Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Done, enough for today, I was here at 7am & now I'm ready for afternoon nap. I can't believe how badly my stamina is failing.

Luton tonight? Don't be silly, that's be utterly ridiculous in this weather, & with my dodgy eye. No chance.

Don't you seize up in this weather at your age Sir?

No, because I'm lean, not plump, OK Welsh-boy?

[tikay]

Read these numbers & try tio visualise them as real numbers - it's not easy.

Lex, in today's FT, was commenting upon "google books", an exercise of mind-blowingly immense proportions.

(Cliffs? google decided to scan every word, of every page, of every chapter, of every book ever published. Think on that, if you can).

"since then, google has scanned more than 15 million books, from more than 40 libraries, (we are talking "proper" Libraries here, Uni's, specialist, etc), & 35,000 publishers."

".....google books Manager said.....

We've learn't the hard way that when you are dealing with a trillion metadata fields, one-in-a-million errors happen a million times over". 

[Royal Flush]

We've learn't the hard way that when you are dealing with a trillion metadata fields, one-in-a-million errors happen a million times over".  [/i]

!

[tikay]

We've learn't the hard way that when you are dealing with a trillion metadata fields, one-in-a-million errors happen a million times over".  [/i]

!

If only I knew what a metadata was, or how big it was.

Would it fit in, say, a wheelbarrow? That's how I assess size. Wheelbarrows, cricket pitches (22 yards), furlongs, (220 yards), or Wembley Stadium (100,000).

It was easier when we had feet & inches, lbs, stones & cwts.

[Bongo]

metadata is data about data.

[kinboshi]

We've learn't the hard way that when you are dealing with a trillion metadata fields, one-in-a-million errors happen a million times over".  [/i]

!

If only I knew what a metadata was, or how big it was.

Would it fit in, say, a wheelbarrow? That's how I assess size. Wheelbarrows, cricket pitches (22 yards), furlongs, (220 yards), or Wembley Stadium (100,000).

It was easier when we had feet & inches, lbs, stones & cwts.

Metadata is simply 'data about data'.  For example, you could tag your record collection by genre, artist, year, country (all of these would be metadata), so all your xmas records could be tagged as one category, your hip-hop stuff in another, and your karaoke classics in another. 

The Dewey library classification system is probably a good example of 'metadata' from when you were middle-aged.

[tikay]

So, "a trillion metadata fields" is one trillion different "subjects", or categories?

Next question.

When I was a little boy, a billion was a billion. That is, one thousand million.

Now, a billion seems to obey the rule of two (as in "bi") extra noughts. So 100 million. And therefore, presumably, a trillion is (tri) three extra noughts.

But the USA do it differently to the civilised intelligent world.

So, in England, what is a billion & a trillion? Do we even have a trillion in the UK?

[Hawk]

So, "a trillion metadata fields" is one trillion different "subjects", or categories?

Next question.

When I was a little boy, a billion was a billion. That is, one thousand million.

Now, a billion seems to obey the rule of two (as in "bi") extra noughts. So 100 million. And therefore, presumably, a trillion is (tri) three extra noughts.

But the USA do it differently to the civilised intelligent world.

So, in England, what is a billion & a trillion? Do we even have a trillion in the UK?

Only if we include your age

[Bongo]

I thought an American billion was 1000 million and an old school billion was a million million. Never heard of it as 100 million before. I guess the bi bit came in as it's 2 millions and that whoosed the yanks who made it 1000 million.

I'd guess the trillion fields in this case is the total number of metadata they have stored, but I could be wrong... The thought of a trillion subjects is pretty mind blowing to me but then this is google we're talking about and they are just crazy enough to do it.

[kinboshi]

So, "a trillion metadata fields" is one trillion different "subjects", or categories?

No.  They'll have hundreds/thousands of different ways of tagging each record.  So each chapter/page of each book needs to be tagged - maybe in lots of different ways.  Billions of records = trillions of 'tags'.

Next question.

When I was a little boy, a billion was a billion. That is, one thousand million.

It was probably a million million.

Now, a billion seems to obey the rule of two (as in "bi") extra noughts. So 100 million. And therefore, presumably, a trillion is (tri) three extra noughts.

A billion is 1000,000,000 in the US (and all the world now)

But the USA do it differently to the civilised intelligent world.

So, in England, what is a billion & a trillion? Do we even have a trillion in the UK?

We do it like the Yanks now.

1,000,000,000 = billion
1,000,000,000,000 = trillion

[doubleup]

So, in England, what is a billion & a trillion? Do we even have a trillion in the UK?

don't know about england specifically but the uk govt's billion is a thousand million (if it isn't someones going to have to explain why we are cutting everything when govt borrowing is neglible)

[tikay]

I thought an American billion was 1000 million and an old school billion was a million million. Never heard of it as 100 million before. I guess the bi bit came in as it's 2 millions and that whoosed the yanks who made it 1000 million.

I'd guess the trillion fields in this case is the total number of metadata they have stored, but I could be wrong... The thought of a trillion subjects is pretty mind blowing to me but then this is google we're talking about and they are just crazy enough to do it.

You may be right, I get confused.

People should not mess with numbers. Once a system is invented & named, it should be left alone.

I know exactly what the value of 17/-6d is, but 87.5p sucks. 12st 7lbs gives me something I can imagine, 292kg may as well be a bird or a bus, it's meaningless to me. I'm told they even measure people's height in mm these days. It's ridic. I know what a 5'-10" man looks like, but 2.93metres tall means nothing.

[gatso]

but 2.93metres tall means nothing.

boldie is 2.93 metres tall. the average male adult is about double that

[Jon MW]

Read these numbers & try tio visualise them as real numbers - it's not easy.

Lex, in today's FT, was commenting upon "google books", an exercise of mind-blowingly immense proportions.

(Cliffs? google decided to scan every word, of every page, of every chapter, of every book ever published. Think on that, if you can).

"since then, google has scanned more than 15 million books, from more than 40 libraries, (we are talking "proper" Libraries here, Uni's, specialist, etc), & 35,000 publishers."

".....google books Manager said.....

We've learn't the hard way that when you are dealing with a trillion metadata fields, one-in-a-million errors happen a million times over". 

Although the numbers aren't as hard to visualise, an interesting point about the scale of the task comes from an article I saw about a new search tool google and Harvard have developed for these books.

The Ngram viewer allows you to search through 5 million books published between 1800 and 2008 for words and phrases - that's about 4% of all books ever published; Google have got through 15 million - but they've got quite a way to go.

[boldie]

but 2.93metres tall means nothing.

boldie is 2.93 metres tall. the average male adult is about double that

Very much this. Also weigh approx 150 Kg these days...Thankfully I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and I watch what I eat or my weight would just balloon.