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November 29, 2005
How did I get into computers
One of the current memes floating around the blogosphere is writing a piece about how you got started with computers. So I guessed you were all just itching to see what got me started. You were? Good.
Before I actually got into computers I think I had a programmable calculator first. You could program like 30 steps into it and that allowed you to write something like a moon-lander program or cheat at maths. After school we would also stop off at the arcade and play Donkey Kong or Defender. So these were really the first steps into computing.
Anyway. The first computer.
It was a Commodore PET. Not my own - but that of a friend. This was back in probably 1980. I can't exactly remember the year. Anyway, after seeing my friend do all this geeky stuff on his Commodore I decided this was for me. So, I got my parents to get me a VIC 20 as a combined birthday/Christmas present.
Now the problem with the VIC20 was that there were no readily available programs for it. So Frank and I often set off by train to a town near by to buy a copy of the UK computing magazines that were around in those days. And then we'd spend forever typing in the programs in BASIC. I remember the first one being "Duck Shoot" - where a canon would shoot shells over a hill and you had to hit a duck. All in block-graphics of course. If I remember correctly then the first program I wrote was actually a sort of Pacman clone written in BASIC and using the block graphics. It wasn't until later that I got the high-res module for the VIC20. Once I did have that though I started learning 6502 assembler. My friend had written an assembler program for the VIC and I used it to write some elements of a program. Trouble was that the assembler wouldn't fit into memory together with the whole program. So I wrote pieces of the code and then had the assembler print the values to screen. I would then write the codes on pieces of paper and transfer that to DATA lines to be POKED in the actual program. You can imagine what sort of mistakes that lead to. Anyway I actually got it finished and my first "real" game was called "Broomer". You had to control a little broom on the bottom of the screen and fruit fell down which that had to be swept up. Every now and again a bomb would fall down and of course the broom wasn't allowed to touch that.
Luckily our school was quite advanced in computer science and so I was soon learning to program PASCAL on the 2 Apple IIs we had. Before that we were taught LOGO - a language I always thought was ideal to get people into computers. We were allowed to use the breaks and after-school time to continue programming so it was always a mad dash to the computer room after a lesson to grab one of the machines.
After school I trained as a computer-clerk and during the 3 years of training I learnt COBOL and BUSINESS BASIC on Nixdorf machines. And from then on to C, C++ and Java. And of course eventually ending up working mostly on PC systems.
So in all I can now look back on around 25 years (oh my) "in computing".
Later: Frank adds his own story and expands mine.Posted by Matthew at 05:09 PM | Comments (1)
November 28, 2005
It's that time again
Sorry for the light posting at the moment but I am extremely busy and not finding much time to post anything you would want to read. But rest assured times are interesting and soon posting will resume.
Speaking of interesting times - it's that time of the year again, when I point to my family-minding experiences back in 2003. So, just before I link back to my post from last year on this subject, I thought you might like to know that my wife is in fact away this week as well participating in the second course in the series. The first course led to her transformation into RoboWife. And for those of you puzzling about this strange post. Start here and if you're really interested search this blog for "RoboWife".
Posted by Matthew at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
Apache moving towards the enterprise
An interesting list of additions to the Project Proposals section of the Apache incubator Whiteboard. In particular ServiceMix and ActiveMq caught my eye. Both are currently hosted on the Codehaus and a move to Apache (as subprojects of Geronimo) would obviously increase the visibility of both projects. And as for Geronimo - this would seem to be a very wise move moving forward.
Posted by Matthew at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2005
3 times 10 years
As I've written before, growing up in Germany in the late 70's will always be strongly tied in to listening to the Cologne band BAP and the songs they sang back then in their local dialect. Well, the band is still around (not in the same lineup) and they have just released a best-of album.
All my old favorites are on the album - and they've all been re-recorded for the CD. Personally, while still liking the tunes, I'm slightly underwhelmed. The new recordings are a touch too "mellow" for my liking.
But then again, aren't we all now?
Posted by Matthew at 10:07 PM | Comments (2)
What's in a VC?
John Battelle has a piece up about how companies like Google or Yahoo may soon be competing with "tradtional" VCs to fund startups. Actually, John doesn't say that they are already - but even so, you go "of course" when reading the observation. It makes absolute sense for companies like that to use their funds to get in on startup funding. Especially in the area of seed or bootstrap funding, as VCs typically are less interested in going for that.
