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As well all know Relational databases are a pain (you know where)… They force us to twist are object data to fit a particular RDMS (Relational Database Management System)…

Well then why use it??? Why not shift over to a loosely defined class of non-relational data stores that break with a long history of relational databases… These data stores may not require fixed table schemas, usually avoid join operations and typically scale horizontally… Academics and papers typically refer to these databases as structured storage…

Get used to names like Dynomite, CassandraDB, CouchDB, BigTable, MongoDB, Hypertable, SimpleDB, etc… These are all members of NoSQL movement… The movement was started by Google’s BigTable and its clones such as Hypertable (ZVent)… Amazon is doing SimpleDB on Dynamo (not called a database, but a highly available key-value data store)… Facebook is doing CassandraDB… Apache CouchDB is a free, open source, document-oriented database written in Erlang programming language… MongoDB is a collection of JSON documents ( no rows or columns), an open source document-oriented DB written in C++ programming language…

So what is common between all these Databases :

• They can blow through enormous volumes of data. For example, Google’s BigTable with its sister technology MapReduce processes as much as 20 petabytes of data per day… We have not seen this volume in RDBMSs…
• They run on clusters of cheap PC Servers… Google has said that one of BigTable’s bigger clusters manages as much as 6 petabytes of data across thousands of servers… Oracle’s RAC (Rapid Application Cluster) can get there but at a much higher cost.
• They beat performance bottlenecks…  The phrase used here is “eventually consistent”, trading off consistency to maximize availability and scalability…
• While conceding that relational databases offer an unparalleled feature set and a rock-solid reputation for data integrity, NoSQL proponents say this can be too much for their needs… Hence the mantra is “no overkill”…

I think this is exciting development… When people started working on RDBMS, they could not imagine the kind of scalability and data volumes being talked about now… It’s only natural that new approaches must be innovated to handle the demands of the Internet era… Eric Brewer of UC Berkeley floated the idea of this in his research work at least 6-7 years ago…

Although NoSQL movement is not a threat to mainstream database community yet, this may change in next 3-4 years time…

Cheers…

Yahoo! Stencils..

Yahoo! Stencil Kit is a set of graphics to help you create mockup designs real quickly – you can use these stencils for designing web pages for the desktop or mobile phones…

And even if you are no web designer, you may use Yahoo! Stencils to create illustrations…. For example, you may place screenshots inside the BlackBerry mockup that comes in kit or try different placements of the keyboard on the iPhone screen…

The graphics are available as PDF, Visio, SVG (Illustrator) and PNG (for Photoshop)…

To clean up any feed you have to use an Operator – REGEX
Link it to your pipe populate the fields….
In my case I just needed the HTML stripped from the description, so I selected item.description in the first regex field….
Then added: Lessthan-period-astrisk-questionmark-greaterthan (Just it case it doesn’t publish right on the forum)

<.*?>

to the “replace” field and left the “with” field blank…. Then check the “G”, so it loops through the data….Finally connect the REGEX to the output and test.

You could used the same method by adding more expressions to the REGEX to filter all HTML from the other fields as well..

Hope this is helpful..

What is a yahoo pipes???

Yahoo! Pipes is a tool to combine, filter, aggregate, and mashup content on the internet from a variety of sources.  The tool is free to use and you can see the design of anyone’s Pipe to learn how to design your own.  You can mashup RSS feeds, Yahoo Maps, and more.

Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:

• combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
• geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
• power widgets/badges on your web site.
• grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats.

You can create a Pipe in minutes and is a great tool to aggregating content on the internet into 1 simple and easy to use RSS feed.  Providing a few RSS feeds you can join them and output just one feed for your RSS tool to read… With the tool, you can connect pipe segments, like Yahoo! searches, Flickr feeds, and Google Base items, creating a complex application within minutes…. Tutorials on how to use Pipes are currently not online, but are expected to be in a few days…. There is a Yahoo! discussion forum open to users that wish to discuss Pipes with other early adopters.

I find Yahoo Pipes to be very “Interesting and Innovative“… The whole idea is absolutely fantastic and something that has capability of serving as one neat tool for today’s query based web portals.

check out the service at: pipes.yahoo.com

What is the Unique ID project?

A project in which every Indian citizen would have one unique identification number(similar to a U.S. social security number) that will identify him/her. It would not just help the government track down individuals as is highlighted by the media, but would make life far easier for citizens as they would not have to submit so many documents each time they want to avail a new service—private or government. The project is headed by Infosys co-chairman Nanden Nilekani.

This task is not small considering the population of India is around 1.2 billion. This would involve very powerful technology to assign these unique ID’s and then to organize/store these ID’s would require a large database. This is why i think Yahoo and Microsoft are keen to help out.

Yesterday only Yahoo’s worldwide Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and expressed interest to partner the government in the project. She also stated that tey(Yahoo) don’t have any commercial interest in the deal, Yahoo would help out on a non-profit basis.

If i can remember clearly earlier this year Microsoft was also keen to help out in the project. Bill Gates himself stated this once i think. Anyways i don’t know if they would also help out on a “non-profit basis”.

Other companies like IBM and Cisco are also willing ot help out in the project. Indian IT companies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro are also hoping that this project would help stimulate the domestic software market.

The first set of identification numbers are said to roll out in 12-18 months, lets see if its possible. Its said by UIDAI that they would cover at least 600 million residents within five and half years. They have also pointed out that the identification number will be a proof of identity linked to demographic and biometric information but not confer citizenship.

What does this deal mean? Well the deal gives Microsoft a huge boost in terma of search shares. This deal leaves Microsoft and Google splitting most of the search share, although Google continues to be the Boss of search with 65%, according to ComScore data. In exchange, Microsoft will pay Yahoo a whopping 88% of the search revenue in so-called Traffic Acquisition Costs.

All in all, it seems a reasonable deal. Micosoft and Google would be fighting a world war of search shares from here on out. Yahoo gets an immediate revenue boost, making their numbers look better. There’s nothing too exciting here, no big acquisition, and not a huge attack against Google, but it is a credible effort. Google, meanwhile, is going to find it harder and harder to continue to steal share. They have regressed to the mean and will now grow at the overall rate of the market, because they are the mean with so much share. The implication is that they need a new growth engine, and until they get one, they will need to focus on profitability through expense controls.

You can find the Full press release here.