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The Computer Science Behind Facebook's 1 Billion Users

pacopico writes "Much has been made about Facebook hitting 1 billion users. But Businessweek has the inside story detailing how the site actually copes with this many people and the software Facebook has invented that pushes the limits of computer science. The story quotes database guru Mike Stonebraker saying, 'I think Facebook has the hardest information technology problem on the planet.' To keep Facebooking moving fast, Mark Zuckerberg apparently instituted a program called Boot Camp in which engineers spend six-weeks learning every bit of Facebook's code."

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. 1 billion users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I totally believe that Facebook has 1 billion users... because I am 4 of them.

  2. Your first mistake... by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is looking for meaningful computer science discussion in a business magazine article.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Your first mistake... by amoeba1911 · · Score: 5, Funny

      What the hell did I ever do to you?

  3. 1 billion users, analyzed by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Funny
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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. Re:Oh bullshit. by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hard to believe it takes so long to learn Facebook's code. I work at Google, and I learned every bit of Google's code in one day.

    I don't think I'm giving away the store when I tell you the bits were '0' and '1'.

  5. Re:Oh bullshit. by kestasjk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pff. Apache + hadoop + mysql + varnish. Easy.

    The other day I had to write a red-black tree in my CS152 class, now that's a tough problem!

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    // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
  6. the secret is simple by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Funny

    facebook.pl

    it's just one script in perl.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.