What is your role?
I'm the Open Source Editorial Director for Apress. I spend my days helping authors create great books, talking tech with some of the brightest guys in the computing industry, and travelling to various technical conferences around the country. I'm also the author of several books, and regularly contribute to various publications such as TechTarget's SearchOpenSource.com. My leisure time is spent working on various development projects and slowly remodeling my home.

What is your computer setup?
I use two laptops, one Windows XP and the second running Ubuntu. When working from my home office, I use dual monitors, the second being a 17" flat-panel Samsung. Using dual monitors is by far one of the greatest productivity gains I've ever encountered.

What desktop software applications do you use daily?
The vast majority of my time is spent …

I've spoken with all of the participants in our "How I Work" series and we're all having the same reaction. Not only is it cool to see how our peers do things, but you can actually put this stuff into practice. After reading Brian Akers' profile, I immediately started using OmniOutliner for my todo list. Now if only I could somehow sync it to a web interface...

All of us were surprised how many others use Macs and Treos. In fact, it seems that those who use Macs use Treos and those who use Windows lean towards BlackBerry. To that end, none of us have gotten a damn thing for free from either company. One of my Bschool chums works for Palm and thinks he can pry a 700p out of their coffers using the family discount, but not for free. I still can't believe Cingular and RIM haven't hit us up to test drive the 8700, which Peter was raving about and has made me rethink my Palm choice.

Anyway, if you want to do your "How I work" just follow …

What is your role?
My title is Director of Architecture, and in MySQL's history that has meant I have done everything from write code, assign bugs, handle operations for engineering, talk to customers, speak at conferences, and once help peel potatoes for dinner. Today I handle technical direction for MySQL, lead architects/senior engineers, and study how are market is evolving. I also still write code from time to time.

What is your computer setup?
I use a 15in PPC Apple Laptop.

What desktop software applications do you use daily?
When browsing I use Safari, but today I read far more RSS then I read web pages. For RSS I use an application called NewsFire. It allows me to scan all of my RSS headlines and select what I want to read. For some feeds I just use the spacebar to tab through all of the articles in the feed. All of my appointments go into iCal, and all addresses go into Addressbook. …

I'm halfway back from Costa Rica and was just astounded to learn that Peter Fenton (who did the JBoss deal and is, in my estimation, one of the top "open source VCs" on the planet) has left Accel Partners to join Benchmark, a rival Silicon Valley venture firm.

No big deal, you say? It is a big deal, mostly because VCs rarely leave their firms to go to rivals. It just doesn't happen very often, for a range of reasons.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Peter's board seats (JBoss, Wily, etc.). Even more interesting will be what the Fenton + Kevin Harvey (Red Hat, Zimbra, MySQL, Qlusters) duo will cook up. Harvey is another top open source VC, and razor-sharp smart. …

I spent the last 2 days in San Diego at O'Reilly's ETech conference. Last year I spoke about the then recently launched Yahoo! Search Developer Network (not YDN), but this year I was just there to hang out. No talk. No booth duty. No agenda. I took no pictures.

And you know what? I liked it that way.

It was nice to wander around and meet up with people I don’t see that often. Even better was meeting up with folks who I've known in some capacity but never actually met in person--people like Dylan Tweney.

Some of my coworkers got a chance to show off their latest project: CheckMates, a …

In the much-vaunted blogosphere, I find that people are either dull or too cowed to tell the truth undiluted. 2005 saw everyone and their dog starting a blog, but most are vapid and useless to a large audience. (That's not to say they're not important and useful to one's immediate peers.)

In open source, there are very few blogs I've found worth following. To be worth my time (and yours, I should think), the blogs need to impart real information - either objective news or, more likely, solid data gleaned from real-world experience. Most do neither. And of the two, I think the latter (i.e., experience) is more important than the news. No one has figured out open source completely yet as a business, leaving all sorts of room for idea-sharing. That's why we started the Open Source Business Conference, and it's what any good open source blog should do.

A few people have asked me which …

A couple friends are looking to put together a new on-line service and are in need of a skilled engineer to get their first working prototype built. If things go well, you'd have the chance to be a founder in their new venture.

Specifically, they've requested:

• PHP and MySQL experience.
• Drupal experience as a "very nice to have" skill.
• Some AJAX know-how, if possible.
• Experience building consumer-facing websites with a community/social angle.

I'm 90% sure they'd like someone in the San Francisco Bay Area but will consider remote folks too if it's a good match.

If you're interested, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll forward your information along to them.

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Sometimes the simple things amaze me (or amuse me) most. Here are a few I've come across on this trip:

• My Yahoo employee badge works in Taiwan. Yes, I can go half way around the world and my badge still unlocks the door so that I can work. Nice!
• I was having breakfast this morning at the hotel and ended up sitting next to a guy who grew up in Toledo, Ohio (so did I). He's been working at his current job for 8 years and lives less than 10 minutes from my parents. Apparently the farther I go from home, the greater the odds of running into someone "from home" seem to be.
• Bubble Tea. The guys in Taiwan got me some Bubble Tea at lunch today. Yum.
• MySQL 5.0 has a "blackhole" storage engine. It's basically an idea I suggested to them 2-3 years ago. I'm glad to see they've implemented it even though I …