links for 2010-12-26: Chrome OS Review; Microsoft wins USDA; Dumping an iPad for a Galaxy Tab

• A Very Chrome-y Christmas - Interesting review, an indication of what we may be using in the future.
• Microsoft Wins Largest Federal Contract for Cloud - But was Google allowed to compete?
  
• Infor offering 15% referral fee for anonymous referrals - Is this move astute or naive?
• 10 reasons to dump an iPad - A bunch of good reasons.

links for 2010-12-21: Thoughts on Java stewardship; Losing your automotive anonymity

• Java: Nothing Without The Community - Can Java flourish without deep community stewardship?  See this too.
  
• Big Brotheresque App Kills Your Automotive Anonymity - Interesting use of data, but not sure I like the loss of privacy.
  

links for 2010-12-17: Invisible open-source; Oracle Apps on EC2; Pirate or DRM; Netflix on AWS

• 2010: The year open-source went invisible - It has gone mainstream and is even a pre-requisite in some markets.
• Oracle Apps on EC2 - You could do it on your own before, easier now.
• Pirate or buy DRM? - Not a fan of DRM it would seem.
• Netflix lessons from using AWS - Also read this for why they switched.

links for 2010-12-15: Microsoft at crossroads; OpenJDK for OS X; Java lawsuits; Oracle Cloud Office

• Microsoft: A big ship at crossroads; What else is new? - I don't think there is any question they'll survive, the titanic references are off, but will they flourish in the new markets?
  
• Oracle and Apple Announce OpenJDK Project for OSX - I missed this when it was announced, but is great news.
  
• Oracle mobile Java licensing suit boomerangs - Can't we all just get along?  This this also.
  
• Oracle Announces Oracle Cloud Office and Oracle Open Office 3.3 - It is great that it is "announced", but they previewed it at Open World.  Where can we actually see it?  Only mention is in the datasheet where it says to call to get a demo account.  Not looking for mass adoption I guess.
  

links for 2010-12-14: IBM's Watson to play Jeopardy; FreeBSD on EC2; Data on Hudson/Kohsuke; Open data

• IBM’s “Watson” Computing System to Challenge All Time Greatest Jeopardy! Champions - This should be entertaining and interesting to watch.
  
• FreeBSD on Amazon EC2 - I'm somewhat surprised it has taken this long!
• Hudson's Secret: Kohsuke - Eduardo offers some insight into a fantastic developer.  But also shows a great example of visualizing data.  Love it!
• Make Data Dance - Another great article on generating value and intelligence from data.  And kudos to the Bill Gates Foundation for requiring that data from projects they fund be open.

links for 2010-12-11: Oracle 'anti-competitive'; Linux on SPARC; McNealy Speaks; Air Force bans removable media

• Oracle 'anti-competitive,' customers dissatisfied - I don't think it takes a report for people to see what Oracle's business practices are like, but how far is a company supposed to go to be "competitive"?  Isn't the objective to beat the competition?  Wouldn't other companies do similar things if they had the same opportunity?  Customers need to vote with their pocketbooks.
  
• Oracle to port Linux to SPARC - It makes sense.  Oracle wants customers to buy from Oracle regardless of the product the customer wants.
• McNealy on Sun and open-source - A good read, great to hear Scott talk.
• US Air Force bans removable media - I'm surprised it wasn't already banned.

links for 2010-11-11: Oracle raises MySQL pricing; ASF draws line in sand over JCP; WS-I completes their journey; PG West Notes

• Oracle kills low-priced MySQL support - This had been rumored and was expected, but now we know the details.  The lowest priced offerings are gone, Standard Edition at $2K/yr now the cheapest, differentiation between editions is now with different add-ons, not level of support, and a server is limited to 4 sockets.  Note that if you weren't buying the cheapest offering, the prices haven't really increased.
• ASF Statement on JCP - Same issue as there has been for awhile, but now saying they'll withdraw if not addressed.
• Microsoft and IBM web-control war finally silenced - Interesting read on the motivations for WS-I and entertaining quip on SOA: "WS-* and the WS-I paved the way for the Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) bubble, a cacophony of hype about a set of systems that could never be delivered but paid the wages of consultants and enterprise vendors, and involved some kind of choreography wrapped in a portal."
  
• Ex-Red Hatters eye Larry's MySQL wobblers
  
• Ex-Sun boss gives Ellison open-source wedgie
  

links for 2010-10-27: Netflix moves to AWS; RedMonk Analytics; Google Docs Charting; Apple alienating their users

• Netflix transitions to HA storage in the Cloud - The value of moving to the Cloud isn't just for startups.  Netflix has their own data center, but elected to transition to the Cloud to not burden their IT staff with mundane data center build out.
• RedMonk Analytics: What Operating Systems are Developers Using? - It depends on the perspective and which developer audience is looked at!
  
• Using new visualizations to tell your story - Improving the charting Google Docs can deliver.
  
• Apple Won't Push Flash Player Updates - Apple's alienation of developers and consumers continues.

links for 2010-10-22: AWS free for a year; PostgreSQL vs MySQL; Stacking the JCP election; Java on OS X; What Steve could have said; Adivce to Oracle regarding Java

• Amazon Web Services: Try us free for a year - Something worth looking in to.
• PostgreSQL vs. MySQL: How to Select the Right Open-Source Database - A balanced well written article.
  
• Stacking the JCP election - An interesting read even if it is a bit biased (and I don't know if it is or isn't).
• Steve Jobs Comments on Apple's Java Discontinuation - Some interesting history from James.
  
• What Steve could have said - "We’ve been in the computer business for a long time and we’ve learned that 80% of people just aren’t very interesting. They don’t need to create that much content, because when they do, most it isn’t very good. The iPad actually saves them from themselves because it keeps them from creating a bunch of useless stuff that no one else wants to read."
• Dear Oracle, Get a Clue - Some good advice.  Is Oracle listening?

links for 2010-10-21: Apple deprecates Java; Apple announces OS X Lion ... 11 months off?; NYC adopts Microsoft Cloud; EnterpriseDB Postgres TCO calculator

• Apple deprecates Java - I struggle to see how this makes sense as part of OS X's resurgence was due to developers adopting the platform due to good Java support.  Perhaps Oracle adds support or someone steps forward with a good OpenJDK port, but Steve is clearer trying to cleanse his products of non-native apps.
• Apple's unveiling of updated OS X takes its cues from Microsoft - Apple rarely announces products that won't ship until nearly a year later, but did with OS X Lion.
  
• City of New York adopts Microsoft Cloud services - It will be interesting to watch how the battle goes between Microsoft and Google here.  Google gets Los Angeles, Microsoft gets New York City.
• EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus TCO comparison calculator - No matter how you cut it, EnterpriseDB is less expensive than SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, and DB2.  Think MySQL is cheaper?  Guess again.

links for 2010-10-20: SkySQL forking?; IBM, Oracle, and Java; Linux catching Microsoft; Developer Intelligence; Twitter predicts stocks; McNealy at PG West

• SkySQL will try to drive MySQL fork, Oracle's ouster - Not a fork yet, but supporting one (MariaDB) and not ruling out creating one.
  
• IBM, Oracle and Java: The Q&A - @sogrady's always well written Q&A with a kind mention of the questions I sent him.
• Linux Starts to Eat Microsoft’s Lunch in Servers - Shows Linux growth (79% adding more Linux vs 21% adding more Windows), but it is a lot easier to show growth when coming from behind.
  
• Introducing Project Arcturus, Part 1: The World’s First and Only Developer Intelligence Tool - A great use of data to provide insight into developers.  Kudos to RedMonk for building it.  ReadWriteWeb has a review here.
  
• Twitter mood predictions the stock market - Another fascinating use of data.
• Scott McNealy Keynote Speaker at PG West - A great opportunity to hear Scott speak.

links for 2010-10-19: Twitter stats; Windows Phone 7; AWS Management Console adds SNS support

• Replies and Retweets on Twitter - Some interesting stats, love the data.  Are you surprised the retweets/replies are that high or do you think it was higher?
• Windows Phone 7 - Seems like an uphill climb in the phone market but tablet market could be a place to grow share.
• AWS Management Console Now Supports Amazon SNS - I didn't mind using the command line tools, in fact they are preferred in many cases, but adding support to the Management Console GUI is a nice addition.
  

links for 2010-10-10: If Oracle and MySQL had a child; AWS weakness a strength?; JavaOne content will cost you; Android revolution; Short-term focus hurts R&D

• If Oracle and MySQL had a child - Why not get the best of both worlds with PostgreSQL?
• Amazon Web Services: an instance of weakness as strength - Most people like simple evolution when making change in the enterprise.
  
