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Microsoft Research team shatters data sorting record, wrenches trophy from Yahoo
Bruise inducing high-fives, anyone? They're handing them out in Redmond, according to one mildly injured researcher, after breaking a data sorting record Yahoo set in 2009. The ruckus surrounds a benchmark called MinuteSort, which measures how much data can be sorted in 60 seconds. Microsoft's Distributed Systems group utilized a new file system architecture, dubbed Flat Datacenter Storage, over a full bisection bandwidth network to burn through the competition. Not only did the nine-person crew best the old record nearly by a factor of three, it gave itself a handicap -- sorting 1,401 GB of data at 2 GB/s over a remote file system, forcing the system to crunch data at a slower speed than the technique is capable of. It's not all about bragging rights, however, Bing has its eye on the newfangled file system in hopes of boosting its RPM. Microsoft suspects the tech could also pick up the pace of machine learning and churn through large data sets in a jiffy. You can catch Microsoft Research's detailed explanation in all its glory at the source. Update: Commenter Mark Streich points out that while 2 GB/s may sound fast, it's certainly not speedy enough to sort 1,401 gigabytes in a single minute. To achieve that performance, simultaneous input and output speeds could hit 2GB/s on each computer used.
PoxNora gets a major update
Better a little late than never, when you get down to it. PoxNora's large-scale update was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, February 24th, but it wound up being a few days late. But it's all good, because the update has gone live today, not even a week behind schedule. Even if you can't help but be miffed at the delay in the update, you can probably be happy with the scope of the update, not to mention the Heirs to Legend midterm expansion going live at the same time. So what's changed? Major interface changes have been made, including large-scale improvements to the UI as well as a greatly improved Rune Manager. With improved sorting functionality in the manager and a new rune dock in the UI, it should be much easier to enjoy playing on the game's twenty new or revised maps, as well as working your way through a streamlined and improved leveling process. The game has also made attack and defense values more straightforward, while improving the tutorial to help guide players into the game. As a free-to-play game, if the scope of the updates in PoxNora sounds interesting, head on over and take a look at this unique offering.
Mac 101: Finder filename sorting
The neat-freaks among us (myself included) enjoy keeping things in their particular place and order. When making a folder of files, sometimes I want items to fall outside their alphabetical order -- for instance, often I like to have a special folder that's always at the top of a list. The easiest way to do that is to name your folders with a symbol as the first letter in the file or folder name: like a space, an underscore ( _ ), or a tilde ( ~ ). Mac OS X determines the order of these special characters using your language settings in the International pane in System Preferences. The names of files and folders in Mac OS X can use almost any character out of thousands of Unicode characters, which include symbols, arrows, and icons as well. There are only two characters you can't use: one is the colon (because it's used by the system). You also can't usually use periods (or full stops) as the first character in a file name (because they're reserved for hidden files). Also, as far as Mac OS X is concerned, the folder name "AARON" is the same as the folder name "Aaron" (or "aaron" for that matter): this is called case insensitivity. Mac OS X filenames are considered case insensitive. After the jump, a list of 112 common, easy-to-type characters, and how they're sorted by Mac OS X for English.
iTunes Tip: sort by Album is smarter than you think
The most useful tips are sometimes the easiest to pull off, and this one from ryerye at Mac OS X Hints definitely falls into that camp. It turns out that iTunes' Album column can also sort with "Album by Artist" and "Album by Year." That second option is especially nice, since it's actually a 'Sort by Artist by Album Year.' All you need to do is keep clicking on the Album column to get whichever option you prefer; no extra modifier keys and no obscure tricks, though no documentation either, as far as I can tell.
