Open source technology excites me. The idea of groups of people from around the globe focused on building a solution open to everybody is extremely attractive. I have been following Drupal for a little over a year but did not spend the time to really dive in until about a month ago.
What is Drupal? Drupal is a modular content management system. Basically right out of the box you get a functional web site that has configurable modules for blogging, forums, user management, etc. Unlike development frameworks such as Rails, CakePHP, OR Symphony you actually have a working application with RICH functionality in minutes, not just some CRUD. This means Drupal’s user base can extent to non-programmers and programmers alike.
A conundrum that enters my mind from time to time is the fact that it seems consumer technology in its current state is much further ahead then many of the solutions deployed in enterprises today. Why is this? I wish I had the answer but like you I have my ideas.
Late last year I participated in IBM master the mainframe contest for the second time. IBM partners with a college (Marist) and enabled students to logon to a z-series machine and perform certain tasks. The contest was split into 3 parts. The first part was really easy, providing us with the basic foundation of navigating the zOS menus. I successfully completed part 2 which required more intense problems to solve such as debugging JCL, troubleshooting the SYSPLEX cluster, and researching the network configuration. It was a great experience of which I earned an honorable mention on IBM’s master the mainframe webite!!
Unfortunately last year was the final year I can participate but I am glad I was given the opportunity to experience this interesting high end platform.
Big news today! Sun is acquiring MySQL! Hopefully this will mean good things for the open source database system we all know and love! The blogosphere is exploding right now with posts from users and developers of the system. Personally this kind of caught me by surprise. I had been following IBM and MySQL’s announcement last year but did not see Sun getting in on any of this action.
John Schwartz, Sun’s CEO, has a good post on his blog explaining the acquisition.
Good luck to all the talented people over at MySQL during this change!
We are going head strong into 2008! While most of our television is filled with years in review which consist of how many times some star exposed herself there are some places on the web posting the stuff that really matters!
Check out this list from Wired consisting of the big scientific breakthroughs that occurred this year.
As a side note we are getting some great posts from the guys at Papervision today! Flash came along way this year!!
Ahhh, I did it. I finally finished my Computer Science degree at New York Institute of Technology. Feels like it took me forever to complete this accomplishment but its finally done. I’ve meet alot of great people along the way and I look forward to keeping in touch with them throughout my life.
Now I feel I can concentrate more of my resources on progressing in many of the area’s that I value. What is that exactly? Well, I do have my wedding coming up in the next year, I would like to get back on the horse with my web development work (which I have been away from for some time), and I have some home projects I would like to complete.
Multi-Touch interfaces have been really fun to follow in the past year. I can across this very interesting video by an individual who uses the Wii remote as the IR camera to track your fingers. (Aka, blobs)
Just came across this interesting application from a Japanese clothing company, Uniqlo. At first I did not really get it but after a little while of messing around it became pretty cool. They just opened a store here in New York, I may have to check them out:
Hello. Well it has been a pretty exciting couple of months here in Nick Selvaggio land.
At the beginning of this month I got the chance to travel to Orlando, Florida and attend (for the second time) the VAI’s User Conference. It was a great experience! This time around I was there alone (as in the only person from my company) of which was kind of nerve racking at first but once I got in the mix I wound up meeting some very exciting people / companies. This year I felt I was much more vocal about certain issues we currently face with the software. I think this was attributed largely to the fact that I am very comfortable with the platform as of late.
Some of the speakers they had where impressive. The one that sticks with me the most is the speech from Frank Sultis. Its not everyday you get to see one of the most talented Computer Scientists of the late 20th century speak! The clarity in his voice amazed me. He spoke of the IBM System I and the directions of the entire IBM Systems group ( Power Systems AND Business Systems ) . I found it interesting that the high end System I’s (595’s) are the most powerful transactional servers money can buy. I know from speaking to many of the other I.T. executives there that much of the technical mumbo jumbo he was talking about was a little dry to many but personally I love that stuff! The new Power 6 and Hypervisor technology seems extremely valuable for businesses that want to simplify their IT infrastructures by consolidating many disparate systems into one. I look forward to see how this pans out.
In addition, I got the chance to see Beowulf in IMAX 3D this past weekend. That was sick! Although I must admit after an hour and a half of stuff flying around in front of you on a 7 story screen I got a little queezy. Right before seeing that we enjoyed the special Rembrandtexhibit at the MET. I highly recommend checking this museum out when in Manhattan. The collections are AMAZING! I found it interesting that Rembrandt is one of the only famous artists known primarily by his first name.