• JavaOne 2010 content costs money? - In the past, the content from JavaOne was generally made available for free to the community, but the link seems to indicate it now costs $245 or you have to have been an attendee.  Past content on SDN only includes 2008 and 2009.  To be fair, there is still a lot of free content but this seems to be a change.
• The five factors powering the Android revolution
  
• R&D: Short-term focus, cynicism hampers us - Who else will innovate just for the sake of doing so?
  

links for 2010-10-08: More on MySQL price hikes; Jaspersoft predicts Java/MySQL resurgence; Salesforce.com adds REST APIs

• MySQL price hikes reveal depth of Oracle's wallet love: Time for Postgres? - Mentions same content I posted earlier, but clearly suggests PostgreSQL as the natural alternative.
  
• Months After Oracle's Acquisition of Sun, OSS Survey Predicts Resurgence of Java and MySQL - Survey doesn't address what people's answers would have been had Oracle not acquired Sun (perhaps the "resurgence" was already happening and it has diminished under Oracle), and in a few cases the conclusions are classic viewing the data the way one wants.  For example, their highlight #1 is that more than three quarters said MySQL use would increase or stay the same.  That is convenient grouping of answers as their data could be used to make the exact opposite statement, i.e. more than three quarters said MySQL use would decrease or stay the same.
  
• Salesforce.com Finally Adding REST API - While their approach to their SOAP API was somewhat RESTful already, the addition of true REST APIs is welcome.
  

links for 2010-10-7: IE market share dips below 50%; Analysis of Google's response to Oracle; SQL and Big Data

• EU dings Microsoft's IE browser market share, says Statcounter - The move towards other browsers continues.
  
• Google responds to Oracle's Android patent lawsuit, we break it down - Google accuses Oracle of flip-flopping, and implies if they've violated anything than Apache Harmony has too.
  
• Who's suing who in the mobile business - Wow, I didn't know Nokia was at the center of so many of the suits.
• Who's suing who in the telecoms trade - Similar to the above, but with a bullet on each suit.
• Why relational databases make sense for big data - Good car, Indy car, helicopter analogy from Ed.

links for 2010-10-04: Forking of Java; Stewardship of Java

• Is it time to fork Java? - Clearly disappointed by JavaOne (JavaHalf?), Greg proposes "Lava".
• Time to fork Java? - Sacha's response.  Provides some good history on the issues and highlights Oracle's flip-flopping positions.  "when ORCL’s lawyers have the same opinion two-weeks in a row, the only conclusion you can draw is that they changed their mind an even number of times."
• Java: The Unipolar Moment - James points out many instances where single vendor stewardship is not the norm and why that can't be the case for Java.

links for 2010-10-02: WebP saves bandwidth over JPEG; Java, OSGi, Oracle, and more;

• Google offers JPEG alternative for faster Web - It is fair to say that the image compression algorithms we use today were developed when we had CPU and memory limitations, so why not update them to make the web snappier?
• Java, OSGi, Oracle, and more - James doesn't paint too bright a picture of Oracle's stewardship thus far.

links for 2010-09-30: Gosling on JavaOne; MySQL prices going up; Gmail capitulates; MySQL vs PostgreSQL performance; PHP SDK for AWS

• JavaOne was fun - Some interesting, albeit likely biased, observations.
• Oracle raising prices on MySQL - Rationalizing the pricing to Oracle's way is to be expected, but the removal of Basic and Silver is important and what the prices actually are will be doubly so.
• Gmail unthreads messages - I prefer threaded views and find search works much better than sort.
• MySQL vs PostgreSQL performance - Simply confirms what I think we all knew: PostgreSQL is much faster for inserts, MySQL slightly faster for selects.
• New AWS SDK for PHP - Adds to the existing Java and .NET SDKs.

links for 2010-09-28: OpenOffice.org forked into LibreOffice; Free Software Defenders; Platform as a Service Adoption

• LibreOffice: A fresh page for OpenOffice - As other open-source projects from Sun have been terminated, kept as tokens for the community, or left to wither away with no investment (the list includes OpenESB, OpenSSO, Mural, OpenSolaris, and more), it isn't a surprise to see a spinoff from OpenOffice but this is one that certainly has more visibility as it is actually software end-users use.  It will be interesting to see how things play out and if Oracle joins and grants use of the name.
  
• OpenOffice goes its own way - Another story on the subject.  Oracle has not commented yet but IBM has although with no commitment one way or the other.  Google, Novell, Ubuntu, and others are supporting the foundation.  See the FAQ too.
• The Defenders of Free Software - Interesting read.  I have no doubt that there are 100s of violations or improper use of open-source out there.
• Platform as a Service: Current vs Future Returns - Everyone says it is a matter of time until enterprises are on the Cloud, but how long will it be before more than Amazon style IaaS is accepted?
  

links for 2010-09-27: Benioff fires back at Larry; PostgreSQL vs MySQL Performance; Droid X Dumping

• Salesforce's Benioff: "Clouds aren't in a box" - A host of great one-liners, a couple of the best:
  
• “The cloud is a multi-tenant shared architecture that runs on a pay-as-you-go model,” not a million dollars just to get started.
  
• We’re not going to show you computers taller than you. We’re not going to show you a cloud in a box because clouds aren’t in a box. They never were. That’s the whole idea.
  
• Database speed tests (mysql and postgresql) - part 1 - It doesn't appear to be tuned much at all, but interesting results nonetheless.  MySQL 5x slower?
  
• Why I dumped my Droid - What leading smart phone doesn't have battery issues?
  

links for 2010-09-21: Amazon Hiding in Plain Sight; PostgreSQL 9.0 released; iPad good for two things; Oracle and HP make up; Unbreakable Enterprise Linux kernel performance doubts

• Hiding in Plain Sight: The Rise of Amazon Web Services - It really is surprising AWS doesn't get credit or press for much of what they are doing.  When they announce something they have it working and available, often with a free/beta tier.  When most other vendors announce something, it isn't available yet and when it is, you have to pay for it, get a machine, install it, etc.
  
• EnterpriseDB Announces Support for PostgreSQL 9.0 - 9.0 has some great new replication features that make it even more of a natural cheaper alternative to Oracle.
• The iPad is good for only two things - Admittedly, the first thing is pretty big and broad.
• Oracle and HP settle spat - Having the issue prolonged would not have been good for HP.
• Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Which Is The Best Open Source DB Of Them All? - Will PostgreSQL fill the perceived void created by Oracle's ownership of MySQL?
  
• Oracle announces Unbreakable Enterprise Linux kernel - This story seems to doubt the performance claims.
  

links for 2010-09-20: Flight data in Google Earth; PostgreSQL performance fixing; Browser war hurting us?; Oracle's new Cloud definition

• View Near Real-time Flights over the U.S. in Google Earth - This is very cool.
• PostgreSQL planner performance fixing - Open source isn't just about "free", for some it is about improving the code!
• Is the browser war pushing us forward or holding us back? - If it really is just about full HTML5 support, any issues should only be temporary hopefully.
  
• Oracle has new definition of Cloud - As the author puts it, this isn't Cloud, it is Cloud washing.  Now, perhaps this box could be useful for Cloud vendors, but if you have to buy a box and more capacity than you might need, it isn't Cloud.

links for 2010-09-16: Android benchmarks; Android market share up; AWS Linux AMI; Password resuse

• Benchmark showdown: High-end Android smartphones - Unfortunately, there isn't one "fastest" phone, but several do very well in multiple but different categories
• Android market share up, everyone else flat or down - Interestingly Palm is flat, RIM, Apple, Microsoft all down
• Amazon Linux AMI - Need Linux in the Cloud?  This should save you a little time
• Password Reuse - Hmmm, I'll be changing some passwords now thank you

links for 2010-09-13: iPhone Flash tool back on; YouTube goes live; Android Leaderboard

• Adobe resumes work on iPhone Flash tool after apple reveral - Predictable after Apple's policy change.  Adobe can't afford to ignore the iOS platform if they can technically address the market.
• YouTube live: Public access meets old school ESPN, but potential abounds - Being able to watch more second tier sports that the major networks choose to ignore would be welcomed by me.
  
