The Ingres VectorWise beta program garnered a lot of interest from existing Ingres customers and partners and from shiny new prospects looking for a BI solution that could provide real-time analytics without breaking the bank.   In a couple of cases the beta roll-out was stalled pending approval and procurement of hardware.   Getting feedback from real-world scenarios is crucial to the success of any new product so we needed to look ‘outside the box’ (excuse the deliberate pun) to keep the momentum going.   We immediately thought of setting up a pre-configured AMI with everything needed to get started with Ingres VectorWise, but we were concerned that perhaps the performance of cloud storage would be an issue.   After some testing with various data volumes on Amazon’s EBS we were delighted to note that the performance was far better than predicted to the point of being an acceptable platform for Ingres VectorWise deployment.   We had a number of our beta sites test in the Cloud and the feedback we received was very positive.  

Given our success with the Amazon EC2  the obvious next question was what about private clouds, other public clouds, hybrid clouds where part of the infrastructure is in a private cloud and part in a public cloud, the scenarios were endless.   To build solutions for all of the various combinations was going to be time consuming and time is money!  

A few weeks ago during one of our regular calls with Red Hat re our Cloud Foundations collaboration mention was made of a new innovation that would allow us to pre-assemble the components we wanted to include in our machine image and choose the deployment platform from within the development environment.  This will greatly speed-up and simplify the production and testing of Ingres solutions for all of the various cloud types and provide a flexible platform for innovation.   

The massive demand for mobile applications has resulted in the need for a reliable and scalable platform to support these applications and the cloud provides that platform.   Embracing the production of standards in collaboration with others, who know what it means to build business critical applications, will mean that whether you use mobile applications to close that next big deal, or to find the nearest happy-hour, the technology stack behind it will ensure your needs are met.

Related Links:
http://blogs.ingres.com/ketankaria/2010/08/25/opening-in-the-cloud/

http://press.redhat.com/2010/08/25/red-hat-paas-build-any-way-deploy-anywhere/

http://www.ctoedge.com/content/red-hat-expands-cloud-portfolio

 

When we announced Ingres VectorWise at the UK IUA, earlier this month, we did a live demonstration running a query against Ingres VectorWise in the Amazon Cloud.  To give a point of comparison we ran the identical query against a  market leading Enterprise DBMS.    We masked the competitor’s identity, to save them embarassment, but unfortunately that company’s name slipped from Roger’s lips during the demo so when you watch the video of the demo on YouTube be prepared for a very loud beep, which we used to save their blushes. 

Interesting fact: “El Caro” in Spanish means “Expensive”.

 

For the past two years I’ve struggled to find a silver lining to the current economic crisis.  Last week I found it in the unlikeliest of places – my accountant’s office.   My tax liabilities for 2009 were lower than predicted, because my income for the year was lower than predicted, so this year I’m getting a refund from the IRS.   As with all ‘found money’ it’s burning a hole in my pocket and even after stashing half of it away in my savings account I’ve enough money left over to buy myself a couple of new toys.

Top of my wish list was an Apple iPad.  I’ve had an iPod Touch for a number of years, and a scaled up version of the iPod Touch seems like a great addition to my collection of book-sized toys which currently includes an HP net-book and a Kindle.  Given the amount of time I spend on the road I decided that rather than splurging for the Wi-fi version, which is available today, I’d wait for the 3G version, which will be available at the end of the month.   But given my OCD tendencies and the ‘found money’ burning holes in my pockets, the end of the month seemed like a lifetime away.  I already have a 3G air-card from my cell phone provider, which I can move  between my mobile computers, so I decided that perhaps I wouldn’t have to take on another $30 a month subscription with AT&T for the iPad’s 3G capabilities and more importantly I could nip out to the local Apple Store at lunchtime to pick up a wi-fi version of the iPad today.   I have to admit to being shocked to learn that the iPad doesn’t have any USB ports into which I could plug my air-card.  As a gadget freak I have to say that I found it hard to believe that anyone could produce a device without USB connectivity.   There are ways to rig up 3G connectivity for the wi-fi version of the iPad but they all involve an additional piece of technology and an additional subscription for a 3G service.

The early reports of over-heating and wi-fi problems were issues that I was willing to work through.  The fact that the iPad doesn’t support Flash wasn’t something that I was overly concerned about because I figured that was something that would be resolved down the line.  I was also willing to ignore the fact that it doesn’t run Linux because I suspect that the Linux Community will find a way of getting Linux on there sooner rather than later.

