Oracle 10 ex

Apparently Oracle has decided to release a version of their database for free to go against the growing competition from free and open-source databases such as Postgres and MySQL. It's too bad they made such a decision so late. I remember when open-source databases weren't too mature and was not quite suited for large enterprise application and Oracle was the DB to get. That would've been the best time for them to have made this decision since everyone wanted to try the database despite its complexity. Now, however, the complexity of running an Oracle system outweighs the advantages of using it especially when compared to using other databases that can offer the same features and performance without the difficulties of maintaining the database system.

Still, it's better late then never.

Ultimate Street Fighter video

Here's a classic video of a Street Fighter fight where Ken is one hit from defeat but pulls out a victory from the jaws of defeat by blocking 15 consecutive attacks by Chung Li and wins. Or maybe it's Chung Li pulling defeat from the jaws of victory?

Classic SF video

VMWare Player

Vmware released a free player for their VM. Just found out today and I'll need to take a closer look.

Cybersquatters are silly

I'm reading the latest tech news and I see a CNet article talking about how Google is giving up the gmail name in the UK. According to the article there is a company called IIIRP in the UK that wanted Google to pay them $40-$60 million for the rights to use the gmail name. I went to see the company's site and saw no mention of gmail as a product other then in a press release talking about them suing Google for trademark violation.

Demanding that much money seems to just be greed as this company is cybersquatting the name, and Google had the right answer which was "Oh, well. We'll just use another name." The CEO of that other company must be shooting himself right now that he just blew a major chance to get some value for something that might not be worth anything (which is probably what the name is worth now). As if this wasn't funny enough, I noticed in their latest press release this comment:

Though uncertain, [IIIRP] is now hopeful that Google will resume the settlement discussion which Google unilaterrallly ended in Augst this year.

What are they smoking there?!?

In bed with the devil?

The title is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. ^^;

Came to work this morning and the first headline that caught my attention was that Microsoft and Yahoo are teaming up. What is this?!? Turns out that MS and Yahoo has agreed to let their two IM clients communicate directly with each other. Even though it's MS that is first to partnered with Yahoo, this might be a good step in the right direction.

Preparing your laptop battery.

Thanks goes to Mac for reminding me about prepping a laptop battery before first use.

When the new notebook arrives, fight the urge to use it immediately.

(1) Plug it in and let it fully charge and don't turn it on or use it.
(2) After it fully charges, let it drain completely.
(3) Then fully charge it back up to full before finally starting to use it.

Apple has some more details for the Macbook and Macbook Pros on how to calibrate.

Some other info on Apple's site on taking care of your battery.

Web 2.0

Tim O'Reilly (of the publishing fame) has written an interesting essay about the current state of the web which he termed Web 2.0. Essentially, he argues that the web is in its second generation and he does some compare-and-contrast between the first generation and the second generation.

upcoming.org

Yahoo bought Upcoming.org and to be honest I've never heard of them until I saw the announcement. Upcoming is another company whose idea is in the social networking space which is an area that I seems to be one step behind when finding out about the latest-and-greatest. ^^;

The whole social networking idea isn't new but lately it's been given a new twist and is better integrated with the Internet. This is a positive development, I think, but very much aimed at the 20-25 crowd Good thing I'm only 19 and so I'll hit it next year (just kidding).

Sony decides that Sony DRM is bad?

An interesting story on CNN about Sony directing complaints they're getting to a site that tells them how to work around the DRM protection scheme that is on Sony disks.

Y! Messenger Trick

I just learned this today about Yahoo Messenger. Not sure when it was integrated, but in your conversation window, type:

s: san francisco weather

or

s: weblogs

and messenger will return the search results from yahoo. "s:" seems to indicate search and it follows yahoo search shortcuts.

XP SP3?

According to this CNet article, there will be another service pack for XP once the next MS Windows comes out. If the SP will extend the life of XP, I'm happy because I really don't want to shell out more money for an operating system. I'm perfectly happy to purchase useful application but upgrading and buying new operating system just makes less-and-less sense.