Alternatives to Windows Default Search Function
August 10, 2012
BACKLOG Alternatives to Windows Default Search Function
Makeuseof gives us “7 Awesome Alternatives to Windows Search.” Why not just use Windows Search to find stuff on your computer? You can, of course, but the article explains:
“Have you ever searched for a program, file or folder on your computer only to discover that the default search application takes longer to display your search than it does for you to go find it manually yourself? I have. And I’d imagine that most Windows users face this same dilemma.
“Although there are some things you can do to improve searching using the Windows Search – and the search application seems to be much more improved in Windows 7 – there are some excellent alternatives to the default Windows Search that you should consider.”
All list entries are free and hand you results faster than Windows Search. Some, writer Aaron Couch asserts, even pull up more accurate results. His seven picks are: UltraSearch, Snowbird,FileSearchEX, Super Finder XT, Locate32, Search Everything, and Launchy. See the write up for Couch’s description of each tool.
There’s no denying that free is great. However, that qualification left a couple of our favorites off this handy list: Sow Soft’s Effective File Search and Pocket Search from Gaviri. Both of these applications do offer free trials, so you can still get a free of charge.
Cynthia Murrell, August 10, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
How to use Oracle Full Text Search in an Entity Framework
July 25, 2012
Oracle has the solutions, but how do you use Oracle full text search in an entity framework? We are not sure what this means, but the info you need can be found in Devart’s article, “Using Oracle Full-Text Search in Entity Framework.”
Devart began with:
“We decided to meet the needs of our users willing to take advantage of the full-text search in Entity Framework and implemented the basic Oracle Text functionality in our Devart dotConnect for Oracle ADO.NET Entity Framework provider. For working with Oracle Text specific functions in LINQ to Entities queries, the new OracleTextFunctions class is used, which is located in the Devart.Data.Oracle.Entity.dll assembly.”
It enables working with such Oracle Text functions as:
- CONTAINS
- CATSEARCH
- MATCHES
- SCORE
- MATCH_SCORE
Devart presents a very detailed sales pitch for OraDirect, or dotConnect as their calling it now. Whatever name you choose, the gist is the software offers native connectivity to the Oracle database, tools and technology. They also offer a customized set of their own tools to increase Dataset productivity such as Dataset Wizard and Dataset Manager.
If you can decipher their article, than the wisdom of the Oracle is yours. For the most part this article reads like a coder handbook, and I am not a coder. If you happen to speak that very enlightened language, you will probably grasp Devart’s meaning a lot quicker than this gosling. If not, maybe the Oracle will see you some other day.
Jennifer Shockley, July 25, 2012
Another Player in the Real Time Operational Intelligence Game
July 21, 2012
A business questing for success in today’s evolving market knows real players play the real time operational intelligence game, and stakes are high. A company has to choose the right pieces to utilize and there are quite a few choices available.
Veteran dashboards may have some competition, as another player just entered the game according to AppGap’s article, “JackBe Extends its Real-Time Operational Intelligence Offering.” Will they play for keeps?
The article threw in lots of interesting screenshots, but the jest was JackBe is offering a dashboard. That doesn’t make them stand out, but what might is Presto.
Presto remote monitoring shows potential for growth, as:
“This can be monitoring turbines, large engines, smart grids, data center storage, Twitter feeds and machine-to-machine monitoring. The goal is to provide more self-service for business users. JackBe Presto allows a tech savvy business person to create and set up dashboards that aggregate data from multiple sources. The goal is to allow the business side to do 80% of the work and leave the 20% of real tough stuff to the IT guys.”
The real gamble is… not much was mentioned about costs and resources (human and machine) for the system. What JackBe is offering sounds good and almost like the Fast Search & Transfer of yesteryear. For now, they are just another player in the Real Time operational intelligence game… but it is their move.
Jennifer Shockley, July 21, 2012
JackBe Quick Stratagem
July 8, 2012
Some professionals make spur of the moment decisions so easily it appears an invisible adviser is whispering solutions. Others may struggle with indecision when put on the spot both in and out of business. Those awkward moments of confusion may be getting easier with some new tools, according to Fast Company’s article, “2 Tools To Help You Make Smarter, Faster Decisions On The Fly.”
Now if you are caught off guard by a sudden concern, fear not… JackBe will swiftly do comparisons and find a solution. To put it simply:
“JackBe allows your people to assemble a set of iPhone-like apps that mash together information from disparate sources in real-time. Think of a highly customized mobile Bloomberg terminal that might show on one screen sales figures pulled from SAP, customer complaints on Twitter, and shipment statuses from UPS. By assembling all of these into one screen, you can more easily and quickly spot trouble and opportunity.”
The second tool highlighted in the article seemed more like a ploy to draw attention to the author’s book. Stratagem does not respond quickly but instead offers a time consuming process. The user asks a question, to which the app responds with 4 more questions. Depending on user response, the app than calculates 10 strategic patterns to apply to your original question.