• Android Leaderboard - I may be on the market for a new phone soon so I'll be watching this.

links for 2010-09-09: NetApp vs Sun/Oracle quietly resolved; Developer vs CIO perspective; Apple relaxes restrictions

• NetApp, Oracle dismiss patent suit - It is probably the best result since both sides were suing each other.
• Meet the New Kingmakers: Same as the Old Kingmakers - The different perspectives of the Developer vs the CIO.
• Apple throws developers a bone, relaxes restrictions on third party tools - An interesting about face, probably due more to the FTC poking around than Apple wanting to appease developers.
  

links for 2010-09-03: Google not at JavaOne; Historical NASA pictures

• A Story of O - A little background on Google's not attending JavaOne.  An interesting set of comments.  Companies and developers can vote with their pocketbooks and feet.
• Flickr gives NASA's historical photos some distribution - Some great pictures.
  

links for 2010-08-30: Background on Oracle vs Google; Google won't be at JavaOne; YouTube movies?; US Open tennis starts today

• Software War Pits Oracle vs Google - More background on what will prove to be a very interesting case.
• Google Bails on Oracle/Sun Java One Conference - A natural, but unfortunate, reaction.
• YouTube eyes pay-per-view films - I'm kind of surprised it has taken this long.
• US Open Tennis - Starts today, for what is usually a great two weeks of tennis.

links for 2010-08-27: Apple going after jailbreakers; Google integrates voice into Gmail; Happy Birthday EC2; QWERTY Face-off

• To jailbreak or not to jailbreak: That shouldn't be Apple's decision - I'm sure glad Apple is so passionate about protecting me from myself.
  
• Call phones from Gmail - A nice feature and integration of Google Voice into Gmail.  It appears they are going after Skype at least in part with this one.  But it appears Google Apps users don't get it, at least yet.
• Happy 4th Birthday Amazon EC2 - It is amazing how far things have come in 4 years.
• Phone QWERTY Face-off - They aren't a fan of the Droid 2.

Trying out Liferay 6 CE

As part of some work I'm doing I've been working with Joomla for a corporate web-site and it works great, but I wanted to see what other Content Management Systems had to offer and so decided to give Liferay a spin.

Liferay is launching version 6 Enterprise Edition in September, but thanks to being in open-source the Community Edition is available now.  I grabbed the Tomcat bundle of version 6.0.5 CE and got started.

Making bundles available (there are bundles for other containers including GlassFish, JBoss, Jetty, etc.) makes installation a snap.  Just download, unzip and run the startup script.  On my laptop, after a bit over a minute I had a running Liferay installation.

Thanks to a few pointers and instructions from Paul Hinz, I was off and running configuring Liferay and creating some pages.  Since I was primarily interested in creating a web-site, after trying some basics, I went to the Web Content Management section to give its capabilities a spin.

This is not intended to be a comparison with Joomla, but right away there was a different paradigm.  Rather than navigate an administrative interface to create pages, content, and lay things out, with Liferay one simply logs in, navigates the site, and a few extra controls are available to do all the edits you need.  This is probably a personal preference item but I like the Liferay approach better.

For now, I'm simply using the default Liferay theme, although I decided I didn't like the breadcrumbs it had so went in and hacked that out of the template.  I'll have to take a look at create templates properly in the future.

Liferay is a portal, not just a CMS, so there are a host of portlets and components you can add to your pages.  But even for just building a web-site the default theme has nice pull down menus, a configurable navigation portlet, and a simple and convenient way to add new pages and content.  Want to add a page?  Click a button to manage the page, click the Children tab, enter a name for the new page, and that's it.

Adding content to a page is just as easy.  Open the Add pull down menu, pick the component to add and position it on the page.  When creating a web-site, you'll usually be adding the Web Content Display component.  Once added, you can either link to and edit existing content to display, or create new content in a nice editor.

But even when creating "just" a web-site, you can add other components like wikis and blogs, although my installation gave me errors when trying to post new content to either.  I'll have to visit the forums to see if it is a known issue.

As far as resources, being a Java EE app Liferay is somewhat hungry.  Running on Linux, with the use above creating a web-site the Java process is using about 400 MB of RAM.  It also isn't terribly speedy starting up, but that may be more of a Tomcat issue.  On my old slow Linux server (dual 450 MHz Pentium), it takes a whopping 6 minutes to start.  But on a dual core MacBook Pro it takes about 80 seconds.

To compare performance and memory, I did grab the GlassFish bundle and start it up, but ran into a few issues.  First, the bundle didn't have the right permissions on some scripts and then once started, Liferay doesn't appear to be installed or working as all I get is a GlassFish "your server is running" page.  I'd pursue it more but am fine with using Tomcat.

Stay tuned, I'll share more and perhaps will have a live site to point you to soon.

links for 2010-08-20: Ellison to hire Hurd?; Laptop reliability survey; Google thwarted by California; Oracle vs Google on Java; Cloud data offers intelligence; Ubuntu advantages over Windows and OS X

• Mark Hurd to Oracle? Don't be surprised - An interesting idea.
  
• Acer makes the shoddiest laptops, say IT professionals - From those they surveyed, I'd agree Acer is at the bottom of the list.  It is interesting to see HP and Dell with high percentages in both the best and worse categories.
• Google accuses California of rigging bidding process for e-mail contract - I personally find Google's labels and search preferable to traditional e-mail clients.  Let's hope California didn't have a closed mind on the subject.
  
• Charles Nutter's thoughts on Oracle vs Google - A great read if you have the time.  If you don't, Stephen O'Grady's thoughts are good as well (and shorter).
• Intuit: Small businesses slow hiring; increase pay and hours worked - Another great example of how Cloud based services (Intuit's Online Payroll service) offer an opportunity to use volumes of data to offer intelligence.
  
• Ubuntu's two big advantages over Windows and Mac - Jason makes very good points.  I doubt it is going to cause a major shift to Ubuntu though...
  

links for 2010-08-17: Future of JavaFX; OpenSolaris is dead

• Enterprise Applications are Good Candidates for Using JavaFX - Highlights the pros/cons of JavaFX and gives it 6-12 months to address the cons.
  
• Oracle apparently shuts doors on OpenSolaris - It isn't a surprise, but is unfortunate.  With source code only making it to the community after the commercial Solaris is released, it appears Solaris is now headed for "Visible Source", not open source.  Some of the comments are telling; "Here I was just getting started with OpenSolaris for my home server because of ZFS and all the wonderful features it has. I had figured if I can make it work at home, I would try to bring it in to the company. Now that OpenSolaris is dead and it looks like Solaris is encumbered with support licenses I don’t know how easy it will be to have them switch."

links for 2010-07-26: Phillips claim of acquisitions not true?; LA's move to Google hits a few road bumps; "Mac guy" no longer Apple fanboy?; Dell drops Ubuntu

• Did Oracle hand Charles Phillips a PR written pink slip? - Charles said they'll spend $70 million, then Larry's PR said no.
  
• Los Angeles' move to Google Apps continues with a few hiccups - They've made progress but didn't meet a June 30 deadline to get everyone on Google.
• Why this "Mac guy" will dump Apple fanboy club card - Competition is good for the consumer.
  
• Dell dumps Ubuntu loaded machines - "“The reason why they’re not on our main pages is because Ubuntu systems are primarily targeted towards advanced users and enthusiasts...” ... if I’m an advanced computer user, what are the odds I’ll order a computer by phone before using the internet?"

Visualizing your data with Tableau Public

As I've written before, I have a passion for data and oftentimes, particularly with large amounts of data, visualizing it is an extremely important part of understanding it.

As part of my computer ratings, I've created performance charts for awhile now and they are very useful in being able to see how a team has performed and any trends there may be.  You can see examples from my 2010 Superbowl Preview or BCS Championship Preview.

