While walking back to the ol’ cubical from the drinking fountain a co-worker asked me, “Richie if everything in the universe doubled, would anyone notice?” It’s moments like these that make me glad to be a human being; forget the local sports team, or the latest season of ‘LOST’ lets talk about Cosmology! I told my co-worker I would get back with to him and thought about the answer on way way back to my cubical. I found the question closely related to a classical cosmological question often addressed in terms of the Big Bang’s ‘Expanding Universe’.
I am no cosmologist but given some basic reasoning it seams to be we can desearn a answer who’s meaning is concomitant to the question.

If everything in the universe were to double in size but not distance, we would surly notice. if everything in the universe were to double in distance but not size we would surly notice (and have!). If everyTHING in the universe doubled without effecting non-things (i.e. gravity) we would certainly notice. If everything in the universe doubled effecting all things and non things then your question would be; if everything in the universe doubled would we notice if everything in the universe doubled would we notice; or perhaps if if everything everything in in the … or maybe even iiff eevv … or perhaps i f e v …. or i i f f e e v….. absurdum. This loosely illustrates a fundamental understanding of the ‘universe’ as infinite; double infinite is absurd (as in inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense). Thus perhaps your question is; dose the universe fallow rules of logic. If logic is reflective of the rules of the universe, then yes; the universe dose fallow the rules of logic.

My answer brakes down in asserting that ‘non-things’ are infact non-things and that these ‘non-things’, or some of these ‘non-things’ have physical affects. Thus it must be understood what is meant by thing (hello metaphysics).

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DVD in Firefighter’s Coat Blocks Bullet

Notice the location: ‘a Waffle House restaurant…’

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Another one from the Freakonomics Blog:

Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum

This one caught my eye since I am sort of a MySpace / Facebook ‘hold-out’ as they say (though I did have Facebook in the early days for 6 - 8 months or so).

It’s a sampling of comments from various thinkers on the topic. A brief quote from one of the responses (Steve Chazin, about half way down):

“I believe social networking technology has changed our lives for the better, but at a cost…While all humans need to feel connected to each other or to some cause, there are also times when we simply want to disconnect, and disconnecting is becoming increasingly hard thanks to social networking technology…”

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These days, I’ve been reading the Freakonmics Blog off and on. Tends to be fairly interesting - the content varies with posts from the two book authors, posts from guests, and usually a handful of links every day or two.

Today, they provided a link to the article below - it highlights research questioning the idea made popular by the book, The Tipping Point. I found that book to be an engaging read, so this article caught my eye.

Is the Tipping Point Toast?

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A fairly interesting article from Wired on the iPhone:

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

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In that time of year when film, music, and book critics are compiling their ‘best of’ lists for 2007, I decided to compile a little list of my own (not to be too presumptuous).

One slight deviation from the norm - this list represents the music, films, and books that I came across in 2007, not necessarily those that were released in 2007. Limited to a Top 5 in each category, in no particular order…

Music:

• Burial - Untrue: This album was one of those random music discoveries of 2007. I was converted as a fan more or less overnight after hearing a song from this artist on a Radiohead webcast. It’s quite amazing.

  To quote comments from Pitchfork, “No album in 2007 conveyed so much loneliness through the sheer palpability of its atmosphere.” Think of the perfect backdrop for a quiet, rainy night.

• Radiohead - In Rainbows: Another goodie on the mellower, subtle side of things. It’s one of those albums where it hits you a few distinct times during listening just how good it actually is. Big fan of Reckoner and Videotape.
• Cat Power - The Covers Record: Released long before 2007, but I finally picked it up this year thanks to the background track in one of the quieter scenes of V for Vendetta.

  That song was I Found a Reason - if you need no other reason to buy this album, it’s that song. 2 minutes of near perfection.

• Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - Live at Radio City: The second official recording of these two playing together - like the first album, these song versions are refreshing acoustic takes of the standard full band sound.

  The initial three-track sequence of Bartender, When the World Ends, and Stay or Leave sets the tone for a fine live show.

• Jazz Artists - Miscellaneous Albums: For the final selection, it’s worth mentioning a number of jazz albums. I’ve been trying to expand my jazz collection (with a little guidance from the Jamey Aebersold list of recommended jazz albums).

  Some good acquisitions this year include Bill Evans - Live at the Village Vanguard, Bill Evans - Conversations with Myself, Cannonball Adderly - Somethin’ Else, and Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage.

Film / TV:

• Juno: I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It’s surprisingly good even - some excellent moments throughout the film.
• Stranger Than Fiction: Filmed in Chicago with a good story, Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a soundtrack that prominently features Spoon, what’s not to like?
• Children of Men: A dystopian thriller that doesn’t disappoint. To quote the NY Times review, it “…may be something of a bummer, but it’s the kind of glorious bummer that lifts you to the rafters…”
• Arrested Development: Finally got around to watching Seasons 1 and 2 this year and it certainly exceeded my expectations. Witty dialogue and a great cast comes together for a smart, funny show.
• Entourage: It’s true, I got hooked on this show this year as well. While in a different category than Arrested Development, there’s something about this show that draws you in.

