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MySQL Founder Monty Quits Sun (Or Not)

Paul Boutin writes "A reliable source tells Valleywag that MySQL inventor Michael Widenius, better known as Monty, has resigned from Sun. Sun bought Monty's MySQL company in a billion-dollar deal last January. Brian Aker, who forked the Web 2.0-friendly Drizzle SQL database (and former Slashdot engineer!), remains at Sun." Kaj Arnö and Sheeri Cabral share their thoughts.

148 comments

  1. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by Yvan256 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Safari can't find the server.

    Safari can't open the page "http:///" because it can't find the server "".

    What is your URL supposed to do on Chrome?

  2. Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Tell us how great your database is, (ie. postgres, mssql server, oracle etc..)

    2. Tell us how shitty mysql is in your eyes.

    3. Tell us how mysql "sold out"

    So everything under this thread can be modded as "redundant"

    Thank You.

    1. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by DanWS6 · · Score: 5, Funny

      4. For extra credit tie into your rant how terrible you believe PHP is and how xyz is so much better.

    2. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by neowolf · · Score: 0

      1. Tell us how great your database is, (ie. postgres, mssql server, oracle etc..)

      2. Tell us how shitty mysql is in your eyes.

      3. Tell us how mysql "sold out"

      So everything under this thread can be modded as "redundant"

      Thank You.

      LOL! If I had mod-points, I'd be using them here! :)

    3. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Now now. PHP is a pain but a dang useful pain. Just like MySQL.

      PHP and MySQL are both good but not great tools. What makes them useful is all the stuff that works with them.
      I would drop MySQL in a second for Postgres except that too many CMS and other packages use it. The same is true of PHP.

      There happy now?

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 1, Redundant

      My database is great, mysql is shitty in my eyes, and mysql has sold out.

      Is there a prize?

    5. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by DanWS6 · · Score: 3, Funny

      No.

    6. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Postgres is great. There is no question.

      MySQL was shitty, but has been steadily getting better.

      MySQL may have sold out, but SUN has the money and the balls to make it kick the crap out of nearly everything else out there.

      Awesome thread, btw. :P

    7. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by LWATCDR · · Score: 2, Funny

      Okay Mr. Cranky Pants.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    8. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Sun has the money, and the engineering, however their marketing people will surely screw it up big.

      I imagine it going something like "All new versions will use a new and restrictive license" and "The new MySQL will be called Java Relational Database Engine and be pronounced "Drede"

    9. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by danieltdp · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yes. A 'reduntant' mod.

      --
      -- dnl
    10. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Tell us how great your database is, (ie. postgres, mssql server, oracle etc..)

      I'd rather tell why I think databases in general suck: Lack of standardization. It's one thing if you could do like with browsers and make compatibility chart with ANSI SQL, but it's choking full of proprietary extensions. Hopefully they'll sooner or later get around to supporting SQL:2003 which takes care of the worst ones. Here's one example, creating an unique ID:

      The standard specifies a column attribute of:
      GENERATED ... AS IDENTITY (non-core feature ID T174+T175).

      PostgreSQL doesn't support the standard's IDENTITY attribute.
      DB2: Follows standard, albeit with some restrictions on how identity columns may (not) be added to an existing table, etc.
      MSSQL offers IDENTITY as a column property, but with a different syntax (not as intuitive and with less options) than the standard's specification.
      MySQL doesn't support the standard's IDENTITY attribute.
      Oracle doesn't support the standard's IDENTITY attribute.

      And they bloody well all have a way of doing it, it's just five different ways. That's what I hate about databases, you don't pick one for RDBMS features but because you need to pick a language. It's like picking a computer because of the compiler. They seriously need to get the standards *ahead* of the implementations, like for example browsers and HTML/CSS standards. Or at least get a reasonable subset standard so you can write a non-trivial database neutral application.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    11. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by danieltdp · · Score: 0

      And for the record, when I posted the parent wasn't modded redundant yet...

      Anyways, Montys getting out is not a surprise to me. Probably the guy got enough money on the deal and decided to go home

      --
      -- dnl
    12. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by OshEcho · · Score: 0

      I agree.
        There are mappers out there so you can write once and have it work fine on most databases. But they are a pain to use. Simply writing sql is much easier I think.

