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Is it not possible that what you describe as a two-way parasitic relationship is in fact one of symbiosis?

...a larger advertising company of the most cynical variety.

Fourteen years in IT, ten of them in BI... My definition is as follows: data pertaining to and generated by the source systems that govern various business processes are 'data' data (internal data owned by the business.)

Data pertaining (in whatever abstract sense) to the business, generated by systems outside of the business are 'big'(external data.)

Nothing to do with rowcounts directly IMHO.

I never understood you guys.

Blackberry had no apps so interoperability and copy and paste barely had any use cases.

The other smart phones of the day were Windows powered bricks like the i-Mate line which were so dog slow,and hideously unreliable that frankly I might as well not have had a phone for the two years I used a K-Jam.

iPhone came on the scene and it was like for the first time it made sense to lug around a larger device.

Best iPod ever on that thing. Big screen for videos, real browser and everything it did do worked. Not like the Windows phones which had tech spec as long as your arm but crashed if you tried to perform a most if the functions.

Seriously, I remember having to remove the battery to reboot my device after simply trying to connect via Bluetooth to a samsung flip phone. I didn't care if the iPhone couldn't do that because I knew that the others couldn't even if they said they could.

Caveat: I'm from South Africa and we never got the Palm phones this side.

I see a lot of pople I'd expect to be more mature making a seeminlgy conscious effort to get bent out of shape about the gender thing.

I guess it's good to create awareness but I hope these people don't end up doing things with a net negative effect in the process.

Google Now is just the coolest thing. I really hope we see more of thin kind of thin, especially in terms of integration.

Noticing that Now and Glass are clearly made for one another - this gives me a lot of hope for where Glass might be in say, five years.

>would you concur?

I see what you're driving at and I don't disagree but I bet both Ebay and Facebook have a bit of data in a ruddy old fact/dimension warehouse and some neat dashboards and reports over the top of it.

In which case I'd stick with my definition and simply state that in these examples, they have both types of data.

I just realised I know zero about the infrastructure of either of those businesses so I have some reading to do... oh, and everything I said about them might be crap.

>realise the software is better

At the risk of noshing down some trollbait, could you perhaps qualify this statement or are you just going to go with your subjectiuve view as fact?

As a data warehousing/BI specialist I'd like to share my interperetation.

'Data' data (as in your company's data warehouse) is primarily internal data. By this I mean: data generated primarily by your source systems or associated business processes.

'Big' data is external data. It is tweets that express opinion about your brand. Weather patterns that might influence supply logistics. Demographics of markets you wish to penetrate.

I think there are a great number of slightly different interpretations out there but pragmatically speaking, what I have suggested here makes sense.

I'm a little surprised that you'd spend so much time arguing with these peons (some of them almost certainly do not live in the same city as what you do.)

Surely with the amount of lines you have typed in this thread, your Bay Area level skills could have been used to whip up something that does exactly what you are asking HN to do on your behalf?

You are quite right. That was not easy to watch.

Most of all because as I read the body language, Candidate Obama passionately believed in what he was saying. The words march out proud and true, like soldiers.

President Obama seems barely shadow of the man in the earlier clips. He stumbles over the most important parts of his delivery and seems at one stage to hesitate as he asks himself if he can actually say what he is about to say.

Something is wrong with the man in the more recent clips. Emotionally he seems unwell.

Thanks so much for posting this.

I am similar to the guy you describe. Background in development but been in analysis for a while now... I kept seeing myself in the descriptions of cretins in this thread while looking for a post like yours.

It's not just about functions and classes. A lot of what happens around actual code is also very important. Specifically where it reduces the amount of code that needs to be written which directly impacts quality.

There are many ways of seeing a thing.

Contrarians are seldom wrong because in essence, lots of shit kind of sucks.

It is easy to find the ways in which a thing sucks, specifically after a good deal of exposure.

That's seldom all there is to it though.

Often there are very good and enjoyable aspects to things that also happen to suck in other ways.

So I figure you did enjoy those talks and your also seeing a side to them that could be considered as sucking in some aspects.

Although I share your sentiment in this regard there is something you have overlooked IMO.

Now I can't put my finger on it exactly but... Spreadsheets.

Seriously.

Spreadsheets are most likely the original reason that anyone ever needed a PC.

MS certainly did not miss that boat and a large part of their dominance today is centered around Excel and more recently SQL.

The OS is almost incidental.

MS does understand that value of being able to store and exploit data.

