Show #66

[Download Show #66 as MP3]

News

• Sun Buys MySQL
• (Sun / NASDAQ: JAVA) The acquisition accelerates Sun's position in enterprise IT to now include the $15 billion database market. Today's announcement reaffirms Sun's position as the leading provider of platforms for the Web economy and its role as the largest commercial open source contributor.
• LAMP
  
• The Price? 1 billion dollars, with a "B", or nine zeros -- in total "consideration"
  
• MySQL development community standing behind the purchase
• However the sector is not:
• Potentially a disaster for the entire sector.
• In perspective:
• It's the most competitive and biggest threat to Oracle Corp., if for no other reason than it's cheaper, and in many applications, more practical.
• It's used extensively by the open-source community and is the engine that runs almost all the blogging software -- including the successful WordPress, which is used as the blogging-content back end for the New York Times, among other large commercial enterprises. Google Inc. (GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc (YHOO) use MySQL.
• Sun has an awful track record with its acquisitions.
• From a different perspective:
  
• You have to wonder why MySQL was sold in the first place and who orchestrated this deal.
• If anyone actually knew that MySQL was up for grabs, I expect that Google, Yahoo and certainly Microsoft Corp. would have been interested.
• There should have been a publicized bidding war resulting in a much higher price than $1 billion
• Part of this silence stems directly from the fact that MySQL is a Swedish company, and heaven forbid the Swedes announce their intentions or do anything that would appear flamboyant or be interpreted as (gasp) bragging!
• Conclusion:
  
• Oracle probally wanted to buy MySQL to kill the product
• They can't pull that stunt off alone, it would be too obvious, especially to European Union regulators.
• Sun and Oracle have been strategic partners for years.
• Sun cannot actually afford to spend a $1 billion on a company producing a mere $60 million in revenue and working outside its core competencies.
• So who can afford it? Oracle, that's who. This deal stinks from top to bottom.
• Good News:
  
• The only good news is that since MySQL is an open-source initiative, an immediate development fork will occur with a new open-source relational database appearing within a year or two, based on aspects of the original code.
• The original MySQL will simply vanish over time, along with Sun's billion. Exactly how painful this transition will be for current users of MySQL remains to be seen.
  As far as anything good happening from the Sun acquisition, I don't see it, except for the shareholders of Oracle.
  

• Rock Band & Guitar Hero Drive Digital Song Sales
• http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1934632220080120?rpc=64
• 2.5 million songs downloaded
  
• and rock bands only been out... what 2 months now?
• over 5 mill sold for guitar hero 3 since early november
• BUT took four months to sell 1 million regular music tracks
• basically most americans would rather pay more for a game than a song
  
• Yahoo Throws Some Weight Behind OpenID
• Yahoo! Implements OpenID
• Public Beta January 30th
• Today only 120M OpenIDs, with Y! joining their 250M that number is roughly 3X more
• Plaxo and JanRain will start allowing the new OpenID signins Jan 30th
  
• This Tech Job's Paycheck is a Steal...Literally
• Wikipedia Gets Videos
• I have not used Wikipedia enough to know they didn't have videos before but I can't imagine them ignoring the boom of video on the Internet
  
• There are plenty of things that are more easily described using a video instead of just written information or printed pictures
• Wikipedia is working with a video service called Kaltura to make this happen...You can check out a demo site at wiki educator .org
• plus eventually these videos can be created and edited by anyone
  
• so the site will remain truly collaborative
  
• Picnik Flash Image Editor
• Cool Flash-based (that means in your web browser) image editor
• Tweak your photos
• Add special effects

Techie Educational Materials

• WikiEducator.org
• WikiEducator is a dynamic and exciting community of educators who believe passionately that learning materials should be free and open to all.
• And it's FREE, our favorite price.
  
• O'Reilley Sufari
• An eBook library focused on IT professionals and programmers
• O'Reilly, Pierson, Microsoft,
  
• $23.99/mo or $252.99/yr for a 10-slot virtual bookshelf*
• $42.99/mo or $472.89/yr for unlimited access*
  
• To subscribe or see current rates, you should go here.
  
• Books 24x7
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• AnalystPerspectives
  
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• ITPro
• EngineeringPro
• HospitalityPro
• BusinessPro
  
• FinancePro
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• OfficeEssentials
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Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks

• Get your Yahoo! Mail in a standard e-mail client
• YPOPs for Linux or Windows from SourceForge
  
• May violate the Terms of Service (we're no lawyers!)
  
• iPod Nano circa 1970s a.k.a. Nanoscope (Hardware / Gizmodo)
• Remember those old slide viewers?
• CarTorrent
• I didn't have enough time to cover this as much as I wanted to on the show
  
• Toyota and BMW are backing this project
  
• The wireless network would allow moving vehicles within 100 metres and 300 metres of each other to connect and create a network with a wide range. The network would then allow drivers to download information from internet access points simply by driving by, and then share that information with other cars on the road.
• By far the most essential aspect of this network, though, is that it is not subject to memory, processing, storage and energy limitations like traditional sensor networks. Instead, it relies on the resources of the vehicle itself, along with those vehicles around it.
• Under the scheme, cars would be able to use their onboard radios to exchange three categories of information: safe navigation (such as reporting on icy road conditions, traffic jams and possible collisions ahead), content distribution (locally relevant information, advertisements and videos of upcoming attractions) and urban surveillance (collecting information which could be used later by police for forensic investigations).

• With costs currently estimated at around $500 per car for the implementation of the equipment required to connect to the network, drivers probably won't be clamouring to get the kit. Drivers enamoured with high-tech features will immediately embrace this technology. Probably a sizeable fraction of the population will be reluctant to embrace the technology at first. That, of course, could present a problem for the growth of CarTorrent: for as anyone who has tried using BitTorrent will know, there's no point in being the only person on a peer-to-peer network. Being the first car to use CarTorrent will be an expensive and pointless exercise. But like a telephone - and the internet - it's the sort of technology whose benefits will multiply rapidly as long as more people use it.