2008/10/11 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
(maybe a bit clearer comparison if you note that a shopkeeper can make 2 deposits a day because of the fast lines. If it wasn't there, the main queue would take 6 hours to get through (it would get a lot longer, even though the net transaction rate is about the same), and the shopkeeper would be limited to perhaps one transaction a week. As it is, the queue can easily take an hour ;-)
Ok, how about we abandon the use of analogies? This one is just as flawed. If the shopkeeper in your example was like our dumps, he could make 4 deposits a day, 24/6=4. Our dump threads don't need to go and tend a shop inbetween dumps, they can be in the queue constantly.
I think what we really need here is a bad car analogy. See, the Internet is like a series of interstate highways going through tunnels. And when we take a dump of a Wikipedia, it might be an eighteen-wheeler or it might be a Matchbox car. MySQL is diesel, Postgres is premium unleaded. And the radio only does AM, but the music is better. Also, keep your tyre pressures up. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.
- d.