Often, companies in an early stage will have a good idea of what technological feat they want to achieve but will be less savvy on how they will go to market, find initial customers, grow their business and achieve the exit position VCs are looking for after say five years.
At that stage startups are more able to talk to their peers about the sexy idea they have and the bits they'll tweak. VCs often don't have the deep technological background or time to educate themselves and be able to envision how the seed may be brought to life over time.
Now, Google or Yahoo come with that sort of background, can talk to startups at that peer level and have the cash to boot. Strap.
Posted by Matthew at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)
OSBC West call for papers
Matt has put an OSBC call for papers up. Sessions are already half full but you can still submit something. From last year I know that the lineup will be impressive, still I'm wondering whether a session on European Open Source business or my "Surviving the five year itch" presentation from EuroOSCON may be worth submitting. Hmmm.....
Posted by Matthew at 06:43 AM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
Cocoon 2.1.8 released
Get it while it's hot. If you're new to Cocoon, then check out the feature list to see if the framework is right for your needs.
Later: Here is the official announcement with a list of notable additions in the new version.
Posted by Matthew at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2005
Alfresco looking for a Valley-based senior sales engineer
I figure if I help Matt find someone for Alfresco then maybe one day that would work the other way round. So if you're in "the Valley" and want to be a part of a hot (I'm sure) Open Source startup - tell Matt I sent you.
Posted by Matthew at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
Google on Base
Google Base is up. From the site: Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online".
Posted by Matthew at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
W-JAX bound
I will be traveling down to Munich on Sunday. On Monday, I'm speaking at W-JAX on "Open Source for managers - don't panic". Then traveling up to Frankfurt Monday evening, as I want to spend a day at LinuxWorld, which just so happens to be on parallel to W-JAX (duh). Drop me an email if you'll be at one of those and fancy a chat.
Posted by Matthew at 07:56 PM | Comments (1)
Get a lift
Ooh - an interesting conference coming up in Geneva. Lift06 looks like something I would want to attend (via Bertrand). Not quite sure it's easy to get to Geneva from Paderborn though...
Posted by Matthew at 06:24 PM | Comments (1)
Shai on Open Source - don't touch the code!
Shai Agassi, president of the product and technology group at SAP, gave his (really?) views on Open Source at a speaking event yesterday. According to the report, Shai said that "Open Source will fail to deliver innovation and is more likely to break applications". Another quote from the CIO-today article: "Open source is great for debugging, but it's crucial not to touch [the code]."
There are plenty of comments floating round the blogosphere and instead of the unavoidable SAP/Shai bashing - the real question should be how the Open Source community can work with SAP (and vice-versa) so that customers profit regardless of which choice they make. Open Source is about adding to the choice a corporation has when considering what sort of IT solution it wants to deploy. No company is going to throw out SAP tomorrow and run with an Open Source ERP product. But small companies, who don't have the resources to tackle an SAP installation can choose to go with an Open Source solution because it's "good enough" for what they need.
Shai should be actively talking to the Open Source community on how the two worlds can be integrated for everyone's profit.
Update: Jeff Nolan with some comments. I also changed the title of the post to "Shai on Open Source" as I don't really think those views (if stated correctly) stand for everyone at SAP (thanks Frank).
Another update: Shai Agassi writes on his own blog.
Posted by Matthew at 10:38 AM | Comments (5)
November 10, 2005
Insurance is no free lunch
In the past few years I've noticed a transition in the way "insurance" is viewed in the public eye. At least when it comes to the typical forms of say car (protecting you from me driving) or personal (protecting you from me doing something stupid) insurance policies.
Most of the ads I now see on the TV or hear on the radio treat insurance more as something that is there for me to take "advantage of". A typical radio ad for car insurance generally goes along the lines of "it doesn't really matter if you wreck that guys car while parking - because you have our insurance policy". So, insurance is no longer something that protects the "other side" if you do something stupid, but more something that "allows you to not really think before doing something stupid".
So what does that mean for Open Source services companies that are generally seen as insurance companies for corporations wanting to use Open Source in mission critical scenarios?
