This thought has been floating around my head for quite some time now and I finally bit the bullet and released it from the draft state it had been sitting in for too long: there are quite many similarities between Open Source Software (OSS) projects and most of today's popular Web 2.0 sites, but there is also one odd difference that I wonder about.

For both worlds, the concept of collaboration, participation and giving more power to their users is a key component. OSS projects need contributors for patches and bug reports, but also for feedback, translations, artwork, advocacy in order to be popular and healthy. The project's developers need to be open for suggestions, listening to their user base on where the project should be heading. They also usually strive for open standards …

"That is an awfully nice bridge you got there, be a pity if something happened to it..."

So Business as Usual means protection money.

"This IP bridge enables Open Source developers to develop software free from concerns about patents."

"Our IP bridge makes lawsuits unnecessary."

Both of those statements just give me a cold feeling. Its like listening to some gangster video, where the local hood has decided to make a business of asking for protection money from the new immigrants who just opened a Kwiki Mart. Bill Hilf talks about lawsuits being unnecessary, of course they are. The local hood never wants their business practices scrutinized, they operate in a cloak of uncertainty.

When did "Business as Usual" in engineering become haggling over nickel and dime changes that came …

I've spent my spare time the last few weekends helping a non-profit called Fast Forward here in the Columbia, SC area. I don't post this here to blow my own horn but rather to point out the need many non-profit organizations have for quality IT support. Most non-profits operate on a limited budget meaning they take help where they can get it. Often times there just isn't money left in the budget for a services contract, etc., even for an organization like Fast Forward.

This is where knowledgeable folks can really make a difference. I know the usual excuse: after spending all week looking at a computer screen, the last thing anyone wants to do is spend the weekend working on computers. I've been there, so I understand that feeling completely. However, I have to say that the time I've spent working at Fast Forward has been personally rewarding. There's a sense of accomplishment …

The MySQL community is just great. I’ve been suggesting that we get recordings for the Conference & Expo, alas, its generally not in the roadmap. I mean, look at Apple and their WWDC - all attendees get amazing video recordings that switch between slides and the speaker. Last year, they even delivered it via iTunes! In previous years, they distributed DVDs (valuable, though with WWDC a lot is generally new technology announcements, and I can hardly want to reference what was cool for Panther or Tiger any longer…) Mad props also to the linux.conf.au 2007 team, who also did amazing recordings - sessions were available by the evening they were given!

The MySQL conference is a lot different. There are lots of reusable sessions. Some that you attend, you’ll get knowledge committed for life. The tendency to not see too many roadmap talks makes it very useful for future reference.

Back to why the community rocks. …

Microsoft funds open source project for document interoperability in China. Apache Software Foundation announces new version of Axis. Apatar to launch enterprise data mashups application at OSBC. (and more)

Microsoft Continues to Expand Interoperability Options for Office Customers, Micrososft (Press Release)

The Apache Software Foundation Announces the Release of Apache Axis2/C v.1.0, Apache Software Foundation (Press Release)

Apatar to Unveil an Enterprise 2.0 Software Product Apatar Data Mashups at the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), May 22-23, 2007 in San Francisco, CA, Apatar (Press Release)

…

Silly shit you discover when implementing a mysql server!

- The 5.0 MySQL CLI client autostrips comments (badly) from SQL before sending it to the server. I don't really get why yet. DBD::mysql doesn't.

- Even if you say "quit" to exit the CLI client, it doesn't send a COM_QUIT command to the server. DBD::mysql does.

Code release in a few days? Possible. Lua interface is still more pseudo than code still.

MySQL’s version-specific conditional comment syntax confused me for the longest time. Then I learned about printf formatting rules, and it all became clear. Read on if you don’t already know what I mean. First I’ll explain what I’m talking about. MySQL allows specially formatted comments with a server version number embedded in them. Servers newer than the version number will execute the commented-out code, and older servers won’t. This is really useful sometimes.

http://tinyurl.com/2qmusm

Need I say more? Go download the slides, video and audio from the 2007 MySQL Users Conference & Expo. I have no plans to take anything down, so please download wisely, and take only what you need. If there’s demand, I can make higher-quality versions available. I can also burn DVD’s of the content if that’s desired.

Enjoy!

There is a popular myth about the SQL GROUP BY clause. The myth holds that 'standard SQL' requires columns referenced in the SELECT list of a query to also appear in the GROUP BY clause, unless these columns appear exclusively in an aggregated expression. MySQL is often accused of violating this standard.

In this article I will attempt to debunk this myth, and to provide a more balanced view regarding MySQL's treatment of GROUP BY at the same time.

To do that, I will first demonstrate that MySQL can be instructed to only accept GROUP BY clauses that include all non-aggregated expressions referred to in the SELECT list, thus making MySQL's behaviour conform more to that of other well-known rdbms-products.

Second, I will show that it is very important to clearly define which …

273 people have cast their vote on the most wanted replication feature…

Cast your vote before the poll disappears:

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