Somali pirates hijack another boat -- or two or three -- every day despite the best efforts of the U.S. 5th Fleet, NATO, Russia, India and others. This is not new; pirates have been frustrating the mighty for at least 2,000 years. As the U.N. Security Council grapples with Somali piracy, its members are in venerable company.
Tagi: nato russia, somali pirates, 5th fleet, best efforts, grapes, piracy, security council, nato, india
The original Horizon H-Racer hydrogen fuel-cell toy just got an update: Before, you could fill it with water and let 'er rip. Now, you can actually steer the bastard.
The new kit—because it may look like a race car but let's be honest, it's a science edu-toy—still comes with the solar panel and hydrogen station so that you can use the sun's rays to convert H2O to H2 and O2. But the car itself now has glowing LEDs, responds to an IR remote, and runs longer and faster with the same amount of fuel. Taking a cue from auto makers and gas companies who release literally green advertisements to convince the public they aren't part of the problem, Horizon decided to change the car's translucent tint from blue to, yes, green. The difference, of course, is that Horizon definitely isn't part of the problem. Only time will tell, however, if they are part of the solution. Meantime, here's a fun Christmas gift for anyone that still has $120 to spend on progress! [Horizon via Gizmag]
Tagi: hydrogen fuel cell, science edu, s rays, horiz, fuel cells, auto makers, mdash, solar panel, compas, race car, h2, bastard, stati, o2, cue, horizon, ing, sun
On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session in the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.
So, all those trappings of modern computing that we take for granted today? Engelbart demonstrated them all two years before I was born. It just took a while for the rest of the world to catch up to his vision.
That's the lesson of many of the groundbreaking HCI discoveries presented in this book. Some people see further. Engelbart was so far ahead of his time in 1968 that his demonstration wasn't taken seriously -- it seemed absurd and impractical. It really makes you wonder which of today's HCI researchers we're ignoring but shouldn't be.
The book also takes an interesting approach; it doesn't summarize the papers, instead, it presents the reflections of current working HCI professionals on the papers. It's a little bit meta. You're hearing the impact of these HCI discoveries -- some big, some small -- as related by young researchers who were heavily influenced by them.
As a primer and overview of the field of human computer interaction, it's tough to beat. Reading this reminds me how far we've come, and yet how far we have to go.
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Tagi: menlo park ca, hci researchers, stanford research institute, douglas engelbart, innovatis, th trip, public debut, menlo park, video interface, modern computing, th time, computer mouse, sessi, douglas c, human computer, trappings, menlo, two books, ground
Today is the opening day of the MySQL User Conference - so I thought I'd describe a recent customer interaction related to the acquisition.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting the Chief Information Officer of a large commercial institution. He had with him the company's Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Security Officer (known as the "see-so"), and a series of lieutenants from various parts of their (large) development organization.
The Sun team had spent the day reviewing our progress together, and was finishing up with a product roadmap presentation. From what I sensed, it'd been a good day, so when I arrived, it was mostly to say thanks for the business, and ensure everyone had my contact info in the event I could help out going forward.
We had just closed the acquisition of MySQL, so before I wrapped up, I asked, "And would you like a quick update on the newest addition to our family, MySQL?"
The CIO responded categorically with "we don't run MySQL, we run [name withheld to protect the proprietary]." The CISO said, "We can't just let developers download software off the net, you know, we've got regulation and security to worry about." The CTO smiled. Everyone else appeared to be sitting on their hands. I was going to leave it at that. Thanks for the business.
Until a (diplomatically) assertive Sun sales rep piped up, "Um... no, I connected with a buddy of mine over at MySQL, and had him check - you've downloaded MySQL more than 1,300 times in the last twelve months."
After a profoundly awkward silence, one of the individuals from their internal development team piped up, "Actually, everybody uses it. Why bother hassling with license agreements when MySQL's got you covered. We're stoked you bought them."
Awkward silences aside, we've now got a very productive engagment with the customer around delivering commercial support on a global basis to what's turned out to be the most popular database inside their development shop. They're finding more and more applications for MySQL, and more ways to save significant time and money in moving toward the future.
And that experience - of a CIO not knowing how ubiquitous and valuable free software has become to their organization - isn't atypical. In fact, it's the norm, and a divide we're gently trying to bridge.
Last week, we held a conference for leading financial and industry analysts from around the world. My keynote presentation is below - broken into two parts for ease of viewing. One analyst remarked, "but this is pretty much what you said last year."
I responded with, "That's the point."
If you'd like more specifics on our financial performance (directly from Mike Lehman, our CFO), views from the marketplace (from Don Grantham, our Global Sales and Services) or specific product roadmaps (from the heads of our Systems or Software businesses), just click here...)
Tagi: product roadmaps, mike lehman, software businesses, analyst conference, financial performance, global sales, industry analysts, specifics, keynote
Somali pirates hijack another boat -- or two or three -- every day despite the best efforts of the U.S. 5th Fleet, NATO, Russia, India and others. This is not new; pirates have been frustrating the mighty for at least 2,000 years. As the U.N. Security Council grapples with Somali piracy, its members are in venerable company.
The original 
Taking a cue from auto makers and gas companies who release literally green advertisements to convince the public they aren't part of the problem, Horizon decided to change the car's translucent tint from blue to, yes, green. The difference, of course, is that Horizon definitely isn't part of the problem. Only time will tell, however, if they are part of the solution. Meantime, here's a fun Christmas gift for anyone that still has $120 to spend on progress! [
