I wrote last year about the way Google’s Android mobile operating system was serving as a more open alternative to Apple’s iOS, but not so open that it didn’t leave opportunity for an even more open alternative.

Given that we continue to see software patent-based attacks on Android, as well as swirling FUD around coverage of the attacks and never ending suits and settlements and courtroom developments, it is clear it will be a long time before any of this legal business is ever close to settled, unless ended by settlements first, which is likely.

However, I’m more interested in the technology in the meantime. I also think it’s interesting to see, if not a ‘more open’ …

The Open DB Camp in Sardinia 2011 has had a number of sessions on varying topics. Topics range from MySQL over MongoDB to replication and High Availability.

I decided to tap into the database expert resources present here at Sardegna Ricerche by discussing a non-database issue, where one can expert database experts to have insights beyond those of end users. And they did.

The topic was the particular case of information overload many of us suffer from on our hard disks: Too many files, too hard to find.

• How do we find the bank statement from April 2007 from the more-seldom-used account?
• What are the ten best work-related pictures from last year?
• Is this the most current …

I was recently in the USA for #mysqlconf and to save some money I got myself a AT&T prepay card to use for data and messages. The prepay card did not work out of the box as there is firmware specific lock ins to the AT&T network (APN settings) so here are the steps you must take to enable it on your international iPhone / iPad.


This will be useful if you are from overseas and attending #velocity or #oscon this year.

• Your iPhone / iPad must be unlocked so it can take another SIM card
• AT&T prepay only issue full size sims - they do not issue microsim (another way to prevent you from using prepay with your iPhone / iPad). As a result, you must buy the full sized sim and cut it down using the steps detailed to micro-sim …

When the iPad came out just before last year's O'Reilly MySQL Conference, I decided I would become a late adopter. I didn't want yet another piece of electronics that needed charging, downloading, syncing, upgrading, and turning off at takeoff and landing. Sure, I like new technology, but there must be a modicum of rationality in owning it. And I didn't want to carry around a further distraction, so I decided I was happy with the combination of a MacBook Pro and pen-and-paper.

That was last year.

Since then, I've done what late adopters usually do, i.e. follow the early adopters. And what I've seen has pushed me over the tipping point. My top question for iPad owners was "how do you decide whether to use your iPad or …

Coming to you from 24 hours in the future, it's this week's Developer Week in Review.

All your news cycles are belong to us

We're using the O'Reilly Tempro-Spatial Distorter to send you back news of Today's's iPad 2 launch before it's even happened. Who could have predicted that the iPad 2 would have both a 3D Retina display and Smell-o-vision? But the real shocker had to be the announcement that the iTunes store was finally going to have the long-missing catalog of Up With People available for sale.

Ok, so we don't have a time machine, and deadlines dictate that this will be going to edit before the Big Announcement today. I'm sure one or two other news outlets will be covering the event, so you can probably find out what happened sometime later this week. For those keeping score, this is something like the 3rd or 4th Big Announcement so far this year, and we're only through February. It must be truly depressing to be …

I only recently found out about GigaOm's upcoming Net:Work conference.  It's held December 9 at UCSF Mission Bay conference center.  While the name of the conference is a bit ambiguous, the actual area of focus is very clear: how will we collaborate in the 21st century?  

The impact of smartphones, tablet computing, social networks, Software-as-a-Service and Cloud computing is just starting.  As a result, I think there are tremendous opportunities for startup companies to disrupt existing markets with more modern, lightweight applications that foster collaboration inside the company as well as with partners, vendors, consultants and customers.  

…

I wrote a guest column for GigaOm on how open source software, cloud and software as a service are helping to bring about the consumerization of IT: namely bringing simplicity where complexity reigned.  I cited some examples including New Relic, Box.net and Apple.

Open source has gone a long way toward putting power back in the hands of developers, who can download, install and deploy software without having to go through any kind of convoluted sales or budget approval process.  You want MySQL?  You can download and install in 15 minutes, and you don’t have to …

David Cornelson of TextFyre has embarked on an ambitious plan to create a new open source virtual machine, FyreVM.  This new VM will run Interactive Fiction games (e.g. Zork and newer works written in Inform) on a dozen different mobile platforms such as Android, WinPhone 7, Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry.  The goal of FireVM is to take advantage of specific user interface capabilities on each platform, whether it's the touch screen of Android tablets or the 5 way button on the Kindle.

To help with this project, TextFyre has started  a fundraising effort on Kickstarter with a goal of …

Financial services on the go - GlassFish for Fundamo and profit
Alexis recently published a new Adoption Story on how Fundamo uses GlassFish v2 and OpenMQ for its Enterprise Platform. Overview at stories entry, details in questionnaire, and an overview in this earlier short video interview.
We are always interested in more GlassFish adoption stories, both from (non-paying) users and from (paying) customers.   …