Category Archives: Technology

Bloggers vs. Traditional Media

I have been thinking for quite some time about Bloggers vs. Traditional Media. People give bloggers a lot of flak for having typos, bad grammar, and unchecked facts in their blogs. I agree that it’s true, they have exactly that. Where I disagree though is the silent argument that traditional media doesn’t have that.

It’s becoming more and more prevalent, with the popularity of essentially news aggregators like Google News, that traditional media companies are struggling to be the first to break the news. In their struggle to be the first, it seems they are, more and more, skipping any real copy-editing steps. I constantly see CBS News, BBC, Fox, and even AP wire stories, with typos, grammatical errors, factually incorrect information, etc. in them.

What’s the point, then, of traditional media? They’re becoming a blog themselves. At least real bloggers get to share their real opinion (for better or worse) instead of being the same old media machine.

C++ Gone Wild

This summer, C++ gone wild. These are brilliant:

int Log_event::read_log_event(IO_CACHE* file, String* packet,
                              pthread_mutex_t* log_lock)

and

#ifndef MYSQL_CLIENT
Log_event* Log_event::read_log_event(IO_CACHE* file,
                                     pthread_mutex_t* log_lock,
                                     bool old_format)
#else
Log_event* Log_event::read_log_event(IO_CACHE* file, bool old_format)
#endif

and

Log_event* Log_event::read_log_event(const char* buf, int event_len,
                                     const char **error, bool old_format)

Save me.

Geeks and Recalls

Apple announced a recall of many PowerBook and iBook batteries today. You can tell you’re a super-geek when your first thought about a battery recall is not “Oh no, it could catch fire!” but instead “Sweet! A free new battery!”.

Update: Damn, I missed the recall by two serials. For the 12-inch PowerBook, the recall starts at 3X446, and I’ve got a 3X444.

Interesting Systems: Trakm8

Yesterday, at the MySQL User Conference 2005, I hosted a Birds of a Feather session on MySQL and GIS. I spoke with a couple of guys from Trakm8, a company from Dorset, England. They have a very fascinating system built on top of MySQL’s GIS support and some of their custom tracking devices. They showed me their software and we discussed their platform. I gave them some (hopefully useful) tips regarding MySQL.

Their system includes an embedded PC, a GPS, and a GPRS modem (cell phone), and given some power is able to track a vehicle (or anything else) anywhere within coverage of the cell network. This is exactly the kind of people and projects/products I was hoping to get at my BoF session. As an aside, there’s a funny BBC story on Trakm8 that’s definitely worth a read and a chuckle. Awesome work guys, and good luck!