The slides and videos from the Percona Live Open Source Database Conference 2017 are available for viewing and download. The videos and slides cover the keynotes, breakout sessions and MySQL and MongoDB 101 sessions.
To view slides, go to the Percona Live agenda, and select the talk you want slides for from the schedule, and click through to the talk web page. The slides are available below the talk description. There is also a page with all the slides that is searchable by topic, talk title, speaker, company or keywords.
To view videos, go to the Percona Live 2017 video page. The available videos are searchable by topic, talk title, speaker, company or keywords.
There are a few slides and videos outstanding due to unforeseen circumstances. However, we will upload those as they become available.
Some examples of videos and slide decks from the Percona Live conference:
MySQL 101: Choosing a MySQL High Availability Solution Marcos Albe, Principal Technical Services Engineer, Percona
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpt4ph Slides: http://ift.tt/2lNckTu
Breakout Session: Using the MySQL Document Store Mike Zinner, Sr. Software Development Director and Alfredo Kojima, Sr. Software Development Manager, Oracle
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpfv9i Slides: http://ift.tt/2p69bmR
Keynote: Continuent is Back! But What Does Continuent Do Anyway? Eero Teerikorpi, Founder and CEO and MC Brown, VP Products, Continuent
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpfC4G Slides: http://ift.tt/2nQOmfg
Please let us know if you have any issues. Enjoy the videos!
We have developed multiple sponsorship options to allow participation at a level that best meets your partnering needs. Our goal is to create a significant opportunity for our partners to interact with Percona customers, other partners and community members. Sponsorship opportunities are available for Percona Live Europe 2017.
The slides and videos from the Percona Live Open Source Database Conference 2017 are available for viewing and download. The videos and slides cover the keynotes, breakout sessions and MySQL and MongoDB 101 sessions.
To view slides, go to the Percona Live agenda, and select the talk you want slides for from the schedule, and click through to the talk web page. The slides are available below the talk description. There is also a page with all the slides that is searchable by topic, talk title, speaker, company or keywords.
To view videos, go to the Percona Live 2017 video page. The available videos are searchable by topic, talk title, speaker, company or keywords.
There are a few slides and videos outstanding due to unforeseen circumstances. However, we will upload those as they become available.
Some examples of videos and slide decks from the Percona Live conference:
MySQL 101: Choosing a MySQL High Availability Solution Marcos Albe, Principal Technical Services Engineer, Percona
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpt4ph Slides: http://ift.tt/2lNckTu
Breakout Session: Using the MySQL Document Store Mike Zinner, Sr. Software Development Director and Alfredo Kojima, Sr. Software Development Manager, Oracle
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpfv9i Slides: http://ift.tt/2p69bmR
Keynote: Continuent is Back! But What Does Continuent Do Anyway? Eero Teerikorpi, Founder and CEO and MC Brown, VP Products, Continuent
Video: http://ift.tt/2qpfC4G Slides: http://ift.tt/2nQOmfg
Please let us know if you have any issues. Enjoy the videos!
We have developed multiple sponsorship options to allow participation at a level that best meets your partnering needs. Our goal is to create a significant opportunity for our partners to interact with Percona customers, other partners and community members. Sponsorship opportunities are available for Percona Live Europe 2017.
FactGem, which is launching in our Disrupt New York Battlefield competition today, was born out of Megan Kvamme‘s frustration with trying to juggle hundreds of Excel spreadsheets — and the data in them — while she was working as an investment banker. When she tried to find a software product that would allow her to more easily analyze all of this data, she couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she started working on what would later become FactGem back in 2011.
“People said ‘no,’ that’s a hard problem. You can’t do that,” Kvamme recalled, and later added that what she wanted to build was essentially a Bloomberg terminal for data. Shortly after she started exploring the space, she met Clark Richey, now FactGem’s CTO, who has an extensive background in working with databases at MarkLogic and, as an intelligence contractor, worked with an array of three-letter agencies. “He was the first guy who was both smart enough and crazy enough to say, ‘hey, we deal with these problems in the intelligence world,’ ” Kvamme said.
In its current iteration, FactGem is essentially an integration service that allows companies to bring their various data sources together to easily define new data models. It consists of three tools: WhiteboarderR, a drag-and-drop tool for describing the model (just like you would on a whiteboard); UploadR for matching this model with your data; and DashboardR for — you guessed it — building dashboards that also allow their users to easily dig deeper into the data.
The core idea here is to allow anybody in a company to work with these tools without ever having to write a single line of code.
