The CIO title came around in the early 80's. It replaced the title of V.P.-Information Systems and emphasized the importance of the Top Computer Guy as being on par with the other Os (CEO, CFO). The V.P.-I.S. title took over for the earlier title of V.P.-Data Processing, signifying the realization of companies that the most valuable purpose of this person is the production of VALUABLE BUSINESS INFORMATION, and not simply to running of business machines.
The CTO title is a newcomer that's been mostly fueled by the increased significance of the internet, and is most commonly seen in dot-coms. It reflects the immaturity of the internet technology and the unfortunate fact that there are now Top Computer Guys who spend more time trying to piece together gadgets than they spend meeting business needs. The high mortality of dot-coms reflects the aimlessness embodied in the new title of CTO.
The functional needs of an application (and users) should drive the technical design, and scaling is just another challenge to be met after addressing functional requirements.
I just came off a site design that has 10+ complex queries per page, and this was after extensive optimization. Mind you, the pages have extraordinary, dynamic, user-responsive functionality. If we needed 16 to deliver the needs, then so it would have been.
As for database scaling, there are many options for clustering and replication and multi-processing. Your own words suggest you don't think in this realm. My world is perhaps not so simple as yours.
You speak with such authority, and yet, you are plainly presumptuous, uninformed, and hasty in your conclusions. Listen more. Talk less. THINK.
Please correct me if somebody knows my facts to be wrong, but here's my understanding...
The "rigamarole" you speak of is the need to run the "VACUUM" command regularly. This command essentially does garbage collection, cleaning up space wasted by previous database updates. As I understand it, Postgres (as part of its transaction processing scheme) creates a new copy of a row every time that row gets updated. VACUUM reclaims the space occupied by old rows and updates indexes accordingly.
A major problem with VACUUM is that it requires exclusive access to the database and can take quite some time to execute. Effectively, a production database must be taken out of service for this routine maintenance, and if you don't execute VACUUM periodically, the remnants of old rows in an active database can eat up all your available disk space.
We built a data analysis system with Postgres. With about a million rows of data, we ran into major performance snags in which some complex queries that took only minutes to run on SQL Server took hours to run on Postgres. We examined the EXPLAIN plans to see how the queries were being optimized, and saw that Postgres was choosing an inefficient execution plan. We tried many alternative algorithms including the use of views to assure controlled execution. Unfortunately, Postgres provides no explicit way to control query optimization, and with great disappointment, we eventually gave up.
We like Postgres. But it couldn't get us home when we needed it to.
The widespread, low-cost availability of the programmable computer has so dramatically lowered the cost of developing and deploying the products of original art that such innovations no longer present enough of a barrier to entry as to require the protections of patent law, and to the contrary, the burden of intellectual property law with respect to computer software now exceeds the burden of innovation.
This highly intellectual, techno-anarchy is but one more example of the "rich kid syndrome." So far have we come that many can no longer see the ground beneath us. They take for granted the infrastructure that supports us as if it were not built of the sweat and toil of little people (like myself). As the irony of fools goes, they tout advanced forms of destruction as tools of creation. Is it such genius that can't figure out how food comes from data?
We must confront our own mortality. And then we must remind ourselves of the sick, the hungry, the dying. We must realize how much we DO value our own places in this world. With this knowledge, perhaps we might be more inclined to help others to make their own way, and perhaps to pray that they will not impede our own endeavors to live.
This "New World Order" crap, and the self-proclaimed commandos who fight it; these are the musings of the ivory tower visionaries who can't see how fragile, how tenuous life remains to this day.
Hacker/Cracker/Shmacker...intelligence is too often wasted...this stuff is so stupid.
You mistake intelligence as being worthy unto it's own right. In the absence of a meaningful sense of self, it is useless.
This highly intellectual, techno-anarchy is but one more example of the "rich kid syndrome." So far have we come that many can no longer see the ground beneath us. They take for granted the infrastructure that supports us as if it were not built of the sweat and toil of little people (like myself). As the irony of fools goes, they tout advanced forms of destruction as tools of creation. Is it such genius that can't figure out how food comes from data?
We must confront our own mortality. And then we must remind ourselves of the sick, the hungry, the dying. We must realize how much we DO value our own places in this world. With this knowledge, we are compelled to help others to make their own way, and perhaps to pray that they will not impede our own endeavors to live.
Think all you want. Know all you can. Play with yourself. If it so pleases, then I am your worm.
So long as I am willing to kill, I will not starve. Mental starvation? What is that?
I am an animal. I will surely die in the end. You will join me there. Good fortune prevailing, you will believe yourself to have travelled the better path (I'm surprised you can even see me from all the way up there).
Think all you want. Know all you can. Play with yourself. If it so pleases, then I am your worm.
So long as I am willing to kill, I will not starve. Mental starvation? What is that?
I am an animal. I will surely die in the end. You will join me there. Good fortune prevailing, you will believe yourself to have travelled the better path (I'm surprised you can even see me from all the way up there).
