Google isn't Cuil.....

"Anna Patterson's last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

She believes her latest invention is even more valuable — only this time it's not for sale.

Ms. Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet."

Looks as if the only thing that stays the same these days is change. But this may be a "CUIL" change. I sure like the name of the search engine better than some of the other "dogdroppings" that are out there. $33 Million from the Venture Capitalists is a nice pile of chips to have at your disposal also. I wonder what it will take to get ANTs listed on their first page??

Well, looks like another challenge for recognition in the undressing of the internet.

~David~

Big Dog at Work

Boston Dynamics has developed a quadruped robot that can walk, run, climb steep terrain, plod through deep snow and handle the most slippery conditions.

It can also carry about a 340-pound payload.

When I watched the video, I wasn't sure whether I was viewing a buzzing insect, a long-legged and faceless critter--or perhaps a couple of human contortionists in robot drag.

Watch this video and decide for yourself!

--Roberta Murphy

Thanks....

Thanks Bob, Spiderman and Roberta for the interesting posts. I have been very busy with life stuff and my real job of late, but I have a thought I am working on. I will try to get it in writing and posted soon. In the mean time keep up the good work. I appreciate it.

~David~

Nano Data Boxes (Peer to Peer to the Rescue?)

The internet was created for a limited use which then became commercial. As the original structure has become over burdened, ways are being reviewed to create a more robost environment. One such review is being taken by the Europeans using Peer to Peer boxes rather than a centralized system.

From the acticle:

" The NADA project is convincing enough to have attracted some of Europe's largest telecommunications companies. Set top box manufacturer, Thomson SA, and European ISP, Telefonica, are among nine contributing partners to the NADA project.
"Telefonica is a key partner and they are running a trial video service to deliver TV, educational videos etc with a Peer-to-Peer client from inside their cloud, and it's been very successful. And we have Thomson SA, one of the largest set top box manufacturers in the world, so they can clearly see the benefits," Dr Ott said. "


But Copyright holders may have something to say about a system that has no central location to determine if the information being passed is being passed legally.

Database Technology Biz and Buzz

As a San Diego Realtor I follow real estate market conditions closely, cringe at the IndyMac closure, growl at Countrywide and Angelo Mozillo's excesses, and bitch incessantly about my own database compatibility problems.

But that is all mostly beside the point.

Stumbling around blogs and net bits this evening, I discovered an interesting read by Craig S. Mullins with a yawningly boring title: The Database Report – July 2008. (Those who consider me an interesting person might begin to re-evaluate that assessment for even tripping across something with a title like that.)

Buried within, though, are some interesting tidbits unearthed by author Craig Mullins:

1. The Most Influential People in IT?

In early April, eWeek Magazine published a list of the 100 people with the most influence on IT. At the top of that list was Oracle’s savvy CEO, Larry Ellison. He was slotted in at number one for his “plans to roll up the enterprise applications space” and for managing “to cement (Oracle’s) status as one of the world’s most important applications and middleware vendors.”

The only other interesting person on the list from the perspective of the database industry was at number twenty five, Henning Kagermann, Co-CEO of SAP.


2. MySQL Causing a Commotion in the Open Source Community (uh oh)

MySQL’s plans to provide certain features only to paying customers caused somewhat of a dustup in the open source community.

In early April, officials at Sun Microsystems (which acquired MySQL last quarter), confirmed that new online backup capabilities will be offered only to MySQL Enterprise customers. Predictably, this set the open source community and blogosphere on fire with anger and speculation. This is interesting news for the open source community because it makes it appear that MySQL is moving away from a true open source model to a proprietary model.

3. Our local favorite (at least until some other tech-savvy bloggers chime in;-). is ANTS Software, which Mullins noted as being in acquisition mode when it acquired
Inventa Technologies and sold its ANTS data server to Four J's (this under the helm of ANTS CEO Joe Kozak, below).

According to Mullins:

So ANTs is now out of the database server business, and Four J’s is in. So what does that mean for ANTs? ANTs will focus on its ANTs Compatibility Server. The ANTs Compatibility Server allows application code – queries, stored procedures and functions – from legacy databases to run natively and transparently against a new database with minimal or no modification or rewriting required. The acquisition of Inventa brings additional experienced professional services to the fold to deploy its Compatibility Server offerings.

