cahill-thesis.pdf

Just remember that when I wrote it, I expected an audience of 4: my adviser plus three examiners…

If you want to check up on me, here are the code changes I made — this patch applies to a MySQL 5.1.26-rc tree with the InnoDB Plugin 1.0.1 unpacked:

  innodb-serializable-snapshot-isolation.diff.gz

As always, I’m happy to take comments or questions.

            

  http://www.smh.com.au/environment/water-issues/heavy-rain-eases–but-not-for-long-20100208-nl54.html

Sure, flooding and danger are important and newsworthy, but people, we’ve been in drought for years.  Sydney’s water storage was literally half-full last week.  This rain will mean we can drink, wash, keep gardens growing, and yes, flush.  Maybe for a year or two, until the next big downfall.

It’s really not a bad thing, and it would be nice if the news coverage at least mentioned that rather than accentuating the negative.

            

Database doctorate provides breakthrough for multiple users

Also picked up by Computerworld and blogged by Alon Halevy, who I was lucky enough to catch up with briefly at ACSW:

Alon Halevy’s Blog: A Trip to Australia

            

  Rent-free smart home in NSW up for grabs

Rachel could almost walk to work (or ride a bike), next door to the Armoury, Bicentennial park around the corner, flying electric car included.  If only I could write…

            

  Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Worldwide

Now it’s going to be much harder to convince my American friends and colleagues to move to Australia, even if the world’s best bagels have emigrated down under.

            

In most of the PCs I have worked with over the years, that’s about all that happens — it’s annoying, but each time the computer boots it has lost its settings.  In servers, which don’t reboot often, a flat battery could go unnoticed for months.

Yesterday, I discovered that some PCs are far less predictable when the motherboard battery is flat.  I have four ~5-year-old Shuttle PCs, and some of them haven’t been turned on for a year or so.  What *they* do is not start at all once the battery is flat.  But if you leave the mains power connected for a while, eventually something gets enough charge that the motherboard decides it can boot after all.

In addition, with a battery on the way out, the PCs would get part way through booting and then freeze in random places.  This took some time to discover — I was initially suspicious of a recent operating system upgrade, and then that a disk might be on the way out.

To keep a long story from getting any longer, the lesson learned was that it’s worth spending $1.75 every 2-3 years to keep a charge in that battery.  Once it goes flat, odd things can happen.

            

Maybe this…