Michael Cutler's personal websiteMichael Cutler's personal website

The problem with Big Data is not the Data

Michael Cutler — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:03:24 +0000

There is a seemingly irrational obsession about how BIG your Big Data has to be before a magical unicorn appears and delivers the answers your business needs. Not a day goes by where I don’t see some swanky infographic reminding me that Facebook collects several Yottabytes of data every day. Ok, so I may have embellished that a little but you get the idea. The key thing is that the ‘size’ of the Read More...

The post The problem with Big Data is not the Data appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Integrated Systems & Virtualization for Midsize Business – IBM #expertsyschat

Michael Cutler — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:24:45 +0000

Earlier today @IBMPureSystems held a #ExpertSysChat discussion on Twitter; they run these periodically about a variety of issues surrounding Cloud & Virtualization adoption. Obviously they have a product in this area but the discussions tend to be interesting. Generally they get an independent expert to chair the discussion and propose questions, a selection of IBM staff are on-hand to answer questions and stimulate the debate. Today Paul Gillin (@pgillin) chaired the discussion, Read More...

The post Integrated Systems & Virtualization for Midsize Business – IBM #expertsyschat appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Is Google infringing on my patent?

Michael Cutler — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:04:04 +0000

Firstly I should qualify post by saying I’m not a “patent troll” nor do I agree with the mess that is “software patents” in the US. However in my previous life I worked in R&D at British Sky Broadcasting and part of my job was to create Intellectual Property that Sky could turn into new products and services. Summary On the left is a drawing from UK Patent Application GB2455331 created during Read More...

The post Is Google infringing on my patent? appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Social Picture Sharing: Instagram nears 60% market share

Michael Cutler — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:14:37 +0000

Highlights Instagram‘s massive surge in April is likely due to; release of their Android app publicity around the Facebook aquisition Twitpic, Yfrog, Lockerz were already in decline before Instgram’s surge and are flattening out Pinterest (very slowly) increased its share from 1% to 2% for the year to date Background The Twitter ”spritzer” stream – a random sample approximately 1% of the full firehose – is freely available and I have been Read More...

The post Social Picture Sharing: Instagram nears 60% market share appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Winning with Big Data – IBM Research

Michael Cutler — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 20:28:15 +0000

Earlier today (10th August 2012) IBM Research (@IBMResearch) ran a webinar titled “Box Office to Front Office – Winning with Big Data in Sports & Entertainment“. It was split in two halves, one Entertainment focused and one more Sports focused. I tuned in primarily for; Todd Yellin, VP of Product Innovation, Netflix Ray Elias, CMO, StubHub You might be able to see replay of the video on the livestream.com page. Read More...

The post Winning with Big Data – IBM Research appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

It’s not how big your data is, it’s how you use it!

Michael Cutler — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:06:41 +0000

Over the past couple of months I have met and talked to a lot of new and interesting people. Everywhere I go I encounter the same questions about Big Data, it’s like some sort of mass hysteria around what on the face of it is a simple concept “volumes of data”. Example questions; “How much data is Big Data?” “I’m using NoSQL, is that Big Data?” “How many servers do Read More...

The post It’s not how big your data is, it’s how you use it! appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Installing CentOS packages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Michael Cutler — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:57:35 +0000

At the weekend I got into a discussion with Andy Stanford-Clark and Richard Appleby on Twitter troubleshooting basic application installation in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (like Pidgin). Not finding a solution later began to plague me, I grabbed a copy of RHEL and installed it on a Virtual Machine to solve the problem. If you’re interested in the history of the Red Hat-based distributions, please see my other article. Are you registered to the Red Hat Read More...

The post Installing CentOS packages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

A brief history of Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS

Michael Cutler — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:37:52 +0000

The Linux ecosystem can be confusing because of the shear amount of choice available. I’ve always been a Red Hat guy and have spent a significant amount of my life staring at it’s installer. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used just about every other distribution out there as well as create my own one. This article just clarifies where Red Hat came from and introduces Fedora & CentOS. What Read More...

