Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Captain Hall of Fame: Phillips, Kirk, Sparrow and More



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/film/~3/9D_5S1d2Hfg/story01.htm
Similar Articles: twerk   pga tour  
Posted by at No comments:

Hadoop 2: Big data's big leap forward



The new Hadoop is nothing less than the Apache Foundation's attempt to create a whole new general framework for the way big data can be stored, mined, and processed.


It ought to not only further stimulate the way apps are written for Hadoop, but also allow for the creation of entirely new data-crunching methodologies within Hadoop that simply weren't possible because of its earlier architectural limitations. In short, good stuff.


So what's been holding Hadoop back all this time? More importantly, where's it going from here?


Various criticisms of Hadoop have revolved around its scaling limitations, but the biggest constraint on scale has been its job handling. All jobs in Hadoop are run as batch processes through a single daemon called JobTracker, which creates a scalability and processing-speed bottleneck.


With Hadoop 2, the JobTracker approach has been scrapped. Instead, Hadoop uses an entirely new job-processing framework built using two daemons: ResourceManager, which governs all jobs in the system, and NodeManager, which runs on each Hadoop node and keeps the ResourceManager informed about what's happening on that node. (Each running application also has its own governor, ApplicationMaster.)


This setup is so unlike the previous MapReduce that Apache gave it an entirely new name: YARN, or Yet Another Resource Negotiator, with the new MapReduce running as one of many possible components for it. In fact, Apache claims that any distributed application can run on YARN, albeit with some porting. To that end, Apache's maintained a list of YARN-compatible applications, such as the social-graph analysis system Apache Giraph (which Facebook uses). More are on the way from other parties, too.


As radical as this approach is, Apache wisely decided not to break backward compatibility, and so MapReduce 2 still has the same APIs as its predecessor. Existing jobs just need a recompile to work properly.


It's also hardly coincidence that YARN makes Hadoop far more cross-compatible with other Apache projects for massaging big data. Use one, and it becomes far easier to use the rest. Such a rising tide for Hadoop would help lift all of Apache's related boats.


The biggest win of all here is how MapReduce itself becomes just one possible way of many to mine data through Hadoop. Apache's own Spark, another candidate for porting to YARN, might be better suited to some kinds of work than MapReduce, so Hadoop 2 gives you more flexibility to choose the engine that's the best fit.


The two big Hadoop vendors out there, Cloudera and Hortonworks, both have their own discussions of how YARN is crucial stuff, even if they approach Hadoop from markedly different directions. Cloudera's Impala offers the ability to run low-latency SQL queries against HDFS-stored data, which makes them best suited to live analytics; Hortonworks has chosen to go with Apache's native Hive technology, which is best for data warehouse operations (like long-running queries with lots of join-type operations).


Porting apps to YARN isn't a trivial effort, though, so the payoff involved in reworking Hadoop this radically will be strongly based on how much gets deployed within the new framework. But the fact that both Cloudera and Hortonworks are solidly behind Hadoop 2 and haven't forked the product -- or stuck with its earlier iterations -- is major evidence Hadoop 2 isn't just smoke or mirrors. Or tangled yarn.


This story, "Hadoop 2: Big data's big leap forward," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/hadoop/hadoop-2-big-datas-big-leap-forward-228909?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
Tags: Maria de Villota   Valerie Harper   Rashad Johnson   Ken Norton   The Dirty  
Posted by at No comments:

Live Chat: UFC 166 preview, Bellator pay-per-view and more


I can only speak from personal experience and due to the volume of combat sports I watch, very little of it gets me excited or out of my chair. I can also say without hesitation UFC 166 is one such an event.


Ultimately, we'll have to see how the fights play out, but in terms of pre-fight anticipation, this one is most certainly forcing me to think about what could happen, what it all might mean and how fun it all might be. That's what a special event should and does do.


However, there's some hand wringing going on about Bellator's pay-per-view. Innumerable questions and claims are made about the event and how, if it goes poorly, it would spell the end for Bellator. None of this could be further from the truth.


There's a lot going on, so join me today to discuss all of this and more. In terms of today's chat, anything is up for discussion, but I will lead with this and it all kicks off at 1 p.m. ET.


As is customary, I'll post the video window here as the event draws near and I'll answer any questions you may have if you post them in the comments section below. Be sure that you click the 'rec' button for those comments/questions you believe most deserve a response.


Be sure to link this page and use the hashtag #chatwrappers on Twitter or even Facebook when you're watching this to let everyone know you're taking part is this activity of ours.


Talk with you all at 1 p.m. ET.


Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/16/4844320/live-chat-ufc-166-preview-bellator-pay-per-view-and-more
Related Topics: redskins   tampa bay rays   Miley Cyrus Pregnant   CDOT   Star Trek Into Darkness  
Posted by at No comments:

Citigroup results hit by bond trading slowdown


By David Henry


(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc posted weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Tuesday as bond market trading volume dropped, hurting revenue at the No. 3 U.S. bank and across Wall Street.


