Colin Charles Agenda

We had about a 70% increase in applications for the Google Summer of Code, in the last 24-hours. This prompted me to post to the summer-discuss list, pimping some new projects. We’re rocking in getting external mentors, for projects that will benefit the community:

• I already pimped Sheeri a few days ago, and she’s got the MySQL Auditing Software up her sleeve
• We’ve also got Paul McCullagh (of PBXT storage engine fame), wanting The “anti-profiler” - a performance analysis tool for database engines

Now comes the interesting task of separating the wheat from the chaff. We prefer applications that are specific (don’t send an application saying you’ll work on anything - thats not a strong application, at all). Check your feedback. We can’t be emailing all of you individually and tying that in with the Google web-app, as well.

In case anyone’s wondering why the Friday->Saturday has given us a 70% increase in applications, I’m pretty certain its the idea behind college kids liking to procrastinate and leaving things to the last minute. Guess this is going to make my weekend, interesting.

Technorati Tags: google summer of code, gsoc, summer of code, learn, code, mysql, auditing, profiling, performance analysis, performance

It is. Look what gems I found today:

• Ubuntu Feisty will have a cool command-not-found package. It will tell you where to find said application, and how to install it. Look at the examples in Alan Pope’s blog entry. (apparently, this is in Edgy)
• Fluendo has got some amazing codecs, and its worth supporting them by buying it. Fedora 7, instead of complaining of a missing codec everytime you try to play something, will have a codec buddy, according to Chris Blizzard.

All this means great things for Linux users. And new Linux users. Think about how easy all this will be, for the average home user? They follow something online, they hit up the command line, and they get helped. Even better if they don’t have to hit up the command line, just pop the DVD in, Totem sees it, it doesn’t have the correct codec, and voila, codec buddy helps you go to the Fluendo store, selecting exactly what you need. Have credit card handy, and you’re ready to watch your content.

Keeping in mind, that your mother will not want to know the difference between Windows Media or MPEG2. She’ll just want it to work! (In fact, after being spoiled by OS X for over 1.5 years, I too just want things to work.) Of course now, I do hope that both the Linux community distribution behemoths share these cool features (or should I say, adapt from each other).

Technorati Tags: end user, linux, friendly, command-not-found, codec buddy, fluendo, codecs, usability

Been feeling subpar today, as in I woke up with aching bones, and a runny nose. Its probably because of the stress the body has undergone to re-arrange the lab/office in a more sensible fashion. Also, my Dell PowerEdge arrived today (I hate waiting around for these delivery guys to rock up), and that literally weighed a metric tonne. Much heavier than 30kgs, but at least it has 4 processors, so I should be able to do some SMP testing real soon now. Seems to require 3 power supply plugs, so its probably not a box I want to have running regularly. Lots of SCSI disk storage (hot-swappable), there are 3 disks there to boot, so that should be fun.

Yesterday I also managed to clear drawers and throw out an amazingly large amount of junk - user manuals, diskettes with drivers, etc. things that a normal Linux user will never ever require (for old, obscure hardware that might not even be here any longer). Will definitely take photos of the new arrangement in due time, as I’m thinking of getting rid of the 17″ CRT that’s here, and maybe even getting an 8-port data switch (to replace the 4-port), and possibly a 16-port switch (because the current 8-port one is full up). I recall buying 17″ Benq LCD’s last year for $230, and now, they seem to have gone up in price at $239! No such luck with finding 15″ ones retail.

Its global sports day at work today. I was told that maybe my sport was carrying a PowerEdge up a flight of stairs, single handedly. Yes, there was sweat. Perhaps the other sport was cooking while on a conference call with Kaj & Lenz. I made a mean pasta, and the sauce (two open fires), while being on the phone. Looks like I can multitask.

Well, that’s right. Student applications close this Saturday, the 24th, so I’d be right in saying its mid-week, so get your applications coming in for the Google Summer of Code.

To be a bit of a tease, MySQL has actually upped the amount of projects that we think students can accomplish, by adding a brand new section on Replication and Backup Development. Everyone talks about backing up, and this is an excellent way for a student to get inspired by doing something seriously important!

Sheeri Kritzer, long time MySQL DBA and prolific Planet MySQL author, has also decided that she’s going to mentor MySQL Auditing Software. While this is not something that will make the main tree (i.e. its not part of the server), it is excellent to be another project all by itself. More supporting MySQL-based software, is a good thing. And it truly shows that MySQL is working alongside the community!

Well, thats all. I’ll go back to fielding your questions and stuff. Its amazing to note that being a project administrator isn’t exactly the easiest task. When Google tell you, you’ll be needing a lot of time, they’re right.

