Blue Sky On Mars

Thoughts on Building Software Products
April 15, 2005

Traction for SQLite

by Kevin Dangoor

I just noticed the note on the SQLite home page:

The new ADD COLUMN capability is made possible by AOL developers supporting and embracing great open-source software. Thanks, AOL!

(No snickering that they’ve only just now added ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN… remember that we’re talking about a 250K database). The interesting thing here is that AOL developers helped to enable this. Couple this with Apple using SQLite in the new CoreData feature of Mac OS X Tiger and it would seem that this little database is getting some hefty attention.

Sure, you’re not going to power Wal-Mart’s 1 million employee HR system on SQLite. But, as an embedded database in desktop apps, it works pretty well indeed!

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April 15, 2005

India’s statement on IP at WIPO

by Kevin Dangoor

Boing Boing: India’s amazing statement on IP and international development actually sounds a lot like our Constitution:

The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best guarantee for securing the interest of society. The rationale for the exception is not that extraction of monopoly profits by the innovator is, of and in itself, good for society and so needs to be promoted.

Too many people in Congress are being swayed by lobbying from the RIAA and the MPAA, and too many citizens are allowing it to happen. I think many people are not aware of the fact that the public domain is truly the norm and the copyrights are the exception.