I've created these using Google Charts using a series of scripts to extract the data from my ratings system and format it into the appropriate URLs, but after learning about Tableau Public I've been wanting to give it a shot to see if it was easier or offered other benefits and with summer arriving finally had a chance to.

I created the charts for a few teams from last years college football season and the process was very straight-forward.  All I had to do was to create a CSV file of my data, import it into Tableau Public Desktop, then with a little drag and drop and configuration, create the charts.  It is then simple to publish to the web.  Here it is (click the image to get a full screen version):

This was definitely a lot easier than what I've been doing before.  As the 2010 football seasons start, I'll be trying it out more and seeing what else I can do with it and hopefully automate the generation of the charts as much as I have with Google.  Give it a try yourself!

links for 2010-07-22: Twitter to build own data center; Apple iPhone 4 fallout; Firefox Home; Ellison doesn't get the Warriors

• Twitter to Build Data Center to Beach the Fail Whale - Seems to support the theory that cloud is a great way to start, then you go to hosted as you grow, but ultimately at large scale, owning your own data center is needed.
• Apple's iPhone 4 fallout: The smartphone "industry" fires back - "Apple has always taken pride in offering a premium product to customers willing to pay a premium price. That set it higher than the others. But clearly in the iPhone game - and now in the crisis management game - Apple is looking more like a rookie, instead of a global powerhouse."
  
• Firefox Home hits the iPhone: Looks handy - Interesting.  I've been using Chrome as my browser but may have to give this a try.
  
• Ellison Beat Out in Record Warriors Sale - I'm surprised, but he apparently made his best offer too late.
  

links for 2010-07-19: HP closing campus; iPad didn't meet expectations

• HP to close Cupertino campus - Consolidating in Palo Alto.
• Why I’m Craigslisting My iPads - Seems to have had wildly unrealistic expectations.  Wanted full blow Excel?  Flash?
  

links for 2010-07-17: OpenSolaris Discontent; Open source or not?; Motorola Droid X self destructs; WinPhone 7 just an iPhone 1 knock off

• OpenSolaris Governing Board Threatens to Shoot Itself In The Head - Interesting point of view on how things were with Sun and are with Oracle regarding OpenSolaris.
• Choosing Whether to go Open Source - Huh? "That explains why using open source for production in mission-critical environments, particularly where security is essential, has been relatively rare."  This premise is shot down moments later with this: "About 90% of our servers are running Linux. They're certainly as secure as the Windows world"
  
• Droid X actually self-destructs if you try to mod it - The majority of users won't know or care, but it will be interesting to see if techies avoid the device and this backfires on Motorola.
  
• Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster - Not a good sign: "Microsoft's demos of its great mobile hope shows Windows Phone 7 to be only a tepid knockoff of a 2007-era iPhone"
  

Amazon further integrates Simple Notification Service with AWS

I've always been interested in messaging systems and had some fun learning about AWS's SNS and then building a simple Cloud Event Processor that utilized it earlier this year.  Amazon had already provided out of the box integration of SNS with the Simple Queue Service (SQS) but has now introduced integration with S3 so that you can get notifications for certain S3 Reduced Redundancy Storage events.

Asynchronous programming at work.  Good stuff!

links for 2010-07-13: iPhone 4 Apple's Vista?; Consumer Reports on iPhone 4; Google's master Android plan

• Is the iPhone 4 becoming the Windows Vista of Apple? - The author makes a bunch of good points.
• Lab tests: Why Consumer Reports can't recommend the iPhone 4 - They blame the new antenna, not AT&T's network for dropped calls.
  
• Google's master Android plan: We're all mobile app developers now - Do we really want "everyone" to be a developer?
  

links for 2010-07-09: EMC and Data Management; Returning software licenses; Android takes market share from everyone; Follow HTC-Columbia in the Tour De France

• Is EMC Moving To Tackle Data Management Market? - "I’m going to recommend to EMC that they acquire both Informatica and TIBCO and challenge IBM for world domination of the information management market."
  
• Approaches to Return Shelfware - Great idea if you are the customer, but what is in it for the vendor?
• Android takes market share from everyone - Android up 4 points to 13% while all of RIM/Apple/Microsoft/Palm shrink 0.4 to 1.9 points.
• Follow HTC-Columbia in the Tour De France on Google Maps - Very cool app.

links for 2010-07-02: IBM defaults to Firefox; AT&T-Apple class action suite; Apple fesses up on reception

• Saying it out loud: IBM is moving to Firefox as its default browser - 400,000 employees "encouraged" to use it as their default.  That's a big step.
  
• The Apple-AT&T class action suit should have come years ago - How about rather than bog the court system down, just like the author did, return the device if it doesn't work for you!  "I suppose I could have dragged them to court myself when I was one of those disgruntled iPhone owners who suffered from poor iPhone reception in the San Francisco Bay Area. But instead, I chose to return my device and move on."
  
• Apple can't fix iPhone reception, will start telling truth about signal strength - How can this statement be true?  "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong."  The phone has been out for years and people have been complaining the whole time, and you just got around to checking the formula?
  

links for 2010-07-01: iPhone to Verizon rumor (again); Brown University goes Google; SQS Updates; Open Source Licensing; Steve Jobs on the Enterprise; Database Migrations Easy?

• Verizon to Start Selling iPhone in January [REPORT] - This report seems to be a bit more credible than ones of the past, so will it really happen?
  
• Brown University has gone Google - "Our students were really the ones that led us down the Google path. They knew these tools would work because they already used them in their non-school lives."
• New: Free Tier and Increased Limits for Amazon Simple Queue Service - Some incremental updates making SQS a little more valuable.
  
• Open Core the new Dual License - He still advocates pure open source and using telemetry and data as ways to generate incremental revenue.
• What Steve Jobs hates about the enterprise - So Apple will just rely on the consumerization of IT as their way into the enterprise?  Is this an opportunity for Microsoft to capitalize on RIM's weakness?
  
• Database Migrations Are Finally Becoming Simpler - Compatibility layers make sense.  I knew EnterpriseDB had been doing this for some time, I didn't know IBM was too.  Oracle, your move.
  

NextGate Webinar on Integration Options for Sun Customers; Convert your Monk Code to Java

Back in February just after Oracle's acquisition of Sun closed, I wrote a few thoughts on the strategy for Sun's middleware.  Something I didn't go into detail on is what the plans were for Sun's MDM and legacy integration products like DataGate, e*Gate, TRE, SRE, and ICAN.  Thankfully for those customers that have a lot invested in those products or technologies they included like Monk, NextGate is holding a series of webinars on what the options are.

The first one was held last week and there is another this Wednesday.  If you want to learn more, join one!

links for 2010-06-28: iPhone 4 doubles 3G bandwith speeds; iPhone wish list = Android; Google Voice goes GA; AWS in the enterprise

• iPhone 4 upgrades to HSDPA and HSUPA can double 3G bandwidth speeds - I wonder why these upgrades to HSDPA and HSUPA weren't advertised?  This is probably the benefit some are most interested in.
  
• An iPhone wish list looks more like an Android feature list - A survey says iPhone users want choice of wireless networks, a 4G network, 8 megapixel camera, and FM radio tuner, all features available on some Android devices.
  
• Google Voice: Will the masses adopt it? - It's been in private beta for a long time and is now GA for the masses.  I've indicated before I've a big fan and user and use it as my primary number for business.
  
• 10 things: Using Amazon Web Services in the enterprise - Looking to leverage the cloud?  Things to think about.
  

links for 2010-06-25: iOS4 vs Android Multitasking; Tiered Data Pricing; AWS SNS User Survey; eGate and Java CAPS future options

• Apple iOS 4 vs. Android Multitasking: Which Approach Is Better for Users? - A good highlighting of the pros and cons.  What it fails to note is that the con against Android (grace and vision?) can and will be addressed while the con against Apple will likely not be as it goes against Apple's approach of dumbing it down for the user.
• Report on AT&T's tiered data pricing forgets the innovation factor - It is interesting how the cycle seems to be going back to tiers and not unlimited.
  
