The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Google Head of Open Source Opens Up
Google and open source have worked together since the search engine’s inception and it has contributed to its success. Tech Radar hosts an interview with Google’s head of open source Chris DiBona about how Google uses open source, how it has shaped the company, and how Google has changed the face of open source: “How Open Source Changed Google-And How Google Changed Open Source.”
An increasing number of people are worried about the way in which our data is being mined by governments and corporations. One of these people is Evgeny Morozov. In an article that appeared in the MIT Technology Review back in October 2013, he argued that this trend poses a serious threat to democracy, one that should be resisted through political activism and “sabotage”. As it happens, I have written about similar threats to democracy myself in the past, so I was interested to see how Morozov defended his view.
Continue reading “John Danaher: Rule by Algorithm? Big Data and the Threat of Algocracy”
Prediction for IBM January Announcement
Folks at the Register have been reading the signs and believe they know what big announcement IBM plans to make at its Infrastructure Matters virtual event on January 14th. “IBM Flashy January Announcement: Wanna Know What’s in It?” predicts the launch of data centers with all-flash memory. That would be one way to combat storage latency. What makes writer Chris Mellor so sure? Several clues led to the prediction. Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: IBM's Flash Memory”
Who runs the world? The Subconscious*)
Not one or a group of persons, not one or a group of countries. But they may serve as instruments for scripts engraved on the deeper recesses of their minds, not the conscious, easily retrievable ones. Scripts that are too trivial, obvious, too painful/shameful and hence repressed. Jung calls them archetypes; they often come in syndromes.
Imagine that deep down an actor–person, gender-generation-race-class, state-nation, region-civilization–is programmed for two forces in the world, one good the other evil, and sooner or later there will be a final battle for the victory of one over the other: the solution.
Continue reading “Johan Galtung: Battle for the Globe — the Subsconcious Contest Between DMA & HDT”
10 predictions for open source in 2014
Jack Wallen lists 10 reasons why he believes 2014 will be a banner year for Linux and open source.
The year 2013 was a solid year for open source. There were plenty of highs and certainly a few lows. However, I believe that Linux — continuing to build on its solid groundwork — will have the best year yet in 2014.
Some of you may be shaking your heads at yet another prediction of world domination by a Linux zealot. But there are plenty of reasons for such a bold prediction. In fact, here are 10 reasons why I firmly believe 2014 will be a banner year for Linux and open source:
LIST ONLY
1. Open source will dominate corporate data
2. Valve will prompt OEM hardware developers to open up
3. The Linux tablet will finally see the light of day
4. GNOME 3 will become relevant again
5. KDE will release a major game-changing feature
6. MariaDB will begin to make inroads to usurping MySQL
7. Open source will lead the way for smart machines
8. Open source will re-define cloud management
9. Linux desktop will break double-digits in the market share
10. Linux pre-install sales will steadily increase
See Also:
Open Source Everything List & Book
Relational Data Stores Versus Hierarchical Databases
The article titled Codd’s Relational Vision – Has NoSQL Come Full Circle on opensource connections relates the history of relational databases and applies their lessons to the NoSQL databases so popular today. The article walks through the simplest databases that followed the hierarchical model and then into generalized databases. The article then delves into the work of Edgar F. Codd himself:
Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Relational Big Data Stores Versus Hierarchical Databases”
More Changes to Google Search Results
We learn about a couple of new changes Google is making to their search-result pages in “Google SERPs Updates: In-Depth Articles & Knowledge Graph Results for Car Shoppers” at Search Engine Watch. The car-shopping feature makes sense; Google has added vehicles to its Knowledge Graph in a way that allows users to do their comparison shopping right in the search results. That’s handy, and places Google in competition with auto comparison and shopping sites.
The in-depth article part is a little more complex. The company is positioning this change as helpful to those 10 percent of users Google says are after more than just a quick answer. While they do promise to include “up to” three in-depth articles and a link to pre-load “up to” ten more, these results are now pushed to the bottom of the page.
Writer Jennifer Slegg tells us:
“In-depth articles previously appeared in the middle of the search results. This update should help appease those webmasters who are concerned about organic search results being pushed lower and lower on the page, while still giving the searchers the information they want….
This change is currently available in English on Google.com, however they plan to expand the feature to more countries and languages in the future. Not all search results will have in-depth articles, but the program is expanding with more topics, particularly things that are related to current events. Google promises that alongside reputable and established news sources like the Washington Post and The Guardian, readers will also find in-depth content from smaller blogs and publications.”
This being a Search Engine Watch article, it does pass on Google’s advice for webmasters hoping to reach these users who are after comprehensive content. If you belong that slice of inquisitive searchers, just remember to scroll down and click through for the good stuff. Of course, it would make things easier for the search giant if that pesky ten percent would just get with the program and take what Google offers. Maybe someday.
Cynthia Murrell, December 31, 2013
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