Database is a pretty broad term these days. Doesn't this depend on the database we're talking about?
Something like Big Table is pretty good at storing small blobs. It's also pretty good at scaling, so you should never really have to delete "usage statistics, metrics, GPS locations, session data" or anything really.
Regarding logs, I completely agree. Something like tornado + scribe + s3 works quite well. (check out https://github.com/gregbayer/logcatcher) But then EMR + Scribe can be used to access it like a db.
Agreed that rss is no longer the only source for what I read. But the concept of feeds lives on. Friends' blogs, techmeme, hn, twitter, facebook, and personalization services can all be consumed as feeds. What has passed is the ability to consume all information available. We are all faced with increasing information overload and must seek out tools and techniques to help filter down and consume information more effectively.
As an example, some news readers offer curated top stories, as well as twitter, hackernews, reddit and facebook feeds in a single interface which is designed for easy visual scanning and efficient consumption. By customizing a news aggregator that offers more than just traditional rss feeds, it is relatively easy to stay on top of a manageable stream of information. Disclosure: I'm a developer at Pulse. http://pulsene.ws
Great experience: money for expenses, office space, and excellent mentorship. Like most incubators, a big part of the value add also comes from the other teams you'll work along side.
Something like Big Table is pretty good at storing small blobs. It's also pretty good at scaling, so you should never really have to delete "usage statistics, metrics, GPS locations, session data" or anything really.
Regarding logs, I completely agree. Something like tornado + scribe + s3 works quite well. (check out https://github.com/gregbayer/logcatcher) But then EMR + Scribe can be used to access it like a db.