The bank's bond trading revenue dropped 26 percent, or $956 million (597.7 million pounds), excluding an accounting adjustment, and revenue at most of its major businesses dropped.


The fall in fixed-income revenue could spell trouble for investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, which post results later this week. Volumes dropped after the Federal Reserve said it plans to continue its bond buying stimulus program, giving assurance to investors that they can hold onto their bonds for a little longer.


Late in the quarter, investors also grew increasingly concerned about the government's fiscal impasse, which made many reluctant to trade.


"I don't think anybody wanted to get in front of that," said Diane Jaffee, who oversees about $6.5 billion of relative value mutual funds for TCW, and counts Citigroup among her top 10 holdings. The budget and debt ceiling crises continue to weigh on trading volumes in the fourth quarter, analysts said.


Investors pointed to Citi's efforts to control costs as the most positive part of the quarterly earnings. Similar moves could be imminent at other banks, especially as Wall Street bonus season - typically a huge part of their budgets - approaches.


In last year's third quarter Citigroup took a $4.7 billion charge before taxes, related to selling its Smith Barney brokerage business. For the bank's board, that hit was the last straw in a series of perceived missteps that ended up costing Vikram Pandit, then the bank's chief executive, his job.


Pandit's successor, Michael Corbat, has struggled to improve Citigroup's fortunes in an environment where client business is tepid and new regulations are raising banks' expenses. Those regulations are designed to make the banking system safer after the financial crisis, which forced Citigroup to seek government rescues three times.


'UNEVEN' BUSINESS CONDITIONS


Corbat told analysts in a conference call that business conditions would remain "uneven" for the rest of the year.


"While many of the factors which influence our revenues are not within our full control, we certainly can control our costs, and I am pleased with our expense discipline and improved efficiency year-to-date," Corbat said in a statement.


The bank's expenses fell nearly $500 million from the second quarter to $11.66 billion as performance-based compensation and transaction costs fell, partly reflecting a weak revenue environment, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told analysts.


Citigroup, which has said it was aiming to reduce costs by $1.2 billion annually, said on Tuesday it plans to cut areas like marketing expenses in the fourth quarter. But Gerspach said that no major new expense reduction plans are expected in the quarter.


Investors said that from the outside, it is hard to evaluate how the bank's cost-cutting is affecting its daily operations.


"All these banks are doing a lot on that front (cost cutting), including Citigroup, but it's hard to see from the outside what is happening," said David Ellison, portfolio manager in Boston at Hennessy Funds, which has about $4 billion under management and owns Citigroup shares.


"There's a dumpster in the driveway, but all the activity is in the house, and you can't tell what's happening inside."


CUSTOMER TRADING SLOWDOWN


The third quarter is typically a slow one for bond trading, a state that was only exacerbated by the Fed announcement, according to analysts.


Under generally accepted accounting principles, Citigroup's net income rose to $3.23 billion, or $1.00 per share, from $468 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.


Excluding the Smith Barney charge, as well as the impact of tax benefits and changes in the value of Citigroup debts and those of trading partners, third-quarter earnings slipped to $3.26 billion, or $1.02 per share, from $3.27 billion, or $1.06 per share, a year earlier. On that basis, revenue fell 5 percent to $18.22 billion.


Analysts on average expected earnings of $1.04 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. A spokeswoman for the bank said that estimate was comparable to the adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share.


Citigroup shares were up 14 cents to $49.74 in midday trading.


On some fronts, Corbat is making progress. Citigroup has winnowed down the assets it is looking to shed, known as Citi Holdings, to $122 billion, down 29 percent from a year earlier and down 7 percent from the second quarter. Citi Holdings now accounts for a little more than 6 percent of the bank's overall assets, compared with about 9 percent in last year's third quarter.


But results were weak at many businesses at Citicorp, the bank's main operations. Revenue for its retail banking business fell 7 percent to $9.24 billion, and revenue for its securities and banking business fell 2 percent to $4.75 billion.


Revenue at its transaction services business was $2.613 billion, about $6 million below the same quarter last year. The bank's transaction services business, long a key driver of profitability, is facing intense competition now.


The bank earned enough taxable income in the United States to use about $500 million of its deferred tax assets, which amount to tax credits and other benefits that Citigroup can only use when it earns enough money domestically. The bank had about $54 billion of deferred tax assets at the end of June, most of which relate to U.S. taxes.


(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Editing by John Wallace and Andrew Hay)



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/citigroup-adjusted-profit-hit-bond-trading-slowdown-115608478--sector.html
Similar Articles: American Horror Story   Gta V Cheats   Under the Dome   Chobani Recall   Ichiro Suzuki  
Posted by at No comments:

Italy remembers 1943 roundup of Jews amid turmoil

ROME (AP) — Italy on Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of Jews from Rome's ghetto amid turmoil over the late Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke and his Holocaust-denying final statement.


