Topics /

Databases & Data

The most popular blog posts about databases & data on Hacker News. 97 posts.

2014
1

Visualizing Algorithms

Algorithms are a fascinating use case for visualization. To visualize an algorithm, we don’t merely fit data to a chart; there is no primary dataset. Instead there are logical rules that describe behavior. This may be why algorithm visualizations are so unusual, as designers experiment with novel forms to better…

6

PostgreSQL: Jsonb has committed

Great news: PostgreSQL introduced jsonb support, which is real data type with binary storage and indexing ! This work is a confluence of two projects - our hstore and json, which were existed in PostgreSQL for years in somewhat incomplete forms - hstore (10 years old!) implements key-value storage…

11

Why xkcd-style graphs are important

For most data scientists, a toolkit like scipy/matplotlib or R becomes so familiar that it becomes almost an extension of their own mind. When fleshing out an idea, we will just open up ipython, write a few lines of code, and display the plot on the screen to get …

15

Reverse-Engineering Xkcd's 'Frequency'

About a week ago, Randall Munroe published Frequency , the 1331st entry in his xkcd webcomic series. Unlike most xkcd comics, it's animated — actually, 5-by-10 grid of animated GIFs. Each describes a scenario (e.g., "one birth," or "someone locks their keys in their care") and blinks at the scenario's purported…

18

Call me maybe: RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ is a distributed message queue, and is probably the most popular open-source implementation of the AMQP messaging protocol. It supports a wealth of durability, routing, and fanout strategies, and combines excellent documentation with well-designed protocol extensions. I’d like to set all these wonderful…

27

Call me maybe: etcd and Consul

In the previous post, we discovered the potential for data loss in RabbitMQ clusters . In this oft-requested installation of the Jepsen series, we’ll look at etcd : a new contender in the CP coordination service arena. We’ll also discuss Consul ’s findings with Jepsen.