Sun is a company that has fascinated me always. Partly because I like Java. But primarily because of the innovative ideas that came from Sun and the revolution they brought about. It is an epic in itself when Java took the world by storm. I think it was even featured in Time in 1991 or 1992. May be there is no other company that gave this much to open source community and took away so little as profit.
I came to know, how ignorant I was about Sun, when my assumption that Sun is all about software was proved to be wrong. In fact Sun is all about hardware, with a pinch of innovative software. But that pinch is enough to add flavour to the needs of software community.
Now Oracle may take over Sun. What is in store ? Oracle gets the advantage of a hardware stack, opearting system (Solaris), and a stack of software. With all the pieces of software that Oracle have now, they can aim for the top. IBM only will be able to boast of such an end to end catalogue of products and solutions.
How this merger is going to affect the open source movement is something that I am waiting to see. MySQL which is an integral part of all solutions as of now, may prove to be critical. Will it become more restricted, with a developer and licenced version? Will Oracle allow it to continue ?
J2ME for microsystems, J2EE concepts - how will Oracle use and drive the passion?
It looks a win win situation for Sun and Oracle and may be some real interesting solutions may come through in future. Keeping my fingers crossed about the effects on the open source movement.
May be this is the start of the age of Oracle ....
P.S. I have left technical and company details behind, so that it becomes a general read
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Tuesday 14 April 2009
The Easter post
Last Sunday celebrated Easter. We remember the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the celebration of Easter. It is on the third day after his death, Jesus arose from the dead and this transformed Jesus is the base of Christian faith. Jesus who lives as a man, is transformed to God as HE gets the power over death.
It is this transformation that is worth a mention.
Christian or not we can find a similar experience in life.
Pockets of time when we lose ourselves. Going through daily life with no apparent goal, when we are 'dead'. But the difference lies whether we are able to resurrect ourselves after this lull; it may be a change of job, taking up a new hobby, absolutely anything that can bring us back into the land of living, without 'just living for the sake of it'.
Constant reinvention - that may be the key to a full life. When we become something more than what we were in the 'dead' phase. May be it also tells us about the cyclic nature of life.
So what are we waiting for, just start a new hobby, play a new game , jump job (I hold no reponsibility for you in this financial climate :)
It is this transformation that is worth a mention.
Christian or not we can find a similar experience in life.
Pockets of time when we lose ourselves. Going through daily life with no apparent goal, when we are 'dead'. But the difference lies whether we are able to resurrect ourselves after this lull; it may be a change of job, taking up a new hobby, absolutely anything that can bring us back into the land of living, without 'just living for the sake of it'.
Constant reinvention - that may be the key to a full life. When we become something more than what we were in the 'dead' phase. May be it also tells us about the cyclic nature of life.
So what are we waiting for, just start a new hobby, play a new game , jump job (I hold no reponsibility for you in this financial climate :)
Saturday 4 April 2009
V for victory
V for victory. This was a notion that was in my mind from a long time.
But you learn new things all the time, and life had a new surprise for me. It was lucky that I did not learn the lesson in a hard way. I learnt it at the expense of others.
Enough intro - to the story. It all starts with Scotland's worldcup qualifiers. Two of their major players were caught boozing after a crucial match and were left out of the next game. They were on the bench for the game against the Iceland. Scotland won the game, but the two players were banned from ever playing for Scotland. Even they lost face in the local club they were playing. One player lost his captaincy in the local club. (For those who do not follow football - Football players will be playing for clubs and selected players from different clubs play for the country ).
Now what was the reason for this further punishment? Booze was the reason for the first punishemnt. What caused the eternal ban? They were caught making V signs during the WIN. I heard this and saw that in news. I was confused. I was expecting a more sinister story, like Scotland lost the match; as Iceland won and the players showed V sign, they were banned. Showing V signs when opponents won. So I looked up the news in net again. Who won ? Was it Iceland or Scotland ? As both the names end with 'Land', I may have heard wrong. No, I had not heard wrong, Scotland won ; suspended Scottish players showed V sign; they got life ban. Now really I was confused. So I went to the wiki; did a lookup on V sign. I was in for a husge surprise.
V sign is one of the most complex signs you can have. V sign - made with index and middle finger with all other fingers down. It can have two different meanings depending on the direction in which the palm faces.
When you make the sign, if the plam faces others , you are giving Victory sign, in a context of competition or war.
If the palm faces you, when you give the sign; you are in big trouble. You can be interpreted as giving the finger(up ur a--). You can be the devil or devil worshipper as the V now will stand for the horns of the devil. Or it can make you a pervert as the V can stand for female privates.
Ha ha, next time you try a gesture in a foreign land, understand the cultural significance and try it.
But you learn new things all the time, and life had a new surprise for me. It was lucky that I did not learn the lesson in a hard way. I learnt it at the expense of others.
Enough intro - to the story. It all starts with Scotland's worldcup qualifiers. Two of their major players were caught boozing after a crucial match and were left out of the next game. They were on the bench for the game against the Iceland. Scotland won the game, but the two players were banned from ever playing for Scotland. Even they lost face in the local club they were playing. One player lost his captaincy in the local club. (For those who do not follow football - Football players will be playing for clubs and selected players from different clubs play for the country ).
Now what was the reason for this further punishment? Booze was the reason for the first punishemnt. What caused the eternal ban? They were caught making V signs during the WIN. I heard this and saw that in news. I was confused. I was expecting a more sinister story, like Scotland lost the match; as Iceland won and the players showed V sign, they were banned. Showing V signs when opponents won. So I looked up the news in net again. Who won ? Was it Iceland or Scotland ? As both the names end with 'Land', I may have heard wrong. No, I had not heard wrong, Scotland won ; suspended Scottish players showed V sign; they got life ban. Now really I was confused. So I went to the wiki; did a lookup on V sign. I was in for a husge surprise.
V sign is one of the most complex signs you can have. V sign - made with index and middle finger with all other fingers down. It can have two different meanings depending on the direction in which the palm faces.
When you make the sign, if the plam faces others , you are giving Victory sign, in a context of competition or war.
If the palm faces you, when you give the sign; you are in big trouble. You can be interpreted as giving the finger(up ur a--). You can be the devil or devil worshipper as the V now will stand for the horns of the devil. Or it can make you a pervert as the V can stand for female privates.
Ha ha, next time you try a gesture in a foreign land, understand the cultural significance and try it.
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