Category: Analytics

REVolution Computing fails to create a Revolution

REvolution Computing had created big expectations with it’s pedigreed open source credentials

They followed it with the exciting 64 bit version for R and components for Parallel R- and then waited . It seemed  they would RATHER  lie low and not annoy Microsoft etc ( their funding and technical partners as per their own words) and (Masters of the Open Source management game)

THAN do the following –

1) Create a better GUI for more retail acceptance among stats users ( so as not to undercut Microsoft SQL Analysis Server)

2) Create a cloud computing API for Amazon EC2 or a private cloud offering like SAS or just about anyone else (hoping to wait for Microsoft Azure)

3) Invest more in standardizing the documentation and help for R (for corporate users the R help list wont do and search the archives wont do.)

4) Give or share economic incentives to other R package developers for algols which can be used for Business Intelligence or Enterprise wide analytics.

If they create a R Online Doc , acceptance of R would be so much better would not it.

Sadly, R or R plus or Enterprise R would then fizzle out much like the once promising and now defunct except in musuems  S or  Splus.

Sorry guys, but we dont buy it anymore.  This was never about changing the world. It was always about the money, isn’t it.

Your call. Your product.

I will wait till they come with a new language to succeed R ( maybe like Zee).

Or till they get excited about it again ( yes we got the NY times to write an 4 th page again!!)

see below a graph from a better R graph gallery.

http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/


High Performance Computing within R: Tutorial

The best tutorial for fast and easy learning of parallel computation, code optimization and general High Performance Computing is by Dr. Dirk which he gave at User9 . He is a nice guy with a pleasant manner and temper though we disagree on his choice of Debian and my choice of Ubuntu as Linux.

Citation-
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/papers/useR2009hpcTutorial.pdf and download it useR2009hpcTutorial

You can also read his blog here

http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/

His writing style is well, he writes interesting Linux is all I can say.

SAP and University Alliances

Great Stuff on SAP’s University Network I did exchange emails before turning them over to the Departmental guys-they are really serious on expanding the pool of analysts

more analytics and BI companies should do this- and buzz me at www.twitter.com/decisionstats if you like to do it with U Tenn students- we currently are working on the the world’s biggest super computer at the nearby Oakridge National Lab.

Screenshot-12

Advanced Analytics on Multi-Terabyte Datasets- Conferences

Some news on Data Mining 2009 by Aster Data –

SAS and Aster Data to Present “Advanced Analytics on Multi-Terabyte Datasets” at M2009 in Las Vegas – Oct. 26-27
Learn how the tight coupling of SQL and MapReduce provided by Aster Data creates new ‘big data’ analytics opportunities when combined with SAS. Aster Data will exhibit throughout the event.
More

And also a nice  webcast by Curt Monash on the same Big Data topic-

Mastering MapReduce Webinar Series, Session 1
“Big Data Reality: The Role of MapReduce in Big Data Management and Analysis”- Oct. 15
Industry analyst Curt Monash explains the basics of MapReduce, key uses cases, and which industries and applications are heavily using MapReduce. Topics include recommendations for integrating MapReduce in an enterprise business intelligence and data warehousing environment.
More

Also,

Here is a brief synopsis on the Aster Data ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aster-Data-Systems/5601042375) Sponsored Big Data Summit  ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Data-Summit/143312171156 )which I attended-

  • A Plan for Large Scale Data Analytics: How to Utilize Aster nCluster and Hadoop in a Symbiotic
    Relationship to Support Processing in Excess of 100 Billion Rows Per Month
    – Michael Brown and Will Duckworth
    (EVP, Software Engineering, comScore, Inc. and Director, Software Engineering, comScore, Inc.)

This talked of the special needs of Com Score in handling big data and why Map Reduce and Hadoop seem to be the cost effective solutions for big big data while RDBMS seems stuck in the middle of middle data. Broadly informative on the statistical challenges of the future given the explosion of data as well.

  • Making Sense of Hadoop – Its Fit With Data Warehouses – Colin White
    (President and Founder of BI Research)

Colin brought a nice perspective on the open source Hadoop vis a vis the Properietary packages and the traditional DBMS. His perspective on the solution is no software is perfect for all needs while all softwares that sell have their own good points while the converging solution could be a heterogeneous solution of the above.

  • MapReduce Inside a Database System – When and How Case Studies from ShareThis, Specific Media, and Other – Tasso Argyros (Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Aster Data)

This was a more detailed look at the Big Product Launch ( the Hadoop Connector) by Tasso and an interesting look at time series analysis using nPath rather than SQL . Interesting given the ongoing convergence analytics and business intelligence.

Also Tasso lived up to his presenting charm with an excellent pitch on nPath (as his interview said ).

  • Large-Scale Analytics at LinkedIn – Jonathan Goldman
    (Former Principal Scientist at LinkedIn)

This was nice given Jonathan’s perscpective ( he has Phd In Physics) and now does consulting for LinkedIn while maintaining his interests in education- the special needs for social media websites, designing experiments on the fly with huge real time datasets as well as some interesting visualizations (like India and America have the second biggest cross country Li connections after USA- UK. Apparently Linkedin ( http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211231478 ) does not sound so good when translated in Chinese ( AT Dinner I learnt from a fellow Chinese student that China censors Facebook – sigh!).

  • Networking Mixer: Beer, wine, hot hors d’oeuvres

I got interviewed ( AFTER) I had mixed some Beer and Wine for myself. The Video interview which was the first video interview I have given ( You know- I have taken SOME interviews by Email and plan to do some more while in Vegas for the Data Mining 2009  with SAS http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2227381262)

They are still editing that interview 😉

—That was all – you need to send me a Facebook invite to see the rest of the NY trip or better still just join the Facebook page of Decision Stats at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DecisionStats/191421035186

After two weeks I hope to have some more coverage on Data Mining 2009 while at the same time enjoying my much needed Fall Break-  Life at University at Tennessee is looking up ( since we beat Georgia 45-19 🙂 )

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