Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Oracle acquire Sun
Oracle announced today that they are to buy Sun Microsystems at a valuation of $7.4 billion, or $9.50 cash per share. The deal is expected to be completed this summer. This announcement comes just two weeks after talks broke down in a similar deal between IBM and Sun. The most important aspect of this acquisition, for consumers and developers alike, is that Oracle now has control of the Java programming language and development platform. The Java platform runs on over 1 billion devices across the globe, including computers and mobile phones. In recent years, Oracle has invested more and more into Java, using it to power several of their middleware and developer products.
The deal comes as quite a surprise as many believed that IBM were the only interested party. The acquisition of Sun will result in Oracle’s first steps into the business of selling hardware. While this is new territory for Oracle, their lack of presence in this field means they are much less likely to be plagued by anti-trust issues than IBM would, should they have bought Sun. Oracle have vowed to continue to develop Sun’s hardware products – and I imagine that we will see Oracle offering the complete, integrated, out-of-the-box package before long – Oracle servers and Oracle storage solutions powered by Oracle Solaris running Oracle Database and Oracle J2EE applications.
Sun’s products are not limited to Java, Solaris and their hardware offerings – Oracle will also get their hands on OpenOffice/StarOffice, NetBeans, GlassFish, Sun Studio and perhaps more importantly, the popular MySQL database. In a list of a FAQs available on the Oracle website, Oracle have stated that MySQL will simply join the list of database products that Oracle offer. This list currently includes Oracle Database 11g, BerkeleyDB, TimesTen and the InnoDB storage engine. It’s hard to see Oracle changing much of MySQL in the short-term, but it will be interesting to see how Oracle plans to capitalize on its popularity, if indeed it has such plans. According to InformationWeek, MySQL had 11 million installations up to February 2008. It is the most popular database for web applications and was acquired by Sun in February 2008.
In previous acquisitions, Oracle has made job cuts, but it has yet to comment on whether it intends to cut jobs at Sun Microsystems. The companies will continue to operate independently until the deal closes in the summer, subject to approval by shareholders and US regulatory bodies.
For further information, read the following:
The Irish Blogosphere
Ireland has a strong community of bloggers, who are not afraid to voice their opinions and post honest commentary about a wide spectrum of topics – including but not limited to – politics, current affairs, consumer issues, technology, software development, business and enterprise. This community is a very social one, and those involved are not afraid to interact with one another – whether it be by means of commenting on one another’s blog posts, communicating via Twitter or arranging conferences and meet-ups – the key principle is getting involved.
My experience of the Irish blogosphere over the past number of years has been as more of an outsider looking in. Unfortunately I don’t have as much time as I’d like to post to my blog, interact on Twitter, or attend events and conferences. I do, however, read my favourite blogs on a daily basis using Google Reader, and have a read through the latest Twitter posts by those I follow every few hours.
If you are new to the Irish blogging community, you may be wondering how to start finding blogs that are of interest to you. A good place to start is Twitter – almost all of Ireland’s most influential bloggers are using the microblogging service, and most will post links to their blog updates as soon as they post them. I have included Twitter usernames, where available, for each of the bloggers I mention below. The following list is by no means exhaustive – but keeping track of these blogs is a good start to getting to know the Irish blogosphere. You will find many other interesting Irish blogs by reading these blogs and the comments visitors leave on each post. Many of these bloggers post frequent lists of links to interesting blog posts from the around the Irish blogosphere – for example, Damien Mulley’s “Fluffy Links”, Alexia Golez’s “Red Links” and Joe Scanlon’s “Little Links”. These are a great way to find your way around, so I highly recommend checking them out.
Robin Blandford
Web: http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/
RSS: http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/feed/
Topics: Technology, Design, Blogging, Business, Media
Twitter: @robinb
Robin Blandford
Suzy Byrne
Web: http://www.mamanpoulet.com/
RSS: http://www.mamanpoulet.com/feed/
Topics: Current Affairs, Politics, Equality, Blogging
Twitter: @suzybie
Suzy Byrne
Tommy Collison
Web: http://trusttommy.com/
RSS: http://trusttommy.com/feed/
Topics: Technology, Blogging, Science, iPhone
Twitter: @TrustTommy
Tommy Collison
Sabrina Dent
Web: http://www.sabrinadent.com/
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SabrinaDent
Topics: Design, Internet Marketing, Advertising, Politics, Technology
Twitter: @SabrinaDent
Sabrina Dent
Alexia Golez
Web: http://golez.net/
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/alexiablogs/TBag
Topics: Politics, Photography, Business, Culture, Blogging
Twitter: @lexia
Alexia Golez
“Grandad” (Head Rambles)
Web: http://www.headrambles.com/
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HeadRambles
Topics: Blogging, Current Affairs, Politics, Technology
Twitter: @headrambles
"Grandad" (Head Rambles)
Niall Harbison
Web: http://www.niallh.com/
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NiallHarbisoncom
Topics: Business, Enterprise, Food, Blogging, Twitter, Video
Twitter: @NiallHarbison
Niall Harbison
Twenty Major
Web: http://twentymajor.net/
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/twentymajor
Topics: Politics, Satire, Current Affairs, Comedy
Twitter: @twentymajor
Twenty Major
Damien Mulley
Web: http://mulley.net
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DamienMulley
Topics: Politics, Blogging, Communications, Broadband, Internet Marketing
Twitter: @damienmulley
Damien Mulley
Pat Phelan
Web: http://patphelan.net
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RoamFree
Topics: Telecommunications, Mobile Phones, Roaming, Technology, Innovation
Twitter: @patphelan
Pat Phelan
Joe Scanlon
Web: http://joescanlon.net/
RSS: http://joescanlon.net/feed/
Topics: Business, Technology, Blogging, Twitter, UCC, Events
Twitter: @joescanlon
Joe Scanlon
Gavin Sheridan
Web: http://www.gavinsblog.com/
RSS: http://www.gavinsblog.com/feed/
Topics: Politics, Current Affairs, Technology
Twitter: @gavinsblog
Gavin Sheridan
Why not contribute to the Irish blogging community by starting your own blog? There are various sites out there offering free or inexpensive hosted blog solutions that you can set up in minutes, without having to get your hands dirty with any technical work. These include:
Alternatively, you can bring your own hosting and domain name and install one of the following software packages which will allow you to configure and tinker your blog to your exact requirements:
All of the above blog services and software packages are relatively easy to use, self explanatory and include excellent documentation that will help you get your blog up and running in no time. If you want any advice on starting a blog or technical guidance on setting up any of the above, feel free to drop me a line on joe at this domain.
