But, the reality is "Just exactly how many open-source database products give you TOP TALENT who get up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to fix the bug which is currently keeping you from processing your payroll (and making 40,000 employees happy)?"
I agree that there are many good reasons for choosing Oracle over an open source database but Oracle is not the only company that supports database servers and applications.
Many vendors write sofware to open source databases and support them. I have written applications for clients using various database backends (firebird, mySQL, and Postgres). Our customers save money by using open source databases so that they can pay for our skills as programmers, and administrators.
I have monitoring tools that check the applications are performing correctly, and if they are not then an email is sent to my cell phone. I am usually able to fix a problem before a customer even knows it occured. (Fortunately it has been so long since my servers have called my cell phone that I don't even remember the last incident).
You're right. If you want support you have to pay for it, but before paying for an (oracleLicenceFee+paidSupport) management should consider a (freeDatabaseLicence+paidSupport).
Our first baby is on the way, so I know I'll never get to do something this irresponsible and useless again.:)
On the contrary you might find yourself sitting at home with friends watching DVDs more than ever before. What disappears is the ability for you and your wife to make a spur of the moment decision to go dancing, or *out* to a movie because you have to find a sitter.
Can you imagine someone telling Adobe to reduce their Photoshop interface down to one or two buttons? It would make no sense simply because editing a digital image is far more complex a process than 'search the web for these terms' to a user (though both may have similarly huge code bases behind them).
You hit the nail on the head. Software is complex when used to solve complex problems and easier for simple tasks.
A simple accounting package such as QuickBooks can seem tough to use for a user who doesn't have a basic understanding of bookkeeping. OTOH some software is so easy to use that people take it for granted. My girlfriend needed an office suite on her computer so I installed OpenOffice. Because one word processor is very much like every other wordprocessor she started using OpenOffice right away and had no problems even though the only other word processor she used is WordPerfect.
Now, my own design skills are somewhat limited. I can't make a snappy graphic-filled website without a lot of work
Snappy designs ARE a lot of work. My partner has an ability for creating great looking designs for browser based applications but I find as the design complexity increases the programming required to pull it off grows exponentially.
"Healthcare industry" includes doctors as well as nurses and radiology technicians.
"Automotive industry" includes engineers as well as line workers.
F***ing elitist
I thought you had a good point and was about to mod the comment insightful. Too bad you ruined a good comment with a needless expletive.
My mistake. I followed the imdb link in a parent post, but didn't realize that the link was to a Star Wars TV show, and not the current "revenge of the sith" movie.
I was all excited that someone else was directing the next Star Wars. It gave me a new hope (excuse the pun).
Then I found out that Genndy Tartakovsky's claim to fame is cartoon shows like Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Lab. It sounds like this movie will once again be targeted to children, and will be of little interest to me except to get some closure on movie series.
Oh well. At least I still enjoy reading the books.
Democracy doesn't just need more voters, it needs more informed voters. Offering a lottery may get more people to the booths but these people might not know any of the issues, don't pay attention to the news but want a free lottery ticket.
I think it'd take care of the AC demands of most of North America, if them clever Canadians can just figure out a way to export this.
http://www.lincolnenergy.com/ does this already (note: I don't work there so I don't know all the ins and outs but I will try to explain what I can figure out from talking to a friend of mine who does)
Canadian climate is harsh. With the exception of the west coast much of Canada experiences hot summers, and cold winters. You probably know that while the surface temperature of the Earth changes quickly the temperature a couple hundred feet down usually stays at the average temperature of the region. Lincoln energy uses a technology they call "GeoThermal Exchange" which uses the Earth's heat to cool down buildings in the summer, and warm them up in the winter. The technology does not require as large a setup as the one described in this article and can be economical for single buildings. To quote from their website:
From small stand-alone restaurants and gas stations to thousand-room hotel towers, the principles remain the same while the systems themselves vary greatly in size and capacity.
A simple system might consist of a single ½-ton GeoExchange unit, while a high-rise office building may use hundreds of GeoExchange units deployed throughout a multi-ton heating and cooling system.
I am going to move my office file server from a single drive to a mirrored raid drive. After some simple google searches for a linux compatible controller the promise name came up a number of times. I was going to go with that.
You must be a patient soul because I'm not sure that I would try teaching my Mom how to program despite the fact that she is very competent at everything else that she has tried on a computer.
However if I was to recommend any language to learn on it would either be Delphi/Kylix for desktop software, or LAMP for the web.
Delphi/Kylix
Is easy to use for beginners,
powerful enough to build real applications with.
For the novice user Delphi has an excellent set of visual widgets that you can use to create neat looking applications quickly.
The language you use to tie these widgets together is essentially PASCAL which was designed from day one to be a language for learning how to program.
PASCAL(Delphi) is very consistent, and strongly typed which makes it easier for the compiler to help the novice.
Borland used to have a free personal version that you could download from their website, and
there are plenty of books for it available from my local halfprice-computerbooks store.
