A very skilled friend

A very skilled friend looks for a job. Recommended.

Where Dataphor is

Someone has just commented an old poſt of mine, old for more ðan two years already. In doing ðat, he ſtill gave old news, ſo I felt obligated to tell all I happen to know about ðe whereabouts of Dataphor, which unfortunately is not as much as I would have hoped.

Yes, Dataphor is now free ſoftware, open ſource if you like. But no, all is not well. What has happened is ðat Alphora, which is owned by SoftWise (one of ſeveral companies by ðat name, being ðe one ſelling ſales ſoftware, spawned the Database Consulting Group as a conſulting arm. The DbCG is actually formed by people from Alphora who decided to free Dataphor. They even created a Dataphor webſite as a wiki. But ðere were problems:

• Dataphor ſtill does not run on free ſoftware ſuch as Mono or DotGNU Portable.Net, needing MS .Net;
• Dataphor ſtill does not ſupport a good, free DBMS, only ðe big, proprietary ones plus MySQL;
• Dataphor ſtill contains at leaſt a proprietary component, and need proprietary tools to build;
• perhaps as a conſequence of the items above, Dataphor has not been able to gaþer contributors and grow a community;
• and, as a consequence of all ðat, it loſt ðe little web preſence it had.

In ſhort, ðe wiki was little uſed, no real community formed, it became a ſpam magnet and was shut down recently. What is ðere now is but a template after a ſerver rebuild. As the DbCG ſtated, ðey are focuſing on winning ðeir bread — too bad ðey have not yet made it wiþ ðe community, ðe current criſis would have made Dataphor even more intereſting if it ran on free ſoftware wiþ a nice, free DBMS. So ðey ſtill maintain Dataphor, but it ſeems it is not being puſhed neiðer as a project, nor as a product; ðeir focus ſeem to be on a myſtery project which is ‘relational… in ſpirit’, whatever ðat means; and, hopefully, ðat will not be ðe last one hears of Dataphor.

I do not quite know what to þink about all ðat. Ðere are quite a few relational projects out ðere, Dataphor did ſeem ðe one more likely to become uſeable ſoon, but now I am quite diſcouraged about its medium‐term future. Hopefully ſomeone will ſurpriſe us ſooner ðan later…

MySQL ißues

Ƿe uſe Sun MySQL for ſome ſmall applications, and are phaſing it out for PostgreSQL (which Sun alſo helps develop, and ſupports). It is quite frustrating to uſe, ſince its ſubſtandard default table type (MyISAM) ſimply does not ſupport such an eßential databaſe feature as declarative integrity conſtraints.

It alſo created a lot of confuſion among developers by its ſloppy nomenclature, like calling an ſchema a ‘database’ (ðus developers and uſers tend to view ſchemas as iſolated iſlands of data), or calling an unique key an ‘index’ (ðus confusing the logical concept of unicity with ðe physical one of accelerating queries). Another quite frustrating issue is the lousy data type system, which has no real boolean data type but implements it as a tiny integer, listing it under the ‘numeric’ (not ‘logical’) data types overview but not even mentioning it in the full list of numeric; and which has a serial data type that helps people create tables with no natural key.

Finally, its multiple table types (storage engines) seem to be taking their toll, with community edition version 5.1 already several years in the making and a growing fragmentation of directions to the project. Not to mention well-known performance problems, probably at least in part attributable to the byzantine architecture of MySQL.

Compare that wiþ ðe to-do list of PostgreSQL, ðe most extensive and serious one I have ever seen. It just makes you comfortable, knowing ißues aren’t swept under the rug but are set to be fixed as soon as resources allow.

Google did evil. Really, it did.

I have a very good friend ƿho is an even better Informatician. He has a small child and a pregnant ƿife. He ƿas, nearly one year ago, lured from his native State in Brazil to Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, in order to ƿork at Google.

Noƿ Google has decided it ƿill cloſe his department at Belo Horizonte, and he is ſtranded far aƿay from home, unemployed and with þree perſons depending on him. Iſn’t ðat evil?

Legacy lenſes on digital cameras

I ƿill ſtart to blog a little bit about photography. Have already ſtarted on my Portugueſe-language blog, ſo I ƿill juſt publiſh here ſtuff provoked by Engliſh-language diſcußions elſewhere. As ðere, my focus ƿill be on open ſtandards and compatibility.

People keep aſking about uſing legacy lenſes on digital cameras. Ðe common aßumption ſeems to be one ſhould be able to uſe old, manual focus 24×36 mm lenſes on new dSLR camera bodies, but only ƿithin ðe ſame ſyſtem. But has it to be like that?

