Jason Brown

Bring on "The Hacking Business model"

So I read early this morning that Oracle has bought out Sun.  Yadda yadda, one more large company buys out another large company....  However in this case it brings a few more complciations to the table.  Sun who bought out MySQL (arguably the most popular open source database server) a while back is now owned by maybe the largest commercial database entity around.  What does this mean for MySQL?  This is a common question I read while trolling for more information today.  Why is nobody asking what is going to happen to Oracle?  "Does this mean the fall of the giant?"  <- I'm not hearing this question anywhere.

Now I don't feel just because a company or product is on top in the commercial world, it should auto-magically fall to the best rival in the open source world.  Far from it.  Good software is difficult to produce and harder to sell and distribute in this market economy and I think anyone who can create something from a few lines of code and stick with as it grows and becomes the greatest thing should be rewarded for their efforts.  But what does this mean when one company now "owns" two very similar products at what I see as very opposite ends of the spectrum?  Well I think Michael Widenius sums it up rather well on his blog (as he should, being the fonder and original developer for MySQL):

"What could be Oracle's plan with MySQL? Three different plans come to mind:

• They are going to kill MySQL (either directly or by not developing/supporting it fully)

• MySQL will get sold of to another entity, either because Oracle doesn't want it or becasue of anti-trust laws.

• They will embrace MySQL and Open Source and put their technical expertise on it to ensure that MySQL continues to be the most popular advanced Open Source database.

I am putting my hopes to the third option, but for succeeding in that Oracle has to also learn a lot about open source development and working with the community."

I fully agree and do hope that Oracle embraces MySQL and steps up to do what I see could be a better job of handling the project than Sun did.  There is no doubt that there are some challenges ahead for both Oracle and MySQL, but like all things adversity brings about greatness and I welcome anything that presents the ability for one or many to stand strong and be seen.

Exchange 2010 on the way

So while I'm admittedly not a fan of Microsoft Exchange for an email platform, I am curious to see what the monolith has up it's sleeve.  Given the state of the global economy, the well the email software vendors draws from is getting lower and lower.  Businesses large and small are looking to tighten purse strings and thus are really evaluating exactly what functions and features they need when it comes to messaging. 

The combination of other vendors coming out with a feature set that is closer to what the average user needs and folks moving to hosted solutions makes the well even harder to find (regardless of how much or little water is in it).  The standard box of 64 colors isn't as appealing when 16 or 32 may do just fine (or when the box of 128 is just around the corner).

Well, as I haven't had a chance to get my hands on an advanced copyy of Exchange 2010, the cats over at Network World have and they are of the opinion that it may be worth the wait to skip over Exchange 07 if you haven't upgraded already:

"If you are thinking of upgrading to Exchange 2007 but haven't done so, the new end-user features in Exchange 2010 may make the six-month wait worthwhile."

You can read the full article online here and it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

jb

SocialEmailNetworkThingy

Over the course of the last few years, I've seen a definite decline in email use within the network of friends and collegues I interact with daily.  We wait to chat on IM or Skype! or we send a brief message on Linkedin.  I was checking out a report from Nielsen Research and it said one out of every online 11 minutes is spent social networking and blogging sites!!!!  With these "Communities" growing almost twice as fast as the other leading online channels (search, portals, email), it really brings into question where we will be in the next 5 years. The Report continues:

• Social networks/ blogs now 4th most popular online category – ahead of personal email
• These sites account for one in every 11 minutes online
• Facebook has the highest average time per visitor (three hours 10 minutes) amongst the 75 most popular brands online worldwide
• The total amount spent online globally increased by 18% between December 2007 and December 2008
• In the same period, however, the amount of time spent on ‘Member Community’ sites rose by 63% to 45 billion minutes; and on Facebook by a massive 566% – from 3.1 billion minutes to 20.5 billion.
• Facebook has added almost twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million).

"Social networking appears to be snatching away users' online time formerly spent with email. As online paradigm shifts, advertisers must find a way to add value, rather than follow the 'push' model." (report from AdWeek)

Really brings into perspective where things are going....

jb

Death of the snail?

So I read a while back that the US government is thinking of dropping mail delivery to 5 days a week instead of 6.  Now to me, this sounds like a fantastic idear.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.

And, despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week."

"The ability to suspend delivery on the lightest delivery days, for example, could save dollars in both our delivery and our processing and distribution networks. I do not make this request lightly, but I am forced to consider every option given the severity of our challenge," Potter said. full story

Now I don't think there is anything that can replace a letter sent or received to someone, however the bulk of our personal (and maybe busniess) communication has not been by post in quite some time I think and I see no downside in getting used to the new postal schedule.  I would be very happy to not see the postage costs go up in May and I can only imagine the lesser amount of carbon output we would see with one full day less fuel consumption here in the US would be substantial as well.  Something to think about anyhow.

jb

Where did all the free email go???

OK, so it really has not come to that point yet, but will it? I read last week that Lycos Europe was dropping their free email offering completely. Here is a copy of the letter Lycos sent to their users (as posted here):

Dear User,

We regret to inform you that our parent company has decided to discontinue all unprofitable activities.

One of the activities that will be discontinued is our E-mail business division. For this reason, we are hereby terminating your account as of 15 February 2009. Currently, we are still working on finding a solution to provide you the service through another provider. If we should succeed to do so, we will inform you within the next 4 weeks. But as this is currently doubtful, we would like to ask you to assume the end of the service.

Prior to this date, you may continue to log in to your e-mail account and receive and send mail as usual. After this date, however, we will close your account and delete all content and access authorizations stored with Lycos in relation to your e-mail account, in accordance with legal requirements.

You will then no longer be able to receive or send e-mail under your e-mail address. The contents of your mailbox will also no longer be accessible. For this reason, we ask that you back up all important data from your Lycos e-mail account in the next few days and switch to another e-mail provider.

Should you still be entitled to services for any additional paid options, we will of course reimburse the balance to the bank account you provided.

We regret this measure and would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in us.

Kind regards,

Your LYCOS Mail Team

Is this the beginning of a new trend and the end of free email? I think not. This may be the beginning of a trend to allow the hackers within our organizations provide solutions to these problems (after all that is what they do right?). I'm not talkling about the script kiddie in the coffee shop in the corner of your building trying to deface your web site, I'm talking about the guys in the corner who would rather figure out how something works than rely on what a sales person tells them it does. I see this as a welcome end to the messiness I've seen (and had to clean up) of upselling hardware and software to line the pocket rather than giving people what they actually asked for and need.

/endrant.... jb