What Is Binary Large Object (BLOB)?

The acronym "#BLOB" stands for "Binary Large OBject" and refers to a large amount of data that may be kept in a database. You can upload about anything, including photos, videos, and written materials. It's typically quite big, as its moniker would imply. You may be wondering, "But why to utilise a BLOB?" Sure, there are situations when you need to keep a huge amount of information but don't mind if it's stored in an unorthodox manner. You may be making a social media app and need somewhere to keep users' photos or a project management software that requires somewhere to keep files. A BLOB can be a convenient place to keep all that information together, whatever the circumstance. A BLOB isn't the most space-effective data format. It may take more time to retrieve and handle than numerical or textual data. In other cases, the added freedom is well worth the cost. Remember that a BLOB isn't designed to be accessed directly in either reading or writing. In most cases, you'll need to leverage #APIs or libraries explicitly designed for that purpose. To use a BLOB for picture storage, you must first convert the image to a format that the BLOB can understand, such as #JPEG or #PNG. You'll need to use the same API or library to decode the BLOB back into an image if you ever need to reaccess the image. It's also important to remember that the method BLOBs are stored can vary from database to database. The "BLOB" data type is used in some databases, such as #MySQL, to store large amounts of data. Some databases, such as #PostgreSQL, don't have a BLOB data type, but you can still use a "bytes" field to store massive amounts of data. To summarize, a BLOB is a method for storing massive volumes of data in a database without worrying too much about the particulars. Not the most effective data storage method, yet useful when versatility is needed. Remember that different databases may store BLOBs differently and use the appropriate API or library to interface with it.

By TechDogs Editorial Team

Related Terms by Storage

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

The scanning electron microscope combines two of the most valuable types of microscopes: They function in the same way as a standard microscope but are superior. Imagine you are looking at the very tip of your nose right now and attempting to see what's there. To get a close look at those minuscule hairs, you would need a powerful microscope, and if you squinted your eyes that intently at your face, you would probably have a headache. Imagine instead employing a scanning electron microscope, in which case the electrons would perform all the work for you. Since electrons make it possible for visual display results to have better integrity and resolution, objects can be seen more clearly and be used for cutting-edge research and engineering. You may not believe anything like this might be beneficial in regular life, but it absolutely is. We wouldn't be able to see how the tiny parts of bugs work together to form a whole, nor would we be able to see how much space there is between each atom in our bodies if we didn't have scanning electron microscopes. We would know nothing about our world if it weren't for the scanning electron microscopes that are currently in use. An electron beam is used to analyze whatever is being viewed in a scanning electron microscope, which is a type of microscope. It is also known as an SEM, and it is really interesting. The SEM traces the paths that electrons go through in an experiment. An electron gun is responsible for releasing electrons, which can be thought of as a light bulb that releases electrons rather than photons (light particles). Then, after passing through a few different components, such as scanning coils and a detector for backscattered electrons. You now possess some images obtained from the SEM! The backscattered electrons are transformed into signals and then delivered to a display screen. So as you're doing it, you're looking at photographs of your product on your computer or television screen - that's awesome!

Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)

Secure Hash Algorithm is a set of algorithms developed by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and other government and private parties. Cryptographic hashes (or checksums) have been used for electronic signatures and file integrity for decades. However, these functions have evolved to address some of the cybersecurity challenges of the 21st century. The NIST has developed a set of secure hashing algorithms that act as a global framework for encryption and data management systems. The initial instance of the Secure hash Algorithm (SHA) was in 1993. It was a 16-bit hashing algorithm and is known as SHA-0. The successor to SHA-0, SHA-1, was released in 1995 and featured 32-bit hashing. Eventually, the next version of SHA was developed in 2002, and it is known as SHA-2. SHA-2 differs from its predecessors because it can generate hashes of different sizes. The whole family of secure hash algorithms goes by the name SHA. SHA-3, or Keccak or KECCAK, is a family of cryptographic hash functions designed by Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michaël Peeters, and Gilles Van Assche. SHA-3 competition to develop a new secure hash algorithm was held by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) in 2007. To be a super safe and fast hashing algorithm, SHA3 was developed from this contest. The evolution of cybersecurity has led to the development of several "secure hash algorithms." Security is a crucial concern for businesses and individuals in today's digital world. As a result, many types of encryption have been developed to protect data in various scenarios. One of these is hash algorithms. All secure hash algorithms are part of new encryption standards to keep sensitive data safe and prevent different types of attacks. These algorithms use advanced mathematical formulas so that anyone who tries to decode them will get an error message that they aren't expected in regular operation.