      --
      -Echo
    13. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Ep0xi · · Score: 0

      i'm responsible for what i've said i said that MySql is a mono-threaded service and that makes it run faster than common DB. after that Sun bought MySql. MySql is not shitty no way. it has the best profile for small and medium sized websites. so what's the deal? let me know.

      --
      ?
    14. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't agree.

      I see a point in a standardized data manipulation language. SQL serves this purpose quite good, allthough there are some stupid syntactic differences (like delimiting identifiers, quoting values and using parameters).

      But what you are asking for is like saying there should be a standard for the syntax of C, Fortran and Pascal. They have different purposes, different features and different internals. But in the end after you compile there is a executable of that you don't have to know in which language it was written.
      Compare that to databases. Surely you have to design the database differently. That is actually the reason why there are different databases. Because they do things differently. But after you have finished the definition phase (programming) you can use the database in a quite standard way with SQL (executing).

    15. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Kjella · · Score: 1

      But after you have finished the definition phase (programming) you can use the database in a quite standard way with SQL (executing).

      Says someone that can barely have finished SQL for dummies. You can't even select the first ten rows in a standard way. FETCH FIRST 10 ROWS ONLY? ROW_NUMBER()? TOP 10? ROWNUM = 10? LIMIT 10? And if you're designing anything non-trivial you'll want things like triggers that can't be written in plain SQL (no, T-SQL, PL/SQL, pgSQL etc. are not plain SQL). Please tell me you don't design databases for anything. If you do please tell me which company, so I can stay the hell away from it.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    16. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Rich0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Couldn't agree more. My other big pet peeve is applications that are database-specific (which obviously is related to the fact that app designers don't have much choice in the matter). I don't want to install my own MSSQL server for the sake of the one application that can't run on my company's enterprise scale server farm running some other RDBMS. I don't want to pick a different application that doesn't meet my user's needs simply because it handles the other RDBMS.

      Oh, and if we actually had some standards perhaps there would also be a chance that every time Oracle releaes a new software releaes it wouldn't break half the applications I manage...

    17. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mod the redundant parent under-rated until he is +5 redundant... extra redundant.... right?

    18. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Says someone that can barely have finished SQL for dummies... you'll want things like triggers

      hmmmmm... no comment... your statement says it all. Funkin' newbs

    19. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by iron-kurton · · Score: 1

      They seriously need to get the standards *ahead* of the implementations, like for example browsers and HTML/CSS standards

      *cough*IE*cough*

      --
      Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine -- Robert C. Gallagher
    20. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Splab · · Score: 1

      Well since the siblings seems to agree with you, I'm going to disagree.

      Yes standards are nice, in theory you can pick any single database you want for your project.

      However, in the real world different databases excel at different things. For instance SolidDB trades features for speed - no other database performs like their in memory option (while staying ACID); MySQL is great for being a dumb advanced storage engine for stuff you want to save, but aren't critical, they gain speed by relaxing the constraints checks.

      If all databases where to implement the full specification all databases would suck donkeyballs - like everything else you pick the tool for the job at hand.

    21. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Probably the main reason why apps are database-specific is precisely because databases tend to have very different SQL syntax when it comes to reasonably advanced queries. Also, the difference between snapshot semantics of transactions in MVCC implementations (Oracle, Postgres, Firebird), and lock-based ones, can lead to some very annoying bugs down the line eventually.

    22. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Using sequences (CREATE SEQUENCE and NEXT VALUE FOR) is considered preferrable to IDENTITY, anyway, but support for ANSI SQL sequences is also rare. IIRC, if you use the very basic syntax, you can get the same DDL/DML running on Oracle, Postgres and Firebird, and that's about it.

    23. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Yup. Hence the reason I posted that in a discussion about the need to standardize SQL... :)

    24. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by discogravy · · Score: 2, Funny

      lol ur still using xyz?

    25. Re:Please use this thread to do the following: by adavies42 · · Score: 1

      AFAICT the SQL "standards" are simply the superset of everything Oracle and DB2 happened to be doing the year the standard was finalized. I tend to use them as examples of how not do make standards.

      --
      Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
      -kfg
  3. Shoot by XanC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I'd just made a billion-dollar deal for my company, I'd sure look long and hard at not working anymore.

    1. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Does your crystal ball tell you that?

    2. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I'd just made a billion-dollar deal for my company, I'd sure look long and hard at not working anymore.