I hope I have put my point clearly enough, I'm aware that I haven't articulated it very well at all.

One needs to be very clear about US libertarian which is largely a conservative movement and libertarians in the rest of the world, who are largely considered left wing liberals and/or anarchists.

The Tea Partiers of the world hijacked the term and repurposed it for their own weird definition, I think it was that lot at any rate.

No, it's modern society or even simply human nature.

Game Theory is a method of examining it.

My comment would almost certainly be one that you are referring to.

I think you need to justify how it is a cynical comment please?

To me, the truly cynical thing here is that you can't seem to understand that Batkid's entire life is a lot more comfortable and pleasant than that of a great number of sick children around the world.

The fact that so much that could have gone so far was spent on making an already (relatively) privileged existence fun for a day because of the air time it generates - is hideously cynical.

I really do not wish to be overdoing the guilt trip here, I'm just a little baffled by your definition of cynicism.

While I totally agree with most of the sentiments you have expressed I do need to point out one issue I have with your comment:

>There is after all no intrinsic reason Africans can't provide food and water and medicine for themselves just as people do in Europe and America and large parts of what used to be the Third World. What's missing is knowhow and organization.

This comment is totally ignorant of the scale of the problems faced in the third world.

Ridding ourselves of corruption and getting together a solid plan still leaves us with massive problems to fix. Truly, MASSIVE problems.

It is the scale that requires capital and make no mistake that the first world has no small amount of complicity in the current state of the rest of our world.

I agree with you that money isn't going to solve it all.

Throwing money at it is largely a case of too little too late.

I really felt some strong emotions while reading through this.

It's amazing.

The news spot just has to the the cherry on top. So happy for this kid that he had an awesome day.

It does restore some faith in humanity to see things like this.

...however...

I hate myself for being the contrarian in this case but as a South African and having worked with one or two NGOs that work with sick people in general, including kids with AIDS I can't help but wonder how far the budget and effort put into this could have been stretched.

Granted, there are plenty aid organizations and shit tons of money (much of it dollars) that are pushed into Africa but if you've seen what's happening here first hand it's very hard not to think about what could be done with every single cent and every ounce of human energy.

I remember coming home one day after seeing some particularly gut wrenching stuff and not even being able to look at myself. The food in my plate. The clothes on my back. My kids. A room full of useless fucking toys...

It's the wrong lens through which to view these things. I know that in my head but my heart is breaking all over again as I types this on several fucking thousand rands worth of smartphone.

Would you sell the results?

That's basically my measure for real world vs academic.

I was using it in a touchscreen tabletop.

Sticking to my guns on this one and choosing to let your sarcastic tone slide.

I am currently playing in a very similar space - would you care to throw me a bone and give me some idea of how you landed your first clients?

I'm totally stuck in this regard. So much so that I've begun to hate myself.

14 years experience in IT. Had to google to find the shutdown switch. Sorry but Win8 is absurd.

My dad is 79 years of age. He could never adjust to the digital world.

Something as simple as checking a hotmail account was out of his reach.

With his iPad he is able to:

- keep on touch with my expat brother

- see pictures of his grand kids on FB and emails

- catch up woth long lost fire do on FB

- read magazines without his glasses

...in general: just take part in the modern world as opposed to being an outsider.

If you pity him then your pity is misplaced because he is massively grateful to have a tool that enables him to commune with his kids and grand kids and to commune with us online.

Different colour for different apps would have been neat.

But... I love my MBP.

I'd go for the pocket PC with peripherals thing for convenience but I want to go to my desk pop open my MBP and kind of BE there with my machine.

I know this sounds kind of ethereal but ffs, I don't have an office anymore. Most people I know work in coffee shops or somewhere similar.

There needs to be some signal that I am 'at work' on something.

For me, sat on a bench at the dinner table in our apartment with my laptop open is that signal. Kids don't bug me and my wife knows to approach with caution.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I like having a workstation that takes up a space.

South African here - we have a lovely little bit of legislation known as RICA. Don't assume that African govts are backward in terms of technology.

Sorry but I still feel like you are playing the man and not the ball.

Forget fame, film and money. Tell me how spending 20 years with the same woman and having two kids together and finding great joy and satisfaction in your family is lechery and not love.

...and continue a meaningful relationship with her for 20 years, fathering two children and generally doing what people in love do.

I'm not sure your rhetoric holds up when the full picture is presented.

Love has its way with people.

You may file to your hearts content but what is likely to come of it?