Colin Charles Agenda

Caught:

• Children of Men - not worth whatever it is they charge you in the cinema; interesting plot, but its just not my kind of story. Seen in Hobart…
• The Wrong Man - watch this! Worth every penny, interesting plot, well executed. Will keep you thinking and enjoying all along. Also seen in Hobart…
• What’s The Worst That Could Happen - funny. Its always good to have a laugh.
• My Boss’s Daughter - I think I’ve seen this before, at least partly, so it was wasted on me again.
• She’s The One - don’t waste your time. Love triangle, lack of sex, and one relationship that works? Pfft.
• Fun with Dick & Jane - funny. Its so nice to see that “justice” has been served. Comedy, in all good aspects.
• Mona Lisa Smile - its always interesting to break tradition, right?
• Picture Perfect - the usual love story, but keeping up appearances in an office to get a promotion? Seems like a selfish thing to do, but I have a feeling lots of employers think that way…
• Rumour Has it - I actually liked this show. I’d rate it as one of the best that I’ve watched all month, possibly.
• Click - funny, Adam Sandler flick, served a good reminder to not forget about the things in life that matter.
• Just Like Heaven - very interesting show. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
• The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift - if you’re into fast cars and girls, its not too bad.

All in all, Quickflix subscription is on hold, which is simply fabulous. Now to get some Real Work(TM) done (and some holidays).

So in the limelight of the con that PayPerPost was set out to be, the idea to bring balance to the force was to allow opt-in Disclosure Policies. It comes with a very nice policy generator (a good idea for open source types - here’s what someone needs to implement for allowing people to choose the various OSS licenses!), thats rather easy-to-use.

At Step 3 of 6, I did find it a bit odd. “The owner(s) of this blog will never receive compensation in any way from this blog.” Now, how can this be true? This is an option that can never exist, because the moment you start writing quality content, your blog or website starts generating interest, and you’re adding towards your Google Resume. Invariably, you will receive compensation, indirectly even, based on what you come up with.

Step 5 of 6. Wow, conflicts of interest. Of course this blog contains that - someone pays my crust, so there’s no telling why I won’t be writing about working there. But in the open source world, my conflicts of interest also lie in the projects that I favor. Which again, brings me back to the question: how do blogs not contain a conflict of interest? You’re bound to want to write about something that interests you. I do find the 4th option rather interesting, but very tedious to fill out.

Alas, I too now have a disclosure policy. And I apparently just made a menial sum for reviewing this. And I wish it would work, but opt-in items fairly do. Here’s hoping to keep the Web honest… it used to be back in the day (now, I sound ancient).

Technorati Tags: blogging, disclosure policy

BuilderAU released a recent article titled Developer skills outlook 2007: What’s hot for employers. There are a few things to take away from the article, that seem to apply not only to Australia, but elsewhere.

“The biggest issue that we see generally speaking is that the overall skill level of the developers is not where it needs to be,” said Jeff Pope, Asia Pacific vice president for Agitar Software.

The general idea of skills shortage. And its not that there’s a shortage of people in the market, the universities and TAFEs are churning them out by the dozen; its the lack of highly-skilled people. So where should aspiring IT people aim to spend their passion and hone their talents and ambitions in 2007?

It would seem that it’s in the Java and C# markets. Web 2.0 hasn’t taken off in Australia yet (probably because of the lack of ubiquitous availability of the Internet), but its an emerging market and Internet-based companies will be pressured to have lots of JavaScript-goodness.

And FOSS fans, don’t worry, you’re not left out: the LAMP jobs are a calling as well.

“There will be an increase in the number of companies using MySQL, PHP, and Linux as it gives them control over the development cycle and total costs, and reduces some of the sunk costs,” Manzoori said. “Developers with skills and passion in these areas should consequently be in demand.”

Average salary survey for 2006

Remuneration is always a key motivator, and Hays has released their annual salary survey. Junior testers are expected to start off at a little more than a full-time checkout-chick at Coles!

