See more on my tech blog Released EzCrypto 0.2 with ActiveCrypto support for Rails or at EzCrypto documentation.

So my post about MySQL AB and the Cluetrain must have hit a nerve with their CEO Marten Mickos.

Basically he started out not agreeing with me as they do get lots of good information from it.

I said they should make it optional to register, so they don’t lose customers. Basically my point in all was that they are a very Clued up company in most respects, that it was just so out of character of MySQL to do something so old school like and therefore alienating their customers. I suggested a comparing the amount of hits to that page versus the amount of actual registrations. In the end he agreed on some things and it looks like they will take it up to revision.

While I don’t like acting cluetrain transport police, the success of MySQL AB is of utmost importance to many of us for so many reasons that they don’t become just another boring enterprise software vendor. In other words, only your true friends (and little children) tell you the truth.

• They provide a great database for free that we need for our apps (Postgresql is there of course as well, but we all have our preferences)
• They provide low cost support packages that beat anything the competition has (IF we feel we need it)
• They provide a great example for other software vendors to follow
• By pushing into the enterprise world they help provide consulting opportunities for those of us with many years experience with MySQL

So I hope Marten and his team do change this which I’m positive they will. All the best of luck to Mysql 5 and for good orders sake Postgresql as well which is of course also an excellent database.

Have a look through the comments of the above post and you can read for yourself.

Wow. As of yesterday Denmarks first Wimax service ClearWire is live. I think it’s a bit pricy though. When you think about that they are not paying anything to the incumbent telecoms monopoly for copper access it should be cheaper.

It’s DKK 699pm (roughly USD110) for 2048/512. I currently pay 400 for the same with Cablemodem. The advantage though is that there is no need for a phone line. So you can completely ditch TDC which isn’t all bad.

More exiting is the 24Mbps ADSL2 offering from CPH Metronet for DKK395. This does require a phoneline though and the speed does vary depending on distance to switch.

I wanted to read up about the new features of Mysql 5.0 and I was hit by a registration wall .

Whenever I go to a site where I have to register to read their marketing spiels I immediately switch off. It even makes me angry. It all reminds me of my days at AltaVista when the marketing department where busy inventing fake collateral and pdf whitepapers. Geeze, we are not in 1996 anymore. MySQL has always had a clue before, but have the corporate clueless staged a coup d’etat in Upsalla?

If I want that type of cluelessness I would pick Oracle or IBM.

==Update Marten Mickos responds ==

See below for more. Also Roumen writes MySQL 5.0 – Why Do I Need to Register to Read about New Features?

Now I am starting back doing consulting on a freelance basis, I really want to reexamine the business model of consulting.

I have always felt that the hourly charging is a pain. I don’t think it is fair for neither the client nor the consultant. The agencies of course like it as that is their main way of making money.

Let say there is a task. Build up a simple CRUD web page to go into a database. If you put a inexperienced guy on it you will probably end up paying less of an hourly rate, but more hours.

If you put an experienced guy on it he will charge you more per hour, but do it in fewer hours.

So who is cheaper? An inexperienced guy is at probably at the maximum going to be 1/3 the hourly price of the experienced guy. If you are talking the same regional area probably its more like half the price.

An inexperienced guy though may not know the short cuts or may have to spend an awful lot of time in google, where the experienced guy can do it quicker.

With something simple like a CRUD system like we mentioned above, an experienced guy can probably do it around 5 times faster than the inexperienced guy if we are talking something like Java.

With Rails the difference on CRUD wont be as much (can you spell scaffold ??), but in other areas the 5 times faster is probably also true.

So in other words the client ends up paying more if the client choses the inexperienced programmer and the experienced programmer probably is not paid his worth if he gets picked.

Iterative development to the rescue

My idea is that if you are developing using agile methods anyway you have a nice iterative process you can use.

An iteration is such a small complete task that a developer should be able to estimate how long it would take him. How about if one or more developers bid on each iteration? If accepted he has to do the iteration for that price.

This gives the client a certainty and makes it easier to budget. It also lets the experienced consultant push himself and do the work quicker.

It’s obviously not everything that can be done this way. There are certain more traditional consulting tasks that are better suited to hourly rates.

I would like to work with a client with maybe a couple of other developers on a rails project using this method. Have a look at my Bio for more info about me. You can also email me at [email protected] for more.

Also if you would like to be part of a small team of rogue agile coders with Rails, Ajax, CSS or other applicable skills that could work on projects together, send me a shout out as well.