      Long and hard some things may be, but certainly not my look at not working in such a situation. Short and sweet it would be.

    3. Re:Shoot by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Posting at slashdot, Yoda is.

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    4. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does your crystal ball tell you that?

      No, it's just twitter trolling again... Nothing to see here.

    5. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Nah, twitter would have called them "$un".

    6. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He got a billion dollars in Sun stock, realized his mistake and said: "Later, bitches!"

    7. Re:Shoot by Sentry21 · · Score: 1

      Amen to that. MySQL has a huge user and developer community. After working that hard to get it to where it is from where it was, I'd seriously consider leaving it in someone else's capable hands and moving on to bigger and better things (like Fiji).

    8. Re:Shoot by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      Especially when you sold it to Sun. There's a pretty good chance Sun will be bankrupt or bought up for a ridiculously low price within 5 years.

      --
      Any resemblance to fact is purely co-incidental. -- twitter

      Am I the only one who finds this comment strangely in synch with the sig?

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    9. Re:Shoot by lgw · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No Crystal ball needed to see that Sun isn't long for this world.

      Sun's market cap is down to $6.4 billion. Sun has over $2B in cash, $3B in receivables, and $1B in inventory and stock in other companies.

      You could make a profit today (if you could buy the company for thet 6.4B, which you can't) by buying Sun, ceasing all sales and business activity beyond existing support contacts, and just gutting the company for the cash, real estate, etc.

      If Sun falls much more, it *will* be profitable to buy and gut the company, as was done very frequently to companies in similar positions in the 80s. For any tech company that *wanted* Sun for some reason, it's nearly free to buy it today.

      Heck, one of Suns few remaining large accounts might find it cheaper to buy Sun than to renew it's support contract!

      I think the only reason why one of the big consulting companies (Accenture etc) hasn't bough Sun just for bragging right is that those are partnerships, and don't have the leverage.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    10. Re:Shoot by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      If I'd just made a billion-dollar deal for my company, I'd sure look long and hard

      If you'd just made a billion dollars, you would look long and hard to most women out there!... money... the best aphrodisiac! Just like The Professor says. w00t! for 101

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    11. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I think the only reason why one of the big consulting companies (Accenture etc) hasn't bough Sun just for bragging right is that those are partnerships, and don't have the leverage.

      It would be stupid for any consulting company to buy Sun:

      The consulting companies would lose any credibility of being vendor-independent and Sun would lose many of it's best brains because the fast-paced culture of the consulting business drives them away.

  4. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by neuromanc3r · · Score: 1

    Crash it, I guess. What's more puzzling to me is the question how this factoid is related to sun and mysql...

  5. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by Aphoxema · · Score: 0, Troll

    Awesome! I reply gibberish to something that already has nothing to do with the article and I get modded down for offtopic!

    ALL HAIL SLASHDOT!

    --
    "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  6. Basic astronomy ! by assemblerex · · Score: 5, Funny

    The sun destroys everything it touches. Eventually it will implode into a black hole and devour what little shareholder value is left.

    1. Re:Basic astronomy ! by east+coast · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, it's going to turn into a white dwarf in most likeliness.

      But I understand where you're coming from.

      --
      Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    2. Re:Basic astronomy ! by db32 · · Score: 1

      Actually, basic astronomy says that our sun is nowhere near massive enough to collapse into a black hole. Even then, in a couple billion years the sun will have expanded and engulfed earth long before the whole collapse thing would happen.

      In fact, with the exception of a few (H, and He most notably) the normal life cycle of the sun can create all of the elements up to and including iron!

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    3. Re:Basic astronomy ! by bondjamesbond · · Score: 1, Funny

      Aw man... I'm dreading the day that the sun expands and engulfs us.

    4. Re:Basic astronomy ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, as it expands and loses mass the Earth will drift far enough to be in a close orbit.

      I have traveled into the future and have see this.

    5. Re:Basic astronomy ! by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's going to turn into a white dwarf in most likeliness. But I understand where you're coming from.

      The cult of LHC doomsday prophets?

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    6. Re:Basic astronomy ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      when I first read that I did it with a yoda voice.

    7. Re:Basic astronomy ! by keithjr · · Score: 1

      Trying to find the double entendres in this is hurting my brain.