In Part II of their article, which circled around certification, there are some interesting points to take away from it as well. About how motivated, quick learning, and finding new information quickly, are key things a good developer needs. Having a string of papers or titles behind one’s name might not necessarily be the best solution, as experience is also valued over paper qualification. This is where Australia, clearly differs from Asia (in a good way).

Just under two more months till 2007 is here. If thinking about training & certification, especially in the open source arena, I can heartily recommend the LPI, and the MySQL 5.0 Developer & DBA certification, mainly because of cost (you can get an LPI proctor to give out the papers, to save even more). If you have a bit more coin, one of the Red Hat offerings are bound to be useful too.

Here’s hoping you have a prosperous new year, in getting that dream job and dream salary (maybe thanks to your newly developed skills).

Technorati Tags: australia, certification, salary survey, skills, training

Does anyone know how the FUDCon 2006 videos were made? I remember participating in making the FUDCon 1 videos, while talking to thomasvs on IRC to get things working, but my memory now fades me.

Within a minimal budget, what DV video camera can I buy now[1], that records to mini-DV tapes/hard disk/DVD, and can be interfaced to some Linux software to do live streaming or just on-disk recording?

I’m OK with a Firewire interface (4-pin preferred, 6-pin acceptable), USB would be nice too. And the video camera must work on Linux. And it’d be nice if it were kind of portable (they all seem to be these days). A plus point if it software records in open formats like OGG.

Also, if anyone knows, what’s good to edit video? Kino?

Thanks!

[1] - I notice the Linux1394 HCL. Is this current? It’d be excellent if there was a filter for “currently available” cameras.

Technorati Tags: camera, linux, video

MySQL MiniConf at linux.conf.au 2007
This implies I’m coming to linux.conf.au 2007 in Sydney next January. What’s more is that during the MiniConfs, we’ve got one for MySQL. Its on January 15th, and we’ve just put out the call for participation/papers. You have about eight (8) days left to submit a paper. So submit your tales of deployment, conference presentations, and I believe we’re even willing to accept “hand’s on” hacking sessions (ala what happened at MySQL Camp). Keep the wiki page handy, and submit goodies to mysql-miniconf[AT]mysql[dot]com.

Interview with Paddy Sreenivasan
Yes, Engineering Lead at Zmanda, they’re big on AMANDA and now have the Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) for MySQL. Paddy’s very interested in the online backup API and we’ve been communicating for quite a while.

Connector/PHP
We give you Connector/PHP with MySQL Community Server 5.0.27 and PHP 5.2.0. In the very near future, we’ll bring you updated packages for the 4.1 series as MySQL AB is going to be releasing it soon.

Technorati Tags: connector, interview, LCA, linuxconfau, miniconf, mysql, paddy, php, sreenivasan, zmanda

A recent edition of Business 2.0 had the cover story titled Blogging for Dollars. It seemed to highlight how advertising dollars was bringing in money for bloggers. I’ve known people say that they’ve become “full-time bloggers” just by writing product reviews (of products they don’t even own/touch - so they just lift off Gizmodo, etc. and add opinions), and say that AdSense (or similar) pay-offs is all you need to survive.

This is what led me to try ReviewMe. It calculates a blog’s worthiness by a mix of Technorati rankings, Alexa ratings, and estimated RSS feed subscribers (probably taken via the Technorati rankings? Or maybe blogs that have a FeedBurner ranking might help?). Once its given you a ranking (via stars), it gives you a price tag as to what your blog is worth.

Assuming your blog is worth $250, the moment an advertiser decides to “hire you”, ReviewMe gets to keep 50% of the earnings, and you, the blogger, get to take the remaining 50%. Thats $125 richer you can be, just for writing a review. All for anything over 200 words.

Thats a range of 10-62.5 cents per word! Way more than struggling newspaper writers are expected to get. But that’s not what interests me. I’m interested in if this entire idea itself can work.

