Wednesday, August 31, 2011
BigData - Volume, Variety, Velocity (and Variability?)
IBM seemed to have the definitive word in the definition of BigData, i.e.,
To the above, Forrester (hidden behind a paywall, of course), wants to add a fourth term
- Volume - Quantity. D-uh.
- Variety - Different types of data, such as audio, video, text, etc.
- Velocity - The rate at which this data changes
To the above, Forrester (hidden behind a paywall, of course), wants to add a fourth term
- Variability - The different meanings/contexts associated with a given piece of data
It does makes sense. I have always referenced Variety to subsume Variability, but it probably makes sense to call it out as its own distinct entity.
Free! Limited Time Only!
I know, I know, its the easiest thing in the world to see this, sneer, and then feel slightly superior with the Inside Voice saying I'd never fall for that. I know what marketing is.
Except, you probably will fall for it at some point. In fact, you probably fall for it all the time, but just don't realize it. Its almost a reptilian hind-brain kind of thing - hardwired into our animal spirits.
For more information on this, read both of Dan Ariely's books Predictably Irrational, and The Upside of Irrationality
This message brought to you from the World of Behavioral Economics
Except, you probably will fall for it at some point. In fact, you probably fall for it all the time, but just don't realize it. Its almost a reptilian hind-brain kind of thing - hardwired into our animal spirits.
For more information on this, read both of Dan Ariely's books Predictably Irrational, and The Upside of Irrationality
This message brought to you from the World of Behavioral Economics
Friday, August 26, 2011
Bruce Schneier would be proud
Repeat after me A UPS uniform is much more effective than a Tom Cruise / Mission Impossible Thingy
Seriously, people will spend Trillions of dollars protecting against insanely complex Movie Plot Threats, while the fake Janitor will walk off w/ your backups.
Of course, now this. Somebody at RSA clicked on a suspect Excel file, and the next thing you know, Lockheed is hacked.
Sigh. I weep....
How to name a band
+Ben Phenix notes that the available number of good band names drops annually, leaving us with goofy stuff like animal names (indy bands), the (blank) or (blank) & the boyfriends, or some such.
So, herewith my proposal.
Unique Names shows random words from the dictionary. Pick one work from column A, one from column B, and sprinkle with a judicious preposition or article.
Voila, fun names like
Unimpaired Xebec
Crawl the Algebraist
The Enticing Doodlesacks
We Pathoscopic Reefs
You're welcome!
For those who want the ultimate in engagement rings
Diamonds may, indeed, be forever
From the article "The chemical composition, pressure and dimensions of the companion make it certain to be crystallized (i.e., diamond)."...
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Century Rain, CmdrTaco, and slashdot
I still remember the warm fuzzies I got when, part of the way through Alastair Reynold's Century Rain , the origin of the Slashers was made explicit. (For those who can't be bothered to read the book an alliance of progressive thinkers linked together by one of the first computer networks , followed by a gesture depicting a slash, and a dot)
Goodbye +Rob Malda, we'll miss ya.
Goodbye +Rob Malda, we'll miss ya.
Tommy Boy Syndrome
(Not the musical. The movie. The one where you mark the Box of Crap "Guaranteed", and everyone rushes to buy it...)
Seriously, just a few days ago, Moynihan wuz saying _Move along, nothing to see here_ , and now Uncle Warren invests at, basically, loan shark rates? Hmmm?
Seriously, just a few days ago, Moynihan wuz saying _Move along, nothing to see here_ , and now Uncle Warren invests at, basically, loan shark rates? Hmmm?
BigData - CouchDB vs MongoDB vs MarkLogic
This is supposed to be a theoretical comparison of three NoSQL DBs, w/ MarkLogic the hands-down winner.
I'm not so sure about it - there was nothing in the use-case (AFAICT) that couldn't have been handled by either CouchDB or MongoDB, and quite trivially at that. Perhaps it had more to do with learning curves? I suspect if I'd done the same, we'd have ended up with CouchDB as the hands down winner...
