On The Margins

Monday October 12, 2009

[ Economics ] Oliver Williamson Wins the Nobel Prize in Economics

Some 5 years ago, I started my first entry on blogs.sun.com with a brief note quoting from an essay by Oliver Williamson about strategizing vs. economizing. (That essay was published in his book, The Mechanisms of Governance.)

It is most fitting that I should end my series of blog entries on blogs.sun.com with something about professor Williamson, too.

Today (October 12, 2009), through a series of accidents starting with a doctor's visit in Alameda, I was actually passing through UC Berkeley when my wife called me with the news of professor Williamson winning the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics. I was luck because I was next to the Haas business school building and I had a real chance to drop by professor Williamson's office and to congratulate him in person. What a great honor, and what a great and most appropriate choice for a recipient of this prestigious prize in economics!

2009-10-12 23:44:36.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
economics nobel tce transactio-cost-economics

Wednesday October 07, 2009

[ Technology ] LBL, Technology and Life

21 ways LBL has helped change our technological environment!

2009-10-07 10:36:54.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
chemistry energy life mathematics physics science technology

Monday October 05, 2009

[ Personal ] At the Mount Whitney Summit

A friend and I hiked to the Mount Whitney summit on September 28, 2009. Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and is located near Death Valley, California. It took 9 hours to hike up and 8.5 hours to hike down. We rested for an evening at a campsite below the tree-line. The whole adventure took 27 hours. Driving back and forth, from the Bay Area, took about 6.5 hours each way.

2009-10-05 07:43:28.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
california climbing hiking mountaineering sports united-states

Tuesday September 22, 2009

[ Announcements ] More on Derby

Kristian Waagan and Rick Hillegas, both Derby committers and members of Sun's Java DB team, have given a couple of recent presentations to an international conference and a San Francisco Java users group. These are now available on YouTube, as Francois Orsini, another member of Sun's Java DB team, notes in his blog. 

2009-09-22 15:30:36.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
apache databases db derby java

Wednesday August 19, 2009

[ Technology ] Advancing MySQL Open Development One Important Step Forward

Giuseppe Maxia writes about the availability of the active development/test ("pushbuild") MySQL binaries for users—on multiple platforms.

This is a wonderful step forward in bringing greater openness to current MySQL development and in bringing greater value to the MySQL user community!  

2009-08-19 00:27:17.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
binaries current databases mysql pushbuild technology tests

Tuesday August 18, 2009

[ Technology ] A Prize Well-Deserved

Although in a dated announcement , it pleases me to see National Academy of Engineering Founders Award granted to UCSD's Stanford S. "Sol" Penner, "who made important advances in thermophysics, applied spectroscopy, combustion, propulsion, and energy."

Penner was my thermodynamics teacher when I was an applied engineering sciences (chemical engineering) undergraduate at UCSD. He was an excellent teacher and researcher and educated many engineers at JPL, UCSD and elsewhere. 

2009-08-18 12:20:00.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
chemistry education energy heat physics prize professor thermodynamics ucsd

Monday August 10, 2009

[ Announcements ] ADO.Net Entity Framework on MySQL

Reggie Burnett, the lead behind MySQL Connector/NET, will be presenting a MySQL webinar, "For ISVs: ADO.NET Entity Framework for MySQL", tomorrow at 10 Pacific Time!

Among other topics, Reggie will discuss how to

• Develop your application against SQL Server and then switch it to MySQL with zero code changes

• Optimize your database schema without requiring any code changes in your application

• Use LinQ syntax for type safety in your applications

(Interest in using MySQL on Windows is growing. The 2008 MySQL OEM Annual Survey, which closed in March 2009, shows that some 73% of MySQL OEM customers develop applications on Windows, and some 59% deploy these applications on Windows.)

If you're interested in Windows programming with MyQL, do not miss Reggie's other upcoming webinar for Sept. 15: "For ISVs: What's New in MySQL Connector/NET 6.1".

2009-08-10 14:23:37.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
.net connectors databases microsoft mysql programming software technology web windows

Saturday August 08, 2009

[ Technology ] How a Differential Gear Works

Complex ideas become easy to learn when the history and principles behind them are elucidated. Here is an example recently posted on the Make blog: "How a Differential Gear Works". To get to the main part, you can fast-forward the video to minute 1:30.