So I took a gander to find the rather (once-famous) Ubuntu Blog. Its got high Technorati rankings, not so high Alexa rankings, and the ReviewMe algorithm decides its worth $250. However, this blog in itself, has not been updated since the end of September 2006!

How does an outdated blog get such high rankings? What about potential advertisers that don’t perform sufficient due diligence, and trust ReviewMe’s ratings? The Ubuntu Blog is a clear example that its statistics might be a bit skewed, as blogs tend to lose readership if they’re not updated frequently.

And Googling for information about increasing one’s Alexa rankings are suspect at best. Everyone that has something to say about it, says you need to install the Alexa toolbar. Which ironically, only runs on Internet Explorer. Why doesn’t the Google PageRank play into getting a higher blog rating, then?

This world of search engine optimization (SEO) is an interesting one. More interesting, its great to see people getting to sit at home in their underwear and blog, podcast, videocast, and experiment with new media, and get paid for it.

And the ReviewMe way is very much like how Zooomr tried to get customers - by giving away 2.5gb account to bloggers. Who wins the game? Its hard to say, but I’m still a Flickr user. This ends my paid experimentation for now; more thoughts to come, I’m sure. (yes, ReviewMe are paying people who have blogs to review them.)

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, media, newmedia, reviewme, seo

Skype 2.5 Beta is out for Mac OS X. Bottom line is, I’m rather excited and hope that we’ll see more of this in Linux land (webcam support, SMS).

I eagerly tried out the SMS feature, which is something I’ve longed for. It costs 0.071 Euros to send a message to an Australian mobile. At today’s exchange rates, thats about 12 cents Australian. Cheapest SMS sending facility available, I would think (15 cents on the 3 network, 25 cents on the Optus network), save for free services such as smspup.

By default it sends out messages sent out as your Skype name. What they don’t tell you in their default warning is that the custom ID is usually limited to the first 11 characters. For that, you’ve got to learn about setting your sender ID. All fine and well, another 12 cents down the drain and now SMS messages sent from Skype look like they come from my mobile phone!

I can imagine this being annoying when I move between Australia and Malaysia and want my number to be set in a certain way, but I’ll worry about that when the time actually comes.

The Show History feature is completely useless. Last time I used to be able to tell what calls were made, and what the duration of the call was going to be. To make it more useful, it should have shown me how much it was going to cost. Now the only way to get such information is via logging into their web-based interface.

Reviewing the changelog it does seem like some of the bugs that annoyed me (like not seeing any text in a Skype chat window when the main chat window was closed - affectionately known as the grey blank chat window) have been fixed. Maybe it’ll be more friendly with my USB headset (i.e. I don’t have to go to Preferences to “activate” it).

Technorati Tags: beta, macosx, skype, sms, webcam

While certain parliamentary members are wielding a kris, in hopes of telling the rest of Malaysia not to bring up Article 11 and 121(1A) of the Constitution (in where fairness, irrespective of race, should be practiced), Michael Backman decided to write: While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry.

Yes, Malaysia (and majority of Malaysians - seeing by the voters and the current coalition in power) has a grossly inflated sense of its place in the world. Yes, we didn’t need the Petronas Twin Towers; its not even the tallest any longer, and last time I visited illegally, it was rather empty. I never knew Suria KLCC (the shopping mall) was managed by the Westfield group!

Now they plan on sending some fool into space (the first Malay and not Malaysian in space might I add) at a cost of nearly RM100 million. He’s going to play Malay children’s games without gravity! (news clipping) It seems Petronas will only have oil till 2025, and maybe about till 2040 for gas; oil importing begins in 2011.

He ends, with “That’s not Malaysia “boleh”, that’s Malaysia “bodoh” (stupid).” And I cannot agree more. The rights of Malays today are thanks to Petronas oil. When that runs out, I’d like to see where else they go. After about sixty years of hand-outs, I doubt much will change. Its no wonder there’s a brain drain in Malaysia…

(as always, there’s some rabid discussion at Jeff Ooi’s Screenshots.)

Technorati Tags: article, braindrain, malaysia, politics, racism, stupidity