Posted on 24/10/2012, 1:48 am, by Colin Charles, under
MySQL.
Yesterday we (Gerry, Lars, Serg) had a mini-MySQL’er reunion courtesy of us all speaking at HighLoad++. Much thanks to the organizers for bringing us out here so that we could all catch up :)
We had a chat about how SHOW CONTRIBUTORS got into the code of MySQL as we were giving ideas to HighLoad++ organizers to raise money for charity. I distinctively remember it had something to do with a charity auction at one of the older MySQL User Conferences in Santa Clara. This was when we had quiz shows! And it was at the UC in 2006 for a charity auction where all proceeds got donated to the EFF.
I see than Ronald has it in a presentation, and Sheeri was just saving to get married but still shelled out. Someone who’s a little quieter in the MySQL community, Frank, has a distinctive writeup, who reminded me that I too talked about this back then.
A lot has changed since 2006. SHOW CONTRIBUTORS is now deprecated, just like SHOW AUTHORS. As of 5.6.8, it is removed.
It will not affect how the database performs, but it certainly affects the “community feel” around MySQL, further cementing the idea that this is now a product at a very large company.
Posted on 22/10/2012, 10:53 pm, by Colin Charles, under
General.
I just purchased The Humble eBook Bundle. I primarily use a Mac OSX based laptop (my MacBook Pro), and secondarily use Linux in various flavours (a Lenovo ThinkPad runs Ubuntu, various boxes run a combination of that and Fedora & CentOS, and virtual machines are growing).
It seems not only with regards to Orbitz showing better, more expensive, hotels to Mac users, even when it comes to the Humble Bundle, Mac and Linux users pay more. Are we just conditioned to pay more than Microsoft Windows users?
I’m glad to support DRM-free e-books & great content. Who knows, I might discover something new.
There’s a chance that Malaysian payments will get shook up. From an online perspective, you’ve got the former nbepay becoming MOLPay. From an offline perspective, you’ve got a joint venture between softspace and MOL to form MOLCube (e27 cover it too). The center of all of this is MOL.
For me, I’ve been waiting for a softspace device for quite a few months. I was excited since April 2012. I was told a device would be coming my way from 18 June 2012, and never heard back; the presumption is that people are using this device according to their website. But it is not available for the “general population”.
I have never met Ganesh Kumar Bangah, the man behind MOL, but being a young CEO, I figure he’s got the chops & energy to pave the way. Besides, he’s backed by Berjaya tycoon Vincent Tan.
Ugliness begone, let there be better online & offline payments and this will pave the way for e-commerce as well as physical versions of e-commerce (pop-up stores, bazaars, heck, imagine your pasar malam vendor going online).
A lot of this will involve lobbying Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). I don’t believe any payment gateway intentionally wants to provide terrible user experience, I believe its usually to feed regulatory requirements.
Looking forward to payments in 2013. It can only be better than today.
Posted on 20/10/2012, 10:00 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
It didn’t take long for my prediction on 24 September to come true on 11 October. My suspiscion was also correct, it would be led by Marco Arment, but it had nothing to do with Instapaper, it was the launch of a new product titled The Magazine.
The reason to make it iOS 6 only?
It uses some iOS 6-only features and fonts, and it’s architected for iOS 6’s gesture handling. Setting this high baseline also greatly simplifies testing, maintenance, and future updates.
Wow. Fonts & gestures. Amazing.
Greed or tradeoff from Apple?
Today I tried to checkout RM450 using iPay88. They only accept Visa or MasterCard credit cards, so I pulled my wallet out.
I thought I would use the Citibank card today. I got sent to an error page. So I clicked the back button to head back and thankfully this worked.
I dug further and found a Direct Access card. I have to choose an issuing bank and now had to think a little harder to figure out that this card belongs to CIMB. I was sent a code via USSD verification which was valid for a mere 3 minutes. I had to run to my phone which was charging upstairs and run back down to make the transaction.
Later I see an SMS from Citibank giving me my OneTime PIN that is valid for 4 minutes. I never even got the chance to use it.
Now, lets say I was the average consumer.
- What would I have done with the error page?
- How would I have reacted to seeing one design then seeing the iPay88 page? Seems close to an attack. Stripe doesn’t have this problem.
- How quickly would I have retried the same credit card before I gave up on the online purchase?
Anecdotal evidence from several online stores that I’ve been involved in suggests Malaysians are a patient bunch. They try up to three times for a credit card transaction before abandoning the cart. Some will email because its clear they really want the item. Most truly just give up.
E-commerce is slated to be big. But fixing payments should be crucial.
Posted on 20/10/2012, 3:46 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
Asking to buy advertising with a pitch such as:
Therefore I’m interested in buying advertisement space (my budget is unlimited).
Or worse, the following:
I would like to get an article on your blog about [REDACTED]. For this we would like to offer you 200 RM.
We are a [REDACTED] company and growing fast in all South East Asian markets. Once we get started we see the opportunity of building a long term relationship that would benefit both you and me.
We are currently handling a very handpicked selection of top blogs in Malaysia so the sooner you can get back to me the more I would be likely able to spend. Would be great if you can also send me your telephone number or skype account so we can have a quick chat on the details.
Do expect to get rather curt responses which tell you not to insult me.