Software
Eben Moglen's neutron bomb therory of MySQL has some flaws
Submitted by James Love on 8. December 2009 - 19:48In a letter to the European Commission defending the Oracle acquisition of MySQL, Eben Moglen makes the following argument.
Sun's "Project Peter" - a plan to migrate Oracle users to MySQL
Submitted by James Love on 21. October 2009 - 0:46Distributed earlier on Wikileaks, this is reportedly is an internal Sun document, discussing a strategy to migrate Oracle users to MySQL.
"Project Peter is an internal effort to assist Sun / MySQL customers in migrating from Oracle to MySQL by offering them a comprehensive solution that consists of Professional Services, Best Practices, and a set of approved third party migration tools and utilities that will enable them to move to MySQL in a way that is as easy as possible."
KEI, Richard Stallman and ORG ask EC to block Oracle's acquisition of MySQL
Submitted by Malini Aisola on 19. October 2009 - 17:05Today, Richard Stallman, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and the Open Rights Groups (ORG) sent a letter to Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Competition for the European Commission expressing their opposition to Oracle's acquisition of MySQL as part of the proposed Oracle-Sun merger. The letter is available here.
Letter to the EC opposing Oracle's acquisition of MySQL
Submitted by Staff on 19. October 2009 - 16:30The following is a letter that KEI, Richard Stallman and ORG have sent to the European Commission, asking the European Commission to prevent Oracle from acquiring MySQL as part of its acquisition of Sun. The European Commission has the authority to require a divestiture of MySQL, so that it would not be part of the merger, in order to ensure that MySQL would operate independently, or be sold to a different company that would not face the same conflicts as Oracle does. KEI would have raised similar objections if Microsoft was the proposed buyer of MySQL.
Timeline: Some important dates for MySQL and the proposed Oracle/Sun merger
Submitted by Malini Aisola on 5. October 2009 - 13:071994
Michael Widenius and David Axmark start developing MySQL
1995
Software company MySQL AB founded by Michael Widenius, David Axmark and Allan Larsson
23 May 1995
First internal release of MySQL
April 1998
Michael Kunze coins the acronym LAMP for an open source web server software bundle comprised of Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python
07 October 2005
The Netflix prize, about to be won
Submitted by James Love on 27. June 2009 - 7:38Apparently at least one entrant has qualified to win the $1 million Netflix grand prize. One can follow the progress of the teams on the Netflix Leaderboard: http://www.netflixprize.com/leaderboard.
Zotero
Submitted by James Love on 20. June 2009 - 16:12Zotero is an open source citation and bibliography manager. The project has been managed by George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media (CHNM), and supported by the Andrew Melon Foundation and other donors. There are several alternative citation managers, including the popular but pricey commercial product Endnote, owned by Thomson Reuters, the publishing giant that was created in 2008 by a merger of Thomson and Reuters.* The Zotero product has been around for a few years, steadily adding features, improving performance, and attracting users.
President Obama picks David Kappos as USPTO Director, first open source fan to run USPTO
Submitted by James Love on 19. June 2009 - 11:08Our impressions about this appointment are positive, but we would like to hear from others. IBM has been very smart on IPR issues lately, recognizing that knowledge is often more valuable when shared. Coming from a successful technology firm, he will have both credibility and insight into innovation policy. He brings more balance to the job than anyone we can remember. Below are some interesting quotes from various articles.
Microsoft: What can go wrong
Submitted by James Love on 29. April 2009 - 14:56MICROSOFT CORPORATION, FORM 10-Q For the Quarter Ended March 31, 2009
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and the trading price of our common stock.
WIPO patent committee resumes work on a positive agenda (March 2009)
Submitted by thiru on 15. January 2009 - 7:58The 13th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) will take place from March 23, 2009 to March 27, 2009 in Geneva at WIPO headquarters. The WIPO Report on the International Patent System is the first substantive agenda item of the 13th session.