While the project started out using MarkLogic’s database, the team later went on to use Neo4j as its underlying graph database. That’s where FactGem’s so called “data fabric” comes in. It ties together all the incoming data — which can arrive in real time. As Richey noted, the company worked hard to keep its stack platform agnostic. The team contends that using its system, businesses will be able to find more “gems” in their data — that is, business insights they otherwise may have missed.
Users can work with FactGem’s own dashboard tool or export their data to Tableau. Over time, the team also plans to add more advanced analytics features, including support for R (though once the data goes to Tableau, you could always use that’s service’s R support, too).
“We learned some important things along the way,” Kvamme told me about the company’s experience so far. “What it comes down to is that we solved this impossible problem from a tech perspective, but what we’re really providing is a business solution.”
FactGem is currently working with a number of clients, including in the retail and financial services space, though the team notes that it is also in the process of setting up a number of proof-of-concept projects for new clients.
The Columbus, Ohio-based company is currently self-funded (or funded through revenue, as Kvamme put it) and has a staff of about a dozen people. The team says that it is open to raising money, but that it would have to be the right investor.
In this case, the appellate court affirmed summary judgment that all of the asserted claims of five EasyWeb patents are ineligible under the Mayo/Alice interpretation of 35 U.S.C. 101 and therefore invalid.
Representative Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 7,685,247 is directed to a message-publishing-system that “accepts messages in multiple ways, such as by fax, telephone, or email” then verifies the message as being sent from an authorized sender, converts the message to a web format, and publishes the message on the Internet. Although claim 1 is directed to a computer system, it includes a functionally claimed software component:
A message publishing system (MPS) operative to process a message from a sender in a first format, comprising:
a central processor;
at least one sender account;
at least one storage area configured to store at least a first portion of the message;
and software executing in the central processor to configure the processor so as to:
identify the sender of the message as an authorized sender based on information associated with the message in comparison to data in the sender account, wherein the identification is dependent upon the first format;
convert at least a second portion of the message from the first format to a second format; and
publish the converted second portion of the message so as to be viewable in the second format only if the sender has been identified as an authorized sender.
Following the now standard two-step eligibility analysis, the court first found the claim directed toward an abstract idea.
Claim 1 merely recites the familiar concepts of receiving, authenticating, and publishing data. As we have explained in a number of cases, claims involving data collection, analysis, and publication are directed to an abstract idea.
Of import here for the abstract idea finding is that the claim simply uses generic computer technology rather than improving-upon the technology or designing particularized components.
Moving to step-two, the court looked – but could not find – an “inventive concept” beyond the claimed abstract idea sufficient to “transform the nature of the claim’ into a patent-eligible application.” (quoting Alice).
Although EasyWeb argues that an inventive concept arises from the ordered combination of steps in claim 1, we disagree. Claim 1 recites the most basic of steps in data collection, analysis, and publication and they are recited in the ordinary order. In sum, all the claims are directed to the abstract idea of receiving, authenticating, and publishing data, and fail to recite any inventive concepts sufficient to transform the abstract idea into a patent eligible invention.
Its decision is not quite correct, the Federal Circuit does not find abstract ideas simply because a claim involves “data collection, analysis, and publication.” However, when (as here), the claim is directed toward these activities at a high level of abstraction, then the Alice/Mayo approach easily fits.
Analytically, the decision adds further weight to the theory that steps 1 and 2 are closely linked and are highly likely to correlate with one another.
When Star Trek Discovery is going to make it to the airwaves is anyone’s guess. Until then, though, we’ve got what looks like the next best thing: Seth MacFarlane’s spoof of the franchise, The Orville.
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Fox just released the first trailer for the show, which stars MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki as a divorced couple who are basically Kirk and Spock on a brand new spaceship with a suitably crazy crew. Here’s the trailer.
I’m not usually a fan of MacFarlane’s shows because they’re always so on the nose with their references and humor. But, in the case of The Orville, I think that works perfectly. There are no qualms that this show is exactly what it is, a spoof of Star Trek, and adding in the romantic dynamic is a fun touch. I’m here for this.
The Orville will air Thursdays later this year on Fox.
As a part of Skyglow Project, two filmmakers are producing a set of stunning timelapse videos to point out to the problem of light pollution. This time, the journey took Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinović to famous Grand Canyon, Arizona. They managed to capture a phenomenon known as full cloud inversion. And in this timelapse, it looks truly magical.
As Harun explains, this phenomenon occurs when cold air is trapped in the canyon by hot air, and combined with moisture and condensation. Although millions of people visit this place each year, not many of them witness the full cloud inversion. But Harun and Gavin managed to capture it in a timelapse that takes your breath away. It looks like a combination of a sea of clouds, dry ice smoke and cotton. To me, the clouds look playful and calm at the same time ( no matter how strange it sounds). And what I like most, the clouds look tangible.