--Roberta Murphy

Patchwork

An accidental finding forces the internet giants to a large scale patch. It may be time to work on Internet 2.0 before Web 2.0.

Bob

Texas Tea Sippers or All-Electric

I'll take either, how about you?

We can send people to space and have them live in space stations for months, build robotic picture takers that land on Mars millions of miles away, but we can't find alternative energy solutions other than than the black gold or Texas Tea.

Who's kidding whom on this one? The Tesla looks like a green dream.

--Spiderman

Does The Holy Grail of Database Consolidation Really Exist?

Joshua Greenbaum asks: Should You Consolidate Your Database? According to Mr. Greenbaum's recent article he notes: "Or, you can try to actually do a business-level consolidation, which up until recently would have involved a massive, brute-force effort to reconcile an enormous set of complexities that typically exist between different database instances. That brute force effort is so brutal, and requires so much force, that – guess what – virtually no one has ever tried it. "

"I say virtually because I leave open the possibility that it has been done on a small scale, or in some benighted corner of the IT universe. But I’ve been looking for an example of this kind of deep business-level consolidation, and every time I’ve scratched the surface of a database consolidation project what I’ve come up with is something far short of “far enough.”

Maybe Mr. Joshua Greenbuam should contact Joe Kozak and the staff at ANTs Software and ask them if the Holy Grail for database consolidation really does exist?

Here's the bio on Joshua Greenbaum: http://www.eaconsult.com/bio.html

Joshua Greenbaum has over 25 years of experience in the industry as a computer programmer, systems analyst, author, consultant, and industry analyst. He spent three years in Europe as an industry analyst and as European correspondent for Information Week and other industry publications. In his role as an industry analyst, Josh regularly consults with leading public and private enterprise software, database, and infrastructure companies, and advises end-users on technology infrastructure and applications selection, development, and implementation issues.
An award-winning columnist, Josh is widely quoted in the trade and business press, blogs on ZDNet, and is a regular columnist for Managing Automation, Datamation.com, NetWeaver Magazine, and Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

"Unchain My Database"

If I was an ad executive which I'm not and ANTs Software approached me to write an ad. It would go like this:


"Unchain my Database"

Are you tired of the handcuffs and shackles that confine your DB environment? Is your IT budget bursting at the seems and costing your company millions of dollars in additional license and maintenance fees year after year? Wouldn't you like to consolidate your data and reduce the complexity and dependency from the companies who seem to be holding you hostage? Do you dream of an easier and painless way to migrate and consolidate your data while saving millions of dollars in the process? Look no further, The ANTs Compatibility Server is a middleware solution which allows server side code (queries, functions, and stored procedures) from legacy databases to run natively and transparently against the Oracle database with little-to-no application rewrite. Deploy the ANTs Compatibility Server today and achieve Database Independence tomorrow. Remember ACS = DBI

A Free MIT Education?

This tidbit of information is too rich not to share: A Free MIT Education--and is a tip that I believe originally came from our soon-to-emerge technology blogger Bob Nagel.

Thanks to a web-based electronic publishing initiative, a rich opportunity from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MIT with support of the Ab Initio software firm.

It is an educational opportunity-of-a-lifetime for self-learners and those gifted with spare time and curiosity. There are currently something like 1500 courses available, ranging from engineering (of course) to foreign languages, philosophy, history, urban and women studies--and special offerings from the Sloan School of Management.

How does it work?

It is a publication of MIT course materials that do not require any registration, attendance or homework. You're on your own and work at your own pace. No degrees or certifications are granted, nor is there access to the MIT faculty.

The cost? Free.

The benefit? Priceless.

From: Luxury Home Digest

--Roberta Murphy

Whodo ......Voodoo?

I bet if John Chen at Sybase thought it would help, he would buy a CD of eerie music and a voodoo doll with Joe Kozak's name on it. Then every few hours he could crank up the music and stick a few pins in the doll in hopes of transferring some of the pain he is feeling from the ACS, Sybase to Oracle, database compatibility server. Soon though, there may be even more pain as ANTs Software works on a Sybase to IBM version. Sybase has at least had the foresight to partner with ANTs on a Microsoft to Sybase server, but how far off is the request from Old Softy for a Sybase to Microsoft killer punch. Sounds like everyone may be picking on the little kid on the block.