LAMP
You will likely need to set up apache/mysql/php and phpmyadmin (on either windows or linux but once you get past that initial setup php is an easy langage to learn
Web programming might be more interesting to the novice, and have some immediate practical uses
Please tell me they are leaving that dreadful theme song behind.
I loved the original theme song for Enterprise and thought they changed it for the worse at the beginning of this season. Which theme song don't you like? The original one, or the season three theme? Or both?
I've tried drafting, too, as a method for saving gas and found no noticeable benefit. I believe one problem with this theory is that when you follow the car in front of you too closely you get stuck in accelerate ->decelerate -> accelerate ->decelerate.
The most effective method for saving gas for me is cruise control. I live out in the burbs with a 30km commute into town. About 2/3 of that distance is on the highway.
P.S. I had a '96 Saturn SL1 that got amazing highway economy too. ~9 litres per 100 kilometres.
Have a look at companies like SGI, Nvidia, Sun, Microsoft, Sun and IBM, and the OpenGL logo. All of these companies logos are either abstract shapes or just an rearrangement on the companies name.
The Open Source community would be overjoyed, and the Java user community would be relieved, if Sun were to guarantee the perpetually open nature of Java by Open Source-ing its implementations.
I make a living writing custom browser based applications, and mostly use JSP/Servlets for the job. . . So I feel that I am part of the "Java user community" and as such I can tell you that I would feel no relief if Sun chose to open source Java.
Microsoft effectively broke Java by extending it to allow the implimention of native windows widgets that wouldn't run cross platform and since Sun owns Java they were able to sue, and win. I think if Java were open source MS would be free to break it again. It's an old argument and one that we have heard over and over again but it has staying power, I believe, because it is true.
Do you really trust a spammer to send you the real goods? Counterfeit drugs are rampant, and unless you purchased the drug from a reputable (liscenced) pharmacy, it is unlikely you are getting the real deal
Getting fake viagra might be a bummer but imagine getting fake birth control!
You could use Jasper Reports to design and create reports based on any JDBC datasource.
To work on your apache server you will need to install apache-tomcat. Of course if you have never programmed in Java you might be better off looking at one of the PHP solutions mentioned elsewhere.
windows developers have had access to gpl'd source for well over a decade... but that hasn't legally impaired their ability to make their products.
The GPL allows you to read the source code, learn from it and incorporate ideas into your own proprietary code. What you may not do is copy GPL code into your project.
GPL code is like a book in a library you can check it out read it, learn from it, but you may not copy a chapter republish it and try to make money off the original authour's work with out his consent.
Slashdot Mirror
But, the reality is "Just exactly how many open-source database products give you TOP TALENT who get up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to fix the bug which is currently keeping you from processing your payroll (and making 40,000 employees happy)?"
I agree that there are many good reasons for choosing Oracle over an open source database but Oracle is not the only company that supports database servers and applications.
Many vendors write sofware to open source databases and support them. I have written applications for clients using various database backends (firebird, mySQL, and Postgres). Our customers save money by using open source databases so that they can pay for our skills as programmers, and administrators.
I have monitoring tools that check the applications are performing correctly, and if they are not then an email is sent to my cell phone. I am usually able to fix a problem before a customer even knows it occured. (Fortunately it has been so long since my servers have called my cell phone that I don't even remember the last incident).
You're right. If you want support you have to pay for it, but before paying for an (oracleLicenceFee+paidSupport) management should consider a (freeDatabaseLicence+paidSupport).
Our first baby is on the way, so I know I'll never get to do something this irresponsible and useless again. :)
On the contrary you might find yourself sitting at home with friends watching DVDs more than ever before. What disappears is the ability for you and your wife to make a spur of the moment decision to go dancing, or *out* to a movie because you have to find a sitter.
Can you imagine someone telling Adobe to reduce their Photoshop interface down to one or two buttons? It would make no sense simply because editing a digital image is far more complex a process than 'search the web for these terms' to a user (though both may have similarly huge code bases behind them).
You hit the nail on the head. Software is complex when used to solve complex problems and easier for simple tasks.
A simple accounting package such as QuickBooks can seem tough to use for a user who doesn't have a basic understanding of bookkeeping. OTOH some software is so easy to use that people take it for granted. My girlfriend needed an office suite on her computer so I installed OpenOffice. Because one word processor is very much like every other wordprocessor she started using OpenOffice right away and had no problems even though the only other word processor she used is WordPerfect.
Snappy designs ARE a lot of work. My partner has an ability for creating great looking designs for browser based applications but I find as the design complexity increases the programming required to pull it off grows exponentially.
Other classic consoles are also available including Atari, Activision, Nameco.
Thanks sjbe.
So you can use a pivot table to quickly sort and group data. When does it make sense to use a pivot table instead of a simple sql query such as:
SELECT sum(Pop) FROM Country GROUP BY Continent ;
or
SELECT sum(GDP) FROM country GROUP BY Continent ;
My mistake. I followed the imdb link in a parent post, but didn't realize that the link was to a Star Wars TV show, and not the current "revenge of the sith" movie.
