ongoingongoing fragmented essay by Tim BrayRotD: UltraPink- June 30, 2008 This rose-of-the-day grows in our front yard, but we inherited it and I dont know what it is. Plus, Nikon is making waves in the camera world.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/30/Ultra-Pink OOXML: Everythings Just Fine- June 30, 2008 Or at least thats what ISOs Secretary General says. I had hoped to stop writing about this subject, sigh. There are multiple appeals against OOXML; lets try to read the tea-leaves without too many guttural snickers.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/30/ISO-Says-Everything-is-OK RotD: Wild!- June 29, 2008 I think todays roses are Wild, but it turns out that label can apply to a bunch of different things, including the official flower of the next province over, where I sometimes think Im from.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/29/Wild-Roses CL III: Semantic Gaps- June 29, 2008 I do intend a Cottage Life post soon thats not about maintenance, but this isnt it. I thought I was trying to fix the water heater, but in fact it became a four-way semantic mapping conundrum.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/29/CL-Water-Heater On Megapixels- June 28, 2008 Suppose youre interested in buying a camera. If you look at the ads and reviews, the first thing you see right beside every single one is its megapixel count. The camera makers want you to think that more is always better, which is wrong. But the community buzz is starting to be more is worse, which isnt really right, either.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/28/On-Megapixels RotD: More Rugosas- June 27, 2008 Yesterdays yellow rose is just one of three Rugosas, lovely plants growing in the wrong place.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/27/Other-Rugosas Database Pricing- June 27, 2008 This marketing move is why the SunMySQL deal made sense; its all about marketing and selling. Frankly, in most respects, a technology comparison of MySQL and any old commercial database package is kind of boring; which makes pricing and delivery really important. John Clingan highlights this nicely in Save big bucks with GlassFish & MySQL Unlimited. He includes an obvious link to the Oracle pricing news, but I think Bryan Cantrills four-year-old The Economics of Software is relevant, too.http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/27/Database-Pricing John Hopkinson- June 26, 2008 This friend of mine is looking for a job, and since hes got a fairly special skillset I thought itd be worth highlighting him here. Hes a long-time veteran of security technology (starting in the British military) and more recently a really accomplished standards warrior. I got to watch John work in the context of the recent OOXML process, including the BRM in Geneva, where he was one of the most effective operators. He knows ISO process and politics comprehensively. Seems to me that at...http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/26/John-Hopkinson New TLD Fun- June 26, 2008 Im not sure whether this free-TLD idea is a good or bad thing in the big picture, but you can have some idle fun thinking em up; its almost poetic: .geek, .nerd, .aspergers .vancouver, .condo, .rain .dot, .sun, .web .pr, .fanboy, .whore .plane, .train, .auto .good, .bad, .fail .pwns, .sucks., .rocks .rock, .jazz, .blues .mojo, .mofo, .homo .school, .college, .job .nba, .epl, .afl .bondage, .discipline, .spanking .fast, .slow, .stop .beginning, .middle, .endhttp://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/26/TLDs Mike vs. Dave- June 26, 2008 This is gripping stuff. Today, Suns chief counsel Mike Dillon blogged a blow-by-blow report on our in-progress litigation with NetApp. The story of the case is pretty interesting, but the fact that a major corporations Chief Counsel is blogging it in real-time is ground-breaking, I think. Just as interesting is the only-slightly-redacted declaration by NetApps Dave Hitz (PDF), filed in the case, that Mike linked to. Its a remarkably unvarnished take on the issues facing closed-source vendors..http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/06/26/Mike-and-Dave |