Archive for November, 2006
mysql will now support scheduled events
By Justin Silverton
Mysql 5.1 beta has recently been released. It is only a beta (and should not be used in a production environment), but it does show us some of the new features that will appear in future, stable, releases:
CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, and EXPLAIN ... SELECT statements. As of MySQL 5.1.6, queries against partitioned tables can take advantage of partition pruning. In some cases, this can result in query execution that is an order of magnitude faster than the same query against a non-partitioned version of the same table.
crontab (also known as a “cron job”) or the Windows Task Scheduler.
Top 10 PHP frameworks
By Justin Silverton
Below is a list of the top 10 frameworks for PHP:
10) Mobius
The Moebius PHP Library is a project that concentrates on building a set of classes that wraps around the built-in php functions. The idea behind the creation of this library is to create an object framework to work on PHP, going from mySQL management to Table manipulation. The site is powered in fact by the moebius library.
9) Blueshoes
BlueShoes provides developers with real-world solutions for common system components such as User Management, Session Handling, Closed User Groups, Exception Handling and Logging, Object Persisting as well as Form building and Handling.
8) Phrame
Phrame is a web development platform for PHP based on the design of Jakarta Struts. Phrame provides your basic Model-View-Controller architecture, and also takes a step further adding standard components such as: HashMap, ArrayList, Stack, etc…
7) Fusebox
Fusebox is the most popular framework for building ColdFusion and PHP web applications. “Fuseboxers” find that the framework releases them from much of the drudgery of writing applications and enables them to focus their efforts on creating great, customer-focused software.
6) Seagull
Seagull is an object oriented framework written in PHP that focuses on best practices, clean code and reusable components.
5) symfony
Based on the best practices of web development, thoroughly tried on several active websites, symfony aims to speed up the creation and maintenance of web applications, and to replace the repetitive coding tasks by power, control and pleasure.
Now, the world’s most popular web programming language gets even better with an easy to use framework for developing the next generation of web applications.
3) cakePHP
Cake is a rapid development framework for PHP which uses commonly known design patterns like ActiveRecord, Association Data Mapping, Front Controller and MVC. Our primary goal is to provide a structured framework that enables PHP users at all levels to rapidly develop robust web applications, without any loss to flexibility.
2) code igniter
Designed to enable, not overwhelm, Code Igniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.
1) prado
PRADO is a component-based and event-driven programming framework for developing Web applications in PHP 5.
Google shuts down google earth hack
By Justin Silverton
The Gaia Project, an open source, 3D interface to google earth has been shutdown.
Here is the letter that was received on November 25th:
From: “Michael Jones”
To: gaia-at-serezhkin-dot-com
Subject: Writing from Google about Gaia and Google Earth
Hello,
I am Michael Jones, the Chief Technologist of Google Earth, Google Maps, and
Google Local search writing to the author(s) of the Gaia project (
http://gaia.serezhkin.com/) with an urgent concern. We have now become aware
of your efforts and are concerned that you may not understand the developing
global social impact of your engineering creativity.
The data that we license for Google Earth and Google Maps is made available
for use under the restriction that it not be accessed or used outside of
Google’s client software. These products — Earth, Maps, and Mobile Maps –
each have a data protection mechanism tailored to their environment. They
also all come with a clearly indicated end user license agreement, known as
the Terms of Service, which means “these are the conditions under which we
are providing access to valuable data through our client software for your
use.” In all three cases, the ToS are very clear that the data services used
by the client software must never be accessed directly and that the
encryption, passkey, and other data protection mechanisms must not be
circumvented.
We appreciate that you like our software and enjoy the many millions of
dollars and years of labor that the licensed data represents. Unfortunately,
your curiosity about the protected server mechanisms ignores the Google
Earth Terms of Service, the software license agreement that you accepted
when installing Google Earth, the built-in encryption mechanisms within the
client/server protocol, the economic rights of a worldwide network of
providers who license this data to Google, and most of all, the sense of
fair-play that is the basic relationship between Google and its users
worldwide.
The kindness through which Google has made the wonder of our planet
available to more than 100 million users around the world is now threatened
– not by a menacing and fierce business competitor — but by you. Please
hear the seriousness in this statement. I am not an attorney. I am not
posturing. Just the opposite. We on the engineering team are hopeful that
despite the risk your actions (break the ToS, reverse engineer parts of the
data protection mechanisms, publish the fact and code, encourage others)
pose to our product, team, company, and users, we remain hopeful that this
was an unintended result of what started as intellectual curiosity by a
smart engineer like ourselves who has a passion to learn how things work.
Are we right?
If so, we really need to have you take down that code and refocus your work
toward building an open earth viewer that uses open earth images (such as
from NASA) or licensed earth images from willing providers rather than
having the basis of your project being the improper use of our images. If
you understand the gravity of the situation and agree to respect or position
in this, please let me know quickly (hours rather than days) and on an
equally responsive time scale please modify your project pages to remove
anything suggesting or teaching the improper access to our data servers.
Anxious to hear from you,
Michael
–
Michael T. Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Earth, Maps, Local
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
Email: mtj@google.com T:(650)253-5222 M:(650)576-7319 F:(650)649-1938
Explore Google Earth! Site: earth.google.com Community: bbs.keyhole.com
Why the BSD license is better for business
By Justin Silverton
The following is an excerpt from the BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of the nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Reasons why it is better for business
Open source, in general (no matter what license is used) can help a non-software based company. This is for the following reasons:
- Low cost of ownership. For the most part, open source is free of charge and has little to no licensing fees.
- Total source control. This prevents vendor lock-in from proprietary applications.
A software-based business falls under a different category. Utilizing open source can tremendously, but only if a proper license is used. The BSD license is a great license because it allows the following:
- ability to mix code with almost any other license type. Unlike many of the other open source licenses, there is no requirements when mixing with other license types. This allows for a greater degree of freedom.
- code is not required to be open source. As long as you include a copy of the license with all copyright information, you are allowed to release code under the BSD license.
Microsoft is dividing the open source community
By Justin Silverton
In a recent announcement from the samba team:
“In a letter to customers, Samba pointed out that one fundamental difference between Microsoft proprietary software and open source software was that the former divides and conquers with “coercive licensing agreements”.
The open source world, on the other hand, “encourages users to unite and share the benefits of the software.”
Samba said that the patent deal Microsoft and Novell jointly forged is “divisive”.
It parlays users depending on whether they are commercial or non commercial, and deals the cards differently - depending on whether the version of Linux came from Novell or from elsewhere”
This is an interesting perspective on the recent Microsoft/open source movement. It didn’t really make any sense. Microsoft, a company which stated in the past that open source was a virus was now supporting it financially through Novell.
Microsoft is taking a page right out of The Art of War. They know they cannot defeat the open source community by using standard business practices (who are they going to buy out?) so they are doing the next best thing: let the community destroy itself.
Because there are so many zealous linux users (including Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation), there will soon be different camps of users. Users that support Microsoft’s version of linux and users that don’t. It already seems to have started: I have seen many users on various linux community message boards and mailinglists that will not use any version endorsed by Microsoft.
I guess we always have Hurd.