So, despite the fact that the iPad represents the antithesis of open source, I was still set on purchasing one after work this evening.   That was until I received this tech flash from The New York Times.  For Apple, a company that is renowned for innovation and inventing new markets, to tie the hands of application developers behind their backs like this is unconscionable and I for one am voting with my credit-card.  I didn’t have immediate plans to build my own iPad apps, but the proprietary behavior displayed by Apple is so galling that not only am I not getting an iPad, I am also shelving plans to switch out my Blackberry for an iPhone.  Instead of splurging nearly a grand on an iPad and accessories today I am now going to wait a couple of months and spend about half of that on a Linux iPad clone.  I guess I better go line my pant pockets with asbestos!

Related links:

http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/09/adobe-go-screw-yourself-apple-2/

http://www.mobilephonedevelopment.com/

 

I’m contemplating updating a piece I wrote a couple of years ago on why students should get involved in open source developmentand scribbled the following quasi-humorous list over lunch:

1. Think of it as step 1 on the road out of living in your parent’s basement, eating hot pockets and playing WoW day and night. (In retrospect those last two don’t sound so bad!)

2. College Education – $43,600; Ultimate Gaming Laptop – $4,700; Finding a bug in code written by Linus Torvalds – Priceless

3. Your open source submissions may distract prospective employers from those photos of  you dressed as David Hasselhoff  that your friends tagged on Facebook.*

4. If you like WoW, you’ll love open source - even your most pleasant interactions on some open source projects will feel like you’re taking on level 82 elite mobs in Icecrown.

5. While you may think that Drupal is your one true love, unless you code-around you’ll never know for sure.

6. If you get accepted into the Google Summer of Codeyou can get paid to write code in your Sponge Bob jim-jams.

7. You can get involved in serious debates about the benefits of translating a project into Klingon or sign up to join a project to Train a Toy Elephant.

8. Jeans and a t-shirt is “dressed-up”.

9. Your favorite “Bow before me, for I am root” t-shirt will pale in comparison to the collection of hilarious open source t-shirts that you’ll assemble.

10. Open Source is an EgoSystem and you know that you’re going to be king.

* – this is obviously fictional and any resemblance it may bear to a real Ingres employee is purely coincidental.

 

Yesterday I promisedto provide an account of the Girl Geek Dinner at Hull University.  The Hull event differed from other Girl Geek Dinner events that I’ve attended in that at least half of the attendees were students.   Mid-way through my presentation I got onto the topic of open source development and I was shocked to realize that none of the students in the room were involved in open source development.   I’m not sure if this is a reflection of the level of interest in open source in the UK, or vice versa.

I believe that open source is an obvious way for students to gain some real world experience on large scale software projects.   There’s an enormous difference between submitting your work to be reviewed and rated by your professor/teacher and enduring the baptism of fire that usually accompanies your first submission to an open source project.   Another huge benefit that open source development provides to students is that it gives them an opportunity to identify what aspects of IT they are passionate about.  Open source projects run the gamut from web browsers to gaming engines and everything in between and there are roles for developers, testers, bug fixers, translators, tech writers, artists etc. etc. I’ve blogged on this topic in the past which you can read here. 

I’m looking to fill a junior rolein my team at present and I find it interesting, and somewhat depressing, to note that we are seeing lots of applications from people with 10+ year’s experience applying for a junior role, because of the current state of the job’s market.  I am also seeing resumes from recent college graduates, some of whom have not found employment in the tech sector since graduting from college over the past two years.   Skimming college graduate resumes is usually easy and I always start by looking for involvement in open source projects and use this to quickly identify the type of self-starter that would fit within my team.  

Linda Broughton and Leia Bassett of nti Leeds were my genial and gracious hosts for the English leg of my trip, and given their knowledge of open source I hope that they are able to work with the Hull University students to arrange a future Girl Geek Dinner at which they could provide a speaker who could give an overview of open source and faciliate an exchange of ideas on the topic.

Normally I like to book-end a trip to Europe with a weekend with my family in Dublin, but this time around I had to hurry back to New York because I’d volunteered to participate in a number of events that weekend including a “Polar Plunge” to raise funds for the Special Olympics.   And just because I have no shame, and have littered recent blogs with personal pics, I’ve deicded to share a photo of that event with you. 