    8. Re:Basic astronomy ! by db32 · · Score: 1

      Honestly, it is this style of cosmic horror that scares me more than most of what goes on here on earth. Not that I think this instance specifically is going to be a problem for us (we will either have moved or killed ourselves off long before). But there is a WIDE array of cosmic badness that could happen to us that we can do absolutely nothing about. Hell, there is an extremely large number of things that we wouldn't even see coming.

      My personal favorite is when people learn of the whole magnetic field of earth flipping problem, they immediately key in on "oh my god, how could we live without all of our electronics working" which is something we did for a very long time before electronics. They tend to ignore "oh my god, how could we live without the giant shield stopping the sun from bombarding us with cosmic radiation" which is something we don't exactly have much experience with.

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    9. Re:Basic astronomy ! by amorsen · · Score: 1

      Previous flips of the magnetic field aren't correlated with mass extinctions. I find that quite surprising myseld, but it is at least somewhat reassuring.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  7. no golden handcuffs ? by KernelMuncher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am surprised Sun didn't tie Monty to the company with golden handcuffs (deferred compensation). His departure could have a negative effect on customer loyalty. And it sure does look bad for the founder to be leaving so quickly.

    1. Re:no golden handcuffs ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I think he is going to fork the GPL version and start from there. That way he has the money and the control over MySQL.

      Smart cookie, that Monty!

    2. Re:no golden handcuffs ? by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They probably had a 9-month contract to keep him around and now the 9 months are up.
      It is extremely common for the previous owner/ceo to bail out in a year or so after their company is acquired.

    3. Re:no golden handcuffs ? by swordgeek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Unless of course, you're a talentless, brainless, lying, two-faced, pony-tailed bastard with no future. Then you stay on until you get named CEO.

      Oops, was that my outside voice again?

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
    4. Re:no golden handcuffs ? by lgw · · Score: 1

      There's always a time limit on those agreements. Presumably the time limit is up.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  8. Please tell me... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...he's leaving to work on Python.

    I mean, the PSF needs good, experienced developers, and, um, that's all.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:Please tell me... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

      I mean, the PSF needs good, experienced developers, and, um, that's all.

      So you'd inflict them with the guy who congealed MySQL, of all things? What'd they ever do to you?

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re:Please tell me... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      C'mon mods!!! that was hucking filarious, right there ... no, there ... awww .. you missed it!

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    3. Re:Please tell me... by branteaton · · Score: 1

      Get it? _Monty_, working on.... wait for it... _Python_? Monty Python FTW?

      --
      this .sig intentionally inane.
    4. Re:Please tell me... by styrotech · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah I got it, but... _Monty_ ? shouldn't that be __Monty__(self) ?

    5. Re:Please tell me... by tieTYT · · Score: 1

      ...he's leaving to work on Python.

      If he's smart, he'll fork it and call it Monty's Python. Wakka wakka.

  9. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by sm62704 · · Score: 1

    He's running Chrome on a Sun box running Solaris! My, it's sure quiet, Larry.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  10. Well thats sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well that was just sad.

  11. Is it still MySQL? by peterdaly · · Score: 4, Funny

    With the founder leaving, the name MySQL no longer fits.

    Next slashdot poll...

    MySQL's new name should be:
    1. TheirSQL
    2. SunSQL
    3. JavaSQL
    4. CowboynealSQL

    I vote for #4.

    1. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sun N1 iPlanet Java System ONE database Enterprise Edition (R)

    2. Re:Is it still MySQL? by mr_mischief · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You forgot the version 9 at the end, even though there was no 6, 7, or 8.

    3. Re:Is it still MySQL? by ReverendRyan · · Score: 1

      And the actual version number on the file is 1.9.42

    4. Re:Is it still MySQL? by reidconti · · Score: 1

      You forgot the version 9 at the end, even though there was no 6, 7, or 8.

      Sun N1 iPlanet Java System ONE database Enterprise EditionOS 2.9?

    5. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Maelwryth · · Score: 1

      Nope, the next version should be FNQL.

      --
      I reserve the write to mangle english.
    6. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God please dont call it JavaSQL or you'll curse it forever with kludginess

    7. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know you're trying to be funny (and succeeding), but according to a Linux Journal interview I read several years ago it was named after his daughter Mya or something. Supposedly the "My" part of the name wasn't intended to connote ownership, but instead refer to Mya.