The only real lesson I drew from the posting was that the days of SQL vs NoSQL are pretty much gone, now its more a case of "Which Is The Best Tool"...
I'm not so sure about it - there was nothing in the use-case (AFAICT) that couldn't have been handled by either CouchDB or MongoDB, and quite trivially at that. Perhaps it had more to do with learning curves? I suspect if I'd done the same, we'd have ended up with CouchDB as the hands down winner...
The only real lesson I drew from the posting was that the days of SQL vs NoSQL are pretty much gone, now its more a case of "Which Is The Best Tool"...
Monday, August 22, 2011
Wall Street Is Our Main Street (Part 2)
So, heres how things went down in reality (and this is the point behind this article in the NY Times today)
- Banks - e.g. Countrywide - collected mortgages of extremely dubious provenance (Remember NINJA loans?)
- The banks then packaged these loans into Mortgage Backed Securities, usually under New York Law (for various reasons). The problems here were varied, but included
- They guaranteed that the mortgages were all at least of a certain quality. e.g., the NINJA mortgage was actually a AAA rated mortgage.
- They usually didn't actually transfer all the mortgages over to the security in time. Slightly trickier, but according to New York law, the mortgages needed to be transferred (signed, checked, stamped, etc.) over to the security within 90 days (or thereabouts) for the security to be valid. If it wasn't transferred, there is a tax penalty of 100% on the security. This is to prevent people from playing silly buggers with trusts - e.g. if you created a trust then the assets in the trust were any assets that were transferred in at the time of creation. If you tried to transfer stuff in 5 years later to beat the taxman, the taxman confiscated all the new stuff you put in. Thing is, they were packaging up so many mortgages (10s of thousands), nobody had the time to spend days per mortgage doing the paperwork .
- Sometimes they didn't transfer the mortgage at all, and instead used the same mortgage in multiple securities, or for other loans. Yeah, pretty bad.
- The paperwork on the mortgages that were transferred was busted. There is supposed to be a complete *physical* list of annotations to the docs showing chain of title (to prevent people from showing up with "magic paperwork" that sez. they now own City Hall...). This never happened. Literally. Never. Happened. When the mortgages went from security to security, they never did any of the intermediate stuff, and only when the place got foreclosed did they get around to 'backfilling' the stuff (robo-signing came from this). One problem here - its illegal. And not just from a paperwork perspective. Its a real problem, since lacking a chain of title, You cant really prove who owns the property!
- The third party banks that were supposed to validate all these transactions (e.g., Bank Of New York Mellon) affirmed that everything was good, kosher, yes-siree-bob, without actually checking. Which means they are now on the hook for vast damages for everything in the above list
Sooo, what you are seeing in this article is the Treasury/Fed pressuring the NY Attorney Gen to *ignore* all the stuff above, shove it under the carpet, because, you know, banks are important, and Too Big To Fail.
Now you know....
Wall Street Is Our Main Street (Part 1)
As far as idiotic lines go, this one from Kathryn Wylde of the New York Fed probably takes the cake . Face it, when was the last time you went in to the corner grocery store, and were summarily
* Thumped upside the head with many cudgels
* Summarily relieved of your wallet
* Kicked out to the curb, sans shoes, shirt or service
* Had the police come by, and make you pay for replacement cudgels for the store (one broke on your head)
* Had you then empty out your checking account so that you could pay for the store-keeper's end of the year bonus (performance incentives based on the number of people bludgeoned)
I think not....
* Thumped upside the head with many cudgels
* Summarily relieved of your wallet
* Kicked out to the curb, sans shoes, shirt or service
* Had the police come by, and make you pay for replacement cudgels for the store (one broke on your head)
* Had you then empty out your checking account so that you could pay for the store-keeper's end of the year bonus (performance incentives based on the number of people bludgeoned)
I think not....
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Monetary Policy. *Huh?* *Whut?*
*From the world of Economics - Monetary Policy*
What on earth am I talking about?
