These totals are from the official measurements at Logan Airport for the top ten storms on record (dating back to 1892) here in Boston. Where will winter storm Nemo end up in this list?

Windows 8

I decided to upgrade my desktop to 64 bit version of Windows 8. It was running 32bit Windows XP. I rarely use my desktop. But the other day I poked around and broke something. So, I though I would just upgrade the OS. I walked in to the local Staples from work and picked $69 Windows 8 Pro. It comes with two CDs. One for 32 bit version and another one for 64 bit version. I think this was the smoothest installation ever.

First I upgraded from XP 32bit to Windows 8 32bit. I entered the product key and the installer took care of the rest. The whole thing took about 90 minutes. Next, I booted from 64bit CD and changed OS from 32 bit to 64 bit. Again, all I did was keying in the product key. The installer ran for about 60 minutes. Next thing was setting up my WiFi connection. That's it! I was ready for driving Windows 8!!

I saw some negative comment on the look and feel of Windows 8. But, I am liking Windows 8. I don't have a touch screen. I think the experience will great with the touch screen.

Only one complication I have noticed so far is that I am unable to use Office Outlook web. I can login but I am unable to click on the mails. Well, I shall work on it another day.

Comparison of Netezza, Vertica and Greenplum

.		Netezza(IBM)	Green Plum (EMC)	Vertica(HP)
.	URL	www.netezza.com	www.greenplum.com	www.vertica.com
.	Architecture	MPP	MPP	MPP
.	Data Storage	Row	Column	Column
.	supports SQL	Yes	Yes	Yes
.	Supports Postgrace SQL	Yes	Yes
.	supports JDBC	Yes	Yes	Yes
.	supports ODBC	Yes	Yes	Yes
.	Supports Map Reduce		Yes
.	OS	Red Hat Linux	Solaris	Linux
.	Processor	Netezza Proprietary	AMD Opteron(Sun Fire X4500)	Intel
.	Memory			HP Blade
.	Disk		SATA	Proliant
.	Network		Gigabit Switches
.	Hardware			HP BladeSystem

Inmon vs. Kimball

Inmon and Kimball are two influential data warehousing experts who have shaped the design philosophies of current data warehouses. Though there are similarities, there some fundamental differences. I have tried to document the differences here.

.		Inmon	Kimball
.		Bus Architecture	Hub and Spoke Architecture
.
.		Top down approach	Bottom up approach
.
.	Design Approach	Large centralized enterprise-wide data warehouse, followed by several satellite databases	Several data marts that serve the analytical needs of departments, followed by “virtually” integrating these data marts for consistency.
.
.	Data Structure	Relational-model (third normal form: 3NF)	Multi-dimension model (star-schema and snowflakes).
.
.	Granularity of data	Most granular level possible and must include all the possible historical data within an enterprise.

The three Vs of Big Data.

While talking about Big Data, we always thing about the “Big”(Volume) part. But we should also think about velocity and variety of data to get the complete picture of data.

Volume

  Size of dataset (Terabytes/Petabytes)

   Number of counting records, transactions, tables, or files.

Variety

  Structured

  Unstructured

  Semi Structured

  All of the above.

Velocity

  Batch

  Real Time

  Near Time

  Streams

Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies

I came across this very interesting chart on hype cycle on a paper from Gartner.

Future of Data Warehousing

Architecture of data warehouses has been relatively stable. But this may changes soon according to a recent article in twdi. Various disruptive technologies may be a contributing factor to this change. Here is a very standard EDW pattern commonly seen in enterprises.