    8. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks. Now you've got me wondering what it would take to make CowboyNeal squeal - can someone please hand me the brain bleach? x.x

      (And my captcha is "probing". Heavens...)

    9. Re:Is it still MySQL? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      Sun N1 iPlanet Java System ONE database Enterprise Edition (R)

      You forgot: Sun N1 iPlanet Java System ONE database Enterprise Edition 2.0 Update 10 (R)

    10. Re:Is it still MySQL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sunsql should be the answer!!

  12. Drizzle an engineer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Brian Aker, who forked the Web 2.0-friendly Drizzle SQL database (and former Slashdot engineer!), remains at Sun."

    I guess I can understand how you can fork a database and an engineer, I have no idea how a database actually was an engineer.

  13. Monty on the Run by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Monty was last seen boarding a ferry to France.

    1. Re:Monty on the Run by Briareos · · Score: 1

      Auf Wiedersehen Monty!

      np: AFX - Reunion 2 (Chosen Lords)

      --

      "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole

  14. Why is this a surprise? by mislam · · Score: 1

    Why is this a surprise to anyone? It was expected from day one of the announcement. Atleast from my perspective.

  15. Well, I would do the same by eatfastnoodle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    isn't build a company, sell it to big guys and go into early retirement the ultimate dream of every nerd?

    1. Re:Well, I would do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes... after doing the most possible damage! To us, and to sun :-p

    2. Re:Well, I would do the same by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well no, the ultimate dream of every nerd is to have a threesome with Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman (petrified!) with hot grits down their pants, but I'm sure the retiring early thing is a close second.

    3. Re:Well, I would do the same by mr_mischief · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean besides hiring the guys who beat him up in high school to mow his 16-acre lawn?

    4. Re:Well, I would do the same by eatfastnoodle · · Score: 2, Informative

      that can and will happen after I have 1 billion in bank and tons of time to kill.

    5. Re:Well, I would do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually, no, if I wanted to identify a nerd then one of the first question I'd ask them is, "If you built a company, would you want to be able to sell it to the big guys so you could go into early retirement?" If they say "yes", they're absolutely not nerds.

      This annoys me because there are so many people who just want money and who pretend to be in with the whole nerd idealism thing, especially those in the Free software / OSS movement. They might be talented coders, but their care is to advance their name, their salary, their standing, their employment prospects, whatever, and their love isn't actually for advancement of scholarship or engineering.

      In fact, I know more people who have used OSS as a temporary CV builder than who stick with its ideals.

      (Yes, I know OSS isn't the whole of software engineering; feel free to generalise my point to those who make excellent proprietary software - Mathematica is an obvious example for me, where Wolfram, despite being a self-whoring brat with delusions of grandeur, isn't floating nor selling his company; instead he's produced a package that's stuck consistently to some very basic but effective principles that make coding beautiful once you get to learn them.)

    6. Re:Well, I would do the same by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure if I had a billion dollars, I could arrange something like that, and even throw Scarlet Johansen in for an extra couple of million. Damn I need to be a billionaire.

    7. Re:Well, I would do the same by AioKits · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm still researching to see if my ultimate dream is even legal in this state.

      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
    8. Re:Well, I would do the same by Marc+Desrochers · · Score: 1

      You left out: Marry hot supermodel.

    9. Re:Well, I would do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, you shouldn't need tons of time....

    10. Re:Well, I would do the same by chris_mahan · · Score: 1

      True nerds don't build billion-dollar companies.

      True nerds learn embedded system languages so they can program their train set at home.

      And sometimes, sometimes, help the rest of society with some of their pesky data problems.

      As long as it doesn't cut into model train time much.

      Substitute train set for 1/72 or 1/35 plastic-soldier painting and massive battles reenactments with a dog-eared battle rule book and battle tournament stats programs written in exotic languages.

      --

      "Piter, too, is dead."

    11. Re:Well, I would do the same by eatfastnoodle · · Score: 2, Funny

      well, I'm very strong physically, for a nerd

    12. Re:Well, I would do the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carly Fiorina has an account on /.?

    13. Re:Well, I would do the same by AlecC · · Score: 4, Informative

      Having slightly met Monty W, he is a true nerd. He didn't build a billion dollar company, he built a database that did what he thought databases should do. Many people do not exactly agree with him (see arguments on /. ad nauseam). But other people built a billion dollar company on that database. It deos not surprise me at all that he has taken his share of that billion dollars and walked off into the sunset. Maybe it is to Fiji, but even if it is, I would hazard a guess he will still be playing with databases on the beach.

