A distributed block-chain database is superior to a centralised SQL or NoSQL database if and only if there is NO centralised authority that is trusted by all participants. A blockchain solution should be attempted only when there is non-heirarchical network of peers who cannot, or will not trust each other. Cryptocurrency -- or equivalents that allow one to store, exchange unit economic value -- are most amenable for a blockchain application. For everything else a good old fashioned RDBMS is cleaner, faster, safer and easier to implement solution.
Birds were the first heavier than air bodies to fly in the sky BUT the principles of bird flight were inadequate to make real aeroplanes fly. Modern aeroplane technology is NOT based on the principles of bird flight but that does not make them any less efficient. In fact modern aeroplanes are far bigger, faster, more effective than birds or anything that resembles them. One need not ALWAYS mimic nature to surpass it... though it could be a starting point.
This whole concept of Agile was dreamt up as a last gasp response to the offshoring of development work to inexpensive developers in India. Nothing more.
An even better solution would be to adopt the "Avatar" route and have robotic avatars explore space under the control of guidance of sentients on Earth. In fact the drone operators hammering the Taliban in Af-Pak are the precursors to this.
God Forbid that NPTEL be the kind of content that is dished out through these tablets! The farmers -- if at all they were the target for this product -- would immediately throw away the tablets in desperation and frustration if they are forced to watch the kind of utterly boring and worthless trash that is dished out through these "IIT lectures". On the other hand, if the product is reliable and stable, then it can be a real force multiplier to the humble mobile phone that has changed the commercial and personal communication landscape of a large yet poor country and introduce a whole new category of users to the information and entertainment that is currently available to a small part of the population.
"Microsoft is participating in the fight against the very criminal element that Microsoft allowed to blossom." Just as the United States is now fighting against the Taliban and the Islamist terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan whom it once allowed, encouraged and paid money to, to blossom !
Because after every terrorist exploit, the security agencies make threatening noises about Skype (most favourite) followed by Gmail and then mail in general. How to explain to our dumbos that banning automobiles is no solution to hit-and-run accidents !
How difficult would it be to isolate a rogue country from the Internet ? Is it as difficult or harder than to enforce a trade embargo or an arms sanction -- both of which are legitimate tools in global diplomacy. Has there been any thought on these line ?
When I was finishing high school in Calcutta, India, my father insisted that i take a course in typing as being a typist was one of the few viable employment opportunities that existed. Glad to state that India has moved out of that zone of darkness but my touch typing skills are still a source of wonder to many of my younger "digit"-ally challenged colleagues !
The ability to buy a product through a purchase order and have access to customer support is sometimes very important to large corporations. I had once used a legitimately downloaded PGP encryption product as key component of a complex Cash Management application in a global multinational bank but the biggest challenge in getting it accepted as a part of the solution was the lack of a purchase order. I remember the IT Head of the bank almost pleading with me to get a commercial product but because PGP had already been integrated with the system, the difficulty of a change was immense. I believe that the bank finally got someone do download PGP and sell it to the bank for $10 through an invoice before the row was settled !!
Believe me, as a not-so-expensive teacher in India, who has been unsuccessfully experimenting with Distance Education for quite some time, I can tell you that a watching a video is only one part of the story. The ability to feel the pulse of the audience, to take a difficult question and change the pace and style of the delivery are very important. Canned video is certainly better when nothing else is available but a human teacher cannot be replaced with a recording.
i would wholeheartedly agree with this... put as much as possible on the cloud. if you have to buy and place a server on your premises, there must be an iron-clad reason to do so, because the default should be the cloud. and dont be put off my reasons like data safety and data security -- data is more safe with a reputed cloud vendor jwith a professionally managed data centre than it is with a 20-employee NGO with a single ill-paid sysadm ( just as money is safer with a bank than under the mattress at home )
is the illusion, or error, that the non-adept wrongly equates to reality and modern technology can either reinforce the illusion or reveal the basis of the same !!
The only piece of technology that adds value is an internet access device with a broadband connectivity to the internet. A school is meant to open your eyes to the all the wonderful things that are waiting to be learnt and this happens when you move from a single teacher ( with his limited knowledge ) to the library ( that stores the knowledge of many more people ) then on to the internet that dissolves physical boundaries.
