Hi All,

I strongly support Tim on this issue.  When there is an alert, a scientist
should be able to access _ALL_ of the data on the object/position of the
alert.  We have discussed this extensively, and I thought our conclusion
was that it would be a 'buyer beware' data issuance (note, I tried not to
use the word release), but we would make the intra-release data available.

Kem

> Jacek,
>
> I am not questioning the need for a data release to be a static entity -
> I have in fact argued for it, and that assumption has been explicit in
> all of our storage sizing.  The issue is rather what happens *in
> between* releases.   If we cannot have an Object table which gives us
> the state of our knowledge at a given moment, I think a number of
> science usecases will be compromised.   In particular, an observatory
> dedicated to getting information on transients out in 30 seconds should
> not then offer up only an Object table which is six months old!
>
> So, I think we need to be able to update, or a functional equivalent.
>
> Tim
>
> Jacek Becla wrote:
>> Jim,
>>
>> Thanks! I am glad I am not alone in pushing the idea
>> of read-only data =)
>>
>> What you said is exactly how I understood this problem:
>>  - released/published data is never updated
>>  - we may have some freedom in updating unreleased data
>>  - reprocessing all data is a way to 'refresh' the data,
>>    and will make old releases "fade away"
>>  - we have to use versioning to track changes for released data
>>
>> Tim:
>>
>> It sounds like we should dedicate at least one telecon to
>> these issues and better understand what the implications
>> of making published data immutable are. Do you want to wait
>> until September or we should try doing it sooner?
>> Would you be able to prepare a list of things that will
>> be "unworkable"? (Based on BaBar's experience I strongly
>> believe published data should be read only, and it looks
>> like Jim does too)
>>
>> thanks,
>> Jacek
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jim Gray wrote:
>>>  there is "science data" that is never updated (level 0 uncalibrated,
>>> level 1 calibrated/derived).  Pixels are level 0 and object catalogs
>>> are
>>> level 1.
>>>
>>> The alerts and summaries and etc are derived data products (level 2).
>>> They can be re-derived on the fly from level 0-1 data if needed. But,
>>> once "published" you should keep data so that other scientists can
>>> reproduce the results (that is one of the "rules" of science).
>>> Level 0 data are never updated. Derived data can be updated (aka-
>>> discarded  (update is equivalent to
>>> delete-insert). )
>>> Summary data is often updated (but this is often best done in
>>> versions.)
>>>
>>> The SDSS went to a version scheme (one version per year) to offer
>>> consistently processed data. (it is hard to deal with data where the
>>> meanings of variables changes over time).
>>> LSST does not have that luxury, and will have to confront this problem
>>> head on (since it is real time).
>>> My guess is that LSST will publish editions where the old data is
>>> reprocessed in the new way. The old editions will be frozen and the
>>> newly arriving data will be
>>> added to the new edition. Summary data can be versioned on a daily
>>> basis.
>>>
>>> These editions give polynomial growth in storage space (above the
>>> simple
>>> linear growth you get as time passes) -- so called "data inflation".
>>> This is all doable in a world of infinite sized disks (i.e 10TB disk
>>> drives).
>>> To repeat my song -- we do not have a space problem, we have a
>>> access-per-second problem. There is NO problem keeping all versions.
>>> In your timeframe disks are 100x their current size.
>>>
>>>
>>> Jim Gray
>>> Microsoft Research,  Suite 1690, 455 Market, SF CA 94105, tel: 415 778
>>> 8222 fax: 425 706 7329 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> http://research.Microsoft.com/~gray
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Axelrod
>>> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 5:43 AM
>>> To: Jacek Becla
>>> Cc: LSST Data Management; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> Subject: Re: [LSST-data] Re: cpu for queries
>>>
>>> Jacek,
>>>
>>> Ouch!   I had forgotten that you wanted to do this.  I'm afraid this
>>> makes more than just the alertid proposal unworkable.  The whole
>>> concept
>>> of having summary information for the object, such as a wavelet
>>> decomposition of its lightcurve or even the mean magnitude, that is
>>> updated as we go along is gone too.   Living with this would be very
>>> difficult!   What alternatives do we have?
>>>
>>> Tim
>>>
>>> Jacek Becla wrote:
>>>> Kirk, Ani
>>>>
>>>> There is one small complication with keeping the most recent alertid
>>>> for each Object: it requires updating existing rows.
>>>> It would be nice to have the design of largest tables such that each
>>>> row is written one, and kept read-only after that.
>>>> Such approach guarantees reproducibility, and make it more
>>>> manageable (easier to replicate and distribute).
>>>> Changes/updates would be done through versioning, but I'm not sure
>>>> it is worth using versioning in this case.
>>>>
>>>> Jacek
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> LSST-data mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> http://www.lsstmail.org/mailman/listinfo/lsst-data
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> LSST-data mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://www.lsstmail.org/mailman/listinfo/lsst-data
>

_______________________________________________
LSST-data mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.lsstmail.org/mailman/listinfo/lsst-data

Reply via email to