Edit: apparently as I was writing this, Dave put out the call for others to write their own. So, I *have* been asked….

I find Dave Rosenberg’s “How I Work” series fascinating, so I thought I would post how I work, and some tips I’ve picked up along the way.

I enjoyed How Brian Aker Works the best, mostly because some of the ideas were new and fresh to me — for example, polling e-mail every 30 minutes (and thinking about moving to once every hour).

Now, most people I know would say “But I MUST respond to e-mail, the faster the better!” To that I say, “What if you were in a meeting?” Most people will call if they want an immediate answer, and if you’re truly in a meeting, they’ll leave a voicemail …

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'm very excited to announce that OmniTI has acquired Brain Bulb, which basically means that I'm now a principal of OmniTI and get to work with some of the smartest and friendliest people around, such as George, Theo, Wez, Laura, and Amy.

While traveling recently, I read an article entitled "The Best Company to Work for in the World - Period." I saved this article and was showing it to Wez last week. His first reaction was, "Oh, is that an article about OmniTI?" After only a few short weeks, I already share this sentiment. The combination of working with super smart people …

I'll be giving a talk about MySQL Cluster at FrOSCon 2006, http://www.froscon.de, on Saturday 24th of June. It's going to be an Introduction focusing on MySQL 5.0 and new features in 5.1.

MySQL AB has 3 talks there. My colleague Lenz will do the other two about Administrating MySQL and the MySQL Business Model.

Here is the schedule: http://programm.froscon.de/.

A bug titled DELETE FROM inconsistency for NDB (Bug#19066) dropped into my lap, and while fixing it, we had to make some hard decisions on what should be considered the "correct" way to solve this.

The bug is related to the difference between TRUNCATE TABLE and DELETE FROM with no WHERE clause. On the surface, they seem to be equivalent, but when digging deeper, we will see that there is big difference between the statement when replication comes into play.

Before delving into the problem and the solution, I'll start by recapitulate some selected parts of the manual.

• The TRUNCATE TABLE and DELETE FROM with no condition are "logically equivalent": TRUNCATE TABLE empties a table completely. Logically, this is equivalent to a DELETE statement that …

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 …

Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced that it has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with MySQL, Inc. that will enable Unisys to distribute MySQL software products and provide consulting, integration and support services for customers implementing MySQL open source databases in their technology infrastructures.

I’m clearing some space on the bookshelf and have a few books up on eBay looking for a good home.

Click Me!

One of the things I did this weekend was knit the pattern I’d made for Sakila, the dolphin in the MySQL logo. Click on the image for a bigger picture:

The only problem is I have no idea what to do with it. I have more of the orange and blue yarn. I thought I would make it into a purse but it turned out much wider than I expected. I could make it into a big handbag but I don’t think I’d use it. Any suggestions?

The pattern itself:

dolphin: (56 sts wide by 59 rows)
When I say "k to stitch marker and remove", I mean knit to the stitch marker, and take the stitch marker off.

cast on 56 sts.
knit 2 rows

I had to tweak the pattern mid-knit, so I *think* this is the correct pattern. If the count looks OK for …

Just spotted: Microsoft CEO: catching Yahoo, Google to take time"We are a little bit late in the game," Ballmer said. "But at the end of the day it is going to be about the ability to create a mass marketplace for buyers and consumers."
Ballmer said Microsoft would seek to create a marketplace where consumers want to spend their time and advertisers want to spend their money.
It also plans to leverage the popularity of its MSN, Hotmail and Instant Messaging products, he said.
"We are hard at work on our own core services where at the heart we want the users to be in control," Ballmer said. "There is a whole set of things we are doing to let the user be in control."Oh dear Mr Ballmer... users in control will not, at least in the long run, put up with advertising bombardments and being treated like a bunch of consumers in a mass market. That's not …