Understanding how the Y2K bug affects Big Data

It recently dawned on me that Big Data has the same problem as the y2kbug. Now, some people are probably familiar with the whole mess behind the scenes, but in case you aren't, back in 1999 the y2k bug was all the buzz. The world was going to end, people were filling their stockrooms, and everyone was discussing what would happen. I was 12 at the time and didn't really understand the significance. Someone described the two numbers used to know the current year as a two decimal slot 'thing' and that computer would jump back to 1900. I however was not worried as my dad worked for the government, and he told me there was nothing to worry about. As we transitioned into the new millennium, we all found out there was really nothing to be worried about.

Now for some technical background. For those of you who took an intro to programming, or are familiar with the original bug, this might be a bit boring, but here goes. Computers run on 1's and 0's, on or off. It takes a combination of 4 1's and 0's to represent a decimal, 8 for two decimals, etc. These things are called 'bits'. You may have heard of a 32bit processor, or a 64bit processing. At its simplest, this means the processor looks at groups of 32 or 64 bits respectively. Programming languages represent numbers inside of these groups. A basic number, an integer or 'int' takes 32 of these bits. That means, the largest an integer can be on a 32bit system is 2,147,483,647 (there's a trick where the 32^nd slot indicates negative or positive. There are, of course, other representations that go larger then 32, this is just the most convenient when programming.

Suddenly, without warning, alarm, or anyone even noticing, disaster strikes.

Let's use a 'for instance' of a programming deciding on his new project. He has to keep a record for every time the phone rings at his company. He naturally uses an 'int' and all is well. His program and the data storage works so well, it is integrated into a large component, and, in a SAAS model, more companies are added to the list. Soon, the count starts growing faster. A few years pass, the original programmer finds a new job, and time passes. Someone even notices the number getting larger, and adjusts the type in the database to handle larger numbers. Suddenly, without warning, alarm, or anyone even noticing, disaster strikes. The number becomes larger then the integer can handle. Time passes further. The database number keeps growing, but the code got stuck at the limit.

There are many ways that failure can occur. Reports can go awry, systems can crash, and data gets lost. Even the best plans around such a transition miss things in a large code base. Unlike its inferior cousin, the big data y2k bug has no fanfare. Now, if you know a software engineer that has maintained a system past the 32bit mark, make sure to congratulate them with a party worth of the new millennium.

Book Review: Changeling by Roger Zelazney

Changeling by Roger Zelazney, is a book of magic, dragons, and parallel worlds. Written in the 1980's (or 70's) it is a book attempting to outline the problem of going to far in one direction.


The book starts off detailing the fall of a magic empire. The ruling sorcerer is alluded to having taken magic to far and dealing in the black arts. From this point, it springboards into a take off the rise of a new magic, a new mechanical, and a new simpleton approach. The large question it tries to answer is if these different powers can live together, or if the strength of one can snuff out the other.


At the time of its writing, this book sends to approach the problem of technology advancing faster then it can be controlled. Of tensions between major powers, and
keeping power balanced.


In all, the book was a quick, less then four hour read. It was an interesting read, but just didn't have the depth it could have. The plot was linear and predictable. And new concepts appeared whenever the protagonist needed them. 3/5

BlueStacks Android emulation for Gaming.

Today I downloaded BlueStacks in an attempt to play an Android game with my wife.

Bluestacks 'Home' Page.

I do not have an Android device, and most of the time it isn't a problem. After a fast download and a regular MSI style install, I started the program and voila! I had a working android emulator. After starting it, I looked up the game, installed it, setup my Google account, and the game started. It was that simple.

After starting the game, there was a little bit of trouble with an app crash, and the form factor kept switching between landscape and vertical projection.  However, restarting the app after the crash and everything worked.  I also found out that this occurred on an actual android device, so it looks like the app is to blame, not the emulator.  I also checked my local system's resources and they appear to be quite reasonable.