The post A brief history of Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Reasons why QR Codes aren’t dead!

Michael Cutler — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:57:16 +0000

I’ve always been a big advocate of QR codes – provided they’re used correctly and not stamped on all sorts of stuff for the sake of it. I think they can be an amazingly powerful way of communicating information in a simple cross-platform way. A couple of months back Forbes asked Are QR Codes Dead? and were thin on examples of their success. What’s a QR Code? A Quick Response Read More...

The post Reasons why QR Codes aren’t dead! appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Hadoop: Processing ZIP files in Map/Reduce

Michael Cutler — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 21:48:36 +0000

Due to popular request, I’ve updated my simple framework for processing ZIP files in Hadoop Map/Reduce jobs. Previously the only easy solution was to unzip files locally and then upload them to the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) for processing. This adds a lot of unnecessary complexity when you are dealing with thousands of ZIP files; Java already has a ZipInputStream - it should be a lot easier. Map/Reduce Background When you Read More...

The post Hadoop: Processing ZIP files in Map/Reduce appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

What Netflix knows about you and why it’s a lesson to others…

Michael Cutler — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:47:30 +0000

There has been recent a flurry of articles about Netflix and how they are analysing user behaviour and habits to enhance the recommendations they make. Last week Mohammed Sabah (Senior Data Scientist @ Netflix) presented at Hadoop Summit in San Jose describing some of the ways they do this and the impact of making good recommendations – measurable customer satisfaction. The underlying principle is beautifully simple – capture data about ‘What’ you offer Read More...

The post What Netflix knows about you and why it’s a lesson to others… appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt about Cloud

Michael Cutler — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 21:06:26 +0000

Since the rise of the Cloud phenomenon there has always been grumbles about the security of data stored within it and data accessible over Cloud-based solutions. Naturally big-name vendors have capitalised upon this fear, uncertainty and doubt by portraying Cloud as being powered by cheap-and-nasty server hardware prone to failure, and managed by spotty teenagers or cowboys. It’s not difficult to understand why, these massive multinational corporations have largely made their businesses through expensive Read More...

The post Fear, uncertainty and doubt about Cloud appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Where are we on the Big Data hype cycle?

Michael Cutler — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:49:20 +0000

At the moment it seems that every other day brings announcements of a new ”Big Data” start-up, partnership, conference, report etc. Just about every man and his dog have made some form of press release related to “Big Data” recently. Every week I stumble across some “Big Data” relevant conference or event that I’ve just missed out on. If you’re not familiar with the term Hype cycle – in a nutshell it Read More...

The post Where are we on the Big Data hype cycle? appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Reaction to: Raspberry Pi impressions: the $35 Linux computer and tinker toy (Engadget)

Michael Cutler — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:23:32 +0000

This Engadget article by Terrence O’Brien (@TerrenceOBrien) is a little underwhelming. It has all the writing style and voice I’m accustomed to reading on Engadget – where they’re normally dissecting the latest shiny piece of hardware from Apple, Samsung etc. However the Raspberry Pi was never intended for iPhone-totting news editors; its original purpose was to make learning about computers and programming fun, accessible and inexpensive for Schools and Hobbyists. Read More...

The post Reaction to: Raspberry Pi impressions: the $35 Linux computer and tinker toy (Engadget) appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.

Surviving the 1st Global Data Science Hackathon

Michael Cutler — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:22:59 +0000

If you haven’t heard already, this week is BigDataWeek – a coordinated set of community events around the globe to bring like-minded Data Geeks together. One of the most exciting developments is the announcement of the 1st Global Data Science Hackathon. Starting on Saturday and running for 24 hours competitors around the global will be vying to better predict the Air Quality Index in Cook County, Illinois, USA. If you haven’t already signed up its not too-late, you can Read More...

The post Surviving the 1st Global Data Science Hackathon appeared first on Michael Cutler's personal website.