Segregated Witness (SegWit)

It is time to get this party started! SegWit is an agreement implemented in the Bitcoin cyber currency community. It is also a soft fork in the Bitcoin chain and has been widely accepted by miners and users. So what does it all mean? In short, if you are running a node (a piece of software that helps keep the Bitcoin network stable), you need to upgrade your software by April 27th, or else your node will stop working. SegWit was activated as part of a hard fork on August 24th, 2017. The most important thing to note about SegWit is that it fixes transaction malleability, which has plagued miners and users for years. However, you do not need to worry if you do not want to upgrade your software. You will still be able to use Bitcoin just fine! It is confusing, but it is not that confusing. Segregated Witness (SegWit) is a proposal to improve Bitcoin implemented in August 2017. It allows for more transactions per block, which means lower fees and faster transactions.SegWit2x is a proposal that would include a hard fork months after the initial adoption of SegWit, creating two bitcoins. One of these versions would have SegWit, and one wouldn't, but both would be called "Bitcoin" and act as separate currencies. BIP 148 is another proposal that includes a user-activated hard fork and proposes implementing SegWit.SegWit is a soft fork, not a hard fork. SegWit is a technical improvement that allows more transactions to be processed simultaneously, making the network faster and more efficient. A hard fork is when developers propose changes to the protocol. If most users accept those changes, there will be two versions of that particular cryptocurrency, one for each side. The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain split from Bitcoin in August 2017 as an example of a crypto hard fork. Bitcoin Cash is the result of a hard fork.

Trending Definitions

Grayscale

Do you know the difference between a grayscale image and a black-and-white image? It's simple. A grayscale image contains only shades of gray, while a black-and-white image contains both black and white. A grayscale image is monochromic (only one color), while a black-and-white image has both black and white. To help illustrate this point, let's say you have an image of an apple—a red apple. If you convert it to grayscale, the original color information would be lost; however, all the luminance (brightness) information would remain. In other words, you would lose all the redness from your picture; however, you would keep all the lightness or darkness in it. Conversely, if you converted the same photograph into black and white, all of its redness and fun/darkness information would be lost. Furthermore, there would be no way for you to recover any of them since they no longer exist! We have the answer if you've ever wondered what a digital image is made of. Most digital photos contain both color information and luminance or grayscale. Removing color is like extracting the red from a strawberry—you're left with nothing but pulp, which is not as tasty as a whole fruit. Grayscale gives your images form and depth, and it's the only part that doesn't get removed when you remove color information. Without it, you'd be left with an image that looks pure black! It is an image of a dog. But it's not just any dog—it's a "grayscale" dog. A grayscale dog is the same as a regular dog but without all that pesky color getting in the way. A grayscale dog has no redness, no greenness, and no blueness. It's just black and white, and that's it. It is essential because when you print things out using traditional printing methods, you need to use ink corresponding to three colors yellow, magenta, and cyan (a combination of red/blue). That means that if you want to print something in color, you must use three different kinds of ink simultaneously, making your printer run out faster! But when making a grayscale image (like this one), all you need is black ink—so your printer lasts longer!

Marketing Content Management (MCM)

Enterprises can manage marketing content across multiple channels using a software solution called marketing content management (Short for MCM). This software is intended to help enterprises handle the new challenges of more diverse marketing channels in an increasingly digital business world. Companies no longer rely on traditional print media and television advertisements to get their message out in today's digital business world. Instead, they can build customer relationships through social media, blogs, and email marketing campaigns. Managing these different channels can be challenging, especially if your company has never done so! When you use MCM software, you'll be able to manage your entire marketing strategy from one place, with less time spent on administrative tasks and more time spent doing what matters most growing your business! With the rise of mobile devices and social media, marketing has changed. To reach your target audience, you need to be everywhere they are, including their phones and tablets. You need to manage all of these different marketing channels in one place to track and measure your success. That's where marketing content management (MCM) solutions come into play. MCM solutions help you keep track of everything from print ads to social media posts so you can make sure each piece of content is getting the most bang for its buck. The best MCM tools are like a dashboard for your marketing efforts. Here's how it works: you have various campaigns running on multiple platforms, and you want to know how each one is doing. For example, you might have a Facebook, an Instagram, and a Twitter campaign and want to see how each one is performing. The best MCM tools are set up in a dashboard design, with vibrant feature-rich windows showing actual marketing metrics for individual parts of the campaign. Users can run reports and generally take a transparent look at how each marketing effort on each platform is doing.