      --
      Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
    14. Re:Well, I would do the same by jadavis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not sure I agree with your version of idealism. Sure, idealistic people never want to retire.

      The part I take exception to is that selling a business and moving on is somehow not idealistic. Selling out is not bad by itself, it's only bad if you hurt people in the process (e.g., if it's bought out just to destroy the company).

      The usual case is that some idealistic person creates something, it makes people happy, they don't care enough about business details to stick around, so they sell it to work on something else.

      We don't always hear about the "something else", because it's rare enough to create something great, so in all likelihood they won't do it twice in a row.

      If they stick around with the first thing that attracts attention, and never let it go, maybe it's because that person doesn't really have the courage to challenge himself again. How idealistic is that?

      And these "CV builders" you're talking about can be easily spotted if that's all they're in it for. Does it really interfere with anything the idealistic people are doing? If not, there are a lot of people who just see a job as a place to make money, it's not limited to IT people.

      --
      Social scientists are inspired by theories; scientists are humbled by facts.
    15. Re:Well, I would do the same by chris_mahan · · Score: 1

      Well in that case I'm really glad the suits didn't take all the money.

      --

      "Piter, too, is dead."

    16. Re:Well, I would do the same by viridari · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Russia, no less!

    17. Re:Well, I would do the same by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      sounds like Woz to a tee.

    18. Re:Well, I would do the same by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      Well no, the ultimate dream of every nerd is to have a threesome with Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman (petrified!) with hot grits down their pants, but I'm sure the retiring early thing is a close second.

      When you retire with a billion dollars you can most certainly fulfill the threesome dream.

  16. interesting timing by toby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Monty's been working on the interesting "Maria" transactional engine (evolved from, and compatible with MyISAM), which is slated to become MySQL's future default engine.

    Since they recently made a feature-complete ("no known bugs"!) release of Maria, I'm tempted to think that was his personal deadline to quit.

    Josh Berkus (core PostgreSQL developer) also recently quit Sun.

    I like Sun. I'm sad that they have lost these two brilliant database engineers, and I hope they go on and kick Oracle's (and that other company's) butt anyway.

    --
    you had me at #!
    1. Re:interesting timing by Sun+Chi · · Score: 2, Funny

      You can use "that other company's" name. I mean, we are talking about Microsoft here not Lord Voldemort, right?

    2. Re:interesting timing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, Maria isn't transactional. It was supposed to be, but it did't work out that way. Punting on transactions, they fell back to crash recoverable MyISAM. The next release is supposed to handle concurrent inserts. Other concurrent operations may follow someday. In the meantime, it doesn't support transaction backout, verb backout, two phase commit, transaction isolation, or any of the hard stuff.

      MySQL went with InnoDB because MyISAM wasn't transactional. MySQL went with Falcon because Maria didn't have credible plan to become transactional. And that was almost three years ago.

      Does Monty know how to write a transactional engine (or even think it's important)? Maybe, but so far, it's all smoke and no fire.

      --JS

    3. Re:interesting timing by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I'll vote for the "doesn't think it is important" option. That was the one thing that always annoyed me about MySQL. Rather than apologize for taking a while to support transactions the party line seemed to be that MySQL was better because it could trash your data 10X faster than the competition.

      Sure, I like having the option to speed things up by turning off transaction support. That is a wonderful feature to have. It is a horrible feature to require users to accept.

      What I'm waiting for is transactional support at the filesystem level. Why can't I open a transaction, move a bunch of files around, edit configuration files to point to the new location, and commit the transaction? The best we can currently do is have a reasonable shot of having a single file in a somewhat consistent state after a crash. There really isn't any reason that file systems can't truly be transactional.

    4. Re:interesting timing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does Monty know how to write a transactional engine (or even think it's important)?

      I doubt it. History indicates the opposite, on both accounts. I'd love to be proven wrong, however.

    5. Re:interesting timing by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      Isn't Falcon was supposed to become the default engine?

  17. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by teknopurge · · Score: 1

    In chrome the location ":%" apparently blows the thing up.

    Has nothing to do with mysql, other then the fact that google is planning on putting a lite sql db into chrome to facilitate gears.

