Dani's Blag

My views on the iPad are well captured by Tim Bray, Peter Kirn and Alex Payne

And like I said, the iPad makes sense for consumers, specially those using iTunes. Now with a new emphasis on video and books.

But sure you can still tinker with the iPad! There won’t be long after it’s shipping until the disassemblies and hacks come along voiding warranties like crazy…
In all seriousness, being closed is something we’re used to in the world of large corporations, no one wants them touching the precious IP, probably with good [greedy] reasons.

Apple morphed from the early tinkering duo (trio?) to the large public corporation with this model a long time ago.
And with those massive profits, Apple couldn’t care less about it’s products being open, they have the fanboys, the buzz, and media consumers are plenty…

It’s very easy at this point to predict the Tablet wars to come. Let’s see what else comes out, from Asus, Google & partners, HP, etc!

The main news is probably that Jobs can still be the visionary, and my guess is he sees the iPad for what it is, another great consumer business innovation.
And that’s what his excitement was all about!

It was actually somewhat interesting to follow a bit of NBC’s late-night time-slot wars of Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno.

But please, keep in mind this is a business, and a huge one by the way: all those ads, sponsors, and guests are there for profits, numbers and promotion purposes.
In fact, that’s what the whole entertainment business is all about. Only a small entertainer, that barely makes a profit, is there for the love of it. The bigger they are, the less they could care about the entertainment part, and more about the business part.

That lovable, funny, talented  host, his staff of writers and all the funny characters and sketches: it’s all part of the bait, and the bigger the fish they land, the better!

Some people form somewhat of an emotional connection to these characters, they let them into their home, and allow them to sell – and entertain. And it’s quite interesting to see what these hard-core fans write about these shows, as memorable as a few moments might be, they really forget that this is all about big business.

When you compare your paycheck to these guys, you probably should be focusing less on entertainment, and more on your own job.
Or at least keep in mind the networks, the hosts, and the whole entertainment industry itself don’t really care who you, personally, like best!

And that’s what I love about small businesses – they’re the small entertainer, in it for the love – and most important, they care so much they’ll only give you their very best jokes.

The latest buzz by TechChrunch was Ending [Their] Advertising Relationship With BigDeal, which was expected: if you’re not running a clear, legit model, your customers and affiliates will grow to hate you.

The people behind the pay-for-bids online auction business scam either don’t care for the outcome, or are happy to end there with their current profits.

But not only will they educate all customers victims to hate them, but they’re giving the competition more and more stability.
The pay-for-bid auction model is so complex, misleading, prone to manipulation that it turns out, customers can’t get a hold of anything they promise – the incredible deals if they win, or other good deals if they lose.

In contrast (whenever you talk online auctions) if I mention eBay: first you know what it is (their product placement made sure of that years ago), even if you don’t use it! But second, if you’ve bought from eBay, you know that the seller’s feedback counts, his number of sales count, but if he accepts PayPal, you’re covered no matter what!

A lot of businesses may come and go, but if you’re already starting on the wrong road – you can be sure you’re not going anywhere.
But I’m not worried, eBay will still be here!

Disclaimer: I have no connections with Oracle, Sun or MySQL [except using MySQL], Michael “Monty” Widenius or Monty Program AB. (The views expressed in this post are mine and I accept – and embrace – criticism.)

“Bert, what utter nonsense!”

My first guess is that with or without Oracle, MySQL wasn’t going away! Now I’m not so sure…

Although MySQL is a registered trademark, and does have very important assets as Michael “Monty” Widenius pointed out, this whole nonsense is hurting MySQL more than it’s helping.

I think Oracle simply wants to cover all markets, the huge MySQL market, which includes names like Google, Yahoo, Nokia, Facebook, Wordpress and every hosting company in the world. As well as Sun’s servers and storage markets. Getting JAVA is also a plus for Oracle!

Oracle is incredibly profitable (10k 2009) and has a long history of acquisitions (both of other Businesses and IP), they’re in this for the long run!
With IBM withdrawing the $7b bid for Sun earlier in 2009, it’s value was shaken, along with the current world economy (in times like these, big companies make big business) this was a great bet for Oracle and it’s shareholders, and the community isn’t going to lose!

Do you think MySQL is going to kill of Oracle? They’re completely different RDBMS products, in fact, it makes perfect sense for Oracle to bet on MySQL as well!

Other great reads (chronological order):
Why Oracle Won’t Kill MySQL by Victoria Barret @ Forbes on 2009-04-20
Mickos letter to EU: Approve Oracle-Sun deal by Mårten Mickos @ CNET News on 2009-10-20
Help keep the Internet free by Michael Widenius @ Monty says on 2009-12-28
Save MySQL, save the world by Mark Callaghan @ High Availability MySQL on 2009-12-29

According to xkcd, if we shorten the English Channel, there should be an immediate impact in the Prius gas mileage…

So I’m finally taking on the weblog hype!

As a php developer, I hate wordpress. It has an ugly and unmaintainable code… And yet I’m using it to run this blog.

With a strong community behind it, a well designed backend UI, lots of plugins, widgets and themes (and whatever else they might throw in), I simply can’t ignore it’s potential.
Yes, it’ll need adapting, but I’ll just set up my own mercurial repo and keep it up to date with it’s easy-on-the-neurons merging.

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