 | from David Bolton
And I got to drive through snow. Not a big deal for many readers but it's pretty unusual in the UK. Also I only got through 70% of what I planned to do over the holiday but Challenge 30 is marked (see below) and the new Challenge 31 out already so have fun. There are rumors about an iSlate being launched on January 26; basically the same as an iPhone but a touchscreen tablet with a 10" screen that you program like an iPhone. Interesting times! Have a Great Year!
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In the Spotlight | Fighting to save MySQL
There's nothing wrong with an open source project being taken over by a closed source company except when that closed source company sells its own product and won't commit to keeping it as it is. Oracle is taking over Sun who took over MySQL a couple of years ago. MySQL is of course the amazingly successful database powering millions of websites and the M in LAMP/WAMP. Oracle over the last few years had acquired the companies that provided the database engine technologies in MySQL - InnoDB and Berkeley DB. So with MySQL in their grasp (apart from a disagreement with the EU over the Sun takeover as yet unresolved), it would be difficult for another MySQL type database to come along. There is of course postgreSQL but moving databases can be a major change. Sign the Petition Ulf Michael Widenius (aka Monty) has created a petition to try and save MySQL from Oracle. He has already got Oracle to make some promises which are good for five years but the future is uncertain after that. So now he is looking to get as many signatures as possible. His rationale makes interesting reading. Thanks to his emailing, 6,608 have so far signed the petition and hopefully many more will. I have and I hope you will.
| | New Cygwin Version Released
Cygwin is a dll that provides partial Posix compatibility via a wrapper layer so that applications running on Windows can make Posix calls just like they were running under Linux/Unix etc. More strictly it emulates a Unix kernel and provides tools so it's like using Unix in Windows. Windows desktop (XP, Vista and 7) is not Posix compliant though Windows NT was. This also opens up a vast library of Unix/Linux applications so they can be compiled and run under Cygwin. This is far easier than porting them to run natively. Posix is a standard for a set of APIs plus utilities, services and a threading library. GNU/Linux is mostly Posix compliant and some versions of Windows Server include it as well. The new version of Cygwin 1.7 drops support for Windows pre 2000 (i.e. 95, 98 and ME) but adds Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a large number of fixes and improvements in File, Device and Network access as well as security. It's definitely a useful skill set to have on your CV.
| New Challenge 31 + 30 results
 Congratulations to Pedro for winning yet another challenge and commiserations to runner up Gaurav whose code was lightning fast ( he managed to get it down to under 4000 microseconds). Pedro's took a lot longer but worked out an energy cost of 8,250 compared to Gaurav's 8844. Challenge 31 There's an old coin turning puzzle which this is. Starting with a 5 x 5 grid of coins all showing their tail side, several of them are flipped over to Heads. At the same time, any coins immediately above or to the side (horizontal and vertical but not diagonal) of the chosen coin are also flipped. After doing this a few times you get quite a mixed up set of coins. Your task is to write code that take any flipped set of coins and works out how to flip them back to their starting point.
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