tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773875.post112966888796216852..comments2023-11-06T01:56:43.668+14:00Comments on Sandcastles and Cubicles: Why Amazon should hire me.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773875.post-1129761931165724542005-10-20T12:45:00.000+14:002005-10-20T12:45:00.000+14:00"A decentralized search application as you propose..."A decentralized search application as you propose would actually require more hardware, not less as the database query requirements are the same but with you method you would also have to support multiple connections to your database."<BR/><BR/>Another way of explaining it would to run your queries though a mid teir service which would handle and manage connections.<BR/><BR/>In a non-web world it would be a COM object.Man of Issacharhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01286646646103516828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773875.post-1129761754009648272005-10-20T12:42:00.000+14:002005-10-20T12:42:00.000+14:00"Amazon Alerts for books has been around for a lon..."Amazon Alerts for books has been around for a long time. I have had one on Orson Scott Card for ages."<BR/><BR/>I guess I have the name wrong, I saw a service that was in beta that you could follow specific artists, i could not find that functionality again, so i don't know if they took it down or not. Though i did find the alerts which performed the function i thought the other service did.<BR/><BR/>"A decentralized search application as you propose would actually require more hardware, not less as the database query requirements are the same but with you method you would also have to support multiple connections to your database."<BR/><BR/>I disagree. Uou would be running the queries though an SOAP object (or some other webservice), which would be central location for all connections on Amazon's side. So you would not have any more connections. You could actualy only have one connection for each database you are quering (one for books, one for cd's, etc)<BR/><BR/>Secondly, the number of quereis drops drastically when you move out of a centralized system. That is the main method which lowers you hardware costs.<BR/><BR/>Think about it. In a centralized system you would have to perform the alert query eveything a item (book, cd, etc) is added OR set up the alert on a timer to be ran regular - regardless of if the user cares or if they are online, etc.<BR/><BR/>You can lower the costs of the queries in the second case by running them less, but that could make the alerts less timly and theirfore useless to the user.<BR/><BR/>By moving to a decentralized system you could lower the number of queries against your server to a manageable number.<BR/><BR/>Another option, which i have very little experence with is notification serverices, but can you set up a subscription on data that is not there yet (or rather a set of data).Man of Issacharhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01286646646103516828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773875.post-1129756900586342382005-10-20T11:21:00.000+14:002005-10-20T11:21:00.000+14:00Amazon Alerts for books has been around for a long...Amazon Alerts for books has been around for a long time. I have had one on Orson Scott Card for ages.<BR/><BR/>A decentralized search application as you propose would actually require more hardware, not less as the database query requirements are the same but with you method you would also have to support multiple connections to your database.Dave Justushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04139807963654242625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773875.post-1129672774955123252005-10-19T11:59:00.000+14:002005-10-19T11:59:00.000+14:00Oppss I had thought of that but I forgot to add it...Oppss I had thought of that but I forgot to add it. Add that to the list of cons about the personal service download.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Though there are some people (I have no idea on the percentage break downs, it really depends on the sophification of the user) that will download anything to their computer.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Of course If I was Amazon, i would probably do both, and see which one wins.Man of Issacharhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01286646646103516828noreply@blogger.com