Showing posts with label Data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Data. Show all posts

Thursday 18 November 2010

Data is the key to unlock Humanities Riches!

illusion
This statement could be so taken for granted !
Well,
I was reading NY Times today and couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of making sense of this all.
What could be a bigger scientific experiment than exploring the humanities ?
‘Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism” and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have.’ -  More Here
The two key words i was after were ‘Quantification’ and ‘Interpretation’. Quantification will make much sense for a computational scientist (like me) However, it can be argued that proper Interpretation also plays a vital role., for which an enormous computing infrastructure mainly centred around data crunching will be absolutely invaluable!
It’s worthy to note that ‘The humanities and social sciences are the emerging domains for using high-performance computing’.
Ancient to modern languages, Logic (the next thing which comes to my mind) , Literature, Law , History, Philosophy, Religion, Visual and Performing Arts, Music, Anthropology, Linguistics, Cultural Studies. Now, that’s an ennnnnnnnnormoussss list!. I don’t think an entire lifetime is enough to quantify and interpret that sort of an experiment!!, But with advances in distributed computing, This is merely a truth proposition.
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Questions which could be answered.

  • Did the ‘Fountainhead of Indian ‘Logic’ Intellect come from its cultural roots’ ?
  • Did Pythagoras come to India to learn ‘Logic’ ?
  • How were the ragas born ?, Are the ragas mathematically a complex hash function of frequencies ?, How did such complex mathematical function get rooted into a  seemingly divinity biased Carnatic music ?
  • How did western musical instruments evolve in India ? Violin , Saxaphone ?
  • Why is divinity the epicentre of music, atleast carnatic music ?. Can Athethists play carnatic music with same passion  ?
  • What Influenced the development of Lipis ? Was the spoken language invented first before Lipis or was it the other way round ?
  • Do the Sanskrit proverbs actually interpret as Formal ‘Logic’ ?
  • Was Shakaracharya an Atheist before he proposed ‘Aham Bramhaasmi’ ?
  • Is Ayn Rand’s ‘Objectivism’ practised more by Indians than Americans ?
  • Do Europeans exhibit ‘Existentialism’ traits than people from any other continent ?
  • I want to stop now..Sky is the limit!! Endless possibilities..

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Entity Framework 4.0 and ASP.Net 4.0

This is a very good example of real world EF and ASP.Net .
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8

Thursday 15 July 2010

Data Warehouse Architecture in SQL Server 2008

The Fast Track reference configurations address the need to design solution architectures correctly for BI systems. More specifically, these Fast Track reference configurations target the database tier of a BI solution, providing the tools and architectural direction customers need when using SQL Server for a data warehouse that will support BI-focused queries.

I found this paper on MSDN which gives you an overview and guide to SQL Server® Fast Track Data Warehouse, a new set of reference architectures created for scale-up (SMP) SQL Server based data warehouse solutions. It includes a summary of the resources available in the reference configuration, the distinguishing features of the approach, and the steps necessary to take full advantage of the new architectures.

Sunday 14 February 2010

FILESTREAM Storage in SQL Server 2008.

Came across this white paper on Filestream storage in SQL Server 2008 – MSDN
In brief,
We often tend to have BLOB’s aka Binary Large Objects which takes memory storages ranging from MBs to GBs which may be or generally will be Images, Steaming Video , Sound etc.
Using FILESTREAM storage, we can take advantage of the NTFS file system. FILESTREAM storage can be used to store BLOB data using a combination of SQL Server 2008 and NTFS file system.
Good to know
1] Dual Programming Model Access to BLOB Data
- Transact-SQL Access
- Win32 Streaming Access
2] Replication
FILESTREAM is supported by both transactional replication and merge replication, But there are limitations on the ‘size’ of data that can be sent to down level instances.
3] Database snapshots
SQL Server does not support database snapshots for FILESTREAM data containers.
4]  Indexes on FILESTREAM data not allowed
5] FILESTREAM works on all recovery models (full, differential and log)
Something to note from the Conclusion
“FILESTREAM storage is not appropriate in all cases. Based on prior research and FILESTREAM feature behaviour, BLOB data of size 1 MB and larger that will not be accessed through Transact-SQL is best suited to storing as FILESTREAM data.”
Can you spot a tool requirement in the whitepaper ? , Well, A common scenario using SQL Server 2008 may be migrating existing BLOB data into FILESTREAM storage.There goes, A Tool to do exactly that will be a killer.

Saturday 6 December 2008

Ideas from IBM - You've got (TOO MUCH) mail..

This white paper can be found here. It talks about efficient ways of handling information overload. The other interesting aspect to look out for is the IORG (Information Overload Research Group) which consists of people from IBM, Microsoft, Intel and various academia. :-|

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Best Practises for rule based application development

"Takes a high level view of knowledge and looks at different types of knowledge and their mappings to executable computer code to gain insights into when and why rule engines provide advantages over conventional software development tools." - Dennis MerrittAmzi! Inc. January 2004
Superb article, worth a read..

Saturday 31 May 2008

SQL Injection Attacks

Often, the SQL Injection payload is designed in a generic manner to impact on more SQL Databases and Database Servers. The Security loophole in most cases lie in poor design of Data Access Code. Although it can be argued that there is much more to it than securing Data Access Code, I'm talking about the majority of such an attack and how imperative it is to secure the Data Access Code.
The impact of an SQL Injection Attack can be on
- The Database ( contents of the DB are compromised )
- The Users (malware injected directly,Users do not know because they trust this website )
The SDL aka Trustworthy computing Security Development Lifecycle ( a process that Microsoft has adopted for the development of software that needs to withstand malicious attack ) is a good thing to adapt and follow.
"Microsoft's experience indicates that the SDL is effective at reducing the incidence of security vulnerabilities. Initial implementation of the SDL (in Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3, and Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3) resulted in significant improvements in software security, and subsequent software versions, reflecting enhancements to SDL, appear to be showing further improvements in software security" - SDL Conclusion from MS.
Now, a quick look at Securing your Data Access Code, Referred from MSDN SDL Blog and Micheal Howard's Blog(Co-Author of Writing Secure Code).
Use the following in you Data Access Code:
1] SQL Parameterized queries
2] Stored Procedures
3] SQL Execute Only Permission
These are not mere recommendations, They are Requirements!!. More on the nitty-gritty of these techniques can be viewed on the SDL Blog, Micheal Howard's Blog and on the MS Security Research site.
One might argue that SQL Injection Attacks are also mainly due to 'N00b' Developers. This might be partly so. Periodic training for Developers,Testers,Security Analysts on current security issues , best practices from SDL etc is very imperative here. Training is also a strict requirement in the SDL. Afterall, Knowledge is Power, Knowing is dangerous, Knowing is everything...