OPEN INSIGHTS Newsletter
Issue 32 – Different Heritages
June 1, 2007
by Sean Hull
Founder and Senior Consultant
Heavyweight Internet Group
Welcome back to our Open Insights newsletter. Our readership is now north of 3000 subscribers and growing everyday. Thanks to everyone for your support and for forwarding us on to friends and colleagues!
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In This Issue:
1. Feature:Different Heritages
2. Upcoming Speaking Engagements
3. New Articles
4. Audio Interviews
5. Current Reading
6. Lightweight Humor
8. Past Issues
9. Technical Articles
10. About Heavyweight Internet Group
1. Feature: Different Heritages
It’s always refreshing to hear a new word in a speech, or other opening address. L
ast month at Collaborate, listening to Charles Phillip’s keynote, he talked among o
ther things, about “different heritages” when referring to the various acquisitions
that Oracle has made in the past year.
Heritage is a great word, for it refers to things that are past on, but carries the
cultural value of tradition, so it’s not a word often used to refer to technologie
s that are passed on. It really speaks to the ideas of open and closed with respec
t to software solutions. These are seperate and distinct traditions with different
heritages which are not encountering a clash of civilizations. We talked in Open
Interviews 01 with Paul Vallee, and how open source databases are providing a downw
ard pressure on licensing fees to commercial products. In some cases there is also
a pressure to innovate, with more players producing solutions with more features.
And on the open source side there’s pressure to assimilate for companies to provid
e add-ons for fees, or build some parts with proprietary components. And there’s a
lso the pressure to iron out meaning in the legal arena.
As I’ve always emphasized to clients, we’re a big proponent of the “whatever works”
philosophy. That is, whatever best solves the problem at hand, be it commercial,
open-source, or some combination thereof, considering all the short term (licensing
), and long-term (supply of skills, time + cost to maintain) factors. As these two
worlds continue to intersect and collide it can only serve to benefit end users an
d the rest of us in business. We will continue to report on those technology fragm
ents, and conglomerates as they emerge. So stay tuned.
Last month was the
Collaborate 2007 conference in Las Vegas Nevada. I ended up giving two talks, one on Monday, and one on Tuesday. I’ve uploaded video of both of them.
Oracle 10g RAC versus DataGuard for High Availability
In our most recent interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We’ve also moved our podcast to Odeo for Audio Podcast hosting. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already!
Seth’s books always illuminate something in a new light, and his latest title is no exception. In it he talks about the controversial idea of quitting, but not the kind where one gives up, but rather the one where someone jumps to the right opportunity when they are no longer contributing and growing where they are.
Bookstaber’s title illustrates a concept that financial markets will continue to surprise and behave chaotically as they are driven by that interminable and forever fickle, human behavior.
Forecasting Oracle Performance – Craig Shallahamer
APress strikes again with this great title on Oracle Performance Tuning by a very able writer Craig Shallahamer. Recommended.
More onion this month…
Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product
I’ve turned up some interesting podcasts this month to share with readers. Enjoy!
SpikeSource is an interesting company that specializes in packaging, supporting, and in a sense certifying reliable combinations of those projects for the enterprise customer. I found that they have an excellent podcast series, which I’ve been listening too. Definitely worth your time:
The Business of Open-source Podcast
If you enjoy NPR, you might like their technology show. It comes out every Wednesday.
This series has been around for a while, and interviews some of the heavies in the technology space.
Issue 31: Auto or Traffic Engineer
Issue 30: Crowdsourcing
Issue 29: Mainroads or Sidestreets
Issue 28: High Availability
Issue 27: Fragile Foundations
Issue 26: Logistical Fitness
Issue 25: Which Red Button
Issue 24: Consulting Conflicts of Interest
Issue 23: Devil In The Details
Issue 22: Beware of Software Fashion
Issue 21: Open Season, Open Sesame?
Issue 20: Better Web Better Business
Archive: Past Issues
Oracle DBA Interview: click here
Tools for the Intrepid DBA: click here
Oracle9i + RAC on Linux/Firewire: click here
Migrating MySQL to Oracle: click here
MySQL Disaster Recovery: click here
10. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, Oracle. Everything related to and surrounding the database technology we specialize in, but specifically setup, admin and tuning of Oracle technology. I have 10 years experience with Oracle, wrote a book on the technology, and write and lecture frequently. I’m founder and senior consultant of the company. In capacities where your company might hire Deloitte, AIG, or Oracle Consulting we can bring the same level of service and experience, at about half the price. Simple equation.
Looking for top-flight a DBA? Visit us on the web at iheavy.com.