PC Statistics while running Battle Camp inside BlueStacks

In all, I would say the emulator functions within expectations and I was even able to play the game I had intended to play. Definitely a cool thing.

Post Mortem: BlueStacks started requiring games to be installed or a $2 charge. Reminiscent of an old 'freeware' license, a new sour taste has definitely arisen.

Popular Robots or Artificial Intelligences of SciFi Television

There are four stereo-typed 'robot' styles seen in the greater universes of  SciFi. Some of these are more endearing to us, with 'winning personalities', human characteristics, and almost always, a mind of their own. Many of these Artificial Intelligences share similar features, and, aside from looks, are even built closely.

Multi-presence
Commonly represented as a ships computer, the multi-presence is everywhere within a limited space. HAL 9000, Star Trek's Ship's Computer, or Extant's B.E.N. all easily fall into this category. The multi-presence is often portrayed as cold, calculating, possibly sentient but never truly emotional. In the Star Trek computer, there is never truly a point where the machine moves out of being a voice recognition algorithm - it may get 'hacked' and appear that way but it never truly happens. For others, there is often an underlining angst associated with a multi-presence. The computer has some alternative internal directive that provides the angst and makes the machine seem inexplicable and capable of things it should not be. This angst, and the desire and possibility to actually have a multi-presence drive the popularity of these Artificial Intelligence systems.

Android
The Android, a human representative machine, is by far most widely recognized by the character Data from Star Trek. Often appearing nearly human, Android's come close to being fully human representative, even down to the point of emotions.  Often, emotions are a point of struggle for an android, expressing them, understanding them, and just plain knowing what to do with them. Other examples of Android include: The Android from Dark Matter, Ethan Woods from Extant, C-3PO from Star Wars, David in Prometheus, Bicentennial Man, A.I, the Terminator, and even Judy Cooper from K.C. Undercover. Androids can be extremely relate-able, and are often cast as quirky. An alternate portrayal is also common in the cold and distant android, such as in iRobot.

Drone
There are not nearly as many examples of drone's in popular SciFi. Aside from the Replicator's, these drone types are not usually seen. Extremely difficult to portray as emotional or even intelligent, drones just do not make a good splash on the big screen.

Non-Humanoid
Non-Humanoid robots are probably the most popular of the lot. Throw a plastic container and toilet paper rolls together, add some sound effects and voilà, a robot prop is born. Because of the ease of creation, and the easier audience identification, we see these all over the place.  However, there are some of these that draw a distinction of their own, the Sentient Non-humanoid robot. R2-D2 from Star Wars, The Robot from Lost In Space, are just two of the sentient forms of these robots.  Often extremely quirky, the lack of human physique can make them more difficult to relate to and humor is often a mechanism to draw the viewer into the character.

Game Review: TimeShift by Sierra

Plot summary: there are two time travel suits in existence. The nefarious villain has stolen one and will rewrite history in his name. The other? Well, that's you. Go save the day, and the girl.

Alright so it's maybe a bit cliché, but whatever, time travel in a video game is cool, right? Not if you cannot get past the main menu. The default settings for the mouse were so horrible that I could hardly navigate the menu system.  In game was responsive and visually stimulating, but I just could not bring myself to learning the weird controls when the main menu system was so horrid.  I exited the game and will not be playing it again.
2 stars - Well, it looks cool...

Introductory Post

In various times in my life people have come to me and asked, "so, do you have a blog?"  I have never been able to give a satisfactory answer until now. Yes, I now have a blog.

Based largely on personal experience, and general ramblings, this blog will likely include technical posts alongside political discussions and all influenced by my deep seated faith in Christ. As a Christian Citizen of America, I intend to exercise my first amendment rights.

Now not all posts are a firebrand lightning rod of text, no. Anything technical, specifically related to software development will have no need of such things.  Social issues and my opinions on things, however, are open season.

This post will hopefully soon be buried as it descends into the forgotten area of the first post.  Until that time - or someone pulls a lazarus... Thank-you and good night.