Books:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby: I’ve previously written about the wonders of this book…
• Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon: A novel somewhat in the vein of Brave New World or 1984 that provides a fascinating look into the thinking behind the Russian Revolution and ensuing years.
• John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath: Well worth the read - a moving tale that’s somewhat depressing, but quite good nonetheless.
• Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea: Brief but potent.
• Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway: I decided to re-read this in 2007, and was again reminded how good of an author Virgina Woolf is.

And that sums it up. My personal ‘best of’ from 2007.

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One thing life needs is more awesomeness. It’s hard getting through the mundane tasks of buttering one’s corn, squeezing orange juice, spritzing with a lemon, and slicing a banana without a little help from the awesome power of carcinogenic, oil leaden plastic. Well thanks to modern technological advances the power of plastics continues to make contemporary living even more convenient!

A model of efficancy.

No more lemon in the eye!

No more MESS!

No more all night banana slicing sessions!

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Have you ever wanted to smell like Vomit, a Sports Changing Room, or Mustard Gas ?
If you have been working on that personal sent to seduce Mr. / Ms. right, boy have I got the site for you:

http://www.daleair.com/acatalog/Aromas.html

Yep. The good folks at Dale Air Limited have captured the essences of all the above and more! Including the unforgettable scents:
Boiler Room
Brewery (recommended for car, the Police will LOVE you and mention it every time!)
Burning Peat
Cannon
Hospital
Coal Gas
Dinosaur
Farmyard
Fish Market
Japanese POW
A 1930’s street
Methane
Sweaty Feet
Urine
Volcano

Some of these scents are simply astounding but others are just plane lazy. Its been a while since I’ve gotten a whiff of a good fragrant dinosaur, but urine, come on. Give me a few cups of coffee and I could replicate that sent in mere minutes ..maybe I’m in the wrong line of work.

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“Keep your hands free at parties by keeping your wine close at heart! This clever little clip with adjustable strap holds a regular-size stemmed glass to your chest, giving you the freedom to snack and socialize as you sip!”

In a fit of American ingenuity yet another Chinese manufactured product shall better the lives of the lazy, forgetfull or plane lushish. God bless us everyone.

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First and foremost I should state the Network Monitoring and Advisory Services is only available to those with MySQL Enterprise edition … this means no source code is available for download.

MySQL AB (the company which markets and commercially develops MySQL) calls its Enterprise product the most comprehensive offering of MySQL database software, services and support. I’m afraid this is a rather vague statement and raises more than a few questions… What dose this even mean and why would you want to pay money for something you can get for free. Some may even fear MySQL AB is leaving its developer community behind. In this latter case let me sooth your fears; I seriously doubt MySQL AB is leaving its developer community behind. In short I’d suggest that MySQL AB is pulling an old trick out of a RedHat.

While MySQL may have some short comings as a data base solution, those short comings are becoming fewer and far between. Furthermore such shortcomings probably shouldn’t be ‘deal breakers’ for most medium level enterprise needs. Classic short comings of MySQL have been its lack of useful transaction’s and technical support. (Note that MyISAM has supported transactions since version 3 something …few people realize this because its transaction support is almost useless)

MySQL AB takes care of both of these criticisms in its MySQL 5.x releases. For the sake of brevity I’ll leave the transaction’s conversation for another article, but its here in the form of (most commonly) either the InnoDB or Falcon storage engine. With MySQL Enterprise; MySQL AB officially offers technical support in the form of traditional forums and message boards as well as a Phone number to call.

However in addition to ‘just’ support, MySQL Enterprise also gives you a new product; the MySQL Network Monitoring and Advisory Service. I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with this product via a Tutorial At MySQL Con 2007 and will offer some thoughts / observations in the form of a technical review.

The name is as self descriptive as cumbersome. The MySQL Network Monitoring and Advisory Service ‘provides developers, DBAs, and SysAdmins with a “Virtual DBA Assistant” to enforce MySQL, (or DBA/SysAdmin) recommended best practices’. The product’s strength is in its promised ability to show you things in your Database’s configuration you may not be aware of.

The Data Base Administrator’ (DBA’s) among us may be a little uncomfortable with this; but they should probably have other things to worry there pretty little heads over. The MySQL Network Monitoring and Advisory Service (NMAS) will probably never replace a good DBA, but it may replace or at least unveil a bad one. The aim of the product is to free DBA’s up to worry about really important things such as Database design, growth forecasting ..etc. Gone are the days spent investigating the microcosms of a MySQL configuration or more specifically trolling logs or policing user policies. NMAS dose all of this for you. I know, you can do it all your self via a large and complex set of scripts but the time to implement and maintain these scripts is rather large. MySQL AB has essentially provided a scalable, easier to manage supported product with MySQL Enterprise; and whial I hate to show my hand to early, they have provided a truly amazing product.

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