• AWS SNS User Survey - An opportunity to give feedback to Amazon on their Simple Notification Service.  I'd advise not simply asking for all the features of your favorite JMS provider, think Cloud!
• NextGate webinar for Sun Integration customers - Good information on what the options are for future strategies around eGate, ICAN, SRE, and Java CAPS.  They are holding it again next week.

links for 2010-06-24: iOS 4 missed on multi-tasking; iOS4 vs Android; History of Communication; Oracle see Sun profit

• Multitasking With iOS 4 is Horrible: Apple Blew It - One person's view of one of the key features of iOS 4.  It seems only select apps can do it and/or developers have to write special code for it.  Also see this: "on day one, this feature is a mixed bag, and appears to be best left to Apple's own core apps--as opposed to third-party apps--which largely defeats the purpose of the feature."
  
• iOS 4 ... All you need to know! - One persons review, another here comparing an iPhone with Android.
• A Modern History of Human Communication - Interesting chart, and yes I'm a Google Voice user and love it.
• Oracle Beats, Sees Sun Profit - They say Sun contributed $400M to operating income.

links for 2010-06-22: Flash goes Mobile; Java's Future; Java CAPS Future;

• Adobe launches Flash 10.1 for Mobile: More than half of all smartphones by 2012? - There may be issues at first (battery life?), but pushing the envelope is how issues get resolved, not by constraining innovation.
  
• Why I'm Worried About Java's Future - John highlights the 2GB JVM memory limitation as a key issue.
  
• Wondering what to do about your integration strategy as it relates to Java CAPS? - NextGate to hold 2 webinars on what options Java CAPS (and eGate and DataGate) customers have now that they are Oracle's customers.
  
• The Economics of Open Source: Why the Billion Dollar Barrier is Irrelevant - As he's mentioned before, Stephen says data is the key: "Data is likely, in my view, to be more profitable longer term than mechanisms such as dual licensing (coverage). Telemetry (coverage) is the obvious next revenue source for open source entitites."
  

links for 2010-06-21: CSC's Cloud; SaaS Adoption Discrepancies; Tiered mobile data plans; Verizon's 4G network; Finding zip code areas; Sybase says iPhone 4 to grow in enterprise

• CSC Launches Cloud Collaboration, SaaS - CSC evolving their datacenters to the Cloud.
  
• Research Report: How SaaS Adoption Trends Show New Shifts In Technology Purchasing Power - A huge disparity between business and IT on how SaaS is being used.
  
• Tiered mobile data plans accelerate: Verizon Wireless to follow AT&T's lead - Once AT&T did it, you knew Verizon would too.  But will Sprint and T-Mobile?  As the smaller players, they may have incentive (and capacity to support it) to keep unlimited.
  
• A step closer to 4G: Verizon moves to 'user trials' in LTE - Sounds like AT&T is investing, but will still be behind Verizon and folks like Clear on rolling out 4G.
  
• Find Zip Codes With This Useful Map - Nifty utility.
  
• Sybase: Apple's iPhone 4 likely to solidify enterprise traction - Some interesting data.
  

links for 2010-06-17: iPhone to Verizon? (again); Emerging Cloud Wars; YouTube video editing

• Apple iPhone to Verizon drumbeat picks up (again) - The rumors (or wishes) continue.
  
• The Emerging Cloud Wars - A good discussion of the move to and strategic value of PaaS.
• YouTube Video Editor: A nice start but hardly ready for prime time - They aren't impressed, but my guess is this is just a start and more features will come.
  

links for 2010-06-16: Scott McNealy on 25 years of .com; Oracle cutting more Sun jobs; NetBeans 6.9 released; Twitter outages; Linux share increases; JPL in the clouds

• Scott McNealy’s Top 15 Reasons He’s Surprised We’re Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Web - It is always great to see Scott on stage, especially when he has a top-10 (errr 15) list.
  
• Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math - I blogged most of his individual entries earlier this year, now you can get them all in one place.  Good stuff for those curious about math.
  
• Oracle Cutting More Jobs Tied To Sun Deal; Taking Big Charge - Seems to be tied to LEC completing in European and Asian countries, but still sad to see.
  
• Oracle Delivers NetBeans IDE 6.9: Expanding Support for JavaFX 1.3 and OSGi - It is good to see that NetBeans doesn't seem to be withering away.  But the preferred IDE for Fusion is still JDeveloper and Eclipse.
  
• Twitter: Sorry, but outages come with bigger improvement plan - Interesting analogy to road construction.
  
• Linux inches up on desktop, holds steady on servers - The only OS to gain share in May.  I can understand Windows dipping but I'm surprised Mac OS dipped too.
  
• NASA JPL, robots and the AWS cloud - Some interesting applications of EC2, SimpleDB, and S3.
  

links for 2010-06-13: AT&T flaw exposes iPad owners e-mail addresses; iPhone vs Android vs webOS?; Multitenancy risks; AT&T's new data plans

• Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed - It is shocking that a RESTful Web service for retrieving e-mail addresses would be completely unsecured.
  
• iPhone vs. Android vs. webOS: A Counterpoint - What HP does with webOS is going to be interesting and is the wildcard in the mobile OS battle.
  
• WordPress and the Dark Side of Multitenancy - Yes, with multi-tenancy the failure of one machine/datacenter can mean multiple sites go out, but that risk is still outweighed by the benefits in many scenarios.
  
• The bottom line: iPhone 4 vs. Android’s best (does Nokia, Microsoft, RIM have a chance in getting into the game?) - Another comparison, this one liking the iPhone 4 on everything other than voice quality, carrier, tethering, and synch, or everything other than being a phone! :)
  
• The Problem with AT&T’s New Data Plans - I'm glad I'm still grandfathered in on the unlimited, but did change my wife's to a new plan to save a little money.
  

Eclipse Community Survey 2010 Published; Interesting OS, app server, and open-source results

The Eclipse Community Survey 2010 is now available, and as a big fan of surveys and data, I couldn't help but dive in to take a look at what the community had to say.

First, as is the case with all surveys and data, one has to consider the audience when looking at the results to understand the context, and in this case, the survey was promoted on the eclipse.org web-site and related blogs/tweets.  It was also only available in English and 1,696 respondents completed it.  And over 50% of the respondents listed themselves as programmers.

Ok, with that out of the way, what are some of the interesting results or observations?

• Nearly 40% of developers now use Linux (32.7%) or OS X (7.9%) for their primary development OS.  The audience is clearly the reason this is much higher than you'd expect for the general desktop population, but both the Linux and OS X numbers are growing at the expense of Windows which is down 6% to 58.3% from last year.
• Linux (46%) is ahead of Windows (41%) for deployment OS.
• Sun Hotspot (69.8%) and Open JDK (21.7%) still dominate the JVM used for deployed applications.
• Scrum (15.4%) and iterative (10.9%) are the leading development methodologies.
• Hudson (21.8%) is the 3rd most used release management tool behind Ant (50.4%) and Maven (28.3%).
• There is a nearly even split among the primary types of apps being developed between RIAs (26.9%), Server-centric apps (26.9%), and desktop client apps (21.0%).
• For server frameworks, in something of a surprise given all the bashing EJBs have taken over the years, EJB (18.6%) and Spring (19.7%) use is nearly on par and ahead of Servlets (10.1%).
• It is no surprise that MySQL (31.8%) is the leading database used, but Oracle (21.6%) is not far behind and well ahead of the others.
• Tomcat (33.8%) far and away the most used app-server and disappointingly, GlassFish (2.9%) is last listed behind WebSphere, Jetty, and WebLogic.
• Nearly 60% have no plans to use the Cloud!  This is somewhat surprising given all the hubbub we are hearing about the Cloud.

What is perhaps most interesting (and gets its own paragraph, not just a bullet :)) is the section on open-source maturity.  There has been a gradual shrinking of companies that have a business model that relies on open-source and a pretty big decline in companies that use open-source and contribute back.  There is a pretty big increase in those that use open-source but don't contribute back, so it would seem that use has not declined, but engagement and collaboration with the communities has certainly suffered.  And somewhat alarming is that, while still a very small percentage, the number of companies not allowing the use of any open-source software is growing.

What does this all mean?

• I believe that the growth of non-Windows platforms for development and deployment continues although it is probably getting closer to the ultimate balance point.
• Developers continue to use and adopt new tools and technologies that enhance their productivity but are not abandoning prior technologies that have had significant improvements (EJB with Java EE 6).
• Developers are taking a pragmatic or perhaps more pessimistic approach to the Cloud and open-source.  Perhaps due to the economy and companies having to tighten their belts, use of open-source continues but there is no longer the resources to fully buy into the model and contribute back.

