Sky on Tech

A long time since my last summary, but we were away on vacation for a week, had some deadlines at work... the normal blogger excuses, but here's a summary of interesting URLs from the last few weeks, including stories related to:

• SQL and DB2
• Software development
• AI, Robots, and the Singularity
• Podcasts

And for those of you on Twitter, the stories relate to: @mdirolf @simplecloudapi @dhh

(As always, most of the text is lifted directly from the related websites and isn't my own text.)

SQL and DB2

Michael Dirolf discusses MongoDB | FLOSS Weekly 105

Guest: Michael Dirolf discusses MongoDB, a scalable, schema-free, document-oriented database written in C++.

Delicious tags: FLOSS-weekly podcast database opensource db MongoDB Dirolf
Associated Twitter users: @mdirolf

DB2 Performance: Just the FAQs | ChannelDB2

Steve Rees, Senior Manager, DB2 Performance QA covers some of the most frequently asked DB2 LUW performance questions, such as, what is the best approach for fast INSERT performance? How do I minimize the impact on my system when I'm collecting performance data? What snapshot elements should I pay attention to for everyday monitoring? How much overhead can I expect if I create my database in Unicode?

Delicious tags: database db2 SQL AIX dba performance IBM Chat Rees ChannelDB2

Why CouchDB? | O'Reilly Answers

In this excerpt from the O'Reilly book CouchDB: The Definitive Guide, we’ll show you how CouchDB’s schema-free document model is a better fit for common applications, how the built-in query engine is a powerful way to use and process your data, and how CouchDB’s design lends itself to modularization and scalability.

Delicious tags: database db couchdb sql Erlang

Software development

AI, Robots, and the Singularity

Jaron Lanier discusses his 'You Are Not a Gadget...a Manifesto' | Tech Nation |

Dr.Moira Gunn catches up with internet pioneer and author, Jaron Lanier to discuss his new book, You Are Not a Gadget...a Manifesto, where he discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.

Delicious tags: technation book podcast Lanier culture web2.0 singularity gadgets

Podcasts

Michael Dirolf discusses MongoDB | FLOSS Weekly 105

Guest: Michael Dirolf discusses MongoDB, a scalable, schema-free, document-oriented database written in C++.

Delicious tags: FLOSS-weekly podcast database opensource db MongoDB Dirolf
Associated Twitter users: @mdirolf

WNYC - Radiolab » Fu Manchu

Can an animal know what’s in our heads so well that they can manipulate and deceive us? To answer that question, reporter Ben Calhoun took us back to the 1960s to tell the story of a showdown between zookeeper Jerry Stones and a wily orangutan named Fu Manchu. Then, to help us get a grip on the science behind animals and deception, Ben talks to primatologist and orangutan expert Rob Shumaker of the Great Ape Trust.

Delicious tags: Radiolab podcast animal Stones orangutan Fu-Manchu

WNYC - Radiolab » The Shy Baboon

In this podcast, we talk to Barbara Smuts, a professor at the University of Michigan. And Barbara tells us a story about her experiences trying to find that elusive space. This tale takes us back to the 1970s, when Barbara was trying to gain the trust of a troop of baboons in a remote area of Kenya.

Delicious tags: Radiolab podcast animal Smuts baboons Kenya

Better Decisions Through Analytics | Harvard Business IdeaCast 180

Tom Davenport, Babson College professor and coauthor of Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results. "Most companies have massive amounts of data at their disposal, yet fail to utilize it in any meaningful way. But a powerful new business tool - analytics - is enabling many firms to aggressively leverage their data in key business decisions and processes, with impressive results."

Delicious tags: analytics interview HBR Harvard Davenport podcast

Reinventing Invention | Harvard Business IdeaCast 181

A discussion with Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual Ventures and author of the HBR article Funding Eureka.

Delicious tags: harvard HBR innovation interview podcast Myhrvold

Jaron Lanier discusses his 'You Are Not a Gadget...a Manifesto' | Tech Nation |

Dr.Moira Gunn catches up with internet pioneer and author, Jaron Lanier to discuss his new book, You Are Not a Gadget...a Manifesto, where he discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.

Delicious tags: technation book podcast Lanier culture web2.0 singularity gadgets

Scott Laningham : developerWorks podcasts

IBM Cloud evangelist Doug Tidwell talks about the new Simple Cloud API and how to participate. "there's a lot of different cloud services for storage, message queues, simple databases and it doesn't really make sense for everybody's servers to have a different way to access it. So the idea behind the group is let's have one way of working with storage, one way of working with message queues and so forth, that makes it easy for me to port my application from one vendor to another. " More details are at http://simplecloud.org/

Delicious tags: Cloud SAAS developerworks development webdev webstandards webservice podcast Laningham IBM
Associated Twitter users: @simplecloudapi

Unlearn Your MBA: David Heinemeier Hansson, 37signals | Stanford's Entrepreneurship Corner

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.

Delicious tags: business entrepreneurship development podcast startup innovation 37signals rails mba Stanford Hansson
Associated Twitter users: @dhh