The duo shot the timelapse on Canon 5DSR and 5DIII cameras, and lenses sponsored by Canon USA. They also used Alpine Labs’ Michron and Pulse, and Paul C. Buff’s Vagabond Mini. For processing some of the shots, they used LRTimelapse.
As I mentioned, this timelapse is a part of the Skyglow project. It draws attention to dangers of light pollution, while showing the contrast with some of the most incredible dark sky areas in North America. If you’d like to know more about the project and support it, head over to Skyglow website. But before that – put your headphones on, turn off the light and enjoy this magical timelapse once again.
Half-man, half-legend. Rubin Eynon made this stunning 8ft-tall bronze sculpture for the Duchy of Cornwall. Gallos – Cornish for “power” – stands on a cliff near Tintagel Castle, a tourist site popular for its association with the legends of King Arthur and his knights.
Kim Jong-un looks at a missile that was eventually launched from North Korea on May 14, 2017 in an undated photo (Korean Central News Agency, KCNA)
North Korean state media just released a video showing the country’s latest missile test, the first successful test in some time. The intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) has been identified as the Hwasong-12, a new name given to the missile by North Korea. The missile was first put on display during a military parade on April 15, 2017.
The missile is believed by experts to be a variation of the rumored KN-08 or KN-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that North Korea has never tested publicly. This new Hwasong-12 is the longest range missile that North Korea has ever tested, with a longer range than the Hwasong-10 missile that was tested in June of 2016.
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Early reports indicate that the Hwasong-12 has a range of roughly 2,500 miles—though the missile largely proved its capabilities vertically, reaching an altitude of roughly 1,242 miles, but splashing down just 489 miles from its launch site.
The newly named Hwasong-12 missile being launched by North Korea on
The North Korean monitoring website 38 North, an organization run out of Johns Hopkins University, says that the newly demonstrated missile “represents a level of performance never before seen from a North Korean missile.” But the site also stresses that this missile can’t reach the US mainland.
What would change the strategic balance is an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland. This is not that missile but it might be a testbed, demonstrating technologies and systems to be used in future ICBMs like the KN-08 and KN-14. A full three-stage KN-08 would be very unlikely to work the first time it was tested, and the failure would be both expensive and very provocative. This missile would allow North Korea to conduct at least some of the testing necessary to develop an operational ICBM, without actually launching ICBMs, particularly if it includes the same rocket engines.
The North Korean state news agency KCNA quoted Kim Jong-un as saying that, “if the United States were to face our republic with a harsh, miserable blunder, the US would not be able to suffer the greatest disaster ever.”
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un with his military leaders after a successful missile test on May 14, 2017 (Korean Central News Agency, KCNA)
The UN Security Council is set to meet on Tuesday at the request of the United States, Japan, and South Korea. It’s yet unclear what actions the US may call for, but the White House statement on the issue was peculiar in that it was very concerned with Russia.
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From White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Sunday:
With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil—in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan—the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.
North Korea has been a flagrant menace for far too long. South Korea and Japan have been watching this situation closely with us. The United States maintains our ironclad commitment to stand with our allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea. Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.
Curiously, the New York Times conducted a new poll that shows Americans who can find North Korea on a map are more in favor of diplomacy. The map produced for the poll showing where Americans thought North Korea might be located was downright embarrassing.
Americans as a whole may not be able to find North Korea on a map, but they’re certainly in favor of tougher sanctions and even cyberattacks on the country. There’s less appetite for all out war, something that is completely unnecessary given the fact that the US has plenty of missiles of its own, should North Korea do anything stupid.
A Minuteman III missile is launched during an operational test at 12:03 a.m., PDT, April 26, 2017 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ian Dudley)
In fact, just a few weeks ago, the United States tested its own missile, shooting a Minuteman III from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California some 4,000 miles in North Korea’s direction, landing in the Marshall Islands. The April 26, 2017 test wasn’t exactly subtle.
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With any luck, we’ll avoid a war. But let’s just say that with Donald Trump in charge, a lot of people aren’t feeling very lucky.
“We are stormtroopers. You know what we do best? We die.” Three stormtroopers are in the middle of a battle when one of them sees Darth Vader enter the fray. He geeks out and insists that they all come up to him in this short but sweet fan film. Captions available.
Review – OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock is the only game in town for FireWire 800
By Mike Wuerthele Saturday, May 13, 2017, 10:41 pm PT (01:41 am ET)
Vendor OWC has been supplying Mac users with upgrades for more than two decades, and the company continues that commitment with its own Thunderbolt 3 dock —AppleInsider examines the offering.
