Re:What happened to Clustra?
on
Sun Eyes PostgreSQL
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I agree - I can't believe Sun are quite that stupid, but I've been wrong on that score before, and they do have a reputation for buying and burying things.
Hoho, Mandelson never learns. So much for third time lucky. For the non-Brits that might be around, Peter Mandelson is something of a Blair loyalist, who is actually now in his third senior political incarnation.
First up, he was in the cabinet culminating in Trade Secretary, but had to resign after it was discovered he had taken a loan of £373,000 (about $700,000) from another minister and not declared it in the public records.
A few years later, long enough for Blair but not the rest of the population to forget, he was back "resurrected" as it were (apt, as he's also known as the Prince of Darkness) to be the Northern Ireland secretary. Guess what, not that long after it transpired he was involved with a dodgy claim by some rather wealthy businessmen to gain British passports.
He got the Trade Commissioner job by merit Blair being blind to his foibles. So, now we discover that he's been taking benefits in kind, presumably rather on the sly, from a co-founder of Microsoft that just happens to have been landed with a hefty fine by the EU.
Faced with frequent flights down from Glasgow to London, I've been listening to BBC radio (In Our Time PodCast) and audio books (so far Dirk Gently).
Certainly beats looking out the window and sternly avoiding making eye contact with my adjacent passengers.
Yup, it was a truly superb piece of engineering. One of those rare cases of an innovative and well executed piece of software doing something really very unique and very, VERY well. Being able to upgrade the OS underneath the DBMS without having to shut down the database server was very, very cool. And linear scalability too. And a great team of engineers and execs in the company.
SQL engine was bought from another company, IIRC, and added to version 4 (which 'till then had a heavy telco focus). It was very SQL-92 compliant, which irritated the hell out of one or two Oracle developers on a project I helped with. But did the job well for JDBC back-end type stuff.
Some three years ago, folk might recall Sun picked up a superb little database outfit by the name of Clustra. They buried it in iPlanet.
Used it a lot myself, and felt that - like many other companies Sun have bought - the pointy haired bosses there just didn't realise what they'd acquired.
Maybe a much-needed clue has finally hit home at Sun, and they're going to give Clustra the lease of life it sorely needs and deserves.
ctrl-alt-del keys?
on
A .Net CPU
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· Score: 5, Funny
They must be very small, but I think I can see them if I look really closely and squint a bit.
As the systems were seized in the UK, it seems that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary here, was involved in approving the FBI request.
The Register covers this in more detail, stating that parliamentary questions have been tabled asking "what recent discussions [The Home Secretary] has had with US law enforcement agencies concerning the seizure of material from UK-based internet hosting providers; and if he will make a statement."
I'd expect we'll see his evasion^h^h^h^h^h^h^hanswer appearing on the excellent theyworkforyou.com
A bit of a plug this, from somebody who knew next to nothing about Coral biospheres until very recently.
If, like me, you find yourself visiting Cairns, and planning on a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, you'd do very well to pay a visit to Reef Teach the night before.
Superb, extremely interesting and enjoyable overview of coral reef biodiversity, and very good at providing an overview of the threats faced by the reef, both manmade and natural. Cheap too, and free biscuits:-)
As their blurb states, "through understanding comes appreciation". Snorkling around the reef was one of the best parts of my recent world trip - apart from the sunburn I picked up by being too quick into the water. It was a huge shame the tour boat didn't much of a job of advising people of the threat we pose to the environment when out on the reef.
If you fancy yourself as a eco-friendly geek, like me, you certainly would do well to visit Reef Teach.
Whilst I do like Google, I think they need to be very careful about the next few years. There *will* be rivals (Microsoft foremost, of course) in the search-engine space. Ads are one thing, but if people aren't visiting google out of preference for their search engine needs, much of the rest of their business model falls apart.
The hype - almost hysteria at first - surrounding the Google IPO has so much resonance with the dot gone fun of a few years ago, they would do well to look to the future without forgetting the pertinent and still relevant lessons of the past. Just because the stock market thinks you're worth $billions, doesn't mean it'll stay that way, or that you really are worth that much.
