Episode 20: Query Languages

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News

• SmoothLife - Floating point game of life
• http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.1567v2.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJe9H6qS82I
• Twitter open sources mobile A/B testing
• http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/11/twitter-open-sources-clutch-io-the-mobile-ab-testing-service-it-recently-acquired/
• Cheating on Coursera
• http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/08/20/coursera_plagiarism_why_would_students_cheat_in_a_free_online_class_that_doesn_t_over_academic_credit_.html

Tool of the Biweek

• Jason:  Pixen http://www.pixen.com
• Patrick: DownCast http://www.downcastapp.com/

Query Languages

History

• SQL
• Used to query databases
• SPARQL
• Used to query semantic webs

Features

• Can be interfaced from multiple different systems
• Can be Transactional

Strengths

• Designed to handle large amount of data efficiently

Weaknesses

• Relational vs Non Relational
• Maintenance Costs

Tools

• SQL Database Engines
• SQLite, Mysql, postgresql
• NoSQL query languages
• HiveQL, CassandraQL
• SPARQL Engines
• SPARQL Engine (Java)

Uses

• Web Projects
• wordpress, django, phpbb
• Semantic Web Analysis
• dbpedia (semantic web version of wikipedia)