Posted on 30/4/2008, 4:34 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
While I am not a Jeff Waugh apologist (disclaimer: he’s a friend of mine, whom I met through the open source community), I find this kind of journalism, simply appalling.
Five whole pages over the running of a Planet? With pulling out details from the archives of lists? It clearly looks like Sam Varghese is a little bored these days. And iTWire, which is on my “daily” to read list, is on the verge of being removed. Its becoming drivel.
If Jeff was really doing a bad job, and this is after all the open source world, where is the fork of Planet GNOME?
P/S: For added value, read the comments.
Posted on 27/4/2008, 7:53 pm, by Colin Charles, under
General.
In an interesting twist (interesting for Microsoft and their OOXML apologists), about a month ago, MAMPU, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, decided that they were going to go OpenOffice.org and go ODF, and dump Microsoft Office by year-end 2008. This made its round around news sites, and everyone was naturally talking about it.
Now, you can hold them to their word, as they update a Wiki page, informing you about how many agencies are moving to OpenOffice.org. Big wins, once all of the Malaysian government related agencies are on OpenOffice.org (open source software in general). Again, read OpenOffice.org and ODF Adoption!
As a current Malaysian tax payer, I wouldn’t want the government misappropriating money, on proprietary software.
One interesting bit from that? OpenOffice.org being taught in matriculation colleges (11 currently), as lecturers are trained to deliver it to their students. It all starts in schools, though, but this is much better than what was previously around.
Go OpenOffice.org! Go ODF!
Technorati Tags: openoffice.org, odf, mampu, migration
Posted on 24/4/2008, 5:08 am, by Colin Charles, under
MySQL.
The MySQL User Guide is worth looking at. Its not the reference manual (which is excellent – kudos to our Documentation Team). Its target audience are users that are new to databases or users that are new to MySQL in general.
What’s really interesting about the MySQL User Guide is that you can help shape it. You, the community, can participate in writing it!
I for one, know that this is the easiest way you can start contributing to any open source project. Documenting it. Soon, you will realise that you’ve become an expert (writing documentation, or giving training, will always keep you sharp). Some move on to then delving in coding, some go on being consultants, and some end up being hired by the company that sponsors the project ;)
The URL again: http://userguide.forge.mysql.com/
Happy writing!
Technorati Tags: mysql, community, documentation, forge, user guide, contributing, open source, advocacy, mysql user guide
Posted on 23/4/2008, 8:47 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
Dunno if this is a new feature, but Facebook has integrated instant messaging (IM) to folk that are on Facebook. This is like Google doing their Google Talk chats inside GMail. More and more reason why the web browser replaces the traditional desktop application?
Facebook IM
Do I like being able to only talk to folk that are my friends? Naturally. One wonders though why we have so many different identities, on different services. The one that consolidates them all, is the one that enables ease of use, is the one that will “win”.
Me? I’m old fashioned. I like my IM client. I like my email client. All desktop clients I might add. The kids of today? They’re happy with everything web-based. Besides, the concept of syncing stuff offline is slowly becoming more popular with web-based applications, so maybe eventually, I too might like these new web applications…
Technorati Tags: web, communications, IM, facebook, in-browser, browser experience, history, thoughts
Posted on 21/4/2008, 7:36 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
I read the newspapers on the plane yesterday, it was the Sunday New Straits Times. I suddenly realised, that it provided dated news. Dated how?
I had already read about the Malaysian Dreamgirl from various blogs I follow in Google Reader. I had also already read about the Nokia challenge with regards to their N82 and using the GPS and so on. Heck, I had even seen the pictures and more.
Why does anyone bother with the drivel that is printed media? Its all one big propaganda machine for the ruling party of the day (albeit weakened).
Media might still matter in countries where freedom of media expression exists (Australia, the United States, etc.), but in nations where media expression is stifled, and the Internet is uncensored, old media is dead.
Bold statement? I have a feeling I’m somehow right though.
Posted on 18/4/2008, 11:19 pm, by Colin Charles, under
MySQL,
Travel.
MySQL will be in Beijing, China, this week. Well, not MySQL per se, but I will be there. As will Kaj Arno. I arrive on 21 April 2008 and depart on 24 April 2008. I expect to be busy during the days, but my nights should be free. Drop me email at colinATmysqlDOTcom if you’d like to catch up.
There’s an event, on the 23rd of April as well. Its part of the Sun-MySQL World Tour. You definitely should be there, I’m sure there will be some nice schwag involved as well :)
Sitting in San Francisco, getting a little bored before my flight to Beijing. And Twitter is down, for 1.5 hours, for what they seem to call database maintenance. Wonder why. At least there’s IRC…
Technorati Tags: beijing, mysql, world tour, sun