Remember Netscape? The parallels are noticeable. Cornered market until MS got there with IE and ownership of the desktop. It's a different political world now though, but it's worth remembering.
And for a company that's historically been very secretive, how will that play out in the publicly listed world?
In the UK, you don't have to have annoying ads breaking up your programming
Not true. Well, sorta not true. On the BBC it's certainly true we have no commercial breaks within programmes, but the Beeb has an increasingly annoying habit of trailing it's own programmess as if they were adverts. About the only way it can get an audience sometimes for some of it's offerings (anybody remember the BBC Tivo hoo-ha a year or two ago?). It's still miles better than the commercial channels (of which we have ITV, Channel 4 and 5 on terrestial, and *many* more on terrestial digital and Satellite), but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
Saying that, it used to be that the BBC broadcast the cricket (bear with me here, I'll not starting talking about LBW rules). Test series (you know, the five day matches that often end in a draw... Start your jokes NOW) were broadcast in their entiriety with nary a break for mother nature. Along came Channel 4 (focused on 'minority' programming, Oh, the irony to the non-cricket lovers) and promptly put adverts in.
Similarly with F1 coverage here when it moved to ITV. A heck of a storm kicked up: The end of the 'decent' coverage; How-can-they-do-it etc. etc. (Every change in this country is met with the usual conservative (note the lower-case 'c') pundits who suggest it's the end of the world)
But, the scary thing is, in BOTH cases, the coverage is IMNSHO immensly better, and dare i say it, actually better FOR the adverts, which are placed carefully (Cricket during changes of end; F1 every 20-30 mins with replays straight after of any important action). Certainly for my bladder, but it's nice to have an imposed break every now and then. Try watching Ben Hur on video and tell me the recorded intermission isn't good, and you'll see what I mean;-)
I've puzzled and pondered this issue myself a few times, and even in the small company I work for, with just laptops to worry about, means it's really just fighting a Microsoft addiction I - as Linux/Mac user - worry about.
But in this discussion, I'd think it'd be very informative to find out how Sun, Apple, Oracle and other publicly avowed Microsoft dislikers run their business? Surely they, more than anybody else, has a business strategy at all levels to use non-MS products for their business operations, preferably their own.
Clearly, Apple, Sun and so on use MS in various parts of their organisation. They'd be unable to develop their products without MS systems, but across the organisation as a whole, what do they use for all of the problems you describe?
I've heard stories of Sun types pulling out Windows laptops and getting tuts from the techies in the room, but that was a few years ago, prior to StarOffice...
The real shame in the UK is - from conversations with techie friends and colleagues - it had just started to really catch on when they dinged it. Now Sky+ seems to be the market leader but, of course, requires a Sky subscription.
I can hear it now, a phone call from my Windows/56k modem afflicted parents, "Why's it all so slow?".
To which the only real reply is "Because Bill knows best Mum. Because Bill knows best". Add to this the fact that they crank up their computer on a six-monthly basis, and would probably stop altogether if each time they did, it rebooted the PC. Not that much different from MSBlast, really.
Well, in that case "food" lovers in the UK should make a bee-line to the Great British Beer Festival (Here's the google cache, as the site's been a bit flaky the last day or two).
It starts this Tuesday at London's Olympia, and in previous years is said to be the largest pub in the world in terms of selection of beer, and IIRC, number of customers:)
"The number one sin of programming is code duplication." - me
On a similair note, I recall a lecturer at my old University saying something along the lines of: "The single worst invention for programming was copy and paste".
The program is truly awesome in it's usefulness and geek-chic factor, but don't forget that it's time-(limited/crippled), ie. it's good to the end of February, which gives you a mere week!
There's no indication of how much it'll be to buy at the moment, but hopefully not too much. I'd not want to spend more than £10-£20 on this, as a techy it's of limited 'real' use.
Here's hoping the author will issue another time-limited release...