What do you think?

track links for 2010-06-05: Lagat sets new 5000m AR; Bryan Clay wins Gotzis

• Lagat sets American record in Diamond League Oslo 5000m - A great run, but his son is disappointed he finished 3rd!  The 5000m at Pre could be very interesting if Lagat, Solinsky, and Rupp all run.
  
• Nike Elite Stories: Bryan Clay - Good article on Clay.

links for 2010-06-04: iPhone to Android switch; Open standard, but only in Safari; AT&T Data Pricing

• So You Want to Switch to Android…One Man’s iPhone to Nexus One Migration - Stephen makes the switch and shares his thoughts.
  
• Only Apple can do open standards, apparently - This is laughable.  Yes, HTML5 is fairly new and so it is still being fully implemented in browsers, but Chrome and Firefox have been near or at the lead in those implementations so demonstrating and open standard but requiring Safari kind of defeats the purpose.
  
• AT&T's data plan pricing: Bringing confusion back to the game - It may be confusing, but I check my usage and it was actually quite low due to being on WiFi most of the time.  But I haven't been traveling much so it may be artificially low.
  

links for 2010-06-01: Apple pulled previously approved apps; Primer on "HTML5"

• It's Groundhog (Software) day again as Apple rejects already-approved app - This is what is really frustrating, an app that was approved being pulled with no recourse or direction on what to change.  "The problem lies, absolutely, in the shifting goalposts of Apple's rules on what it is going to allow on its platform."
  
• A HTML Primer for the Overwhelmed - Not sure what exactly HTML5 is (and isn't)?  This is a good read and introduces the "HTML5 Family".

links for 2010-05-25: MPEG-LA sued; Stonebreaker's VoltDB; Apple playing catch-up?; Android to be "Windows" of phones?

• Company Sues MPEG-LA, Claiming Antitrust Violations Over Patents - Is it just sour grapes from Nero or has MPEG-LA not held up their end of their deal with the DoJ?
  
• Database daddy goes non-relational on NoSQL fanbois - VoltDB, perhaps offering the best of both worlds?
  
• Google vs. Apple in the battle of the fanboys - Is Apple playing catch up?  This years WWDC will tell us for sure.
  
• Is Android destined to be the Windows of smartphones? - Informative piece that highlights Google getting into mobile back in 2005.
  

links for 2010-05-21: Sayonara iPhone; Google and Adobe gang up on Apple

• Sayonara, iPhone: Why I'm Switching to Android - "The Android OS is already outselling iPhone OS in the United States. Now it's blowing past Apple in terms of the technology it's delivering."  "What makes this even more insulting is that Jobs tries to dress up his selfishness as a kind of altruism. He says it's all about creating a beautiful experience, that while he may be selling you an intentionally crippled device, he's doing it for your own good."
  
• Strange Bedfellows, Google And Adobe Gang Up On Apple - It was a bit of a change from day 1 to day 2.
  

links for 2010-05-20: Android on the iPhone; Google IO; Conan visits Google

• VMware’s Cloud Portability Promise Powered By Google - One of the announcements out of Google IO was their working with VMware to offer Java via SpringSource in the cloud.  This is Stefan Ried's analysis.
  
• The Mall of Google - Jeffrey Hammond's analysis of Google IO day 1.
• Conan visits Google - Entertaining if you have the time to watch it.
• How to install Android on your iPhone - I haven't tried it yet, but thinking about it ...

links for 2010-05-18: Oracle releases new version of MySQL Enterprise; Amazon stealing the Cloud; Book on Facebook; Future of Development; Flavors of Cloud Computing

• Oracle Announces Immediate Availability of the Latest Release of MySQL Enterprise - But press release only mentions MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.2.  No new server yet, but a beta was announced at the MySQL conference.
  
• Amazon is stealing the Cloud - Some interesting stats and survey numbers listed.
• The Age Of Facebook: Excerpts From The New Book By David Kirkpatrick - Interesting insights into how they started and Zuckerberg's unwillingness to cash out.
  
• Understanding the many flavors of Cloud Computing - If you are confused by all the *aaS's.
• Beyond Cassandra: Facebook, Twitter and the Future of Development -  Is the data or code valued more?
  

links for 2010-05-17: Google I/O is the new JavaOne; Government using the Cloud; Caspio = Access + Cloud?; Jobs engages blogger

• Google I/O is the new JavaOne - Google I/O is this week.  Will it become "the" developer conference superseding the new, not at Moscone, JavaOne Oracle puts on in the fall?
• Recovery.gov finds new home in the cloud - It is good to see the government saving the taxpayer a little money by using the cloud.
• Is Caspio The "Microsoft Access" Of The Cloud? - Interesting tool for simple query (and presumably full CRUD) applications.
  
• VMware/SpringSource buys GemStone - I worked with their Smalltalk offerings in the past and really liked them.
• Steve Jobs engages blogger via e-mail - Kudos to Jobs for engaging, but I still think Apple goes too far in "protecting" their users.

Event Processing in the Cloud - Combining Esper with AWS SNS

The folks at Amazon Web Services released their Simple Notification Service in beta a little over a month ago, and I used it to create a loosely coupled weather notification system by publishing weather events to an SNS topic.  It is working great, but I started to think of other types of situations I'd want to monitor and have notifications for, and what better way to process these weather events than with a Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine?  While I could keep extending my shell script, that would be a bit of a hack and I wanted something cleaner that would more easily last the test of time.

Event processing is in many ways a natural extension of messaging infrastructure as the latter is typically used for the passing of events between systems and so having an easy way to plug in or use an event processor makes a lot of sense.  In my case, I wanted to be able to feed periodic weather observations, the raw events, into the messaging infrastructure, then be able to dynamically define the processing rules for those events, and then be able to publish any notifications or "complex events" back into the messaging infrastructure where I could then subscribe or receive them for e-mail/SMS notifications or to kick off other processes or logic.

So, how to put this all together?  There are CEP engines from many of the major middleware vendors, but on my shoestring budget I wasn't about to go spend 5-6 figures on software just to process events for my weather station!  At Sun, as part of the OpenESB project we had developed the Intelligent Event Processor in open-source so it was a natural choice, but it requires the complete ESB infrastructure and can't run standalone.  As I was already using SNS for my messaging and was aiming to make what I created Cloud friendly (see below), I didn't want to bring along an entire ESB, so I needed something else.  Another open-source CEP engine I was familiar with is Esper, and after a quick refresher on its capabilities, I decided it would be perfect.

Esper provides a simple to use but very powerful Java API for configuring the events, queries, patterns, etc. and so I set about creating the interface between SNS and Esper.  What I ended up building has the following capabilities:

• A simple (HTTP/JSON) API for dynamically configuring the events and queries/statements in the engine.
• Receives events from an SNS topic via HTTP and feeds them into Esper.  The publisher of the raw events just publishes to the SNS topic like it was before and I just create a new subscriber for the CEP engine, thus leveraging the beauty of a loosely coupled messaging system.
• Esper processes the events per the configured queries.  As the queries generate results, the results are published to a specified SNS topic which can result in a notification e-mail or kicking off some other process or logic, again leveraging the decoupled nature of SNS.

Now, Esper provides a variety of ways to configure the engine, XML being one of them, but you'll note above I chose to create an HTTP/JSON API to serve as the interface to Esper's Java API for doing this configuration.  This was to be both Cloud friendly and to make the configuration dynamic.  This allows the idea of an event processor in the Cloud that is just available to be configured dynamically, receive events, and publish results, all with no installation or maintenance of the engine or other infrastructure.  One never even needs to log in to a machine to mess with any configuration files.