Now if I remember correctly, Bill Gates was not the starting linebacker on his college football team. Like many success stories in the business world , if not most of the success stories, brains more often that not outperform brawn . There may be a few exceptions, but my bet is that in the computer industry those exceptions are rare indeed. So what does little Sybase do in the face of these behemoths who are trying to kick sand in their face?

SIMPLY PUT, they have to out think and out react them.

Since I am not employed by any of these companies, just a very interested bystander, I really don't have enough information to do anything but speculate on any viable solutions for Sybase's pickle. A few solutions that might be considered are for Sybase to:

• Buy ANTs and take the threatening servers off the market. To work this needs to be done quickly before there are multiple contracts already in place that must be honored. Also, this strategy may result in a bidding war.

• Get to work post haste on "whoever" to Sybase servers. Then out maneuver and under price the big guys. The big guys may have clout and might, but they are slow and inflexible.

• Allow ANTs to acquire them (Sybase) and then ANTs can have meaningful discussion with SAP or one of the "other" suitors that would follow. Makes me drool to think about it.
  

• Get out of the database business. I don't think this is a realistic solution, but it may be the only one left if Sybase is too slow getting to the dance floor.

What would Yoodoo if it was your decision?? Comments welcomed......

~David Ott~

Sounds Like Greek to Me... Translator Please~~~~~~~

Does anyone speak MY language??

One of the most difficult obstacles in database consolidation is getting the opposing cultures to recognize each others languages and customs. Not only do the databases have nuances, but the companies that design and produce them are cultural misfits to each other. Oracle is different vs Sybase is different vs IBM is different vs Microsoft is different vs etc......You get my drift.

Now, if one's responsibility was to deal with a multilingual, multicultural group in an environment that is mistake intolerant; the second best solution (the best solution would be to personally speak the language and practice the customs of each group to perfection) would be having available a single entity who could perform all of those needs for you and immediately communicate back to you. In the personal arena I guess that entity would be referred to as a translator or multiple translators in most cases...

In the database arena that entity would be referred to as ANTs Software and the middleware would be referred to as database consolidation software. As large enterprizes seek cost reductions in their data handling structure, database consolidation is the one of the promising areas that will immediately impact the bottom line, with the added advantage of helping to alleviate the database cultural shock quandry faced by many conglomerates due to the merger and aquisition era.

It still sounds like Greek to me, but at least I now have a great database translator...........

David Ott

The Ultimate Insulation

One of my favorite bloggers, Joe Ferrara over at Sellsius, wrote this morning about Aerogel, an amazing insulation material made out of...frozen smoke.

Now Aerogel has little to do with our running conversation and rants about
database compatibility, but it has a universe of possibilities for safety, energy conservation--and clothing that could withstand the most frigid or heated environments.

Joe explains that if one were wearing a sheet of Aerogel, those parts of your body that were covered by ultra-thin Aerogel would be able to withstand the heat of a flamethrower--and we presume is would provide equal protection when hell freezes over.

On a more practical level, it could provide homes with an R-factor over 100.

Think about the possibilities....



--Roberta Murphy

It's the 4th and I think I'll take my DATABASE to the lake....

Time to go take a chill pill for the weekend. Maybe by the time we get back all will be well with the dollar, the market, oil prices and ANTs. But then, it may just be the same. Find some Techie talk to undress over the weekend. Conversation is the call for the day all next week.....

Have a GREAT weekend.

David Ott

How Sybase Can Save Itself

If I were running Sybase, I would call Joe Kozak over at ANTs Software, and ask to meet for lunch--somewhere between my office in Dublin, CA and his in Burlingame. Of course, I don't work for either company, but the meeting would surely be an interesting one between John Chen and Kozak.

Before meeting with Kozak, (who heads this database compatibility firm with technology that could cause Sybase much pain--and Oracle much gain), Chen might want to figure out a way he could pay convince agnostic ANTS to tweak their proprietary software to migrate client databases from Oracle (or IBM or Microsoft) to Sybase--asap.

If the chiefs at Sybase haven't seen this morning's press release from ANTs this morning, they might want to do so--and make that call to ANTs right away.

http://tinyurl.com/59397y

Just some unsolicited advice to a company in danger of losing lots of business.....

--Roberta Murphy