[Round Up] JetBlue see's red, Pilot pull over here, Socket Programming and Oracle are spent

Why do plane stories always crop up the day after you booked flights?  You think someone is trying to tell you something?  Congratulations to the JetBlue pilot who successfully landed his plane in LAX yesterday while its landing gear was locked in the position.  The whole thing could have turned out a lot worse, as the landing gear burst into flames on a plane that had just taken off for New York, laddened up with fuel.  You can read the full report at CNN:

• http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/21/airliner.emergency.ap/index.html

On a lighter note though, 300 Gambian football fans faked an airline emergency so they could get to their game much earlier.  Realising they wouldn't have time to get to the game, they opted to land at the closest airport.  The Peruvian officials aren't too impressed by this, not least because their team got beat 3-1 in the World Cup qualifying round, as they scrambled the airport into a state of emergency, expecting the worse.  How many times have you flown over your own house, and thought, "if only I could get out here". Read the report on the BBC:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4270156.stm

IBM DevWorks has a good article on the common pitfalls of Linux Socket programming. While this article is primarily for the C developers of the world, there are a number of hints and tips for developers of other languages.  Java has a very good socket handling API that removes a lot of this low-level plumbing away from the developer, but there are times where you still need to get your hands dirty.  This article does present some good tips for debugging scoket applications that are applicable for all languages.  Well worth the read:

• http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-sockpit/?ca=dgr-lnxw02SocketPitfalls

Mr Oracle, Larry Ellison, took to the stage yesterday at Oracle's OpenWorld conference.  He was explaining to the delegates that Oracle had, for the short term at least, no more plans on any more mega-mergers after its recent announcement to acquire Siebel.   His plans are still ambitious though, wanting to take his current turnover from $15B to nearly $30B while maintaining a 40% operating margin.  Ellison is also reported to have said that he wants to see his investment in SalesForce.com go to zero as he sets his sights on going after his former colleagues startup. Ellison also took a poke that the open source world of databases, saying they don't have industrial strength support.  You can read more here:

• http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/004074.html

tags: jetblue  linux  football  socket  oracle  database  

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