With this created, I was then able to easily configure the following:

1. I had an existing script called by cron every 10 minutes that sent the weather observation to the Weather Underground.  I added a few lines of code to this script to publish the observation to an SNS topic as well.
2. I created a subscription to the SNS topic that notifies the event processor using HTTP/JSON of each event.
3. I configured my "Cloud CEP" with the following JSON to define the events it would be receiving:

{     "Type": "EventConfiguration",     "Name": "WeatherEvent",     "Fields": [["temp", "double"], ["humidity", "double"], ["dewpoint", "double"]] }

4. I configured a query to use for processing the events, this one telling me the high and low for the past 24 hours every 12 hours at midnight and noon, and sending the result to the specified SNS topic.  The statement is Esper's SQL like syntax for specifying queries:

{     "Type": "ListenerConfiguration",     "Name": "Every 12 hours high and low",     "Statement": "select max(temp) as High, min(temp) as Low from WeatherEvent.win:time(24 hours) output at (1, */12, *, *, *)",     "ActionType": "SNS",     "SNSTopicArn": "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:444520459559:WeatherEventOutput" }

5. I then created a subscription to the WeatherEventOutput topic to send myself an e-mail.

I now get an e-mail at midnight and noon each day telling me what the high and low were for the past 24 hours.  If I want to know any time the temperature changes more than a certain amount in a given period, or if the temperature shows a trend of getting closer to the dewpoint (i.e. it is about to rain), I can add this to the processing with just a simple HTTP/JSON configuration request.  And with the power of Esper, those scenarios and a lot more are possible for my weather data or any other event data one might have.

The further beauty of this is that while I happen to have this running on my server at home, because of the way it is built using SNS and HTTP, it could be located anywhere on the internet whether hosted on EC2 or your favorite provider, or a "Cloud CEP" service available to all.

Note also that what I've written is by no means tied to SNS either.  It just happens to be Cloud based messaging infrastructure that is convenient to use and gives the benefits of loose coupling.  The input to my Cloud CEP is just an HTTP request and I've written an e-mail and HTTP handler so that generated events can go direct as well instead of going to SNS.

So what do you think?  Do you have scenarios where a Cloud CEP would be useful?  Would you like to try out what I've built thus far?  Feel free to leave a comment or contact me at kschmidt at techrunning dot com.

links for 2010-05-13: Ellison on fixing Sun; Fragmenting Linux a bad thing; Apple's cache waning?; Infinity; SAP acquires Sybase

• Ellison on how he is fixing Sun - He doesn't hold back on pointing out Sun's pre-acquisition flaws.  It is unforgivable if they are all so easily fixed.
• Fragmenting Linux is not the way to beat Apple - But will the vendors using Linux as the core of their mobile strategy align?
  
• Is Apple's cache waning? - The iPhone 4 announcement in June will tell us a lot in answering this question.
• Android's army passes iPhone OS, says NPD - The jump seems pretty big when comparing with other research from 2009, but the trend is clear regardless of the actual numbers.
  
• Infinity - The Hilbert Hotel - If you ever wondered what infinity squared is, this one is for you.
• SAP acquires Sybase - This is a reflection of being a software vs hardware company, but Oracle pays $7.4B for Sun with >$10B in revenue while SAP gets Sybase for $5.4B with about $1.2B in revenue

links for 2010-05-12: Apple update for iPad WiFi woes; Flash not a CPU hog?; Microsoft responds regarding HTML5/H.264; Rich Green CTO at Nokia; Oracle Office; Adaptive PaaS

• Apple Plans Software Update For iPad WiFi Woes - Adjust your screen brightness to solve WiFi issues?
  
• Top Flash Misperceptions : Flash is a CPU Hog - Hopefully the performance issues on Mac are addresed with the API access, but a related issue (to me at least) is that Flash is now used in places it isn't needed so its performance compared to HTML5 is accurate at times.
  
• Microsoft responds to questions about stance on HTML5/H.264 - Not that this will end the debate, but interesting to see Microsoft respond as I don't expect Steve Jobs to issue a followup to his remarks.  Read Ed Bott's analysis.
• Rich Green Nokia's new CTO - I was wondering where he might end up.
• Oracle Office on sale - A lot cheaper than Microsoft Office for sure, but now a perpetual license not a subscription like it was under Sun.
• Adaptive PaaS - Interesting thought on what PaaS needs to do to gain momentum.

links for 2010-05-07: Red Hat vs VMware; Cloud washing; Netflix selects AWS; Android in iPhone 3G

• VMware and Red Hat: The war for the data center - Increasingly overlapping portfolios force them to compete.  VMware's next acquisition SUSE Linux to get an OS?
• May the cloud washing begin: Enterprise software giants graze on cloud startups - "The burden of cloud computing proof rests with the large enterprise software folks. Your job will be to distinguish from mere cloud washing and real IT value."
  
• Netflix Selects Amazon Web Services to Power Mission-Critical Technology Infrastructure - They'd been using AWS for more than a year but are expanding their use.
  
• Android now running on the iPhone 3G - It is still a bit rough (no audio support, but coming in days the story says), but getting close to being able to really run Android on an iPhone 3G

links for 2010-05-05: Apple's control freakishness; Chrome update; SOA embraced; Android tablets; Solinsky AR splits

• The upside to Apple's control freakishness - I like this from Tim O'Reilly: "It is becoming increasingly clear that the Internet is becoming not just a platform, but an operating system, an operating system that manages access by devices such as personal computers, phones, and other personal electronics to cloud subsystems ranging from computation, storage, and communications to location, identity, social graph, search, and payment."
• Google Chrome update: Speed, performance and a deeper push into browser computing - Upgraded, still had it freeze on me once, but now it pops up a dialog telling me what page is the culprit and I had Flash enabled at the time.
  
• Just as vendor-speak turns from SOA, the users are actually embracing it - No surprise here.  Vendors and analysts are always talking about the next great thing while there is a lot of money to be made just delivering and implementing the last thing.
  
• Android based tablets on their way - Already running Flash and Air.
• Chris Solinsky's splits from his 10000m AR - It appears he could have run faster with more even pacing!  Bodes well for his 5000m AR attempt at the Pre Classic in July.

links for 2010-05-04: IBM acquires Cast Iron Systems; Scaling open-source; Browser market share; Software patents are good ... for lawyers; Google's cash; Open Data; Android on your TV

• IBM acquires Cast Iron Systems - IBM making more of a push into the Cloud.  Another set of thoughts.
• Open-source support: Can it scale? - "Enterprises turned to open source to shave money in the economic downturn and are staying with it now to drive greater innovation and productivity."
  
• Browser market share: IE drops below 60% - Every browser other than IE shows a growth trend (Opera interestingly seems to have plateaued though), particularly Chrome.
• Browsers: Does minimalist win the race? - ZDNet speculates on why IE is losing share and Chrome is gaining.  A few quotes: "Tech geeks aside, people are more interested in web content than they are the browser" and "... Chrome just kind of blends into the background".
  
• Patent Litigation Weekly: MobileMedia's Unusual Patent Infringement Campaign - Give it away free or let folks use it for free to get adoption, then swoop in and sue.  Nice.
  
• Google at a loss for what to do with cash? - They'd have to do a lot of acquisitions to spend $26.5B!
• The Future of Open Data - Some interesting ideas.  I have to admit that I've run across data sets where I have made changes or cleanup and what Stephen describes would work better than just sharing the Google Spreadsheet I've done in the past.
• Ready for Android on your ... TV? - Not really a surprise as TV's are a natural for being connected and a platform for new types of apps.

links for 2010-05-03: Apple/Adobe debate brings in Microsoft; More on HP/Palm; iPhone envy erased by Droid Incredible; iPad reaches 1M sold

• IE9 HTML5 Video Will Be H264 Only - Microsoft supporting H264 (they are part of MPEG LA so that's natural) but don't seem to be quite as opposed to Flash as Apple.
  
• Mobile is the New Desktop: The HP/Palm Q&A - Stephen's take on the acquisition.  Also see Cote's and James' to complete the RedMonk trifecta.
  
• HP: Is it spreading itself too thin in the IT wars? - They do cover a lot of different areas now.  Too much?
  
• Top 10 ways the Droid Incredible killed my iPhone envy - The author has given up waiting for the iPhone on Verizon and it appears for good reason.
  
• Apple sells 1M iPads in 28 days - But there is still ample demand for the iPad it would seem.

Is Flash costing the American public money in electricity costs?