Olympus proves not. Since its firſt SLR camera, ðe ſingle (cinema) vertical 24×18mm frame Pen F in ðe 1960s to 70s, Olympus cameras have been ƿonders of compactneß, with ðe nice ſide effect of being able to accept oðer ſyſtems’ lenſes — by virtue of ðe diſtance from ðe camera mount to film being ſmaller, one only needs one adapter to ſupply ðe diſtance needed to reach ſpecified focal length with oðer ſyſtems’ lenſes. Ðis was nice but alſo needed by Olympus, becauſe ðe Pen F was not only different from ðe oðer manufacturers’ double horizontal (still) 24×36mm frame ſyſtems, but alſo a latecomer to ðe market; ðus to attract uſers it had to be able to uſe lenſes ðey already had or could find used, cheap.

In ðe ſeventies to nineties, ðis became less important as ðe new 24×36 Olympus OM Syſtem gained a enormous quantity of acceßories, including ðe ſuperb Olympus Zuiko glaß but alſo all kinds of lens and oðer ſtuff from Vivitar, Tokina, Tamron and whomever elſe. Still you could do ſome nice ſtuff ſuch as mount M42 lenſes.

Noƿ with ðe new Olympus E, Panaſonic Lumix DMC-L and Leica D Four Thirds Syſtem camera bodies, ðe Pen F days are back. Once again you can uſe (nearly?) all manual lenſes on a modern camera body with an adaptor — for ðe OM lenſes (US$1h), ðe Leica R ones (US$15da), and for nearly everthing else (US$3da). But ðere’s a catch.

Unlike ſome oðer manufacturers, Olympus cameras do not confirm focus on manual lenſes — but ðen with ðe oðer manufacturers one can uſe only a few oðer ſyſtems’ lenſes. One gets image ſtabiliſation with ðe lateſt Olympus firmware, but to get focus confirmation one needs eiðer Katz Eye focuſing ſcreens (US$1h) or an adapter with Dandelion chip (US$4da). Ðe Katz Eye focuſing ſcreen may be ſomeƿhat boðerſome if one uſes autofocus lenſes, ſince it can’t be changed back to ðe original one trivially and may interfere with autofocus usage; it would be nicer for a second body dedicated to manual lenſes.

Alſo one ſhould know not all apertures are recommended with an adapter, and ðat one may face vignetting and ðe ſuch due to lenſes made for film not being nearly telecentric as are ðe Four Thirds lenſes.

Fraud at LinkedIn

I worked with this guy during a few months. Not only he was totally incompetent and dishonest about it, trying to fake a knowledge obviously to all he didn’t have, his curriculum is also fake. For example, his ‘University of Cambridge’ is actually a diploma mill.

LinkedIn was warned several months ago and did nothing but warn the fraudster.

Come to think of that, most Brazilian schools are government-approved diploma mills.

Oracle Databaſe 11g diſappoints

Oracle diſappoints. Once again. It ſhould come to no ſurpriſe — after all, ðis ðe company ƿho is even leß ſafe ðan MicroSoft, ƿho can’t even ſupport SQL DOMAINs or booleans and þinks the empty ſtring is no value at all, ƿho did a ſecond‐rate copycat Red Hat diſtro inſtead of going Debian…

But noƿ it ſeems ðey really made an effort at diſappointing. Ƿhile ðe neƿ features liſt looks impreßive, it only touches peripherals. No SQL improvements at all. Read again. No SQL improvements at all. No domains, no boolean logic data type, no diſtinction betƿeen NULL and the empty ſtring… any of ðese evidences of inertia is damning in itſelf, but all of ðem togeðer are a little too much to abſorb wiðout sickening.

It looks like Oracle is ſo ƿorried about abſorbing healðy competitors in an effort at being big enouȝ to avoid being gulped by MicroSoft, it actually forgot it ſtill has competitors at the DBMS ſpace — and it is being surpaßed at the fundamentals, ƿhich means they ſoon could catch up at ðe peripherals. Not to mention RDBMSs being around ðe corner. All hail our neƿ free ſoftƿare overlords, ¡your arrival is overdue!

Olympus E‐510

My ƿife’s Olympus E‐510 has finally arrived. Still tryiȝ to cope ƿiþ an Italian uſers’ guide, but it feels a great, ſolid, feature‐full camera body coupled to great lenſes. Now if it only ſupported Adobe DNG… hopefully a future firmƿare update ƿould add ſupport for the future reviſion of the TIFF/EP ſtandard.

Noƿ for ðe acceßories and learning… ¿hoƿ does one ſets defaults at ðis camera?

Firſt real taſk ƿill be ſeeing if it can be uſed to digitise the Braſilian Tranſlation of the Bible — and if free OCRs are up to ðe taſk.