Overall JackBe provides a useful tool that could actually be beneficial in a crunch. The Stratagem is a good concept, but the process is lengthy and could prove to be a time consumer.
Jennifer Shockley, July 8, 2012
Could Sepaton Have Duped the Deduping Competition?
June 23, 2012
Sepaton just called ‘game over ‘on de-duplication competitors. Their newly released software will open doors for database de-duping the likes of which have never been seen, according to Sepaton Update Tackles Large-Enterprise Database Deduplication.
Additional storage options are always welcomed by customers, so Symantec’s clients should be content. The DeltaStor DbeXtreme should provide the flexibility to make some interesting waves in the industry.
Jason Buffington of Enterprise Strategy Group stated:
“If you ask a DBA how to best back up large data sets, they will tell you to ‘turn ON multi-streaming. Customers don’t have to choose between multi-streaming, multiplexing and capacity reduction through higher de-dupe. Sepaton’s customers can set data reduction ratios and storage utilization by client and backup job.”
This is a software only release for now, but storage and servers will become available within the next six months to a year. At that point customers will see an extreme boost in performance and security. They have been testing for a while and based on initial trials the software performance increases by a factor of 2 and throughout by 20%, so there is room for improvement.
The DeltaStor DbeXtreme software is unique because it eliminates tradeoffs between the backup performance and de-duplication process. Their database de-duplication doesn’t use hashing, but instead analyzes the data after receipt while it’s gathered in the storage pool. Thus, it eliminates redundant elements while many other solutions just can’t do that. If this software functions up to expectations, than Sepaton duped the competition.
Jennifer Shockley, June 23, 2012
Sink or Swim, Indies Plunging Into Open Source
June 19, 2012
Some independent software developers are taking the big plunge into open source according to the article, “Independent Software Developers Go Full Time with Open Source.” It’s time to sink or swim, but if they succeed, it may start a new trend in the indie scene.
Lunduke, a Washington state based developer is getting $4000 a month in gaming subscriptions for his site. He feels those subscriptions along with community contributions should provide him with enough income to continue developing freelance. He plans on open sourcing all of the applications and games on his site under the GPL.
Patrick Verner in Wisconsin developed Parted Magic as an open source, multi-platform partitioning tool. In contrast to Lundukes financial needs, Verner requested just $1,200 a month to pay bills and cover life expenses.
“While many software developers get paid to work on open source by their employer or volunteer their time for free to various FOSS projects, some end up deciding to quit their day jobs to work on free and open source software (FOSS) full time. That’s exactly what Bryan Lunduke and Patrick Verner are now doing and they’re both hoping that the respective communities for their projects will help to support their efforts financially. “
Despite added expenses and challenges, these entrepreneurs are going for their dreams. This is a big step forward for young developers. These guys diving right in shows the world that it is possible for a close source indie developer to go open source successfully with help and communal support. Move over big IT, the Indies are plunging straight into open source, no life jackets.
Jennifer Shockley, June 19, 2012
Metasearch Can Cut Research Time by Half
June 11, 2012
There is a new Meta search engine that has entwined Google, Yahoo and Bing results into its database according to announcements. Sperse also implements real-time results from Twitter, thus returning more comprehensive, relevant and fast results. Harnessing the information of multiple providers at once could decrease research time by half.
Founded in 2008, Sperse has implemented some unique features that make it stand out in the meta search engines crowd:
“Unlike other search offerings, users will also be able to optionally streamline their selections through Sperse’s ability to offer color images displayed in conjunction with the selected results. Additionally, when results are displayed, the ‘Preview’ options shows a live preview of the website and helps users save substantial time by promptly identifying the content they need. Also the integration of several specialized search fields i.e. Web, Images, Audio, News, Video, and others creates a centralized platform for professional users to filter the content they need.”
Sperse also offers AdLight, their premier platform for search, display and performance marketing. This ‘smart advertising’ platform utilizes Sperse’s network of publishing properties and search engines to amplify target access. Use ability, convenience and ease of access for consumers increases ROI for advertisers.
Summer is here, and shaving off a few hours of research can provide some time to enjoy it. Sperse takes one query and sends it to different indexes, gets the results, and shows them in one result list. The idea is that you don’t have to run the same query in different search systems, so it is a time saver.
Jennifer Shockley, June 11, 2012
HP Autonomy: The Big Data Arabesque
June 5, 2012
Hewlett Packard has big plans for Autonomy. HP paid $10 billion for the search and content processing company last year. HP faces a number of challenges in its printer and ink business. The personal computer business is okay, but HP is without a strong revenue stream from mobile devices.