Related links:
http://drtraceymadden.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/has-oer-anything-to-learn-from-open-source/
http://wordpress.org/development/2010/03/summer-of-wordpress-2010/

 

I was reminded this morning, when reading a report on the under-representation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by the American Association of University Women, that I hadn’t updated my blog since my visit to the UK two weeks ago.  Regular readers of my blog will recall that I promised to revisit the Computer Engineer Barbie topic after speaking with attendees at the Edinburgh Girl Geek Dinner.  

Computer Engineering is Barbie’s 126th career and I, for one, would be interested to know if any of Barbie’s prior career choices, or hobbies, have influenced the career decisions of the younger generation.    My assumption that Girl Geeks were unlikely to have been big Barbie fans in their youth was proven incorrect, as the room was fairly evenly divided between those who played with Barbie (or her larger headed European cousin Sindy), and those who didn’t.  The general consensus at the Edinburgh Girl Geek Dinner was that the addition of a Computer Engineer Barbie could only help raise awareness of Computer Engineering as a career choice and that many of us making purchasing decisions about Barbie dolls would likely choose this as an option when it’s released in the fall.

The Edinburgh Girl Geek Dinner was attended by a large audience of women* drawn from various technology related backgrounds and I found it was a great opportunity to network with inspiring women who are blazing a trail for future generations.   While in Edinburgh I had the opportunity to meet with a number of female entrepreneurs, students, educators and researchers, each of whom left a great impression on me.   Edinburgh has a great buzz about it and I was happy to note that the depression that accompanies the current economic recession doesn’t seem to have permeated the city at all. 

In doing research on the topic of Software Engineer Barbie I was delighted to see that there’s a Harley Davidson Barbie, but surprised to note that she doesn’t look anything like 42 year old Software Engineer Barbie going through a mid-life crisis.

* – The A/V team in Edinburgh was male, and a male journalist, Phil Harris from Square  Go, was also in attendance at the event. 

Tune in tomorrow for a blog on the Girl Geek Dinner at Hull University.

 

The recent news that Mattel is about to release Software Engineering Barbie has me reflecting on my childhood and my route to a career in software engineering.

As a little girl I idolized my father who was a mechanical services engineer.  I was a “tom boy” and my father always encouraged my interest in science, engineering and computers by spending a small fortune feeding my technology addiction.   I aspired to be just like my dad and to me a career in engineering seemed like a fascinating and obvious choice.   When it came to discussing my career ambitions with my dad I was devastated when he tried to discourage me from becoming an engineer by telling me bluntly that he’d never hire a female engineer and couldn’t think of one of his friends who would.  

Dad was probably as devastated as I was to have to have that conversation, but it was Ireland in the early 80s and there were girl’s schools in Ireland back then that didn’t even teach math to the level required to qualify to study engineering at the University level.

Some teenagers rebel against their parents by getting tattoos, body piercings, having a child out of wedlock, or abusing drugs; I rebelled by acquiring a degree in electronic engineering.  

My sister Tara was my polar opposite.  From an early age it seemed that Tara’s ambition in life was to get married and become the perfect wife and mother.  Tara was as obsessed with dolls and dresses as I was with mechanics and computers.   Tara would probably have been the perfect target market for Computer Engineering Barbie but I suspect that Tara’s Barbie would not have been slinging code, but instead would have been posting photos of her perfect family on Facebook and Skyping with her husband Ken who was the multi-millionaire founder of an internet start-up.   Would Software Engineering Barbie have changed Tara’s career ambitions?  Not a chance! 

I’ve never owned a Barbie in my life.  In fact growing up I loathed everything that Barbie and her gender stereo-typing stood for.  Does the fact that Software Engineering Barbie will soon join the Barbie stable of playmates mean that Software Engineering is now considered an acceptable profession for Barbie loving girly-girls?

I’m visiting Scotland in a couple of weeks to speak at a Girl Geek event and will be visiting universities in Edinburgh and Glasgow while I’m there.  I plan to ask the latest crop of female engineering students what their take on this whole Barbie thing is, and post a follow-on blog then.

If you want Deb’s take on Software Engineering Barbie, you can check out her blog on the topic here.  John Smedley pointed me to the following link which includes ideas on how to make Computer Engineer Barbie more realistic.

Epilogue: My father passed away during the time that we were forming Ingres Corporation but he couldn’t have been prouder of my accomplishments.  Tara went on to marry Stephen, a software engineer, and is now the perfect wife and mother and a regular Facebook updater.