Translation is Fun!!

Morning, I saw Monty's post asking for contribution to drizzle's i18n efforts. I did checked out Hindi language and well I must say translation is a fun activity. 

If you think that will be as easy as using some online translation tool (I tried Google Translate), you may be wrong. Many sentences that make direct sense in English get completely screwed when translated word by word. Sometimes they are translated into a perfect meaningful sentence and that is when you can laugh out loudly.

As of now I'm doing Hindi (already 80 translations down) and next I'm gonna pick Punjabi. Wow! I know languages.

MySQL camp with Kaj (29th july)

I was there in the meetup and my feeling was a mix about the same. It was nice to have Kaj here (for the first time) and listen to him about Sun's acquisition. On the other hand it was disheartening to see so few people from corporates turning up. It was almost negligible. I'm still positive on this and do expect many more people to turn up. There were a total of three talks in the meet and then we had some chit chat with people. In his first talk, Kaj first greeted everybody in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada and many were delighted. Kaj touched various aspects of Sun's acquisition and also their on-boarding struggle. He also mentioned about MySQL considering Sun's liberal SCA in place of their stricter CLA. (I haven't gone through SCA to actually comment on it's benefits) Second talk by Thava was on how to contribute code to MySQL. It was a nice talk and showed various resource points and steps of doing so in a right manner. Third talk, again by Kaj, was on the different ways of contributing to MySQL and MySQL community other than code. He showed screenshots of forums, forge, planetmysql, few blogs (he forgot mine ;) ), bugs.mysql and how to use them. Interestingly, my name appeared on the planetmysql page :) . Overall it was nice that it started and we need to find out ways for more participation.

Reading "High Performance MySQL, 2nd Edition"

I haven't received my copy of the book yet, but being unable to control my temptation I have started reading it over Safari while waiting for my own very personal copy. :)

Already a fan of the first edition, you can feel the same charisma being carried over in this book also. The best part of the book is the simplicity by which you are set sailing over MySQL.

Without doubt, it is one of the best books MySQL can ask for. Certainly, I would recommend this book to anyone who is associated with the word MySQL. Or otherwise if you answer yes to any of these questions below, then go and grab a copy.

• Are you a developer working/struggling with MySQL?
• Are you a DBA working/struggling with MySQL?
• Do you intend to learn MySQL?
• Are you fascinated by databases and open-source?
• Do you work with some other RDBMS and have an open mind?
• Are you an Internet entrepreneur worried about your one fine day?
• ...
• ...
• ...
• Do you love dolphins?

Well, there are some blanks left for you to fill in your own reasons. :)

As for me, I would take this opportunity to thanks Baron, Peter, Vadim, and Arjen for a wonderful book and resort back to reading.

Go! Take the survey

Keith Murphy and Mark Schoonover have put together an excellent survey which is already doing good (seeing the numbers they have been clocking). Survey results will be out in the summer issue of MySQL magazine. I feel this is a "must take" survey for everyone in the MySQL community. And do not forget to mention my blog in the "top 5 favorite MySQL blogs" ;-). Just kidding!

Overall, this is the best survey regarding MySQL that I have ever taken, don't miss it. It will hardly take 10 minutes of your busy schedule. A busy man has the time do anything, right?

Quick Links:

• Survey
• MySQL Magazine

Long Live Open Source

“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”
— Howard Aiken

MySQL is back on Open Source track and that is definitely the best news for all (including community, MySQL and Sun as well). I think that now Sun/MySQL have agreed to the importance of community, it becomes community's responsibility to give them more reasons to believe so. Let's participate like never before.

Kaj, in his post says "...model to be useful for both those who spend money to save time, and those who spend time to save money". This is what Open Source is, isn't it?

All in all, a decision most awaited and most welcome is taken. Thanks a ton to everybody who made this happen.