Slashdot Mirror
If you'll excuse the shameless link, I've written up my thoughts in more detail here, and in the last /. post on the "SunDB" matter back in Feb, a bit of agreement was to be found on the Clustra theory. My disclaimer is, I suppose, that I've worked with and used Clustra, and live in hope Sun will see the sense of their purchase.
First up, he was in the cabinet culminating in Trade Secretary, but had to resign after it was discovered he had taken a loan of £373,000 (about $700,000) from another minister and not declared it in the public records.
A few years later, long enough for Blair but not the rest of the population to forget, he was back "resurrected" as it were (apt, as he's also known as the Prince of Darkness) to be the Northern Ireland secretary. Guess what, not that long after it transpired he was involved with a dodgy claim by some rather wealthy businessmen to gain British passports.
He got the Trade Commissioner job by merit Blair being blind to his foibles. So, now we discover that he's been taking benefits in kind, presumably rather on the sly, from a co-founder of Microsoft that just happens to have been landed with a hefty fine by the EU.
Why am I not surprised?
More here on the esteemed gentlemans career if you don't like bitter and twisted British political mumblings.
Faced with frequent flights down from Glasgow to London, I've been listening to BBC radio (In Our Time PodCast) and audio books (so far Dirk Gently). Certainly beats looking out the window and sternly avoiding making eye contact with my adjacent passengers.
Yup, it was a truly superb piece of engineering. One of those rare cases of an innovative and well executed piece of software doing something really very unique and very, VERY well. Being able to upgrade the OS underneath the DBMS without having to shut down the database server was very, very cool. And linear scalability too. And a great team of engineers and execs in the company.
SQL engine was bought from another company, IIRC, and added to version 4 (which 'till then had a heavy telco focus). It was very SQL-92 compliant, which irritated the hell out of one or two Oracle developers on a project I helped with. But did the job well for JDBC back-end type stuff.
I'm crossing my fingers here so much it hurts.
Used it a lot myself, and felt that - like many other companies Sun have bought - the pointy haired bosses there just didn't realise what they'd acquired.
Maybe a much-needed clue has finally hit home at Sun, and they're going to give Clustra the lease of life it sorely needs and deserves.
They must be very small, but I think I can see them if I look really closely and squint a bit.
Not provocative at all that. No. Not in the slightest.
I'm sure the flamewar that no doubt follows is merely a figment of our collective imaginations.
The Register covers this in more detail, stating that parliamentary questions have been tabled asking "what recent discussions [The Home Secretary] has had with US law enforcement agencies concerning the seizure of material from UK-based internet hosting providers; and if he will make a statement."
I'd expect we'll see his evasion^h^h^h^h^h^h^hanswer appearing on the excellent theyworkforyou.com
Superb, extremely interesting and enjoyable overview of coral reef biodiversity, and very good at providing an overview of the threats faced by the reef, both manmade and natural. Cheap too, and free biscuits :-)
As their blurb states, "through understanding comes appreciation". Snorkling around the reef was one of the best parts of my recent world trip - apart from the sunburn I picked up by being too quick into the water. It was a huge shame the tour boat didn't much of a job of advising people of the threat we pose to the environment when out on the reef. If you fancy yourself as a eco-friendly geek, like me, you certainly would do well to visit Reef Teach.
Whilst I do like Google, I think they need to be very careful about the next few years. There *will* be rivals (Microsoft foremost, of course) in the search-engine space. Ads are one thing, but if people aren't visiting google out of preference for their search engine needs, much of the rest of their business model falls apart.
The hype - almost hysteria at first - surrounding the Google IPO has so much resonance with the dot gone fun of a few years ago, they would do well to look to the future without forgetting the pertinent and still relevant lessons of the past. Just because the stock market thinks you're worth $billions, doesn't mean it'll stay that way, or that you really are worth that much.
Remember Netscape? The parallels are noticeable. Cornered market until MS got there with IE and ownership of the desktop. It's a different political world now though, but it's worth remembering.
And for a company that's historically been very secretive, how will that play out in the publicly listed world?