Priebke died Friday in Rome, where he was serving a life term for his role in the 1944 massacre of 335 civilians at the Ardeatine Caves outside the capital. It was one of the worst atrocities of Germany's World War II occupation of Italy.


His death unleashed a torrent of emotion because he left behind a testament in which he not only defended his actions but denied that Jews were gassed in Nazi concentration camps.


His testament has enraged Rome's Jewish community, which gathered Wednesday in Rome's main synagogue to commemorate the Oct. 16, 1943, roundup of Jews and warn of the continued dangers posed by Holocaust deniers like Priebke.


The head of Italy's Jewish communities, Renzo Gattegna, referred to Priebke in his remarks but refused, amid applause, to pronounce his name "to not profane this sacred place."


He said the Nazis were assassins of innocents.


"Their followers are assassins of memory. They will never win," he declared.


On Tuesday, a Senate committee passed a bill criminalizing such Holocaust denial — passage that was given greater impulse because of the outcry over Priebke's final testament.


The head of Rome's Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici, said the uproar over Priebke has shown the "beautiful face of Italy," given the solidarity by both civil and Catholic Church officials to deny him a church funeral.


The anniversary came during the continued debate about what to do with Priebke's remains. Plans by a fringe Catholic church to celebrate a funeral Mass for him were called off Tuesday amid clashes between Priebke's right-wing supporters and protesters.


Rome's mayor and prefect announced that negotiations were underway with Germany to take in the remains, which reportedly were spirited out of the church compound overnight and taken to a military air base.


Wednesday's commemorations began at 5:30 a.m. with the sounding of the shofar, a ram's horn trumpet, to commemorate the moment when Nazi forces began rounding up more than 1,000 Jews from Rome's ghetto and nearby neighborhoods.


The Jews spent two days in a military college before being deported by train to Auschwitz. Only 16 survived.


___


Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-remembers-1943-roundup-jews-amid-turmoil-110428039.html
Category: mariano rivera   the voice   Seaside Heights   apple   justin timberlake  
Posted by at No comments:

Scientists Figured Out a Way to Cheat Newton's Third Law


Ever since the late 17th century, it's been understood that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's Newton's Third Law of Motion. But a group of German scientists recently came up with a trick that appears to break that law, one that lets light accelerate all by itself. And it could bring us faster electronics in the process.


This is not a simple trick. It involves fiddling with the mass of photons, particles that are believed not to have a mass at all, and requires a form of negative mass, a state that scientists believe does not exist. That's the trick part. And that's also why it merely appears to break Newton's third law. All that said, it's pretty impressive.


What these German scientists basically did is create an optical diametric drive. The basic principle behind a diametric drive calls for an object with positive mass to collide with an object with negative mass causing both to accelerate forever in the same direction. In the 1990s NASA tried and failed to build one, because it would make an awesome spaceship engine. However—and that's a big however—diametric drives are difficult to build because there's no such thing as an object with negative mass, at least not one that scientists have observed.


Bear with me here. To get around these basic rules of physics and quantum mechanics, our friends the German scientists used photons to create something called effective mass. This is what a particle seems to have when it's responding to forces, and there is such a thing as negative effective mass. So the scientists sent a series of laser pulses through a two loops of fiber-optic cable—one bigger than the other—that connect at a contact point. As the pulses are traveling through the different-sized loops at slightly different times, they share photons creating an interference that gives them effective mass, some positive and some negative. In this so-called optical diametric drive, the pulses accelerate in the same direction. Cool, huh? Complicated, but cool.


Needless to say, the idea of laser pulses that accelerate continuously bears big implications for anything that uses fiber optic cables. This method could make computers, communications networks, and so forth to get faster and more powerful. Just remember that it's a highly experimental new technology; it's going to take a while before this makes your iPhone better. [Nature Physics via New Scientist]


Source: http://gizmodo.com/scientists-figured-out-a-way-to-cheat-newtons-third-la-1445922077
Category: Heartbreaker Justin Bieber   GTA Online   christina aguilera   phoebe cates   meteor shower  
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

John Boehner's Last Greedy Move


This is probably the penultimate twist in the debt limit saga, both because there isn’t much time left, and because this is John Boehner’s last real move.



House Republican leaders, not content with back-seat status, and, as always, under pressure from conservative hardliners, will attempt to rush out a bill to increase the debt limit and reopen the government tonight.


In many ways, their plan mirrors the deal Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are nearing in the Senate. The debt limit would be increased until February 7 and funding for the government extended until January 15. It differs in three ways.





Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/15/john_boehner039s_last_greedy_move_317909.html
Similar Articles: fox news   burn notice   apple stock   brandon jacobs   "i Have A Dream" Speech  
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)