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User: elliot.mackenzie

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  1. Re:Big Data on Ask Slashdot: Which OSS Database Project To Help? · · Score: 2

    "Big Data" is horse shit. It's code for "stuff it all in a pile and maybe someday we can get some of it out, but not in any order that makes sense, and not in any reliable fashion".

    The problem with arguments like this is that it overlooks the fact that there is a lot of value in data that doesn't need ordering in advance, and where any missing gaps in data are not critical failures. Not all data can or should be stored in such systems, but for that which can, there are much better ways to store it than RDBMS. RDBMS isn't going away, but it's certainly been commoditised. In time, so will Big Data type storage, but until then it's a good thing to make good money on if you are starting out in this field precisely because it is relatively new, and also is not going away.

  2. Big Data on Ask Slashdot: Which OSS Database Project To Help? · · Score: 1

    The real money these days is in Big Data, not RDBMS. If you are just starting out now, start with what's still big in five years, not what was big five years ago.

  3. Re:how many of the jobs didn't exist as well? on Hounded By Recruiters, Coders Put Themselves Up For Auction · · Score: 3, Informative

    All recruiters say they don't don't do this, but they do. All of them. And they don't even bother to manage independent lists these days they just run groups on LinkedIn. I wouldn't mind so much if I had to pay a few hundred quid for the service, but if you do manage to find someone passable in the 642 CVs they send you, they'll charge you 10%-15% of their salaried rate for at least a year and often forever for contractors. I can search linkedin too, but it doesn't cost me $3000 a year when I find someone.

  4. Retained exploits on UK Government Wants a Backdoor Into Windows · · Score: 1

    I must confess I find this concept of a backdoor of this nature to be nonsense. Just like cryptographic export restrictions in the late 90's, there will always be a way to get the software you need to protect yourself. The export restrictions were lifted not because the US government suddenly had a change of heart and discovered protecting personal data was a good thing, but because they figured out the hard way that the rest of the world was going to create and use whatever encryption they needed with or without the US' involvement: either the US government could maintain some limited influence, or they could have none. Plenty of companies already make software to encrypt the data on hard drives (utimaco and others come to mind). Some of these companies are European, few are based in the US or the UK. With regard to intel gathering, any surveillance or early discovery will be as invisible as possible. The best way to do this is to find flaws and notify Microsoft about some of them but not all. Rather conveniently, both the UK and US government already have access to the source code for Windows. The retained exploits would be retained for intelligence use until such time as they become a liability (ie when the exploit is publicly discovered and exploited, putting their own systems at risk). The advantage of this approach is that even with a warrant for the search/discovery, they don't even need to damage the lock on your door and you'll never know they were there.

  5. *Both* standards will fail. on Blu-Ray to Include New Copy Protection · · Score: 1

    Frankly, I am convinced that the arduous DRM provisions built into both standards mean *both* standards are doomed to failure. The first group that comes out with a disc at least as good as DVD and that people can actually use as they please will succeed.

    A disc that plays no better than a DVD on a non-HD television - or alternatively on an HD television with a screen size too small to notice the difference anyway - will achieve little more than subjecting the public to even more arduous restrictions on how, when and where people choose to watch movies. Such media is forever doomed to failure.

    A disc that can play a movie in at least as high quality as DVD, that will work with existing AV/TV equipment, let you fast forward advertisements, play media purchased from anywhere in the world and play media on your computer/portable player/home cinema how and when people choose would be an instant success.

  6. Open source Acrobat? on Adobe Releases Acrobat Client for Linux · · Score: 1

    That'll be the day.