Everything else that a student needs will drop down automatically as and when it is needed.
How can the SEC hide behind the fig leaf of being understaffed when "As early as 2001, the media had quoted financial professionals who raised questions about Madoff's fund. In 2005, independent fraud investigator Harry Markopolos sent the SEC a memo raising 29 red flags -- he had complained about Madoff to regulatory officials for six years." It is very apparent that enough red flags were raised but they were ignored... this smacks of connivance.
So what if the "crowd" finds some anomalies in accounts.. question is will anybody take any action on the same ? Their track record speaks otherwise..
As a university teacher myself, my credo is that i do not teach, i help my students learn. One of the key components of learning, as opposed to acquiring facts, is the ability to push the borders of the known and seek out something new. So I always encourage my students to explore what is new even it is in something as traditional as -- say RDBMS.
In this context it is important that the teacher walk the talk and prove to the students that he or she is also pushing the borders... and yes I do try to use whatever technology I have access or can afford.. and this includes stuff like Wiki, Blogs, social networks, YouTube, Print-On-Demand. Some of these have proved to be successful and some have failed. We rejoice when things work out but we do not regret our failures.
Unfortunately many of my colleagues see all this is a waste of time.
as a former IBM employee, i had tried very hard to create a MS free desktop environment but what stumped me, paradoxically, was the non-availablity, of a Linux client for IBM's own Lotus Notes mail system --- and as anyone who has worked for IBM would realise, if you are not in Lotus Notes, your existence is in doubt inside the Blue Caverns !
We really need an open alternative to Facebook.
It is useful no doubt, like Windows, but it is so locked in that I really hope for some open platform.
Unfortunately, unlike other software, I cannot move away from Facebook, on my own. I need my network to move along with me.
Slashdot Mirror
A distributed block-chain database is superior to a centralised SQL or NoSQL database if and only if there is NO centralised authority that is trusted by all participants. A blockchain solution should be attempted only when there is non-heirarchical network of peers who cannot, or will not trust each other. Cryptocurrency -- or equivalents that allow one to store, exchange unit economic value -- are most amenable for a blockchain application. For everything else a good old fashioned RDBMS is cleaner, faster, safer and easier to implement solution.
the number of morons on the planet vastly outnumber the number of non-morons ... that is the tragedy
whether it is because of Slashdotters or ... i dont know
Birds were the first heavier than air bodies to fly in the sky BUT the principles of bird flight were inadequate to make real aeroplanes fly. Modern aeroplane technology is NOT based on the principles of bird flight but that does not make them any less efficient. In fact modern aeroplanes are far bigger, faster, more effective than birds or anything that resembles them. One need not ALWAYS mimic nature to surpass it ... though it could be a starting point.
This whole concept of Agile was dreamt up as a last gasp response to the offshoring of development work to inexpensive developers in India. Nothing more.
An even better solution would be to adopt the "Avatar" route and have robotic avatars explore space under the control of guidance of sentients on Earth. In fact the drone operators hammering the Taliban in Af-Pak are the precursors to this.
God Forbid that NPTEL be the kind of content that is dished out through these tablets! The farmers -- if at all they were the target for this product -- would immediately throw away the tablets in desperation and frustration if they are forced to watch the kind of utterly boring and worthless trash that is dished out through these "IIT lectures". On the other hand, if the product is reliable and stable, then it can be a real force multiplier to the humble mobile phone that has changed the commercial and personal communication landscape of a large yet poor country and introduce a whole new category of users to the information and entertainment that is currently available to a small part of the population.
"Microsoft is participating in the fight against the very criminal element that Microsoft allowed to blossom." Just as the United States is now fighting against the Taliban and the Islamist terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan whom it once allowed, encouraged and paid money to, to blossom !
Because after every terrorist exploit, the security agencies make threatening noises about Skype (most favourite) followed by Gmail and then mail in general. How to explain to our dumbos that banning automobiles is no solution to hit-and-run accidents !
How difficult would it be to isolate a rogue country from the Internet ? Is it as difficult or harder than to enforce a trade embargo or an arms sanction -- both of which are legitimate tools in global diplomacy. Has there been any thought on these line ?
