Issue 1:
This is slow mainly because a CSR data structure is created that allocates a vector of size 100 million, before creating the CSC.

julia> @time sparse([1;100000000], [1;1], [1;1])
2.237388 seconds (20 allocations: 2.235 GB, 8.30% gc time)
100000000x1 sparse matrix with 2 Int64 entries:
[1 , 1] = 1
[100000000, 1] = 1

Issue 2:
I have just installed a new version of linux (Manjaro) and am trying to get julia up and running again.

When using Pkg to install, I am hit with the following error:

Cloning default registries into /home/tharsis/.julia/registries
Cloning registry General from "https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General.git"
ERROR: LoadError: failed to clone from https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General.git, error: GitError(Code:ERROR, Class:SSL, SSL error: 0xffff8880 - SSL - A fatal alert message was received from our peer)
Stacktrace:
[1] pkgerror(::String) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:120
[2] #clone#2(::String, ::Base.Iterators.Pairs{Symbol,LibGit2.CachedCredentials,Tuple{Symbol},NamedTuple{(:credentials,),Tuple{LibGit2.CachedCredentials}}}, ::Function, ::String, ::String) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/GitTools.jl:107
[3] #clone at ./none:0 [inlined]
[4] (::getfield(Pkg.Types, Symbol("##51#55")))(::LibGit2.CachedCredentials) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:937
[5] shred!(::getfield(Pkg.Types, Symbol("##51#55")), ::LibGit2.CachedCredentials) at ./secretbuffer.jl:184
[6] #registries#50(::Bool, ::Function) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:933
[7] registries at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:917 [inlined]
[8] #find_registered!#59(::Bool, ::Function, ::Pkg.Types.EnvCache, ::Array{String,1}, ::Array{Base.UUID,1}) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:999
[9] find_registered! at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:968 [inlined]
[10] registry_resolve!(::Pkg.Types.EnvCache, ::Array{Pkg.Types.PackageSpec,1}) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/Types.jl:839
[11] #add_or_develop#13(::Symbol, ::Bool, ::Base.Iterators.Pairs{Union{},Union{},Tuple{},NamedTuple{(),Tuple{}}}, ::Function, ::Pkg.Types.Context, ::Array{Pkg.Types.PackageSpec,1}) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:57
[12] #add_or_develop at ./none:0 [inlined]
[13] #add_or_develop#12 at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:29 [inlined]
[14] #add_or_develop at ./none:0 [inlined]
[15] #add_or_develop#11 at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:28 [inlined]
[16] #add_or_develop at ./none:0 [inlined]
[17] #add_or_develop#10 at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:27 [inlined]
[18] #add_or_develop at ./none:0 [inlined]
[19] #add#18 at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:69 [inlined]
[20] add(::String) at /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.0/Pkg/src/API.jl:69
[21] top-level scope at /home/tharsis/.atom/packages/julia-client/script/boot_repl.jl:22
[22] include at ./boot.jl:317 [inlined]
[23] include_relative(::Module, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1044
[24] include(::Module, ::String) at ./sysimg.jl:29
[25] exec_options(::Base.JLOptions) at ./client.jl:266
[26] _start() at ./client.jl:425
in expression starting at /home/tharsis/.atom/packages/julia-client/script/boot_repl.jl:1

Julia has exited. Press Enter to start a new session.

`

I got a similar problem to the first using Pkg.clone() on my previous installation - all issues I could find were using a proxy of some kind - I am not.

I manually cloned the registries, and tried again, and was able to successfully install a few packages.

But when I try to install Atom, I am hit with the following:

Pkg.add("Atom")
ERROR: The following package names could not be resolved:
* Atom (not found in project, manifest or registry)
Please specify by known 'name=uuid'.

I used a workaround that others had used in previous versions to avoid this issue, but when I try to continue I get the first error message again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have very much enjoyed learning and programming Julia, and am excited to get back to it :)