SolrCloud Configuration
June 17, 2013
SolrCloud is a set of new distributed capabilities in Solr. It is useful for setting up a highly available, fault tolerant cluster of Solr servers. Systems Architect has a useful guide for configuring the system. Read their advice in the entry, “Painless Guide to Solr Cloud Configuration.”
The article begins:
“’Cloud’ become very ambiguous term and it can mean virtually anything those days. If you are not familiar with Solr Cloud think about it as one logical service hosted on multiple servers. Distributed architecture helps with scaling, fault tolerance, distributed indexing and generally speaking improves search capabilities. All of that is very exciting and I’m highly impressed how the service is designed but… it’s relatively new product.”
Cloud capability is a highly desirable attribute in enterprise search solutions, one that many service providers are rapidly adopting. LucidWorks builds their value-added enterprise search and Big Data solutions on top of the power of Apache Lucene Solr. However, instead of having to configure everything independently LucidWorks offers capability out-of-the-box as well as an award winning support and services network. Both solutions are available for deployment on-site, in the Cloud, or in hybrid form.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
SharePoint and SharePoint Search: End of Life?
June 16, 2013
I had a chat with a former IBM executive. At lunch, an interesting emerged as we talked about the trials and tribulations large enterprise software vendors are facing. In addition to the embarrassing layoffs at IBM, there are signals that the financial screws are being turned at Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAP and elsewhere. Part of the pressure is normal because the April May June quarter is an important one before the world goes on vacation in July and August. September, obviously, will be another flat out period for sales and marketing professionals. But there was one t hought which we kicked around in a post-prandial stupor.
A dilemma now exists in the enterprise software sector.
Stick with what works and has worked
Go in a new direction and improvise.
What happens if Microsoft does the Adobe thing and forces SharePoint licensees to embrace the cloud? What happens to the resellers? What happens to the integrators? What happens to the in house staff who know the intricacies of on premises installations of SharePoint but not the secrets of Azure?
Microsoft has a significant dependence on on premises sales. This is the client access license, the enterprise license, and the special set ups which make Microsoft the de facto choice for desktop computing workers worldwide.
Is an end of life play for SharePoint possible without making Microsoft even more vulnerable to the enticements of Google and others who want to supplant Microsoft as the “king of the desktop enter” and “baron of the back office”?
On one hand, the idea that SharePoint and its okay search solution, administrator employing mail and database systems, and its quirky collaboration and document management solutions could shift to the cloud is silly. Why give up those license fees? Why alienate service firms dependent on sales and support to hundreds of millions of SharePoint users? Why assume that a cloud business model will work for on site license customers? Organizations are conservative. Change comes slowly or not at all. Stick with the status quo.
Big Questions about Federated and Universal Search Remain
June 16, 2013
Search Engine Watch re-posted an aggressive article towards Google recently: “Google Should Kill or Radically Change Universal Search Results.” The message comes from Foundem, an UK price comparison firm that has rejected Google’s proposed web search concessions.
These concessions come following the European Commission’s ongoing antitrust investigation into Google’s search business. Foundem believes that their proposed concessions will not lessen Google’s monopoly on web search.
The article tells us that the proposed concessions ignore Google’s monopoly on search:
“Instead, the concessions focus on minor alterations to Google’s “self-serving Universal Search inserts.” According to Foundem’s report, any concessions must address Google’s AdWords search capabilities. Foundem says AdWords will continue to give Google an unfair advantage until they are re-worked. The company says that the current proposal fails to correct Google searches relevance for showing its own services in results. Foundem believes that to truly slow Google’s search monopoly it would have to either eliminate universal search or drastically change it.”
This information reported suggests there is still a big question about federated search results despite the fact that Google’s Universal Search initiative was announced back in 2007.
Megan Feil, June 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
HP Autonomy Acronym Explained
June 15, 2013
Know what Haven means in HP Autonomy speak? At lunch yesterday, I learned that the acronym means:
H is for Hadoop, the dust bin for digital stuff
A is for Autonomy, the HP acquisition fueling MBA case studies
V is for Vertica, the HP big data analytics acquisition
E is for enterprise, the customer seeking refuge from other vendors
N is for… not sure, the one thing I know about big outfits.
If anyone knows if “N” is from enterprise or if “N” comes from some other nifty buzzword or product, use the comments to fill a void in the goose’s acronym blank space.
Stephen E Arnold, June 15, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky, the portal for ArnoldIT
Functional Versus Aesthetic
June 15, 2013
While the idea of the functional aesthetic is popular in contemporary art, there is an unsurprising parallel to math. Both artistic mediums like metal and paint in addition to numbers on a page are in the end both symbols. A blog called The Old New Thing posted a thought-provoking article called “Mathematical Formulas are Designed to be Pretty Not to be Suitable for Computation.”
According to the article, mathematicians are concerned with the elegance and formatting of equations – sometimes to the point where function matters less.
The author points to a few ways that he sees a solution to this issue developing:
“Often people will ask for an efficient way of calculating factorials, when in fact they don’t really need factorials (which is a good thing, because that would require a bignum package); they are really just trying to evaluate a formula that happens to be expressed mathematically with factorials (because factorials are pretty). Another place pretty formulas prove unsuitable for computation is in Taylor series. The denominator of a Taylor series is typically a factorial, and the numerator can get quite large, too. For example, exp(x) = ? x? ? n!.”
It appears that computational needs and math may not be congruent. Both the big picture and the nitty gritty of what the author points to in this article could be quite a shock for some in the analytics sci fi game.
