DataStage Forum

Bad news : DSXchange had introduced a charging scheme for “Premium Content / Premium Membership”. It’s around USD $50 per year. Here is what they said :

Due to the overwhelming growth and success of the DSXchange, it’s time to make a few changes. The forum’s vast amount of information delivers great value to thousands of developers around the globe, and because of its increasingly critical role in the success of DataStage®, its related products, and the projects of so many developers around the world, we must find a way to facilitate the continued operation of this outstanding resource, even in the face of rising support costs.To that end, we are phasing in Basic/Premium division of content on the DSXchange. Chances are you linked to this page from our January Newsletter. However, you also may have landed here by clicking a “Premium Content” button in one of the topics you were reading in the forum. You probably noticed that this button appears over what would have been the contents of a post. This means that the response was written by a “Premium Poster”, and while a few words are revealed to give you some idea of the substance of the response, the majority of the reply will only be accessible to Premium Members.

So who are these Premium Posters? Our Premium Posters consist of over a dozen top-notch consultants and developers with numerous years of experience that have distinguished themselves as experts in the field. Many of these members are already leaders and mentors on this site and elsewhere. As a collective whole, these Premium Posters are a formidable source for knowledge and advice and they are all dedicated to the ongoing existence and success of this community. If you’d like to see a list of our experts check out the article entitled “Premium Posters” on the front page of our website. In addition to premium content within posts, we will soon begin adding new content areas (forums, download areas, etc.) that will only be available to Premium Members.

After a few trial, it seems that the most part of the discussion, i.e. the answer, are all masked as “Premium Content”. So, are those Premium Posters got paid for each click? If not, why they keep provide the solution, and being a free labour for others.

I’m quite shocking for what dsxchange did, turning an community to commerical products. In the theme of Web2.0, we are looking for user participation, while getting the return with the long tail. I also doubt that with all valuable information masked, this forum is going to die out soon.

You may want to try other free resources, like IBM’s official developer forum and Tek-Tips.

Filed under: DataStage, ETL, 走在最前

森美的市場價值

森美、小儀最近慢慢復出幕前，而善忘的香港人好像已將早前的 “最想非禮女藝人選舉事件” 拋諸腦後。當然，這是意料之內的事。聽聞他們倆每年一度的歌劇團的現出正準備得如火如荼，一於舞照跳、錢照搵。

這幾星期的雪藏期，無記邀請了很多大哥大姐來代替 “15/16″ 主持的位置，表現好壞與否，見仁見智。當中依然笑料百出。但總是缺少了甚麼似的。而這一角缺少的可能就是森美的市場價值。

如果大家有聽過森美的電台節目，會發現森美有幾個特點:(1) 大癲大肺，有理無理，總之笑一餐；(2) “一輪咀” 窒死人的機關槍； (3) 由無聊 IQ 題到百科全書式的冷知識一一俱備。擁有前兩個特點的，娛樂圈大不乏人，但要同時加上後者的，好似好似 … 想不起來。物以罕為貴，可能這就是森美的市場價值。

聽落好似沒有甚麼特別，可能你以為有佢咁見多識廣，又以為好似佢一樣痴痴地，可以睇下以下片段，較量一下。

Filed under: 自言自語, 斷章取義

Asynchronous Web Service

For large unit of work, it may take certain time for processing.  In most cases, we just skip the reply message in the hand-shaking.  But this approach would leave a hole for governance / control.  So, how can we supporting asynchronous prcoessing in web service?

This old article dated 2003, which said :

“A really simple alternative solution provides message delivery guarantees by using the file transfer protocol (FTP) to implement the type of reliable store-and-forward techniques found in message queuing middleware.”  ….

Is it still valid today? or should we use more promising delivery channels, such as MQ instead of FTP?

Filed under: 走在最前

老餅? 未算 ….

以下是我玩 “精神年齡鑑定” 的鑑定結果

鑑定結果

您的精神年齡30歲
與您實際年齡差3歲

幼稚度48％
成熟度43％
老化度44％

可能你會有興趣知道其他人的結果。螞蟻、random thoughts …

Filed under: 自言自語

The Great Firewall 在美國

舉世聞名的 The Great Firewall 可算是內地 IT 界的一大發明。任何人士使用中;國內地的互聯網服務都必先經過政府的審查。所有可能政治不正確的網站都定必被封殺。此發明的效率之高，往往令人拍案叫絕。

美國政府亦不甘後人，開始了互聯網內容的審查，當然其出發點及限制範圍都不盡相同。但考慮到現任總統的帝國主義思想，TGF 在美國的發展應大有作為。各個高手可望賺取外匯。不過可能汲及洩露國家機密，小心、小心。

Filed under: 走在最前