How NOT to optimize a database!
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
From the article, "We could not foresee that e-tickets would ever reach 1,000. This number was beyond all our estimates when the software was created. Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug and starting behaving abnormally. ....." :doh: :doh: :doh: When was the software created? In 666. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
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From the article, "We could not foresee that e-tickets would ever reach 1,000. This number was beyond all our estimates when the software was created. Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug and starting behaving abnormally. ....." :doh: :doh: :doh: When was the software created? In 666. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
In India, online shopping is still limited to a minority of upper-middle and upper-class folks. Recently though the masses have started using credit cards online, so that is a factor although the whole thing is still rather stupid.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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This was probably some "smart" kid fresh with his 31337 coding skills who wanted to do some fancy "optimizations".
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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This was probably some "smart" kid fresh with his 31337 coding skills who wanted to do some fancy "optimizations".
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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From the article, "We could not foresee that e-tickets would ever reach 1,000. This number was beyond all our estimates when the software was created. Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug and starting behaving abnormally. ....." :doh: :doh: :doh: When was the software created? In 666. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
Chris Meech wrote:
Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug
No, the bug was already there, guys.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
Well it was not by accident that I posted it here and not the GIT. ;)
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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Chris Maunder wrote:
I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
Well it was not by accident that I posted it here and not the GIT. ;)
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
:-D
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
The sad thing is that it is one column in a 300 pages specification. The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes. The programmer usually does, but the programmer is part of the chain. Every programmer is confronted to this problem at times. Do I raise the issue? If you raise the issue it will waste a few hours and you might end up finishing your development late. Also If you raise issues a bit too often you're quickly categorized as annoying git who can't follow orders. This is not the best way to progress in a company. I am not sure if this is true in India but this is true in the countries I worked in. If you shut up and follow orders, you won't get blamed and if you're on time you'll perhaps be promoted. The blame goes on the guy who did the specs despite the fact that the programmer is the best person to notice and fix the issue. To me this is the waterfall drama.
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The sad thing is that it is one column in a 300 pages specification. The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes. The programmer usually does, but the programmer is part of the chain. Every programmer is confronted to this problem at times. Do I raise the issue? If you raise the issue it will waste a few hours and you might end up finishing your development late. Also If you raise issues a bit too often you're quickly categorized as annoying git who can't follow orders. This is not the best way to progress in a company. I am not sure if this is true in India but this is true in the countries I worked in. If you shut up and follow orders, you won't get blamed and if you're on time you'll perhaps be promoted. The blame goes on the guy who did the specs despite the fact that the programmer is the best person to notice and fix the issue. To me this is the waterfall drama.
Pascal Ganaye wrote:
The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes
Ahem. 65,536 values.
Somebody in an online forum wrote:
INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.
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The sad thing is that it is one column in a 300 pages specification. The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes. The programmer usually does, but the programmer is part of the chain. Every programmer is confronted to this problem at times. Do I raise the issue? If you raise the issue it will waste a few hours and you might end up finishing your development late. Also If you raise issues a bit too often you're quickly categorized as annoying git who can't follow orders. This is not the best way to progress in a company. I am not sure if this is true in India but this is true in the countries I worked in. If you shut up and follow orders, you won't get blamed and if you're on time you'll perhaps be promoted. The blame goes on the guy who did the specs despite the fact that the programmer is the best person to notice and fix the issue. To me this is the waterfall drama.
Interesting points!
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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Pascal Ganaye wrote:
The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes
Ahem. 65,536 values.
Somebody in an online forum wrote:
INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.
He probably kept aside the sign bit to specify gender. :-D
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/news/30313183_1_diwali-rush-western-railway-berths[^] TLDR : The IT company that designed the online reservation system for India's western railways used a 3-character field storing numbers to hold the reservation token (001 to 999) on a per-train basis. This limit was never ever hit until last week when (due to Diwali, an Indian festival) enough people made online bookings that the database crashed and with it the reservation system. Funny side-bit : 3 characters (even non-Unicode) is still larger than a short int (memory wise). So whoever did this pseudo-optimization was terribly ignorant.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Part 2 in my WinRT/C++ series : Visual C++ and WinRT/Metro - Databinding Basics
From the US, I think the response would be they can fit 999 people on a train? :-D On the other side of the situation. The guy in charge of the India unique ID project gave a talk at the foundation where I work. That is a mind boggling huge project, and seem to be doing good planning to prevent these kinds of issues.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
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I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Oh, you have no idea. I dare not post a single story about the outside "help" we have right now.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak -
I'm sure lots of members are biting their tongues on this one.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Whistles tunelessly and saunters slowly away.................
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Chris Meech wrote:
Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug
No, the bug was already there, guys.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Unless they created true Artificial Intelligence... Or is that called Virtual Intelligence? :D
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{}
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From the article, "We could not foresee that e-tickets would ever reach 1,000. This number was beyond all our estimates when the software was created. Today, the moment 999 was breached, the program developed a bug and starting behaving abnormally. ....." :doh: :doh: :doh: When was the software created? In 666. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
There are cases where the opposite is also true... A table that will probably never get beyond a couple of 100's of records, but has a bigint as key :rolleyes:
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{}
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The sad thing is that it is one column in a 300 pages specification. The guy who do the specifications often do not have the technical expertise to know that a 16 bit integer can store 32000 values in 2 bytes. The programmer usually does, but the programmer is part of the chain. Every programmer is confronted to this problem at times. Do I raise the issue? If you raise the issue it will waste a few hours and you might end up finishing your development late. Also If you raise issues a bit too often you're quickly categorized as annoying git who can't follow orders. This is not the best way to progress in a company. I am not sure if this is true in India but this is true in the countries I worked in. If you shut up and follow orders, you won't get blamed and if you're on time you'll perhaps be promoted. The blame goes on the guy who did the specs despite the fact that the programmer is the best person to notice and fix the issue. To me this is the waterfall drama.
That is exactly how our database recently got some tables with ten columns of which seven were primary key (among which a varchar(50)). The tables were closely connected, but no foreign key was made anywhere. EVERY table (out of approximately 10) had the same redundant data stored along some other data unique to that table. All in all a true DB horror. The guy who made it is supposed to be our 'new' SQL expert, but simply followed the specs... :(( Luckily another programmer noticed and raised the issue to me. That's when I did not only raise the issue, but I raised hell as well! :-O Needless to say, the tables are being re-designed :-\
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{}
