Re: arrays of floating point numbers / linear algebra operations into the DB

> >>>> ...linear algebra ...
> >>> ... matrices and vectors .
> >> ...Especially if some GIST or similar index could efficiently search
> >> for vectors "close" to other vectors...
> >
> > Hmm. If I get some more interest on this list (I need just one LAPACK
> > / BLAS hacker...), I will apply for a pgFoundry project and appoint
> > myself head of the peanut gallery...
>
> I think you should start one. I'd be happy to help.

OK. You are on. I think designing an interface is the first step,
and I am inclined to use matlab syntax plus cool things I wish they
had (convolution matrices, recycling, etc).

> I'm rather proficient in C; somewhat literate about postgres' GIST
> stuff (I think a couple of my bugfix patches were accepted in postgis);

Nifty! I am having trouble bending my head around how we can fit 10K
by 10K matrices into Datums, but if you have worked with PostGIS then
a lot of those big geographic fields might help.

> and deal with a big database doing lots of similarity-based searches (a
> 6'2" guy with light brown hair being similar to a 6'1" guy with dark
> blond hair) - and am experimenting with modeling some of the data as
> vectors in postgres.

Well, I bet a good linear algebra library would help. A lot. :)