Posted on 22/7/2008, 6:58 pm, by Colin Charles, under
MySQL.
I don’t know about “me too” types of bug replies, but before everyone goes to the bug database and starts saying “me too”, “this affects me”, “please fix this ASAP”, “I won’t use MySQL 5.1 till this is fixed”, I wonder if this will cause more harm (i.e. more bug spam for the developer, and all those subscribed to it) than good.
It seems like the public Worklog interface gets this right – via voting. Having a count of those that have the same problems, even displayed via “stars”, is a much better interface, and shows urgency a lot better than “me too” posts.
Take one of my favourite worklogs – WL#148 (to implement engine independent foreign keys). Not only can you tag it, you can also comment on it (like a bug report), you can subscribe to it (watch it) and in the event you felt like a “me too”, you just login, and vote!
Lots of bug tracking systems have voting. I remember this being implemented on the OpenOffice.org system (IssueZilla) a few years back, and its definitely proven to be useful. Maybe this is a feature request, for our bugs system?
Posted on 22/5/2008, 5:51 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
It was reported recently that Maxis (my current mobile provider of choice), will offer an anti-spam service for cellphones.
Once you get MessagePlus, which costs RM1 per month, you can start blocking spam. Where do I get most of my spam from? Maxis information services!
So, while this magical service is the first in the world, is this just because Malaysia lacks an extension to the Do Not Call Register?
MessagePlus also includes an auto-reply feature for SMS messages. Think of this like vacation mail, in traditional e-mail. Vacation mail that costs money – you’re charged on a per SMS basis, ranging from between 5-15 sen per message.
It seems Maxis has a new business development manager, Nikolai Dobberstein. And the idea of sending spam, and charging folk to stop receiving the spam, seems like its just gold! Excellent idea for business development, I’m sure.
Me? I’ll live with the spam. And when mobile number portability shows up (find link), I might move to another sensible provider.
A useful statistic? Malaysia’s SMS use is ranked at sixth in the world, for total SMS volume.