I do not underestimate the influence of the intellectual elite (such as yourself). I suspect you do not underestimate the power of the popular masses. THEY are the WE to whom I was referring, and however "warped" our minds may be from the *media drug*, WE are, by mere fact of our mass, the center of the world.
One can only feel unfulfilled by a choice of any one person as a pinnacle force of the century. Time magazine set a precedent several years ago when it chose the personal computer as the "Man of the Year." In so doing, the publication recognized that the influences of technology are more powerful forces in our time than are people. Drum roll, please...the winner of the century... TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hands down. No doubts. The technological force of the twentieth century. And all those other people? Images. Characters. Content. TV. The window through which the collective "WE" is now synthesized. We are watchers. We are watched. b
Slashdot Mirror
The CTO title is a newcomer that's been mostly fueled by the increased significance of the internet, and is most commonly seen in dot-coms. It reflects the immaturity of the internet technology and the unfortunate fact that there are now Top Computer Guys who spend more time trying to piece together gadgets than they spend meeting business needs. The high mortality of dot-coms reflects the aimlessness embodied in the new title of CTO.
I am a CTO, not an animal.
The functional needs of an application (and users) should drive the technical design, and scaling is just another challenge to be met after addressing functional requirements.
I just came off a site design that has 10+ complex queries per page, and this was after extensive optimization. Mind you, the pages have extraordinary, dynamic, user-responsive functionality. If we needed 16 to deliver the needs, then so it would have been.
As for database scaling, there are many options for clustering and replication and multi-processing. Your own words suggest you don't think in this realm. My world is perhaps not so simple as yours.
You speak with such authority, and yet, you are plainly presumptuous, uninformed, and hasty in your conclusions. Listen more. Talk less. THINK.
<bart
The "rigamarole" you speak of is the need to run the "VACUUM" command regularly. This command essentially does garbage collection, cleaning up space wasted by previous database updates. As I understand it, Postgres (as part of its transaction processing scheme) creates a new copy of a row every time that row gets updated. VACUUM reclaims the space occupied by old rows and updates indexes accordingly.
A major problem with VACUUM is that it requires exclusive access to the database and can take quite some time to execute. Effectively, a production database must be taken out of service for this routine maintenance, and if you don't execute VACUUM periodically, the remnants of old rows in an active database can eat up all your available disk space.
<bart
We like Postgres. But it couldn't get us home when we needed it to.
bart
Abolish software patents.
We must confront our own mortality. And then we must remind ourselves of the sick, the hungry, the dying. We must realize how much we DO value our own places in this world. With this knowledge, perhaps we might be more inclined to help others to make their own way, and perhaps to pray that they will not impede our own endeavors to live.
This "New World Order" crap, and the self-proclaimed commandos who fight it; these are the musings of the ivory tower visionaries who can't see how fragile, how tenuous life remains to this day.
Hacker/Cracker/Shmacker...intelligence is too often wasted...this stuff is so stupid.
<bart
This highly intellectual, techno-anarchy is but one more example of the "rich kid syndrome." So far have we come that many can no longer see the ground beneath us. They take for granted the infrastructure that supports us as if it were not built of the sweat and toil of little people (like myself). As the irony of fools goes, they tout advanced forms of destruction as tools of creation. Is it such genius that can't figure out how food comes from data?
We must confront our own mortality. And then we must remind ourselves of the sick, the hungry, the dying. We must realize how much we DO value our own places in this world. With this knowledge, we are compelled to help others to make their own way, and perhaps to pray that they will not impede our own endeavors to live.
Jeez this stuff is stupid.
<b b
SHAME ON WINTERSTORM!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a link to the page he/she copied.
http://www.easydns.com/why.php3
bart
Proof that morality doesn't have to eminate from dogma, and that thoughtfulness can transcend snappy but snide retorts.
Bravo!
b
So long as I am willing to kill, I will not starve. Mental starvation? What is that?
I am an animal. I will surely die in the end. You will join me there. Good fortune prevailing, you will believe yourself to have travelled the better path (I'm surprised you can even see me from all the way up there).
Me: I be rock'n'rollin' all the way home.
Smile. Contact peace.
b
So long as I am willing to kill, I will not starve. Mental starvation? What is that?
I am an animal. I will surely die in the end. You will join me there. Good fortune prevailing, you will believe yourself to have travelled the better path (I'm surprised you can even see me from all the way up there).
Me: I be rock'n'rollin' all the way home.
Smile and be peaceful.
b
Behold the truth, however ugly it may be.
b
One can only feel unfulfilled by a choice of any one person as a pinnacle force of the century. Time magazine set a precedent several years ago when it chose the personal computer as the "Man of the Year." In so doing, the publication recognized that the influences of technology are more powerful forces in our time than are people. Drum roll, please...the winner of the century... TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hands down. No doubts. The technological force of the twentieth century. And all those other people? Images. Characters. Content. TV. The window through which the collective "WE" is now synthesized. We are watchers. We are watched. b
Let's face it. It was the hair.