Technorati Tags: google summer of code, gsoc, summer of code, learn, code, mysql, replication, backup, auditing

• I’ve started to use SeaMonkey a little bit. It seems to be performing a lot nicer than Firefox (i.e. its not eating as much RAM, its not crashing as often). Its a pity I’m on the 1.0.8 release, rather than the new 1.1 branch (yes, Fedora provided - if only their policy was that Extras could replace Core packages, it would make a lot more sense. I guess this is why Alternatives would come into play).
• I found Don’t Get Caught! while browsing the web for GPS units to buy. These folk sell radar detectors, but insist that they’re illegal everywhere else but WA, since cops in Victoria have “radar detector detectors”, but they’ve got one product that even defeats that. Needless to say, I’m not getting anything from them.
• The F1 in Melbourne was excellent. Kimi on pole, Kimi winning, great, even though he’s in red. The two McLarens are also rocking, and I’m watching Lewis Hamilton closely now.
• Uploaded a whole bunch of photos to Flickr. I think December 2006 will eventually end up being the month I took the most photos (because I’ve yet to upload my Cambodia and Thailand pictures)! I think the mostly unused Photography category on this blog, is going to serve my photographic needs - keeping a whole other blog for photo exploits, just seems too hard.

I bit the bullet, and picked up a Hyundai Getz today. Its the 5-door hatchback, that I’ve been mulling over for a few days. Maiden voyage from Nunawading to Doncaster, to Nunawading, then to Clayton, which was pretty good. I obviously have to watch the speedometer a lot closer, as the numerous speed cameras are probably going to cause me grief.

Of the useful things to note, is that you are advised to buy insurance, before you actually own the car. Then you get a cover note, which is valid for 2 weeks, and it means your car is insured and ready to go. Because I’m under-25, and male, insurance tends to cost a lot of money - I’ve found that AAMI seem to offer just about the cheapest rates, in comparison to Commonwealth Bank or RACV. Roadside assistance is probably important, and that isn’t covered by insurance (duh!), so a RACV memebership seems to be something that’s required.

Maps just don’t give me the confidence to get to a location, so I’m looking for a cheap, yet reliable GPS unit, with mapping support (i.e. my handheld Garmin eTrex is kind of useless). If anyone has any idea what’s sensible, in terms of GPS units, I’d be willing to hear suggestions. Is TomTom or Garmin better? Or are the HP PDA’s any good (with the TomTom software)? What are sync options for Linux users?

Okay, I think its time to pore over the material in the manual, and burn a CD with MP3 music (I bet there are no car audio systems that play OGG).

Today’s been interesting. Its labour day here in Melbourne, so I believe a lot of people are enjoying the long weekend. I on the other hand, have been labouring over the long weekend, and we have stuff to show for it. Via the Forge Wiki:

• Google Summer of Code 2007 - we’ve applied, we’ve identified mentors, and we’ve also identified some project ideas. Last week was rather busy sorting all this out. My boss, Kaj explains it a lot better in his post, Global Warming & Google Summer of Code. Students, do apply to come code with us!
  Keep the March 14 - 24, 2007 dates (Cupertino, California time) in your mind students… Thats when the Google SoC opens up. Of course, come March 14 we also certainly hope to be a mentoring organization, with the sole purpose of making MySQL rock! With regards to the wiki page, there’s information on a lot of bugs - we’re doing this so we open the board up a little, as well. We try to be specific, but we also try to be really open about the whole thing so students can cherry pick what interests them.
• Thanks to Stefan Hinz, our Documentation lead, we have now opened up MySQL University. This is the Engineering Training Program, so why not come learn with us?
  This is still a work in progress, and we’re migrating content (there’s not much yet, so thats a good thing). In the near future, since we’re working out the kinks, this should all be run on freenode as well. In the meantime, go learn about the mysys library & algorithms. Those times are probably when MySQL University will be held, so keep them free in your relevant timezone :P

Technorati Tags: mysql university, google summer of code, gsoc, summer of code, learn, code

Wordpress Matt writes that your WordPress.com blog URL is now usable as an OpenID login. I’m thrilled about that, but what happens when you’ve got an ID, sitting at MyOpenID? Does OpenID support merging of profiles, so you only maintain your OpenID at one location?

I now have two OpenID accounts - one at WordPress.com and one at MyOpenID. How does this help my overall problem of only wanting to have one OpenID to login to all my services? When I login to Zooomr or Livejournal, am I doing so with the ID listed at MyOpenID or WordPress.com? Alas, I tried it, and there is confusion. The onus is now on me to remember which OpenID registra I’ve used on which site.

Beginning to think that OpenID in itself isn’t terribly useful, if all its going to create are a lot of registras, and a lot of fragmentation. If they wanted a good model to base this on, why not look at plain Jane DNS? You can have many different registras, but the bottom line is, bytebot.net is always going to be me.

Technorati Tags: openid, authentication, online identity, identity management, registras