When I was finishing high school in Calcutta, India, my father insisted that i take a course in typing as being a typist was one of the few viable employment opportunities that existed. Glad to state that India has moved out of that zone of darkness but my touch typing skills are still a source of wonder to many of my younger "digit"-ally challenged colleagues !
Are android tablets, or rather chrome tablets, not a close equivalent of linux desktops ?
The ability to buy a product through a purchase order and have access to customer support is sometimes very important to large corporations. I had once used a legitimately downloaded PGP encryption product as key component of a complex Cash Management application in a global multinational bank but the biggest challenge in getting it accepted as a part of the solution was the lack of a purchase order. I remember the IT Head of the bank almost pleading with me to get a commercial product but because PGP had already been integrated with the system, the difficulty of a change was immense. I believe that the bank finally got someone do download PGP and sell it to the bank for $10 through an invoice before the row was settled !!
Believe me, as a not-so-expensive teacher in India, who has been unsuccessfully experimenting with Distance Education for quite some time, I can tell you that a watching a video is only one part of the story. The ability to feel the pulse of the audience, to take a difficult question and change the pace and style of the delivery are very important. Canned video is certainly better when nothing else is available but a human teacher cannot be replaced with a recording.
i would wholeheartedly agree with this ... put as much as possible on the cloud. if you have to buy and place a server on your premises, there must be an iron-clad reason to do so, because the default should be the cloud. and dont be put off my reasons like data safety and data security -- data is more safe with a reputed cloud vendor jwith a professionally managed data centre than it is with a 20-employee NGO with a single ill-paid sysadm ( just as money is safer with a bank than under the mattress at home )
in an increasingly bipolar world ?
is the illusion, or error, that the non-adept wrongly equates to reality and modern technology can either reinforce the illusion or reveal the basis of the same !!
The only piece of technology that adds value is an internet access device with a broadband connectivity to the internet. A school is meant to open your eyes to the all the wonderful things that are waiting to be learnt and this happens when you move from a single teacher ( with his limited knowledge ) to the library ( that stores the knowledge of many more people ) then on to the internet that dissolves physical boundaries. Everything else that a student needs will drop down automatically as and when it is needed.
and the US already has access to the servers ... so there is no need to worry here
How can the SEC hide behind the fig leaf of being understaffed when "As early as 2001, the media had quoted financial professionals who raised questions about Madoff's fund. In 2005, independent fraud investigator Harry Markopolos sent the SEC a memo raising 29 red flags -- he had complained about Madoff to regulatory officials for six years." It is very apparent that enough red flags were raised but they were ignored ... this smacks of connivance. .. question is will anybody take any action on the same ? Their track record speaks otherwise ..
So what if the "crowd" finds some anomalies in accounts
As a university teacher myself, my credo is that i do not teach, i help my students learn. One of the key components of learning, as opposed to acquiring facts, is the ability to push the borders of the known and seek out something new. So I always encourage my students to explore what is new even it is in something as traditional as -- say RDBMS. ... and yes I do try to use whatever technology I have access or can afford .. and this includes stuff like Wiki, Blogs, social networks, YouTube, Print-On-Demand. Some of these have proved to be successful and some have failed. We rejoice when things work out but we do not regret our failures.
In this context it is important that the teacher walk the talk and prove to the students that he or she is also pushing the borders
Unfortunately many of my colleagues see all this is a waste of time.
between a monkey and a Talibani Islamist ? ( mind you, i am not referring to Muslim Afghans )
While they might have got the winner wrong, they have correctly placed Netherlands and Spain in the final four !!
as a former IBM employee, i had tried very hard to create a MS free desktop environment but what stumped me, paradoxically, was the non-availablity, of a Linux client for IBM's own Lotus Notes mail system --- and as anyone who has worked for IBM would realise, if you are not in Lotus Notes, your existence is in doubt inside the Blue Caverns !
We really need an open alternative to Facebook. It is useful no doubt, like Windows, but it is so locked in that I really hope for some open platform. Unfortunately, unlike other software, I cannot move away from Facebook, on my own. I need my network to move along with me.