Oracle + Open Source

two worlds inexorably colliding

Archive for October 31st, 2007

Everyone Wants An Open API: Google OpenSocial

Oct 31

Posted by Sean Hull in google, open-source | 1 Comment

We blogged about Facebook’s Open API over at #comments as a guest blogger. It seems everyone wants in on the social networking openness. Tomorrow, Google is slated to release it’s OpenSocial.

Oracle and Salesforce.com are also jumping on the bandwagon with Open Social support, along with Linkedin, Plaxo, hi5, and Friendster. Does anyone still use friendster?

The exciting thing for developers, and ultimately the user community who may use such apps is that developing for Google’s new API will easier, and will work across a lot of differen social networks. Granted Facebook has a huge inertia behind it, but still build-for-one and deploy-across-many is a powerful motivator for everyone.

And if my experience with Friendster, then Tribe, then MySpace, and then Facebook is any indication, people will get excited about the next great community, social networking site and forget about Facebook just like they did every single one before.

NOTE: As of Thursday, you’ll be able to go to Google’s homepage for the project: OpenSocial

Pixie Dust For MySQL: 5 Elemental Lessons

Oct 31

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, mysql, oreilly | No Comments

The fifth and last abstract submitted for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

As an independent consultant, there are quite a few trouble spots I see repeatedly. I’ll discuss five of them, and how to avoid them in your own infrastructure.

As an independent consultant for twelve years, I’ve encountered a lot of interesting and challenging projects. I’ll discuss five different cases, and what lessons I took away from each.

1. Intro
2. The Right Hardware
3. Importance of Good Testing
4. Patchwork or Good Design
5. Don’t Mix Opposites
6. Use The Technology
7. Conclusion

Is Your Database an Open Book?

Oct 31

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, mysql, oreilly | No Comments

The fourth in a series of five abstracts for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

Learn how to audit your systems, and run through the right checklists so you can sleep better at night knowing your systems are more secure.

Security is on everyone’s radar these days. You may be wondering yourself whether your database systems are really as secure as they should be. We’ll discuss some of the latest vulnerabilities, and what you can do to protect your systems.

1. Introduction
2. Authentication
3. SQL Injection
4. OS Security
5. Network Security
6. Conclusions

Hitchhiker’s Guide to MySQL Replication

Oct 31

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, mysql, oreilly | No Comments

This is the third in a series of five abstracts submitted to the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

MySQL has a great facility for creating a read-only failover database. We’ll show you how to setup, start, failover, and monitor it.

Setting up MySQL to have a master + slave failover capability might be intimidating, but it needn’t be.

1. Intro
2. Anatomy of MySQL Replication
3. Initial Master copy
4. Setup + starting the slave
5. Failover from Master
6. Adding another slave
7. Monitoring your slave db
8. Conclusions

Hacking MySQL

Oct 31

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, mysql, oreilly | No Comments

The second in a series of five abstracts for the O’Reilly MySQL Conference in April 2008.

Inevitably hackers are trying to get at your data, so you mine as well know what they can and can’t do. What better way to discover where you’re vulnerable than hacking your own systems.

Operating Systems have bugs, Database Software has bugs, and so does your application, probably. A better question is how hackable are you? We’ll look at some of the nefarious ways intruders can get in, so you’ll better know how secure your systems really are.

1. Intro
2. OS level
3. Database level
4. Application level
5. Conclusions