x 8.6" x 1.18.

For the intended use, carrying around an optical drive all the time doesn't make much sense (usb-flash mem is handier to share documents than cdrw), so I think he would be better off with a PC ultra-portable. Compare the Powerbook at 10.9" x 8.6" x 1.18", 4.6lbs with the Thinkpad X40 at 10.5" x 8.3" x 0.94", 2.7lbs.

IBM also published in yesterday's Red Book newsletter, a 9 steps program to learn how to migrate from Windows to Linux.
Windows-to-Linux Roadmap

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.secsup.org or irc.isprime.com as one of the EFNet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.

About Lunix
Lunix is an operating system. An operating system

yep, well pretty much. More so than most manufacturors.

..submitted by a very happy thinkpad/linux user.

True enough, but I took a little look around the Linux DevWorks and Redbook sites (haven't been in a while). There's a list of rebooks here.

Some good stuff there about making business cases, migrating Exchange to Domino etc.

I don't think that the majority of the intended audience of this paper is asking those questions. I believe that IBM's support for desktop Linux is minimal while their server support is extremely heavy. They will give support to customers who purchase an IBM Linux server and need to get a RAID card working in it.

But their opinion, and the opinion of most non-slashdoters, is that Linux isn't ready for the desktop now for home and many coporate users.

This isn't a flamebait. It's just that the article isn't supposed to answer these questions. XP professional IS what they recommend and for a good reason. Support for wlan isn't IBMs problem. Servers don't need to have a wireless network connection. If you want support for Linux Hardware from IBM, go here.

Umm, sorry AC, but I'm rather certain IBM TP's do not implement DRM in their BIOS.
But if it's the ThinkPad Security Chip you're referring to, then you're wrong again -- there is preinstalled software to use it. I know so because a colleague of mine has tested it (on his T40).
My TP (T23) doesn't have a security chip, nor would I think it necessary to use one.

But DRM? I'm quite certain they don't have that.

Umm, sorry AC, but I'm rather certain IBM TP's do not implement DRM in their BIOS.
But if it's the ThinkPad Security Chip you're referring to, then you're wrong again -- there is preinstalled software to use it. I know so because a colleague of mine has tested it (on his T40).
My TP (T23) doesn't have a security chip, nor would I think it necessary to use one.

But DRM? I'm quite certain they don't have that.

IBM had this similar device for CATIA on AIX back in the late 90's. Still a nice idea for modelling programs that have the natural functional split between modify and move.

but for now I see the senior IT staff choosing MS as the safe way out, they'll never get blamed for choosing it, they might if a Linux adoption failed.

But remember, nobody's ever been fired for buying IBM...

Excellent post. Moving away from C/C++ is a good idea for many projects, but since there's far too much C/C++ code out there for that to be a universal solution, we need to see wider deployment of stackguarding compilers like the propolice and stackguard patches to gcc 3.x. We also need to look at easy migration paths from C/C++ to a type-safe language, like Cyclone, a type-safe dialect of C.

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| _________________________

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| _______________________

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| ________________________

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| ________________________

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| _______________________

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us or irc.pihost.us as one of the nullnet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the GNAA Java IRC client by clicking here.
________________________________________________
| _________________________