BE NORMAL
Software design goes hand in hand with data management, even for fun apps and
games. Multiplayer games like
Fortnite
,
League of Legends
, and
World of Warcraft
need
to store information covering the following:
»
»
each player’s login dates and times
»
»
changes in character level, ability, health, and resources over time
»
»
details of current and past alliances
»
»
the start point, end point, path, and duration of every movement
»
»
the location and duration of every interaction with another character
or object
Fortnite
had 125 million players in 2018, which translates to a lot of data. Basic data
management tools, such as spreadsheets, don’t have the speed or capacity to handle
that much data. When developers set up databases incorrectly, their programs become
painfully slow or take up too much storage space.
Blacklists Gone Bad
Some websites are traps to lure visitors into installing malware that steals
their personal information, floods them with unwanted pop-up ads, or
lets hackers access their computer. To protect people, Google works with
StopBadware to maintain a blacklist of dangerous sites. When a person visits
one of those risky sites, Google displays the message “This site may harm
your computer.”
For that warning to be useful, Google and StopBadware need accurate
data about which sites pose a risk. With over 1.8 billion websites in
the world, this daunting task requires constant updates to the database
of blacklisted sites. In 2009 a Google employee accidentally added
the “/” symbol to the list of dangerous sites. Since almost every website
in the world includes that symbol, Google essentially flagged the entire
internet as unsafe for the 40 minutes it took to figure out what had
gone wrong.
Managing and Manipulating Data
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