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Interest in big data continues to grow in terms of both downloads of connectors to software packages and in software infrastructure to power big data, primarily in the form of NoSQL databases and Hadoop-related extensions, according to a report.

The report, released today to coincide with the Hadoop Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., comes via open-source business intelligence provider Jaspersoft. The second-quarter report measures demand for popular data sources for storing, analyzing, and visualizing big data and uses stats from the JasperForge community site.

Key findings:

VMware today announced a new open-source project called Serengeti, which enables enterprises to quickly deploy, manage, and scale Apache Hadoop in virtual and cloud environments.

VMware says it is working with the Apache Hadoop community to contribute extensions that will make Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and Hadoop MapReduce projects "virtualization-aware" to support elastic scaling and further improve Hadoop performance in virtual environments.

In case you've been living outside the big data vacuum, open source Hadoop has emerged as the de facto standard for big data processing and is packaged up in a few different distributions by … Read more

We've arrived at the last episode of The 404 Minority Report, so we have an extra long show for you today starting with a long overdue discussion about Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban of 16 ounce sugary drinks in New York. He started with banning smoking in beaches and parks, then moved onto limiting trans fat in restaurant, and now he hopes to enact large-scale portion control of any sweet drinks more than16 ounces in bodegas and street carts.

No word yet on how this will affect Big Gulps at the 100 7-11 stores opening up in the city this year, but we have questions about who will enforce the laws, how it will (or won't) change dietary habits, and whether or not Joseph will still have access to his 25.4 ounce Gatorade.… Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Alex Yoder's bio below.

We are living in "the age of big data," according to The World Economic Forum. Renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil agrees. I do too.

As the likes of Google, Facebook, Adobe Systems, and IBM embrace big data with gusto, startups are also popping up with the promise to help companies discover what one of the most valuable assets in the world can accomplish for them. No industry is untouched by big data, which is notably transforming the way social networks work today. However, the key factor … Read more

We've all had moments when we heard a mysterious shuffling in the dark. Or we got news that the in-laws were showing up unannounced. Or the Roomba finally became sentient and set out for revenge. Those moments call for a panic button.

The Panic Button Light Switch Replacement Kit from ThinkGeek will at least make you feel a little better in those moments before your Roomba sucks you into its robotic rotors of oblivion. … Read more

In 2010 Brian David Johnson became Intel Corp.'s first futurist, a time-honored title bestowed on prognosticating technology mavens dating back to the likes of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Equal parts seer and evangelist, Johnson helps map out the future of technology and then guides his company toward that destination, whether it is five years or even a decade away.

Johnson draws inspiration from science fiction but tries to ground his vision of the future in reality through speaking engagements in front of audiences most likely to be affected by Intel's technology, such as attendees of the … Read more

Big Data is in vogue, with a glut of startups and numerous large installations appearing in corporations. At CBS Interactive, we process almost one billion events a day that flow from our Web and application servers over message queues to a cluster of 80 twelve core Hadoop nodes that then feed a Teradata data warehouse.

Processing and analyzing such a large volume of data helps us ask important questions: Which pages on which properties are most profitable? Who goes where across our various sites? What types of content generates the greatest number of advertising conversions?

But here's the thing: … Read more

Eight years ago, a friend and I were researching a book we would later call "Inescapable Data - Harnessing the Power of Convergence." We were after an understanding of what kinds of new information one could produce by blending data of different types and from different sources -- GPS data, combined with RFID, combined with data from a shipping manifest could be used to track shipments in real time for example.

In the process of doing our research, we interviewed many CEOs, CIOs, and others in leadership positions to see if they were aware of the new variety … Read more