Wow. This post from Glyn Moody just resurfaced memories that should never have been forgotten. Glyn reminds us that IBM made a patent pledge that protects OSI-approved open source projects:

IBM today pledged open access to key innovations covered by 500 IBM software patents to individuals and groups working on open source software. IBM believes this is the largest pledge ever of patents of any kind and represents a major shift in the way IBM manages and deploys its intellectual property (IP) portfolio....

The pledge is applicable to any individual, community, or company working on or using software that meets the Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of open source software now or in the future.

As Glyn suggests, IBM has …

I was just reading Tim's comments on Foo Camp.

Unless you saw me on the last day of Foo Camp, you wouldn't have seen
me with a laptop at all. I made a point of leaving it in the trunk of
the rental car.

Why?

When I have it, I use it. This means that I don't pay 100% attention
to the room. Sometimes this is ok, I multitask well, but I wanted to
see how this changed my interactions with people. One thing that
didn't happen was that I didn't race off and write code at the drop
of a hat. Normally at these events I find some interesting idea and
just write it up quickly (yeah... this is how I do note taking for
projects... I write prototypes).

Instead? I used my cell phone. I wrote my notes in it. Not great, but
it worked. The …

We had the Top 5 wishes for MySQL started by Jay recently. So in true chain letter fashion I’m starting a new one this week. “The top 5 Best Practices for MySQL”. This like it’s predecessor is generally vague, so it can include points on development, design, administration etc.

My list:

1. Write your application to support Transactions (and therefore use a Transactional Storage Engine).

2. Always use SQL_MODE. e.g. at least TRADITIONAL and ANSI to ensure better data integrity and errors as errors.

3. Use the most optimal data types (particularly for number (e.g. TINY/SMALL/BIG INT and nullability) and especially in relation to columns in indexes.

4. When using InnoDB use the shortest primary key possible (e.g. INT UNSIGNED. BIGINT unless you have more then 4 billion rows in your potential data set is laziness).

5. …

I'd like to bring two announcements to your attention, that I posted to our internals Mailing list a few days ago - both refer to ongoing activities at MySQL AB to further open up our development processes and to establish an Architecture of Participation around the MySQL Server and related applications.

I am excited to be able to talk about this topic at the upcoming FrOSCon, which will take place on August, 25th-26th in Sankt Augustin, Germany. The title of my presentation will be "Opening the doors of the Cathedral - Enabling an architecture of participation around the MySQL Server". Here's the abstract:

Even though the MySQL Server is released and distributed as Open Source Software (OSS) under the GPL, the development itself so far has mostly …

During our last major survey, we had a number of you indicate that you’re running MySQL databases in the 500GB to multi-TB range. We’re now mapping out the plans for upcoming server releases, and we’re especially interested in adding enhancements for very large MySQL DB’s. If you own one of these beasts, please contact me at rschumacher@mysql.com, let me know how big your database(s) are, and what features we should add to make your life easier.

Sun open sources clustering code. Eclipse ships largest release to-date. GPLv3 to be released on Friday. (and more)

Sun Donates High Availability Cluster Code to the Open Source Community, Enables Accelerated Innovation In Scale Out Architectures, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Eclipse Ships Largest-Ever Release of Leading Open Source Software Development Platform, Eclipse Foundation (Press Release)

GPLv3 upgrade set for Friday, InfoWorld, Paul Krill (Article)

Enterprise Linux 5 May Lift Red Hat Q1 Earnings, LinuxInsider (Article)

…

Computerworld has Marten Mickos on the hot seat about the growth of MySQL and what happens next. As always, Marten is insightful and rational. I am jealous that I am not as clear-headed. I am very passionate about open source. And I do believe that it is a superior method. But at the same time, I must be pragmatic. So when they say being dogmatic is very important for the Free Software Foundation ? well, they should be. That?s what we respect them for. But running a business is not about dogma. We are not judgmental about our customers or... READ MORE

Today was the day to cancel Clearwire. In short, it has never worked. I moved
it around my house, played with getting the direction right... it
just never worked. When it did work I would get bandwidth for all of
five or so minutes before the speed dropped to something I had not
seen since using dialup.

I've been really not looking forward to canceling the service. I
expected a major run around and to hear someone tell me that they
wanted to send out a representative before I would be allowed to leave.

By the end of the call, which took only 10 minutes, they agreed to
send me the mailing slip to return the modem. They won't end the
service until they get the modem, so I will be sending it off today
via UPS as soon as the email with the slip arrives.

The cancellation fee is $180, which is steep for a service that never …

From the Freakonomics blog "The
Benefits of a Bubble, Event When Burst", I was thinking a bit
about the last bubble and what we gained from it.

Cheap Hardware. For quite a while after the bubble burst Ebay
was the place to buy hardware. Need a high end router, or an
expensive load balancer? You could get all of it from Ebay. There are
a number of startups that I work with that all got their start during
that period. Only in the last few years have they been replacing all
of the hardware they picked up from the last bubble.

Data Centers. There was a build out of data centers which
completely collapsed. Companies swooped in and bought these up. The
number of cheap data centers that are up for grabs is long gone. I
expect …

I guess there's life in them old proprietary software bones yet. At least, there is for Oracle. As "cave men" go, Oracle is evolving very quickly, as Jason Maynard (Credit Suisse) notes:

Some of the key highlights from the call were 21% y/y cash flow growth, a re-acceleration of the technology business to 15% growth, and 46% operating margins in Q4. We think the vertical applications acquisition strategy is proving to be an effective tool to win both new accounts and pull through additional middleware and database products. Oracle appears to be gaining share in the application server market and continues to separate from its database competitors like IBM. Oracle?s Q1 guidance was also better than expected as the company expects new software license revenue to grow 20%-30% significantly ahead of our expectation of 10%+....

The strength in the quarter …