  18. Re:I wonder if Sarah Palin can spell tomato by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't have the balls to mod me informative

  19. FUD (no way) by c0sine · · Score: 1

    It looks like BS, guys. According to the company LDAP DB this person is still here :-) Sounds like a typical case of FUD, which works as you can see from the comments...

    --
    Take care, Cos
    1. Re:FUD (no way) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody is ever removed from namefinder. Their account access may be terminated, but their accounts themselves remain indefinitely.

    2. Re:FUD (no way) by russotto · · Score: 2, Funny

      It looks like BS, guys. According to the company LDAP DB this person is still here :-) Sounds like a typical case of FUD, which works as you can see from the comments..

      Did you refresh your cache?

    3. Re:FUD (no way) by c0sine · · Score: 1

      It's simply not true. LDAP (shown through namefinder) is updated very quickly. I have a number of proofs of this :-)

      --
      Take care, Cos
    4. Re:FUD (no way) by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

      You told him to convert it to Java! Confess!

    5. Re:FUD (no way) by c0sine · · Score: 1

      Convert to Java which part? LDAP server? :-D

      --
      Take care, Cos
  20. I think at this stage in her career by toby · · Score: 1

    She doesn't get out of bed for less than $2 million.

    That's fine if it's your bed, I guess...

    --
    you had me at #!
  21. Falcon architect Starkey also gone by toby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's worth mentioning that Jim Starkey (inventor of MVCC, etc) also quit recently. (He joined MySQL in 2006 to work on Falcon.)

    So Sun has lost more database genius in 2008 than most companies ever had. :(

    --
    you had me at #!
    1. Re:Falcon architect Starkey also gone by NimbusDB · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes and no. I'm not longer a Sun employee, but still involved with Falcon with both a consulting gig and a separate code collaboration agreement. My primary project is NimbusDB, a database designed from the ground up for the cloud platform. But I'm still involved in Falcon code and meet with the rest of the Falcon team regularly. The really big difference is that I don't have to participate in interminable conference calls. That in itself makes a job worth quiting. [The comment above on Maria is also from me. Slashdot was not at all happy that my MySQL email address had disappeared into the ether.]

    2. Re:Falcon architect Starkey also gone by MikeO · · Score: 2

      Glad to see that (from the wikipedia link above) I'm not the oldest programmer reading slashdot, and very positive to know that the generation preceding me is still having an impact.

    3. Re:Falcon architect Starkey also gone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you love the effect of a guy not knowing hes talking to you but calling you a genius anyway?

    4. Re:Falcon architect Starkey also gone by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      but still involved with Falcon with both a consulting gig and a separate code collaboration agreement

      We are currently using MySQL/InnoDB and are converting the code to move to PostgresSQL because our tests show it faster in our highly transactional environment. We'd love to stay with MySQL but Falcon is too far out and too uncertain about it's capabilities.

      What are the expectations for Falcon in a non-Web transactional environment?

  22. And javascript by microbox · · Score: 1

    PHP and MySQL are both good but not great tools. What makes them useful is all the stuff that works with them. I would drop MySQL in a second for Postgres except that too many CMS and other packages use it. The same is true of PHP.

    And javascript. It's pretty flexible, but I think most people would prefer something saner, like smalltalk, java, c#, etc.

    --

    Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
    1. Re:And javascript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PHP and MySQL are both good but not great tools. What makes them useful is all the stuff that works with them.
      I would drop MySQL in a second for Postgres except that too many CMS and other packages use it. The same is true of PHP.

      And javascript. It's pretty flexible, but I think most people would prefer something saner, like smalltalk, java, c#, etc.

      awk is the best.

  23. After that it's for fun by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

    Some people keep working after their first billion. Like Bill Gates who kept running Microsoft for several years after he was a billionaire.
    But guys like Bill certainly don't need to keep working, so I guess they enjoy steering a big company.

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages
  24. what contradiction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "contradiction" links to the Kaj Arno post....where's the contradiction?

  25. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by lgw · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's already been fixed in the Chromium codebase, r1677, but the latest download seems to be r1583. If I were the Chrome team, I'd be in more of a hurry to get this particular fix out there.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  26. quel faux pas by toby · · Score: 1

    If I had eyes sharp enough I'd have noticed your initials on the post, instead of telling you something you already knew. Thanks for the clarification, and it's good to know that you're still involved in Falcon. :)

    --
    you had me at #!
  27. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by binarylarry · · Score: 1

    Yes, you have a point.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  28. Not Drizzle anymore, is now The Fume! by jaguth · · Score: 0

    But seriously, Brian Aker must be a huge ATHF fan to name an sql fork "Drizzle".