The Thunderbolt 3 Dock connects to a host Mac through a too-short but included 0.5-meter Thunderbolt cable. A major selling point of the dock, like most, is that it can support two 4K displays at 60Hz with one connected to the Mini DisplayPort and one through the pass-through Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, a Gigabit Ethernet connection, and up to six USB devices.
Differentiating it from most, is it also has a FireWire 800, optical TOSlink, and a SD card reader. It also appears to be the first Thunderbolt 3 dock to ship with 60W of charging power, rather than just 15W.
Initial connection
As with most Thunderbolt docks, the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock is driver-free in macOS, but the FireWire 800 port doesn’t work in Boot Camp at all.
Mass storage devices, input devices, and output devices all work perfectly, just like they were natively plugged into the host computer.
The power supply is once again, massive, and hot. This is probably related to charging power demands, and in all likelihood will pertain to all Thunderbolt 3 docks, especially those that supply full power to a connected MacBook Pro.
What about that SD card slot?
A possible selling point for the dock is the SD card reader. There are a variety of speed ratings for SD cards these days, and we’ve got a few on hand.
SDHC cards transfer at full 25MB/second speeds. SDXC cards will reach about 80MB/second —a bit less than the peak 105MB/sec allowable by the specification.
USB drive transfer on USB
As we’ve mentioned before, some cases and docks don’t support UASP. Assuming both your enclosure and dock support it, the protocol provides for faster file transfers than gear that doesn’t support it.
The OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock does in fact support it, so check that one off the desired features list.
Video testing
As with the CalDigit TS3 Lite dock we tested, dual 4K displays operate without issue. Additionally, the LG Ultrafine 5K Thunderbolt 3 display can be daisy-chained off the dock with no issue, and no connectivity limitations for the on-board ports, even when we fully loaded a USB port with a SSD RAID and performed a massive data transfer across the Gigabit Ethernet port.
However, as with other docks, don’t connect anything to the monitor while using the dock more arduous than a keyboard. The demands on the Thunderbolt 3 port when you add the USB-C on the monitor plus the dock’s ports are just too great.
A note on drive enclosures
We’ve got an assortment of FireWire 800 drive enclosures we’ve had for years, and they all worked fine. However, buying a $300 dock to use them may be throwing good money after bad.
If the enclosure is truly old, then it uses PATA drives —the old ribbon cable, last seen in the optical bay of the Mac Pro and not used for a hard drive since the days of the G4.
If the enclosure is newer than a decade old, it probably uses SATA drives. If this is all you need the dock for, you’d be better off getting a new enclosure, and moving the drives over, for more universal compatibility.
Testing 1,2,3, testing!
With the rare exception of some surviving FireWire drive enclosures, the most probable class of equipment demanding FireWire 800 connectivity on a 2016 MacBook Pro are audio interfaces.
The first hurdle is Sierra compatibility. Some devices just don’t have Sierra drivers. The second is physical connectivity – without Firewire, the devices won’t connect either.
In limited trials, the Universal Audio Apollo FireWire, and Apollo 16 FireWire worked properly in Sierra through the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock with the latest drivers. An offically unsupported Alesis Multimix 16 worked with a hack, much to the relief of our audio hardware supplier. Only one unit can be connected through the chain, but that’s a limitation of the driver, and not the dock.
If you want FireWire 800, there is one choice
Here’s the problem with reviewing docks. They work without hacks or they don’t, they supply sufficient charging power, or they don’t —easy enough.
Unless a review says that the dock just doesn’t function, buyers select a Thunderbolt 3 dock not on reviews, but based on the ports they have. Some Thunderbolt 3 docks have DisplayPort, HDMI, or Mini DisplayPort. Those don’t really sway the purchaser, because modern monitors seem to have both DisplayPort or HDMI —or a cable will get you there.
But, if you want FireWire 800 and you’ve got a 2016 MacBook Pro, options are limited. Users can either drop about $100 to get Apple’s Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and then a Thunderbolt 2 to FireWire 800 adapter —and even that is iffy and not universally compatible.
For $200 more, the vaunted “single cable solution” can be had with FireWire 800 devices in the mix, with either dual-4K or 5K plus all the other connectivity that the dock brings. That’s what will sell the $299 OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock, more than any words hammered out from a test bench.
Score: 4 out of 5
AppleInsider rates the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock a four out of five. While the $299 price is steeper than other options, the added connectivity of the SD card slot and FireWire 800 will sell the dock to a good portion of legacy Mac hardware users who want new gear.
If only we could convince manufacturers to include cables that are suitable for more than just initial testing.