Hadoop’s new role: Adjunct data warehouse, and more for Sunday, February 1, 2015

Hadoop’s new role: Adjunct data warehouse Andrew J. Brust Feb 1 2015, 6:00am PDT There was a time, a little over two years ago, when SQL-on-Hadoop was about cracking open access to Hadoop data for those with SQL skillsets and eliminating the exclusivity of access that Hadoop/MapReduce specialists had on the data. Yes, some architectural details – like whether the […] Read More » With exec departures and reorg, Nest is growing up Stacey Higginbotham Jan 31 2015, 5:22pm PDT About a year ago, Google said it would pay $3.2 billion for Nest, a company that had sold fewer than a million connected thermostats and fewer than 440,000 connected smoke detectors — which it would later have to stop selling because its most innovative feature might […] Read More » 3D printing: Who’s investing now and what’s coming next Bryan Dow, Mooreland Partners Jan 31 2015, 10:30am PDT Printing has come a long way since Gutenberg and the first printing press in 1439. The printing industry has evolved from the golden age of printing blocks to modern 2D printers capable of mass-producing documents in minutes. We have seen these devices become an integral part of our lives, […] Read More » Why QR codes are the blinking VCR clock of the 21st century Geoffrey Goetz Jan 31 2015, 9:55am PDT We have all seen them, they are everywhere. Cereal boxes at the breakfast table, even used as for sales signs on houses in your neighborhood. Buy what are they exactly and what are we supposed to do with them. Read More » Blogging is very much alive — we just call it something else now Mathew Ingram Jan 31 2015, 7:58am PDT Andrew Sullivan's decision to quit blogging made me think a lot about how blogging has changed over the past few years -- both in good ways and bad ways -- and what it means to say that one is a "blogger" Read More » IBM CEO takes bonus, gets a raise Barb Darrow Jan 31 2015, 7:12am PDT IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty is taking a bonus of $3.6 million for 2014, according to SEC documents posted Friday and spotted by Bloomberg News. She will also receive a 6.7 percent salary increase bringing her salary total to $1.6 million for 2015 — her first raise since becoming […] Read More » Mobile recap: Apple Watch in April; Outlook here now; Google Now gets apps Kevin C. Tofel Jan 31 2015, 5:58am PDT Ever since we first saw the Apple Watch in September, we’ve been waiting for an actual availability date. Now we at least have a month: Tim Cook said the Apple Watch will be shipping “right on schedule” in April. Cook made his comment right after Apple […] Read More » British securocrats try to sneak in Snooper’s Charter yet again David Meyer Jan 31 2015, 2:16am PDT Earlier this month, four U.K. lords tried to sneak the text of a rejected piece of legislation popularly known as the Snooper’s Charter into a new anti-terror bill. After debate in the House of Lords produced heavy pushback, the peers withdrew the amendments that would have […] Read More » Newsweek designer defends his controversial tech sexism cover Carmel DeAmicis Jan 30 2015, 5:46pm PDT The relaunched version of Newsweek is no stranger to controversy. Almost a year ago, it brought the ire of the internet upon it with its launch story on Bitcoin creator Satashi Nakamoto, to the point where the company had to hire private security for the reporter […] Read More » MIT has an easier way for multicore chips to use data structures Jonathan Vanian Jan 30 2015, 2:45pm PDT A group of researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have discovered a way for data structures to work more efficiently with mutlicore chips, according to an MIT announcement on Friday. The scientists will present their findings in February during the Association for Computing […] Read More » With new apps, Google Now may be your future home screen Kevin C. Tofel Jan 30 2015, 12:03pm PDT In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to search your phone for the app that you need. Instead, your smartphone might surface the right app at just the right time. Sounds good, right? It’s coming to Google Now for Android, at least on a small scale. […] Read More » BuzzFeed gets serious with editorial standards and ethics guide Mathew Ingram Jan 30 2015, 12:01pm PDT In an attempt to hold what was once an experimental viral-content lab to higher standards of conduct, BuzzFeed has published a new comprehensive standards and ethical guidelines document that tells staff what they should and shouldn't do Read More » A model that can predict the unpredictable New England Patriots Derrick Harris Jan 30 2015, 10:39am PDT It’s said that familiarity breeds contempt in personal relationships. In the NFL, it might also breed predictability. Although the New England Patriots and their coach Bill Belichick are often called unpredictable, it turns out that machine learning models are actually pretty good at guessing what they’ll do. Alex Tellez, […] Read More » Why Outlook for mobile is a hit on iOS and a miss on Android Kevin C. Tofel Jan 30 2015, 8:48am PDT Talk about an app store dichotomy: Microsoft’s new version of Outlook is a chart-topper on iPhones but a big miss on Android handsets based on their respective app stores. Of course, this is just one day after the company released what used to be Accompli for iOS and […] Read More » Where to watch the 2015 Super Bowl live online Janko Roettgers Jan 30 2015, 5:00am PDT You may watch it because you’re a football fan. Or for the ads. Or simply because it’s tradition. Regardless of the reason, when the Super Bowl begins on Sunday, you’re going to want to be watching — even if you don’t have cable, or maybe not […] Read More » Indian rape victim sues Uber in US court David Meyer Jan 30 2015, 3:40am PDT The Indian woman whose alleged rape by an Uber driver led to the service being shut down in New Delhi has now sued the car-hailing platform in San Francisco, according to Reuters. The woman, who asked the federal court to protect her identity, said Uber’s service […] Read More » New to deep learning? Here are 4 easy lessons from Google Derrick Harris Jan 29 2015, 5:26pm PDT Google employs some of the world’s smartest researchers in deep learning and artificial intelligence, so it’s not a bad idea to listen to what they have to say about the space. One of those researchers, senior research scientist Greg Corrado, spoke at RE:WORK’s Deep Learning Summit on Thursday […] Read More » Google’s Chromecast has been used for more than one billion casts Janko Roettgers Jan 29 2015, 2:09pm PDT Google still hasn’t released any sales numbers for its Chromecast streaming stick, but Google’s Chief Business officer Omid Kordestani updated investors on one metric during the company’s Q4 call Thursday: Chromecast reached one billion cast sessions last week, Kordestani said. This means that Chromecast usage seems […] Read More » Hooray! Amazon will start breaking out AWS numbers Barb Darrow Jan 29 2015, 1:42pm PDT For cloud watchers,  the real news out of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings call is that the company will finally break out Amazon Web Services numbers from the rest of its gigantic retail business starting in the first quarter. To date, the AWS numbers have been buried in the […] Read More » Google misses slightly on fourth quarter earnings and stock dips Carmel DeAmicis Jan 29 2015, 1:18pm PDT Google’s fourth quarter earnings missed Wall Street expectations today, but only by a slight amount. The stock dipped down 3 percent in after hours trading. Here are the Q4 numbers: Revenue minus traffic acquisition costs (TAC): Analysts expected — $14.61 billion Google actual — $14.48 billion Earnings per […] Read More »