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Programming databases is tricky. If you need the basic access only, any programming language can do. But when you want to get some advanced feature, you face difficult choices. If you are lucky, the feature you are looking for is available in a library compatible with your language of choice. But usually it happens that you are writing in Java, and your life-saving routine is only available in Perl, or you are writing in PHP and striving for features that are buried deep into a Java class. Hard choices. But it does not have to be that way. Sometimes, you can develop closer to the server, in such a way that any client, using any programming language, can access your extended routine. MySQL, although not as equipped with built-in features like some competitors, is nonetheless particularly suited for such … |
May
01
2008
May
01
2008
Hello, Sun!
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I am one of the 400 employees who, on January 16, 2008, awoke at the thundering words of Marten Mickos and Jonathan Schwartz, announcing that MySQL had been acquired by Sun for $1b. Theoretically, or arithmetically, I should be worth $2.5m, and so handle with care. :) Who am I? I am a database enthusiast, with a reputation in several open source places. I am known in the Perl and MySQL communities, and you may have seen me around during some conferences, talking about unusual hacks or making jokes in heavily accented English. |
I have another, historical blog, actually, with the same name, The Data Charmer, which has become my middle name.
My current job is MySQL …
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Apr
30
2008
Yes, I know. JavaOne is about Duke, the friendly mascot of Java technology. Created and maintained by James Gosling and all.
But MySQL also introduces Sakila to the JavaOne attendees. Sakila is also friendly, and the mascot of MySQL technology. The dolphin was chosen by MySQL founders Michael “Monty” Widenius and David Axmark, as was its name Sakila (which came from a naming contest in the early days).
Together with Giuseppe (in the picture above) and the rest of the MySQL Community Team, I will be handing out incarnations of Sakila (also seen above in the pic) at CommunityOne and JavaOne as follows:
- Monday 5 May 2008 09:30-10:45: CommunityOne General Session: Ian Murdock, Sun Microsystems; Panel: Matt Asay, Alfresco CNET, Mårten Mickos, MySQL, Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation, Ted Leung, Python, Stormy Peters, …
Apr
28
2008
It is perhaps fitting that the last word on the recent MySQL licensing row should belong to Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz. In a twitter Q&A with Web 2.0 Expo attendees, courtesy of Tim O’Reilly, he states that:
“we have no plans whatever of ‘hiding the ball,’ of keeping any technology from the community. Everything Sun delivers will be freely available, via a free and open license (either GPL, LGPL or Mozilla/CDDL), to the community.
Everything.
No exception.”
Which would appear to be pretty conclusive, despite his additional claim that “leaders at Sun have the autonomy to do what they think is right to maximize their business value - so long as they remember their responsibility to the corporation and all of its communities (from shareholders to developers). Not just …
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Apr
28
2008
My first day was over a month ago (depending on how you reckon it - I count by when I was "onboarded" in Burlington, MA in late March), but I am finally settled in enough to have a Sun blog. It's been quite a ride.
This could (and may) be the subject of many posts in this space, but I thought I would start this one with some observations of what it is like going from a smallish company (MySQL was ~60 when I started and ~400 when we were acquired) to a largish one (Sun is close to 34,000 today).
Sun is big. I remember a statistic from 9th grade physics that the number of basketballs you can fit in the Earth is roughly the same as the number of Earths you can fit in our local star. I think there is a similar ratio for the number of MySQLs (offices, people, servers, etc) you can fit in the terrestrial Sun.
Some interesting first-month facts:
- My local office …
Apr
28
2008
My first day was over a month ago (depending on how you reckon it - I count by when I was "onboarded" in Burlington, MA in late March), but I am finally settled in enough to have a Sun blog. It's been quite a ride.
This could (and may) be the subject of many posts in this space, but I thought I would start this one with some observations of what it is like going from a smallish company (MySQL was ~60 when I started and ~400 when we were acquired) to a largish one (Sun is close to 34,000 today).
Sun is big. I remember a statistic from 9th grade physics that the number of basketballs you can fit in the Earth is roughly the same as the number of Earths you can fit in our local star. I think there is a similar ratio for the number of MySQLs (offices, people, servers, etc) you can fit in the terrestrial Sun.
Some interesting first-month facts:
- My local office …
Apr
28
2008
My first day was over a month ago (depending on how you reckon it - I count by when I was "onboarded" in Burlington, MA in late March), but I am finally settled in enough to have a Sun blog. It's been quite a ride.
This could (and may) be the subject of many posts in this space, but I thought I would start this one with some observations of what it is like going from a smallish company (MySQL was ~60 when I started and ~400 when we were acquired) to a largish one (Sun is close to 34,000 today).
Sun is big. I remember a statistic from 9th grade physics that the number of basketballs you can fit in the Earth is roughly the same as the number of Earths you can fit in our local star. I think there is a similar ratio for the number of MySQLs (offices, people, servers, etc) you can fit in the terrestrial Sun.
Some interesting first-month facts:
- My local office …
Apr
28
2008
“Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to this presentation regarding the acquisition of the company MySQL AB by Sun Microsystems.”
Since my speech on Sun / MySQL integration for about 400 people in Beijing last week, I have been asked a few times about what it’s like to give a speech in Chinese. Well, I wouldn’t really know, as all I did was read aloud a text for 8 minutes. I remembered what passage was about what topic, and I had noted which words to stress, when to raise my hand etc. But of the actual words, I understood perhaps 5-10 % (based on them being repeated often enough). So I know I am a fuzongcai (Vice President) with Sun Microsystems, I know the difference between a kèhù (customer) and a yònghù (user). I live …
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Apr
27
2008
"The two metrics that are most important to me are first customer
satisfaction and second growth." - Don McAskill
Today, I noticed Don is featured on Sun's customer success
stories page:
Don McAskill is the CEO and Chief Geek of Smugmug, a photo and
now hi-def video (using H.264)
sharing site with a successful business model behind it.
I initially met Don last year at the MySQL Conference when my
then boss told me that he is interested in meeting him. That was
my introduction to Smugmug. I was impressed by SmugMug's
presentation of photos and the care they took to make your photos
and galleries look awesome.
This year, as a member of Smugmug, me and my wife got to interact
with Don on a personal level.
We had several suggestions related to how our …
Apr
27
2008
I talked about Microformats in a post last year on web20expo. It appears that the
technology is now going main stream. I attended a workshop on
Web2.0 Best Practices at the Web20 Expo this
week in which the speaker, Niall Kennedy expounded on th
advantages of using microformats. He said he's seen a significant
growth in traffic on his site since he started doing so since search
engine results show direct links to pages on his site.
Yahoo is adding microformats to many of their
properties. The yahoo event site already has them. This is …