Posted on 24/10/2015, 10:01 pm, by Colin Charles, under
MariaDB,
MySQL.
The Korean MySQL Power User Group gets a special guest speaker next weekend (Oct 31 2015 – 4pm – 4:33’s offices in Gangnam – nearest train stop is Samseong station, Line 2 – post requires Cafe Naver login) – Mark Callaghan (Small Datum, @markcallaghan, and formerly High Availability MySQL). I’ve been to many of their meetups, and I think this is a great opportunity for many DBAs to learn more about how Mark helps make MySQL and MongoDB better for users at Facebook. I’m sure he’ll also talk about RocksDB.
After that, as usual, there will be a DBA Dinner. This time the tab gets picked up by OSS Korea. See you next Saturday – Halloween in Seoul will have added spice!
Posted on 31/5/2015, 12:06 pm, by Colin Charles, under
Business,
Travel.
I visited an Assouline bookstore in Seoul, S. Korea. After you make a purchase, you get the opportunity to have a drink at their attached cafe.
Recently we were in London, and Sara & I got to visit the Maison Assouline, nearby Picadilly Circus. It is a very beautiful store, with cafe to boot. Go upstairs, and you’ll end up seeing a professional bookbinder – he does everything by hand. Takes at least a week, average cost starts at £500. Same deal as above – purchase, have a drink.
When my family left London, I walked to the Monocle shop at George St, wanting to buy their new travel guides. I was told to go to their offices as they were going to have an event there. Fair enough, it was just a few blocks away. After making a purchase? They again said, visit their cafe, a few blocks away, to have a coffee or beer. I noticed this was happening at the shop at George St too (they don’t have an attached cafe). This again, is very smart cross-promotion of your retail adventures.
Is print luxury? Do you then expand the experience by ensuring people get to slow down, and consume more with a coffee?
Posted on 23/9/2014, 12:53 am, by Colin Charles, under
Tech,
Travel.
Apparently taxis can be dangerous for ladies at night in Seoul. So there is a program called the Safe Return Home Service now in Seoul.
How does it work? The assumption is that many people have NFC enabled phones. They just need to tap their phone on this NFC-enabled pad, and automatically a text message is sent to one’s guardian giving the taxi’s model, current time & location, and probably more.
This ensures that you now travel with a better sense of security. Read the press release, which suggests this is a program from SK Planet (I’ve had the pleasure of working with this group in the past).
I think something like this can be really useful in markets like Malaysia, where the taxi system requires a serious overhaul.
Posted on 26/11/2012, 6:18 am, by Colin Charles, under
MariaDB,
MySQL.
I’ve had many dealings with SK Planet, in South Korea, so when they asked me to speak at their inaugural Tech Planet, I jumped at the opportunity. I was already pre-given a topic titled “NewSQL”, so I talked about the evolution of SQL -> Big Data -> NoSQL -> NewSQL, all thanks to papers written by Google research, and then focused on how MySQL & MariaDB is gaining many new interfaces: mariasql, HandlerSocket, dynamic columns, memcached InnoDB plugin, node.js with NDBCLUSTER, CassandraSE, LevelDB, Galera Cluster and more. This is a topic I will talk more about later.
The event was great. It started with a speaker’s dinner in where the CTO of SK Planet & multiple VP’s dined with the speakers. We had a private room at the InterContinental COEX, and started with smoked salmon, Russian crab meat & cream cheese. This was followed on quickly by crab meat soup. The main course was beef tenderloin, mero fish & steamed black rice, asparagus and black garlic. We ended with a cranberry tian with raspberry sauce. This was filled with lots of Equus red wine.
The next day, we had the day of the event itself and it was huge. There were probably over 800 attendees, and SkySQL had a booth maintained by the Korean partners: OSS Korea, PrixMedia, and Oh New Innovation. This was followed by lunch with the CEO of SK Planet with great conversation & food. Started with tuna & avocado, to clear the palate, some lemon sorbet, and a great main consisting of beef tenderloin & king prawn with red wine sauce. We had much to chat about, and as lunch came to a close, it was time for me to give my talk.
It was well attended, there were some good questions, and there are naturally some good action items. I’m glad that the whole ecosystem provided me multiple opportunities to talk about amazing work being done. The press covered the Tech Planet event. I managed to snag an interview as well. More photos of the event at my techplanet2012 tag on Flickr.
All in, an exciting space to be in now. Thank you so much for SK Planet for the invite, and I look forward to being around in 2013.