Not true. Well, sorta not true. On the BBC it's certainly true we have no commercial breaks within programmes, but the Beeb has an increasingly annoying habit of trailing it's own programmess as if they were adverts. About the only way it can get an audience sometimes for some of it's offerings (anybody remember the BBC Tivo hoo-ha a year or two ago?). It's still miles better than the commercial channels (of which we have ITV, Channel 4 and 5 on terrestial, and *many* more on terrestial digital and Satellite), but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
Saying that, it used to be that the BBC broadcast the cricket (bear with me here, I'll not starting talking about LBW rules). Test series (you know, the five day matches that often end in a draw... Start your jokes NOW) were broadcast in their entiriety with nary a break for mother nature. Along came Channel 4 (focused on 'minority' programming, Oh, the irony to the non-cricket lovers) and promptly put adverts in.
Similarly with F1 coverage here when it moved to ITV. A heck of a storm kicked up: The end of the 'decent' coverage; How-can-they-do-it etc. etc. (Every change in this country is met with the usual conservative (note the lower-case 'c') pundits who suggest it's the end of the world)
But, the scary thing is, in BOTH cases, the coverage is IMNSHO immensly better, and dare i say it, actually better FOR the adverts, which are placed carefully (Cricket during changes of end; F1 every 20-30 mins with replays straight after of any important action). Certainly for my bladder, but it's nice to have an imposed break every now and then. Try watching Ben Hur on video and tell me the recorded intermission isn't good, and you'll see what I mean ;-)
Here's the correct link. Good to see Editorial control and reviewing is still as strong as ever.
But in this discussion, I'd think it'd be very informative to find out how Sun, Apple, Oracle and other publicly avowed Microsoft dislikers run their business? Surely they, more than anybody else, has a business strategy at all levels to use non-MS products for their business operations, preferably their own.
Clearly, Apple, Sun and so on use MS in various parts of their organisation. They'd be unable to develop their products without MS systems, but across the organisation as a whole, what do they use for all of the problems you describe?
I've heard stories of Sun types pulling out Windows laptops and getting tuts from the techies in the room, but that was a few years ago, prior to StarOffice...
So, anybody know what these guys use?
Check out the video to Ben Hur, there's a 5 minute "interlude" included on the video itself which had me chuckling.
It demands to be honoured. Pop out and relieve yourself, AND make a cup of tea, without using the accursed pause button.
'tis for wimps.
More like HAL than Star Trek, IMNSHO.
Hopefully it's sorted in the new models.
I can hear it now, a phone call from my Windows/56k modem afflicted parents, "Why's it all so slow?".
To which the only real reply is "Because Bill knows best Mum. Because Bill knows best". Add to this the fact that they crank up their computer on a six-monthly basis, and would probably stop altogether if each time they did, it rebooted the PC. Not that much different from MSBlast, really.
It starts this Tuesday at London's Olympia, and in previous years is said to be the largest pub in the world in terms of selection of beer, and IIRC, number of customers :)
See you there :-)
That's big, I think you'll agree.
What happened to the "piles" document management system that was mentioned previously?
Anybody know? I was looking forward to hearing more about this, but fear it's fallen by the wayside...
Did I miss the review? Didn't learn anything that a swift glance at the back cover in a bookshop wouldn't have told me.
C- - Must do better.
For a much better, and more detailed, discussion of Recovery Oriented Computing, you're better off visiting the ROC group at Berkeley, specifically David Paterson's writings.
"The number one sin of programming is code duplication." - me
On a similair note, I recall a lecturer at my old University saying something along the lines of: "The single worst invention for programming was copy and paste".
The program is truly awesome in it's usefulness and geek-chic factor, but don't forget that it's time-(limited/crippled), ie. it's good to the end of February, which gives you a mere week!
There's no indication of how much it'll be to buy at the moment, but hopefully not too much. I'd not want to spend more than £10-£20 on this, as a techy it's of limited 'real' use.
Here's hoping the author will issue another time-limited release...