6 property questions that have no answer

When we were young, we believed when we grow older, we will have the answer to most questions. As time passed by, we had more questions than answers. As former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, “There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” Sometimes we ask a question. Rather than getting an answer, we end up with more questions. Philosopher Aristotle said, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.” (Caution: This blog post is not meant for those who don’t like to think. If doing too much thinking is bad for your health, stop reading right now.)Property question 1: Who will buy a home with so many fengshui problems? Last week the media reported that Reserve Residences sold over 70 percent at its launch. Buyers snapped up 520 units at an average price of $2,460 psf. Developer Far East said 99...

SingleStore Launches MongoDB API for AI and Real-Time Analytics on JSON

May 18, 2023, SAN FRANCISCO — SingleStore, maker of a cloud-native database built for real-time applications, today announced the launch of SingleStore Kai for MongoDB, a new API for real-time analytics on JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and vector based similarity searches for MongoDB-based AI applications — without the need for any query changes or data transformations.

SingleStoreDB is a real-time distributed SQL database combining analytical and transactional workloads in one unified platform. In a new era of the ever increasing adoption of AI, making analytics real time and actionable is even more imperative. A vast majority of data accumulated in the world today is in JSON format, and MongoDB has grown to be one of the most widely adopted NoSQL databases to store and process JSON — powering a variety of use cases across martech, IoT, gaming, logistics, social media, e-commerce and content management applications.

However, document databases are not optimized for analytics, and users often experience delays or lagging query performance attempting to perform analytics on JSON data. SingleStoreDB, by contrast, is architected to power real-time analytics on transactional data, enabling users to drive ultra-fast analytics on both structured and semi-structured (JSON) datasets. The new API is MongoDB wire protocol compatible, and enables developers to power interactive applications with analytics with SingleStoreDB using the same MongoDB commands.

SingleStoreDB can effectively augment MongoDB as the analytical engine to power blazing fast analytics on collections of JSON data. More importantly, this powerful feature is available at no extra cost and is now open for public preview as part of the SingleStoreDB Cloud offering.

Some of the new capabilities of the API include:

– 100x-1,000x faster analytics. With SingleStore Kai, you can perform complex analytics on JSON data for MongoDB applications faster and more efficiently. Based on the latest performance benchmarks, SingleStoreDB was able to drive 100x faster analytical performance for most queries — with some even 1,000x faster compared to MongoDB. The SingleStore MongoDB API proxy translates the MongoDB queries into SQL statements that are executed by SingleStoreDB to drive lightning-fast analytics for your applications.

– AI/vector functionality for JSON. The new era of generative AI requires real-time analytics on all data, including JSON collections. SingleStoreDB supports vectors and fast vector similarity search using dot_product and euclidean_distance functions. And with the launch of SingleStore Kai, developers can now utilize the vector and AI capabilities on JSON collections within MongoDB — powering use cases like semantic search, image recognition, similarity matching and more.

– Simplicity and ease of use. No code changes, data transformations, schema migrations or changes to existing queries. Developers can continue to use existing MongoDB queries and don’t have to normalize or flatten data, or do extensive schema migrations to power fast analytics for their applications.

– Same MongoDB tools and drivers. By supporting the MongoDB wire protocol, SingleStore Kai allows MongoDB clients to communicate with a SingleStoreDB cluster. This means that developers who are familiar with MongoDB can easily power fast analytics on SingleStoreDB without having to learn a new set of tools or APIs — and can continue to use the same MongoDB tools, drivers, skill sets and ecosystem their customers are most familiar with.

– Easy data replication. As part of the MongoDB API offering, SingleStore is also introducing a fast and efficient replication solution (in private preview) that can easily replicate MongoDB collections into SingleStoreDB. This service is natively integrated into SingleStoreDB and leverages one of the most widely used features – SingleStore Pipelines — to drive speedy replication and real-time CDC (Change Data Capture), enabling customers to get started quickly and easily.

– Best of both worlds (NoSQL + SQL). SingleStoreDB is already MySQL wire protocol compatible. With the addition of SingleStore Kai for MongoDB, developers can essentially get the best of both worlds – the schema flexibility and simplicity of a JSON document store together with the speed, efficiency and complex analytical capabilities that only a relational SQL database can provide to power applications.

“The demand for real time analytics is undeniable and critical to today’s economy,” said Raj Verma, CEO, SingleStore. “With SingleStore Kai, we’re enabling any developer using MongoDB’s NoSQL platform to use SingleStore’s SQL analytics data platform, at orders of magnitude improved performance, without changing a line of code.”

“The reality is that MongoDB is not performant enough for powering fast analytics on JSON and joining complex JSON arrays can be both time consuming and costly,” said Yatharth Gupta, SVP Product, SingleStore. “With SingleStore Kai, developers now have a one stop shop to supercharge analytics on their MongoDB applications without having to recode or learn anything new – that’s a huge win-win.”

“This is a fantastic solution and a timely one,” said Kumaran Vijayakumar, CEO and Co-Founder, DataDock Solutions. “At DataDock, we help the world’s largest hedge funds structure products and execute trades. SingleStore helps us make exactly the right data and analytics available to our customers at the right time, in real time, and allows us to handle large volumes of data with ease.”

SingleStoreDB powers real-time data innovation for hundreds of customers including more than 100 Fortune 500, Forbes Global 2000, and Inc. 5000 brands across financial services and fintech, telecom and networking, streaming media, adtech, martech, supply chain logistics, and other verticals. Companies like 6sense, Cisco, Comcast, Dell, Disney, Heap, Hulu, LiveRamp, NBC, Siemens, SiriusXM/Pandora, Sony, Thorn, Uber, Western Digital, and others use SingleStoreDB to fuel real-time customer experience analytics and interactive dashboards.

“SingleStore has consistently demonstrated its ability to innovate and evolve,” said Carl Olofson, Analyst, IDC. “We’ve seen a growing demand in the analytic database market for leveraging a range of data, including JSON documents, together with relational tables in a single system. SingleStore Kai is an outstanding example of such leveraging, as it makes analytics on JSON fast and easy within SingleStore’s traditional SQL system.”

What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Here's what you need to know

Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, the AI research company behind ChatGPT, long before ChatGPT was released to the public. Microsoft's first involvement with OpenAI was in 2019 when Microsoft invested $1 billion, and then $2 billion in the years after. In January, Microsoft extended its partnership with OpenAI through a multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment.

Also: Microsoft embraces OpenAI's ChatGPT plugin standard

Neither company disclosed the investment value, but sources revealed it will total $10 billion over multiple years, according to Bloomberg. In return, Microsoft's Azure service will be OpenAI's exclusive cloud-computing provider, powering all OpenAI workloads across research, products, and API services.

Microsoft has also used its partnership with OpenAI to revamp its own Bing search engine and improve its browser. 

On February 7, Microsoft unveiled a new Bing search engine that runs on a next-generation OpenAI large language model, GPT-4, customized specifically for search. Bing Chat has been a success, helping Bing to exceed 100 million daily active users.

Also: ChatGPT vs. Bing Chat: Which AI chatbot should you use?

The latest partnership development was announced at Microsoft Build, where Microsoft said that Bing would become ChatGPT's default search engine. This integration will grant ChatGPT access to the web and the ability to provide citations.