Help MySQL Stay Free

There's a campaign started by Monty Widenius to save MySQL from the evil clutches of Oracle. You can read about it here.

A Case Against "New and Improved"

My email provider has recently switched their webmail interface from a straight HTML version to an Adobe Flash based version. I don't really use this version a lot since I use Thunderbird as an email client, but it has some nice new features that I guess are helpful if you use the web interface a lot.

I was recently on vacation bouncing between four different hotels without a laptop. I came to appreciate the straight HTML interface more as I moved from place to place. All of the hotels I visited had "business centers" or public computers that you could access (some free, some not). I ran into two major problems with these computers; you can't install an updated version of Flash on a computer where you are only a guest, and Flash operates really slow over satellite connections.

I felt a bit of deja vu as I remembered the transition from Client/Server based programs to three-tier architectures in the earlier part of the decade. Here we are again with a thick version specific client. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A dying breed?

I usually get a feel for "what's hot" in the marketplace by the number of books on the shelves at my favorite bookstore. A couple years ago there was six shelves at my Borders store filled with books on Oracle. Oracle for Dummies, PL/SQL, and scores of Certification books. I was quite surprised to find only three books on Oracle at the same store this past weekend.

MySQL still has some respect with about a 1/2 shelf. .Net clocked in with about 5 or 6 shelves with a smattering here and there of Java and the associated technologies. Good old Perl shared half a shelf with PHP. But I feel left behind because I don't know Excel Macros (about 12 shelves).

Maybe Oracle has really achieved a self-tuning, self-managing database and we don't need books anymore.

Please excuse me while I apply four more patches to my "up-to-date" 10.2.0.3 installation.

Back when the internet was fun...

Do you remember way back to 2005 when the internet was fun?

Wanted to check the progress of the NCAA tournament during the day? Just go to http://www.espn.com and your browser refreshes automatically as the action happens.

Read some industry chit-chat during your lunch hour? Open up your favorite news aggregator and read away.

Two years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about forwarding a funny email to friends & family.

Try to go to http://www.espn.com today and you'll likely have to "justify the business need" to three levels of management to get your scores.

My RSS newsfeeds quit working a couple weeks ago. Doesn't matter that 90% of them are industry related, they're not business appropriate.

I stopped forwarding emails to some friends and family because I was tired of getting the bounce messages from their email filter. It's just not the same when you have to tell the joke over the phone and explain why 18 goes into 54 more times than 54 goes into 18.

Ah, the price of progress.

Why aren't there more of us?

I started reading Frank Hayes' piece on H-1Bs and Students last night with doubt because the two groups represent two different experience levels. Students are entry level workers and workers on H-1B visa's are typically experienced professionals. But those entry level workers eventually want to move on to experienced positions where they will compete on an uneven playing field with H-1B workers.

Now, it's no surprise that a view in Computerworld is slanted towards importing more workers. It's a genuine concern in our industry and therefore an appropriate subject to report on. Yet, they consistently fall on the side of the debate that advocates more H-1B workers.

Frank examines the trends of Computer Science graduates and correlates it to the rise and fall of the DotCom Boom and Bust. Personally, I dismiss those cycles because they just enticed people who weren't passionate about the profession and were chasing the almighty dollar. I think kids that want to get into this business because they think they will like it are scared. Scared they will be in a six-figure job with a mortgage and two kids when some C level executive decides to offshore the whole operation to China. Scared that they'll end up being 40 and be replaced by some guy willing to take 1/2 of what they make.

Where do these crazy kids get these ideas? The national media as well as several trade publications shout it from the rooftops daily. As someone who hires IT workers regularly, I can tell you that's not the case. I'll typically go through a couple dozen resumes to fill one spot. I have a spot that went unfilled because I just couldn't find someone to fill it. Maybe you won't spend 20 years at the same company, but the work is there if you want it.

I think there is a flaw in Mr. Hayes' numbers as well. While CS graduates are most likely destined for the IT industry, there are so many other disciplines that turn out IT workers. Hiring managers need to look beyond the engineering programs and open their search up to all the majors. Some of my best people have come from respected science or business programs.

I don't think it's all gloom and doom for the IT industry in this country. The press may lead you to think that everything is being outsourced to somewhere else, but the fact is there's a lot of work out there for the taking.