2009-08-08 23:44:08.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
differential engineering gear mechanical

Friday August 07, 2009

[ Economics ] Clunkers and Financial Institutions

Cash sent to financial institutions corrects ("fills" gaps in) balance sheets to improve credit-worthiness and loan-giving capabilities. "Cash for Clunkers" removes depreciated assets prior to their end of life, generates demand and creates economic pull throughout. Small actions at points of leverage can produce much larger effect than much larger actions at other points.  

2009-08-07 04:45:11.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
economics finance

Thursday July 30, 2009

[ Announcements ] Workbench 5.2 Alpha

In case you have not already noticed, Workbench 5.2 alpha / preview release of MySQL's premier development and design tool, has been announced.

For an independent preview, you can also see here. 

2009-07-30 10:44:29.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
databases design development mysql workbench

[ Business ] Deals and More Deals

Reuters deals pages are still the best and quickest source of news on deals and corporate strategy. 

For example, consider the page that summarizes global deals in terms of total number and value of deals among pairs of countries. (I agree that a complete summary graphic representation would also be good to add to the ones that capture deal totals for each country.)

2009-07-30 07:48:02.0 -- Comments [4] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
business corporate deals strategy

Monday July 27, 2009

[ Economics ] Electricity Usage

Reports say 2009 will be the first year since 1945 that electricity usage has had a year-over-year reduction.

Projected percentage change in worlwide electricity usage this year is expected to be -3.5.

This data, whose source is the International Energy Agency (Paris), was published in the August 2009 edition of the Harper's Magazine. The magazine has a famous 1-page Harper's Index of various indicators.

2009-07-27 23:41:03.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
economics electricity energy

Monday July 13, 2009

[ Culture ] Ten Thousand Days

In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi writes:

No matter how many opponents you beat, as long as you do anything in contravention of training, it cannot be the true path. ... 

This is something that requires thorough examination, with a thousand days of practice for training and ten thousand days of practice for refinement.

2009-07-13 00:47:03.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
art culture education life martial refinement strategy training

Tuesday June 30, 2009

[ Announcements ] MySQL Workbench 5.1.16 GA -- released

MySQL Workbench 5.1.16 GA release has just been announced.

For details, please read Johannes Taxacher's announcement letter!

2009-06-30 16:14:20.0 -- Comments [3] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Wednesday June 24, 2009

[ Economics ] Salaries and Soccer

In The Wall Street Journal sports section, David Biderman writes:

The U.S. upset of Spain in the Confederations Cup on Wednesday isn’t the only soccer shocker. Money paid for Euro-league players can also elicit gasps. Spanish forwards David Villa and Daniel Güiza and midfielder Xabi Alonso cost a combined $60.2 million in transfer fees alone since 2004. By contrast, the 356 players in Major League Soccer, America’s top league, will make a combined $49.7 million in the 2009 season, according to the league’s Web site.

2009-06-24 21:37:05.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
prices salaries soccer sports

[ Code ] Contributing to MySQL

If interested in contributing code to MySQL, you should attend the MySQL University session on contributing code to MySQL.

(Live broadcast with Q&A will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2009. You can still have access to rebroadcasts afterwards.)

2009-06-24 01:57:05.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
code community contribution databases mysql

Thursday June 18, 2009

[ Persian (فارسی) ] Election Results

Official results of the IR of Iran's presidential elections are posted here.

(Thanks go to Pooya K. for having found and posted the link for me.)

2009-06-18 23:41:22.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
democracy elections iran

[ Code ] Among the favorites

One of my favorite JIRAs on Apache is #Derby-646.

2009-06-18 23:12:12.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
apache databases derby java-db jira open-source

Thursday June 04, 2009

[ Java ] Brief on MSA 2

Elsewhere, I wrote a brief on MSA 2 ("Mobile Service Architecture 2").

2009-06-04 17:00:14.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
apis community java jcp jsr mobile platforms services software technology

[ Java ] Raison d'être of JavaOne Conference

Elsewhere, I wrote about the Raison d'être of the JavaOne Conference.

2009-06-04 16:29:34.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
communities java javaone programming software technology