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Aqua_Teen_Hunger_Force_episodes

  29. Inventor? by konohitowa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since when does someone who codes up a partial SQL implementation get promoted to inventor status? It reminds me of a guy at work (one of those self-promoter types) telling me how he and his team "invented an XML".

    Perhaps Linux inventor Linus Torvalds and Melissa inventor David Smith could chime in with their thoughts on this.

    1. Re:Inventor? by RPoet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How is Linus any more of an inventor? He coded an operating system. Just because it's more work doesn't make it more of an invention. The "inventor" title should be reserved for people who come up with novel solutions of a new category.

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    2. Re:Inventor? by konohitowa · · Score: 1

      Yeah. I know. That was my point. I was being facetious.

    3. Re:Inventor? by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      How is Linus any more of an inventor? He coded an operating system. Just because it's more work doesn't make it more of an invention. The "inventor" title should be reserved for people who come up with novel solutions of a new category.

      Actually, Linux coded an Operating System kernel.

  30. Use stored procedures? by Electrawn · · Score: 0

    Connection connection;
    String sql = "{call whatIwannaDo (?) }";
    Statement stmt = connection.prepareCall(sql);
    stmt.setString(1,id);

    Works whether its on MySQL, Oracle, or MSSQL , assuming you have the procedure in place on all three.

    Granted, I agree that all servers support the standard. There are standard method workarounds in almost all languages to help make your app DB neutral.

    1. Re:Use stored procedures? by MikeO · · Score: 1

      As soon as anyone who is responsible for any reasonable amount of database-driven code (especially coded by a group of other programmers) allows String sql = "xxx" to occur, they have already lost. Lost the battles of security, extensibility, and portability.

    2. Re:Use stored procedures? by DuckDodgers · · Score: 1

      What's your superior alternative? I thought SQL query strings, possibly externalized with properties files or XML, was pretty common. Your query strings contain ? for parameter substitution or even better named parameters.

      The only alternative I know of is building an API that transforms object-oriented queries into SQL. That's fine for simple queries, but when you need a complicated query things get ugly quickly.

      All you really need is a good engineering team with disciplined code review. If you don't have that, you have other problems.

  31. Re:Chrome Users: new security flaw found by claytonjr · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's already been fixed in the Chromium codebase, r1677, but the latest download seems to be r1583. If I were the Chrome team, I'd be in more of a hurry to get this particular fix out there.

    If you were the Chrome team, You'd be a lot of people!

  32. IF by unity100 · · Score: 1

    so many stuff are using them, that means they ARE useful ffs.

    1. Re:IF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, yes. Why have you appended "ffs" to a post that says exactly the same thing as the post you are replying to?

      They are useful, because many things use them. This does not mean they are the best-designed, highest-performing, or most reliable tools available, but it does mean they are useful. I don't think anyone with a brain disgrees with that, even if they happen also to hate PHP and MySql with a vengeance.

      What was it we were disagreeing about again?

  33. Who Cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really, people, you need a gossip filter or something. How is this news?

  34. I'm afraid you are correct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those of us still toiling at Sun are wondering "how long now", as we await the September wave of RIFs. I can only hope that my 10+ years of support experience will give me a chance to re-apply for my job with whatever new masters we may get. While I start looking for something else. I know what terrible reputations the big firms lke Accenture have for quality of work life, long hours, etc.

    There is more than enough experience to be found in the Services group worldwide to open our OWN support or consulting shop and perhaps have the last laugh : )
    .

  35. Article Summary by nathanh · · Score: 2, Funny

    DELETE FROM sun WHERE name="Monty"

  36. IBM by speedtux · · Score: 1

    I think it would make sense for IBM to buy Sun. IBM gets Sun's enterprise customers and they get full control of Java (which means that they can finally open source it for real). I suspect IBM is just waiting for Sun's stock to fall to the right level.

  37. Monty says that they are sitll negotiating... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Monty says in Finnish Computerworld that they are still looking for position inside MySQL... http://www.tietoviikko.fi/infra_docview.jsp?f_id=1408820