There has been much furor about the lack of Flash on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad with Apple espousing a number of reasons for that, a key one being performance and resource utilization.  I wrote about my experience with Flash and some minor improvements a beta of 10.1 seems to bring, but I've observed that even when not watching video, with the number of sites that use Flash for other things the CPU is actually quite busy when one would think it would be idle (i.e. I'm not actively browsing).

To test this out, on a Mac I opened up several windows, each with several tabs opened to sites I'll typically have open during the day including Gmail, Google Calendar, Blogger, ESPN.com, StatCounter, ZDNet, and a handful of others.  I also watched a Dodger game on MLB.com for a bit but closed that window and left the computer basically idle but with the tabs still open in my browser.

At this point the Shockwave plug-in was using about 2-3% of the CPU, not bad.  But 20 minutes later of just sitting otherwise idle, the plug-in was using 10% of the CPU.  During this test I did not wait significantly longer, but previously I've seen the plug-in using 15-20% of the CPU while the machine is seemingly idle.

So, even at a conservative 10% of the CPU being used unnecessarily by Flash on an idle machine, one has to then wonder what that is doing to the power consumption of the machine.  A little quick research revealed that moderate usage of a desktop uses 30-50 watts above idle and a laptop 10-15 watts above idle.  If moderate use is 20-30% CPU, then our 10% CPU is going to be using around 10 watts on average.

Let's keep doing more math to see where this takes us.  The current population of the US is just over 307 million and 76.2 computers per 100 people that is roughly 234 million computers.  If only 10%, or 23.4 million, are used on a daily basis and when they are used 10%, or 2.34 million of them visit sites each day for an hour that use Flash and have this CPU waste, that is 23,400 kilowatt hours each day, or 8.54 million per year.

To make that number more meaningful, at an electricity price of $0.10 per kilowatt hour, the use of Flash is costing the American public $854K per year.  And the 10%'s and single hour I used above are likely clearly on the low end of what the actuals are and my analysis ignores computers used at work. So the actual cost is likely well into the millions.  In the grand scheme of things, $854K isn't that much for the entire country, but it is still sobering to think about.

Now, is this all Adobe's fault?  If their software is indeed buggy and inefficient they do shoulder some of the blame, but I would argue that Flash is likely used in many situations it isn't needed and that it is poorly written Flash apps that is a big factor too.  Poorly written AJAX apps running in your browser could cause the exact same issues.

So what can one do about it?  Well, you can choose to do nothing as it is really only costing you at most pennies in extra electricity costs (although what about wear and tear on your computer from heat and the fan running?), but your other alternatives are to not install the Flash plug-in and forgo benefiting from sites that use Flash, or installing a Flash blocker.  I've done the latter and it blocks all Flash applets by default but allows you to white-list sites or selectively enable specific applets.

Using the blocker it is interesting to see what sites use Flash and the list includes Google Mail, ESPN.com, ZDNet, java.sys-con.com, StatCounter, and more.  Do each of these really need to use Flash?

Chris Solinsky shatters the 10000m American Record

An historic event occurred last night at Stanford as Chris Solinsky ran 26:59.6 to shatter the American Record that was 27:13.98.  It was a fabulous run but what was more surprising was that this was his debut at the distance and the race had been billed as Galen Rupp's attempt to break the record and Chris upstaged the runner from the sister training group.  Also, Chris becomes the first non-African born runner under 27 minutes.

The IAAF story above has a good recounting of the race and you can see Flotrack's finish of the race but a quick summary is the rabbits took it through mid-race on 27:10 or so pace and then Rupp took over the lead and pulled everyone along with Chelanga, Salel, and Solinsky close behind (Bairu may have been there too).  Rupp made a move with 3 or so to go, Solinsky went with him and passed him with about 2 to go and closed in about 1:56.  Rupp finished 4th in 27:10, breaking Meb's former AR time, but Salel and Chelanga beat him, Chelanga setting a new Collegiate Record.

Quite an impressive race, especially considering it was his debut, but clearly shows he is likely in sub-13 5000m shape which it appears is his goal for the year, or rather breaking Dathan Ritzenhein's AR of 12:56 is the goal.  He'll be running one in Oslo in early June and then another at the Pre-Classic in July.

It is shaping up to be a great summer for American distance running.  Look for Rupp to come back strong and Matt Tegenkamp who went sub-13 last year should have a another go at the AR.  Enjoy!

links for 2010-04-30: Response to Jobs missive against Flash; Another view on VMforce; Indians most hated team?

• The parallel world of Apple: Where open is not always open - Correctly points out the similarity in Apple's lack of openness particularly around iTunes.
  
• Steve Jobs on Flash: Correcting the Lies - Pokes holes in many of Steve's points, but (if you have a lot of time) read the comments and see holes poked in his hole poking.  It is entertaining, but he goes a bit far I think.
  
• Jobs on Flash: Hypocrisy So Thick You Could Cut it with a Knife - Clearly points out the hypocrisy regarding use of Cocoa, H264 being as if not more proprietary than Flash, and iTunes locking users in more than Flash.  How is Apple "open" one might ask?
  
• Though Miffed, Media Companies See Silver Lining In Apple-Adobe Tiff - Rather than pout about it, media companies are looking for ways to make a buck.  Too bad the record and movie industry has fought technology when they could have embraced it and been innovative.
  
• VMforce - Another Cloud Computing Solution for Java - Asks how they get to claim they are the first enterprise Java Cloud when other vendors have been supporting Java in the Cloud for some time.
  
• Report says Indians most hated team - The natural response would have been that everyone hates the "Evil Empire", but no, it is the Indians and the Yankees are only the 5th most hated.

links for 2010-04-29: AWS to be as big as Amazon retail?; Steve Jobs on Flash; Backlash against PowerPoint; Flash History

• Amazon Looks to Widen Lead in Cloud Computing - Opens a new data center in Singapore, but also says "Amazon Web Services can be as big as our retail business, in the fullness of time".
  
• Steve Jobs thoughts on Flash - He makes several good points, but calling Adobe closed and proprietary given Apple's tools target a single platform (vs many) and the closed nature of the App Store (vs anyone can create an app without approval) is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black.  And if third party software not taking advantage of new APIs and features is really so terrible, let the market determine that and decide.
• We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint - "Commanders say that the slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persuasive point. Imagine lawyers presenting arguments before the Supreme Court in slides instead of legal briefs."
• Flash History - A good reminder that Flash did fill a need, but he also had a zinger directly at Cupertino: "... a platform with a vendor who gets to decide what’s allowed to run is profoundly uninteresting to me anyhow."
• News Analysis: Salesforce.com and VMware Up The Ante In The Cloud Wars With VMforce - Good summary.  Pits the Java offerings vs Azure.
  

links for 2010-04-28: Android momentum; Microsoft and Open Source; VMforce; Web vs Enterprise; AWS Presentations

• Google: Numbers favor Android over iPhone - Some interesting stats and trends, and Apple and Microsoft certainly are validating that Android is a threat to them.
  
• Microsoft contributing to OSS - GPL even.
• The Java cloud? VMforce – Quick Analysis - Force.com gets real Java (well, Tomcat + Spring, no Java EE) and VMware gets a customer buying into their message/vision.
  
• Salesforce.com's partnership with VMware: Offense, defense or something in between? - Another view.
  
• Cassandra and The Enterprise Tension - MySQL responded to the tension one way, what will other tools built for the Web do when confronted by the "opportunity" to go after the enterprise too/instead?
  
• AWS Presentation Roundup - A good source for a variety of presentations on the Cloud and Amazon.

links for 2010-04-27: Promising cancer research; VMware and Salesforce; Gizmodo iPhone raid

• Substance in Breast Milk Kills Cancer Cells, Study Suggests - Research takes awhile, but this sounds like a great start.
  
• VMware, Salesforce announce VMforce platform, bring Java to cloud - More details needed, but sounds like it could be interesting.
  
• Understanding the legal issues that are clouding the Gizmodo iPhone raid - It is somewhat surprising that the police would mess this one up.  Pressure from Apple I'm guessing led to the hasty actions.
  

links for 2010-04-26: Chances are; Apple goes after Gizmodo

• Chances Are - Learn more about conditional probabilities.
• Cops raid Gizmodo editor's home over lost iPhone, raise questions of legal search upon journalist - Does Apple have the judicial system in their pocket?