Megan Feil, June 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
IBM Uses Layoffs, Not Watson, to Advance
June 14, 2013
I saw an earlier reference to IBM’s plan to trim its work force earlier this year. The story surface again in June 2013. See, for example, the report in Business Insider, June 13, 2013. I heard from a person at lunch that IBM’s cutbacks would be hefty, although no numbers were mentioned. I noted this morning this story, “IBM Layoffs Strike As Company Eyes New Markets.”
The main idea is that even the Huffington Post was struck by IBM’s “cutbacks.” The write up said:
The cutbacks are part of a reorganization that IBM Corp. executives disclosed in April during a conference call discussing the Armonk, N.Y., company’s first-quarter earnings. IBM said it would spend $1 billion reshuffling the types of jobs it needs in its workforce this year, with most of the changes coming before the end of June. Fox Business is reporting that the layoffs have affected more than 1,600 positions.
I learned yesterday that WFMY, a TV station in New York, reported that “hundreds could be cut in North Carolina as well as in a couple of other states. WFMY reported, “Cuts in New York included more than 700 in Westchester and Dutchess counties.”
The word “cuts” is not one that IBM used. The company’s preferred term, as I understand the WFMY report, is “workforce remix.”
I scanned a number of reports about this significant series of work force remixes and did not see a reference to Watson. I wonder, “Is IBM using Watson to answer its questions about how to become more competitive?”
If anyone knows, please, use the comments section of this blog to share that information.
Stephen E Arnold, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky, the portal to ArnoldIT information
Relevance of Google Plus After Two Years
June 14, 2013
It has been two years since Google introduced its social network and it remains without much fanfare. As a clear example of how major companies see Google Plus fitting into their social media strategy, a Technology Spectator article explains that Domino’s is currently garnering thousands of “likes” on Facebook but the last post on Google Plus was in October 2012. “Is Google + Struggling to Stay Relevant?” remains the question.
The article shares where there might be room for Google Plus and where they might have missed the boat:
“Many businesses do build outposts on Google+, eager to benefit from its integration with Google’s popular Internet search service. Some corporations have even used its online video feature for splashy product launches. But the flurry of commercial activity common on other social networks – from restaurant promotions to movie trailers – is harder to spot on Google+, raising questions about its ability to rival Facebook or Twitter as a thriving online community.”
Here we have an article that is simply putting more dents in Google Plus’ fender. However, if you wear Google Glass you may not have processed this write up.
Megan Feil, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Google Plus Versus Facebook: The Battle That Never Took Off
June 14, 2013
The article titled The Tragic Beauty of Google Plus on Time’s Techland explores the new Google Plus features launched during the Keynote. These include the ability to see activity streams as tile columns and the ability to simplify to just one column if you prefer. Google Plus also can auto-hash tag, and in some cases even identify relevant hash tags by analyzing the photo. But even these new features and layout may not be enough to draw away Facebook users. The article explains why,
“Once a me-too service that seemed to exist solely because Facebook posed a potentially existential threat to Google’s dominance of the web, it now has its own style and signature features. Where Facebook is rather stolid – it has its own beautification initiative going on, but feels hamstrung by its need to retain some visual consistency with its past self — Google+ is exuberant. It’s fun to use.
And yet I’m pretty positive I won’t spend remotely as much time in it as I will in Facebook.”
The argument goes that Facebook is better simply because more people are on Facebook. A social network is only as good as the community it holds, sure, but we wonder if this is damning by faint praise. Google Plus is innovative whereas Facebook still clings to its original layout, but it is still no contest as to which is more popular.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
OMICS Publishing Group Threatens Billion Dollar Suit Over Slanderous Blog Post
June 14, 2013
The article on the Chronicle of Higher Education titled Publisher Threatens to Sue Blogger for One Billion tells the story of Jeffrey Beall, who runs the blog Scholarly Open Access. The blog has a list of predatory or questionable publishers and journals. One of these publishers, OMICS Publishing Group from India, wants to sue Beall, and put him in jail.
“The OMICS Group’s practices have received particular attention from Mr. Beall and some publications, including The Chronicle. In 2012, The Chronicle found that the group was listing 200 journals, but only about 60 percent had actually published anything… On his blog, Mr. Beall accuses OMICS of spamming scholars with invitations to publish, quickly accepting their papers, then charging them a nearly $3,000 publishing fee after a paper has been accepted.”
The letter sent to Beall accused him of racial discrimination as well as unprofessionalism. Whether the suit is a publicity stunt or sparked by legitimate outrage is unclear, but in India it is against the law to publish “menacing” information online under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Is pay to play content really such a contentious concept? The academics desperate to be published in legitimate journals who follow Beall’s blog would certainly say yes.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
National Instruments Selects Attivio
June 14, 2013
Increasingly major national and international companies are turning to open source solutions to solve their information storage and retrieval needs. These companies need enterprise solutions that are agile, efficient, affordable, and secure. The latest to join the ranks of open source adoption is National Instruments. KM World covers the news in their story, “Powering Information Discovery and Search Needs.”
The article begins:
“National Instruments has chosen a unified information access platform to enable more efficient knowledge discovery and analysis into the future. After evaluating a number of solutions, National Instruments decided that Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) would best handle its requirements, particularly related to ontology-driven query completion, auto categorization, sentiment analysis, dictionary management, recommendations, language support and improved relevancy boosting, according to Attivio.”
Attivio’s Active Intelligence model strives to integrate business intelligence, enterprise search, and Big Data into one scalable model. This type of consolidation seems to be driving the value-added open source market. For instance, LucidWorks offers two solutions: LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data. Both have distinct functions, but are designed to serve the all-encompassing enterprise needs of an organization. Small and medium sized organizations even find that they can benefit from the scalability of LucidWorks, and rest on their trusted support and security. Explore both options and see how they will fit into your enterprise.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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