The thing is, Macroeconomics is most definitely counter-intuitive. Micro-economics makes intuitive sense - supply/demand, cost/benefit, etc ar things we know at an almost primeval level. But macro, well, not so much. (for those keeping track, this is not unlike Classical vs. Quantum physics).
This is also the reason why you hear absolute drivel like "The federal budget is just like a family budget, and we in government must tighten our belts and live within our means just like families do." , the correct response is to do a spit-take, and then throw something at the utterer, preferably something hard-enough to knock some serious sense into the brain-dead doofus issuing said goofosity.
Anyhow, when you hear Very Serious People discussing National Economic Issues, you'll hear stuff like Fiscal Policy , Monetary Policy , and so on. What are these things? Fiscal Policy is for another day, but Nick Rowe has a wonderful article describing Monetary Policy (and for the irretrievably unable to click on links - this is about why - sometimes - printing more money is a Good Thing.
What on earth am I talking about?
The thing is, Macroeconomics is most definitely counter-intuitive. Micro-economics makes intuitive sense - supply/demand, cost/benefit, etc ar things we know at an almost primeval level. But macro, well, not so much. (for those keeping track, this is not unlike Classical vs. Quantum physics).
This is also the reason why you hear absolute drivel like "The federal budget is just like a family budget, and we in government must tighten our belts and live within our means just like families do." , the correct response is to do a spit-take, and then throw something at the utterer, preferably something hard-enough to knock some serious sense into the brain-dead doofus issuing said goofosity.
Anyhow, when you hear Very Serious People discussing National Economic Issues, you'll hear stuff like Fiscal Policy , Monetary Policy , and so on. What are these things? Fiscal Policy is for another day, but Nick Rowe has a wonderful article describing Monetary Policy (and for the irretrievably unable to click on links - this is about why - sometimes - printing more money is a Good Thing.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Mahesh Ninth Law - Nostalgia
All nostalgic conversations will eventually involve the phrase I remember when milk was 5 cents a gallon.
(Please translate to local currency and/or measurement units)
(Please translate to local currency and/or measurement units)
Monday, August 1, 2011
Where to eat in Rome
View Where to eat in Rome in a larger map
BOOK
- David Downie: The Terroir Guides: Food, Wine, Rome. David is our patron saint when it comes to Italian food. We ate our way through Liguria based on his book 'bout that area, and thanks to him, have had two of the best dining experiences ever. You'll also note that quite a few of the places below are in his book, which isn't surprising because they tend to show up in pretty much anyone's list of 'the real, real places to go in Rome'. Do note however, that - with a few exceptions - most of the places are more local than touristic, i.e., you'll be rubbing shoulders w/ people who've been eating there for the last twenty years (or quite possibly, far longer).
Note:
- Reservations are always useful. If in doubt, make one (if they take 'em). Depending on the time of the day, you will almost certainly *not* get a table if you just show up
- Lunch typically is kinda rushed. By this, I mean "you order, it shows up moments later". Which is because most of the places serve people with jobs, and - believe it or not - they actually need to get back to work. That said, they will not rush you out the door. Once they've served you, you're pretty much left alone, till you ask for coffee, at which point your coffee will show up, and a few minutes later, the cheque.
- A word about the cheque. Most (ok, almost all) the time, you don't pay at the table. The host(ess) will be sitting up by the door, or at the counter, w/ a cash-register. You head over and pay there. Sometimes, they might leave the bill at the table, and you take it there. If in doubt, Dove si paga (my bad italian for "where do i pay") works.
- Ask them about the food (if you can). They'll happily describe it for hours!
- The house wine is almost always perfect for whatever you're ordering. Romans take their wine seriously. Almost as - if not more - seriously as they take their food. So, serving plonk is Just Not An Option. We typically get 0.5 litres (2/3rd of a bottle?) 'tween the two of us, and its just the right amount for lunch or dinner.