I was all excited that someone else was directing the next Star Wars. It gave me a new hope (excuse the pun).
Then I found out that Genndy Tartakovsky's claim to fame is cartoon shows like Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Lab. It sounds like this movie will once again be targeted to children, and will be of little interest to me except to get some closure on movie series.
Oh well. At least I still enjoy reading the books.
Democracy doesn't just need more voters, it needs more informed voters. Offering a lottery may get more people to the booths but these people might not know any of the issues, don't pay attention to the news but want a free lottery ticket.
Sorry. I should have linked the url. Here goes:
www.lincolnenergy.com
The site has a couple of interesting flash movies that explain how geoexchange works.
http://www.lincolnenergy.com/ does this already (note: I don't work there so I don't know all the ins and outs but I will try to explain what I can figure out from talking to a friend of mine who does)
Canadian climate is harsh. With the exception of the west coast much of Canada experiences hot summers, and cold winters. You probably know that while the surface temperature of the Earth changes quickly the temperature a couple hundred feet down usually stays at the average temperature of the region. Lincoln energy uses a technology they call "GeoThermal Exchange" which uses the Earth's heat to cool down buildings in the summer, and warm them up in the winter. The technology does not require as large a setup as the one described in this article and can be economical for single buildings. To quote from their website:
Yup. You're missing the fact that that IBM didn't write the code. Cloudscape wrote the code. Informix bought it, and then IBM bought Informix.
The $85 million price tag is not an abitrary figure but is the actual cost of the code when it was purchased in 1999.
This forum could not have come at a better time.
I am going to move my office file server from a single drive to a mirrored raid drive. After some simple google searches for a linux compatible controller the promise name came up a number of times. I was going to go with that.
Why don't you like promise?
You must be a patient soul because I'm not sure that I would try teaching my Mom how to program despite the fact that she is very competent at everything else that she has tried on a computer.
However if I was to recommend any language to learn on it would either be Delphi/Kylix for desktop software, or LAMP for the web.
Delphi/Kylix
LAMP
You will likely need to set up apache/mysql/php and phpmyadmin (on either windows or linux but once you get past that initial setup php is an easy langage to learn
Web programming might be more interesting to the novice, and have some immediate practical uses
Wait, 127.0.0.1 points to my machine! You're not protecting your brand, you're trying to hijack mine! Just wait until my lawyer hears about this! ;-)
And by posting your address on Slashdot the GP poster is probably planning to DDOS your connection.
You should install An Anti-DoS Tool That Returns Fire that will automatically launch a counter attack for you.
Please tell me they are leaving that dreadful theme song behind.
I loved the original theme song for Enterprise and thought they changed it for the worse at the beginning of this season. Which theme song don't you like? The original one, or the season three theme? Or both?
I've tried drafting, too, as a method for saving gas and found no noticeable benefit. I believe one problem with this theory is that when you follow the car in front of you too closely you get stuck in accelerate ->decelerate -> accelerate ->decelerate.
The most effective method for saving gas for me is cruise control. I live out in the burbs with a 30km commute into town. About 2/3 of that distance is on the highway.
P.S. I had a '96 Saturn SL1 that got amazing highway economy too. ~9 litres per 100 kilometres.
The parent post is perfecty on topic and IMHO should have been moderated informative, not offtopic.
Hopefully the uninformed moderator who made it offtopic will get busted in Meta-Moderation.
Reminds me of the famous quote by Margaret Thatcher:
Have a look at companies like SGI, Nvidia, Sun, Microsoft, Sun and IBM, and the OpenGL logo. All of these companies logos are either abstract shapes or just an rearrangement on the companies name.
Funny you should mention that. I went to SGI's website on your recommendation and on the front page is an ad that clearly features a picture of a penguin to emphasize their point of production quality linux
Microsoft effectively broke Java by extending it to allow the implimention of native windows widgets that wouldn't run cross platform and since Sun owns Java they were able to sue, and win. I think if Java were open source MS would be free to break it again. It's an old argument and one that we have heard over and over again but it has staying power, I believe, because it is true.
Do you really trust a spammer to send you the real goods? Counterfeit drugs are rampant, and unless you purchased the drug from a reputable (liscenced) pharmacy, it is unlikely you are getting the real deal
Getting fake viagra might be a bummer but imagine getting fake birth control!
Everybody who hasn't heard about web sites ship fake birth control should read this article and warn their friends.
You could use Jasper Reports to design and create reports based on any JDBC datasource.
To work on your apache server you will need to install apache-tomcat. Of course if you have never programmed in Java you might be better off looking at one of the PHP solutions mentioned elsewhere.
windows developers have had access to gpl'd source for well over a decade... but that hasn't legally impaired their ability to make their products.
The GPL allows you to read the source code, learn from it and incorporate ideas into your own proprietary code. What you may not do is copy GPL code into your project.
GPL code is like a book in a library you can check it out read it, learn from it, but you may not copy a chapter republish it and try to make money off the original authour's work with out his consent.