Posted by Matthew at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
Open Source business in Europe on Frappr
OK, now I really don't know whether this is anything that we really need, but I thought it would be kind of cool to set up a group on Frappr for people like myself who are interested in Open Source business in Europe to add themselves to. However, although the map+pin thing looks kind of fun I immediately found myself wanting some additiional basic functionality such as being able to add an email address or AIM id to my profile. And I'm the only one there at the moment - ha ha. Also, wouldn't it be cool to add photos from Flickr - say from EuroOSCON? Anyway - feel free to take a look and add yourself. Maybe additional possibilities will be forthcoming or there is a better way of doing this.
Posted by Matthew at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
LA Law vs. M*A*S*H
The West Wing never ceases to amaze me. Now remember I'm here in Europe and the TV stuff we get over here is well, worse. Anyway, in case you haven't seen the last episode of West Wing - make sure you grab it off the Net and take a look. A live episode that featured the debate between Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick.
Being somewhat older than many of you, I still see Jimmy Smits as Victor Sifuentes from LA Law (that was back in 86) and of course Alan Alda will always be Hawkeye.
But they are both so so good in West Wing and both the screenplay and writing still manages to captivate me - even in the 7th season. My wife thinks I'm kind of wacky when I spend 3 episodes in front of the laptop (last night) catching up with a series that is so American it loses me in various places. But, as I've said often enough, West Wing is the series to watch if you want to learn about the US political system.
Posted by Matthew at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)
Alfresco impresses
I took Alfresco for a short spin yesterday and was impressed. The installation as a no-brainer - just download the package, set up the database (a MySQL script is provided) and start up the application. The war file automatically deploys into Tomcat and access via the web interface is a breeze. Up and running in less than 10 minutes (I had to download and install Java 5).
While I can't really judge the actual enterprise content management functionality without taking a more comprehensive look, I really think the Alfresco installation and setup shows how easy it can be to get a whole bunch of Open Source components installed and working without any hassle. Wrapped in that sort of environment and Open Source does become as easy to setup and use as any commercial package.
Posted by Matthew at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
What's wrong with Open Source
I meant to link to this a few days ago - but I've been busy with other things. At EuroOSCON I spent some time chatting with r0ml about his take on Open Source. He is such a fascinating person to talk to and his talk from OSBC East (via Matt) has some thought-provoking content in there. If you're in the Open Source business then read his slides and be prepared to answer some interesting questions. Especially if your customers have also read the slides.
Posted by Matthew at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
The dying media
Chris Anderson posted some statistics showing that traditional mainstream media (that's cinema, newspapers and radio for everyone my age) is on the way out. But surprising to see that digital downloads only make up 6% of the total for music sales. Nearly all the music purchased (yes, bought) in our castle now comes down the pipe and my kids happily pay some of their pocket money to get the newest hot song from the Apple store.
Posted by Matthew at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2005
Navicat on Rails
In my never-ending attempt to actually do some programming again, I am hacking on a Ruby on Rails application on my Mac. I got slightly fed-up at the available MySQL front-ends for Mac OS X - they either wouldn't do what I wanted them to do or just crashed. I kept finding Navicat mentioned as a good alternative. In the end I shelled out the $$ and bought a copy and up to now I'm happy I did. Everything works as advertised and my application is progressing. Slowly. And my dear colleagues can stop that snickering now.
Posted by Matthew at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2005
Do CIOs care about Open Source?
They do (well, of course they do). Nonetheless they are now saying so in public. Interesting stuff coming out of OSBC East.
Posted by Matthew at 07:43 AM | Comments (1)
November 01, 2005
Tim on Bill
Tim O'Reilly gives the Microsoft press event around "Windows Live" an extensive write-up. It look as though Web 2.0 is now mainstream. So look out for a lot more Ajax, tagging and social software out of Redmond. TagTagger anyone?
Posted by Matthew at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
OSBC East
Matt and the OSBC team launch into OSBC East in Boston in a few hours. Sanjiva and Dims will be there showcasing their company WSO2 at the OSBC Startup Elite showcase. A great time to be launching an Open Source startup and OSBC is the place to be. Now if only Matt would take the "East" part seriously and jump the pond.
Posted by Matthew at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)
BBC on Rails
Matt Biddulph and the rest of the BBC hackers never cease to amaze me. Their next "little project" is turning the BBC archives into a searchable Web site. A catalog of nearly a million programmes with descriptions, contributor details and annotations will be made available for the public to search through. The project is being built with Ruby on Rails and release is scheduled for the beginning of next year. Ben Hammersley is doing the design, CSS, FOAF and RDF stuff.
Posted by Matthew at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)