- Learn to like amaro. Thats a (various shades of bitter) after-dinner digestivo, which goes down brilliantly, and really, *really* helps cut the richness of roman cuisine. Its also part of the reason to sticking to 0.5l of wine, you'll be doing at least one swig of amaro after dinner.
- No cappuccino after noon! Really! Do Remember this!
- Espresso is called coffee. What you drink here is called Cafe Americano there. They'll happily serve you some, but its just espresso with hot water added.
Restaurants by Location:
Da Sergio: (Viccolo delle grotte 27. 06.686.4293) Somewhat loud, bustling. Very much a place where one starts the evening - go out, get dinner, hang out, then hit the clubs/whatever. Lamb chops to die for.
Antico Forno Marco Roscioli - (Bakery - Via dei chiavari 34) Best (best!) Pizza Bianca that you'll ever have. The nearby restaurant of the same name is also really really good
Sora Lella (Via de Ponte Quatro Capi. 06.686.1601). Fine dining. its (brief lived) sister restaurant in NY was our favourite place while it lasted - we went there virtually every week. Anything there is brilliant, but the Coda (alla Vaccinara) is spectacular. If you plan on going there, let us know, and we'll ping our acquaintance (Simone) who is one of the owner's sons. Expensiv-ish.
Pantheon / Piazza Navona
Enoteca Corsi (Via Del Gesu 87. 06.679.0821) Rustic, family owned, intimate, and overall wonderful. Amazing carbonara. Also a wine-shop
Da Gino (Vicolo Rosini 4, 06.6873.434) Old school hangout for the peeps from Parliament (which is just around the corner). Don't be put off though, this is arguably the definitive trattoria experience, and pretty much a must. Its a weird refuge from the tourists who are just around the corner (even though you are one). What to get? Doesn't matter - just ask the waiter, and sit back.
Esquilino
Trattoria Monti (Via di San Vito 13, 06-446-6573): Hearty, simple (but spectacular) trattoria fare. In many ways, the epitome of Roman cuisine
L'Antico Forno (Bakery - Via della scrofa 33) Rustic cookies and breads. Different types of pizza bianca, which are all great (ask for it at the 'done-ness' level that you want). The Best (best!) Pizza Bianca in the city. (And yes, so is Roscioli above...)
Seriously.
Best. Coffee. Ever.
Piazza del Popolo/Spagna/Trevi
Trattoria da Ugo al Grano (Via di ripetta 32. 06.321.4883). More classic food, w/ brilliant bucatini all'amatriciana.
Gusto (Via della Frezza 23/16. 06.322.6273). Looks like a modern/trendy wine-bar, but don't let this fool you. The food is brilliant, with a long list of the classics, they have a bajillion wines by the glass, and they have a loooong list of snacks (salumi, etc.) all of which are impeccably sourced.
Monti/Quirinale/Termini
Est, Est, Est, Fratelli Ricci (Via Genova 32. 06.488.1107). Mixed hangout (locals and tourists) w/ good pizza, good specials (whatever they happen to be), and great antipasti.
Giggetto Pizzeria (Via Alessandria 43/49). Expensive but brilliant pizza. Can get both roman and neapolitan styles.
Ghetto
La Taverna del Ghetto: (Via del Portico Ottavia 8. 06.688.09771) Classic Jewish Roman fare. Don't be put off by the 'touristic' appearance. Its actually great, and pretty authentic. And, the Carciofi alla giudia (fried artichokes to you) are sublime, addictive, and strangely enough, quite light.
Testaccio
Ne arte, ne parte: (via lucca della robbia 15. 06.575.0297) Roughly translates to 'No great shakes'. A great
place to go with a few others, absolutely friendly, and food to die for.
Trastevere
Da Enzo (via dei vascellari 29. 06.581.8355). Very local. They do all the weekly 'wheel' classics - just get whatever the day's thing is. Baccala is great, and the desserts are outstanding.
Fior di luna Gelato e cioccolato (Via della lungaretta 96). Some of the best gelato in Rome. (note that most of the gelato in rome is some of the best gelato in rome :-) )