“HP Rolls Out Hadoop AppSystem Stack” provided some interesting information about Autonomy and big data. The write up focuses on the big data trend. In order to make sense out of large volumes of information, HP wants to build management software, integrate the “Vertica column oriented distributed database and the Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) 10 stack.” The article reports:
On the Autonomy front, HP has announced the capability to put the IDOL 10 engine, which supports over 1,000 file types and connects to over 400 different kinds of data repositories, onto each node in a Hadoop cluster. So you can MapReduce the data and let Autonomy make use of it. For instance, you can use it to feed the Optimost Clickstream Analytics module for the Autonomy software, which also uses the Vertica data store for some parts of the data stream. HP is also rolling out its Vertica 6 data store, and the big new feature is the ability to run the open source R statistical analysis programming language in parallel on the nodes where Vertica is storing data in columnar format. More details on the new Vertica release were not available at press time, but Miller says that the idea is to provider connectors between Vertica, Hadoop, and Autonomy so all of the different platforms can share information.
HP’s idea blends a hot trend, HP’s range of hardware, HP’s system management software, a database, and Autonomy IDOL. In order to make this ensemble play in tune, HP will offer professional services.
InfoWorld’s “HP Extends Autonomy’s Big Data Chops to Hadoop Cloud” added some additional insight. I learned that former Autonomy boss Michael Lynch will leave HP “along with Autonomy’s entire original management team and 20 percent of its staff.”
The story then explained that Autonomy, which combines with Vertica:
can now be embedded in Hadoop nodes. From there, users can combine Idol’s 500-plus functions — including automatic categorization, clustering, and hyperlinking — to scour various sources of structured and unstructured data to glean deeper meanings and trends. Sources run the gamut, too, from structured data such as purchase history, services issues, and inventory records to unstructured Twitter streams, and even audio files. IDOL includes 400 connectors, which companies can use to get at external data.
Autonomy moved beyond search many years ago. This current transformation of Autonomy makes marketing sense. I am interested in monitoring this big data approach. IBM had a similar idea when it presented the Vivisimo clustering and deduplication system as a “big data” system. The challenge will be applying text centric technology to ensembles which generate insights from “big data.”
Will the shift earn back the purchase price of $10 billion and have enough horsepower to pull HP into robust top line growth? Big data and analytics have promise but I don’t know of any single analytics company that has multi-billion dollar product lines. Big data is a hot button, but does it hard wire into the pocketbooks of chief financial officers?
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Price Comparison Search Tool Provides Enlightenment
June 2, 2012
There’s a new search tool that’s providing enlightenment with comparative shopping, according to Search tool Centzy helps compare prices at local firms. Confucius say, ‘always compare pricing and you will find best deal.’ Well, maybe not Confucius, but those are wise words none the less
The company is Centzy and they are catering to consumers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Their delivering a new online search tool that may help consumers get more bang when giving local businesses their buck. They provide smart shoppers with business comparisons based on prices, reviews, store hours, and proximity to a user’s work or home.
Centzy gives the following input along with a little promotion:
“Ever have the nagging feeling that you’re getting ripped-off on your dry-cleaning or oil change? Know instantly with Centzy, the only one-click tool for comparing prices of local businesses you already use.”
“The cheapest yoga class, top-rated oil change or a dry cleaner that stays open late. Centzy simplifies your daily life by providing accurate prices, reviews, hours, and best-value ratings all in one place so you can make smart decisions. Compare, choose, and carry on—all with a few clicks.”
Currently this site just covers specific industries, but the possibilities are endless. Customizable price comparison search tools may become the next web designer Zen. Smart shoppers everywhere would be logging on and searching for price enlightenment.
Jennifer Shockley June 2, 2012
Sponsored by www.highgainblog.com
Vivisimo Value
April 30, 2012
Okay, azure chip consultants, the goslings and I have completed our review of the Vivisimo information in our Overflight system. We have reviewed the data available to us for the IBM buy outs of Cognos, i2, and SPSS. We have reached some hypothetical conclusions. Keep in mind that this is our own Kentucky analysis, fueled by mine run off and our Overflight data.
First, we think the IBM Vivisimo deal was a pretty good move for IBM. More to the point, IBM gets some technology and some employees. But the amount of dough IBM coughed up for Vivisimo was probably not much above $25 million and may be as low as $18 to $19 million. The reason is that Vivisimo just did not have market traction, a fact I documented in The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, which is now out of print. (We are still doing briefings, so if you are interested, write us at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com.
Second, the Vivisimo technology was not up to the rigors of the enterprise. In fact, we believe that the “big data” public relations spin was one of those deals which reach back through college fraternities and obligations which the Facebook generation do not understand. We hypothesize that this was a “white knight” deal, not a crafty business move to thwart Oracle or SAP, among others in the enterprise game.
Third, the value of the recent spate of acquisitions says more about what a company will pay for customers, consulting opportunities, and ways to extend the life of an existing product line. Lexmark printers anyone? Vivisimo is more of a utility; it is not an Autonomy or an Endeca type of outfit.
How wrong are we? Well, since this is a free blog, you need to do your own calculation. We think our hypothesis is pretty strong and we think the value of the deal is in the range we calculated. Azure chip outfits will want to avoid search. The money days may be over. Hello, big data and analytics. Goodbye, gentle search.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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