Oracle puts forth 33 patches

Oracle’s quarterly patch cycle has 33 patches, ZDNet blogger Ryan Naraine reports. This is across Oracle’s entire product line. Still, 10 patches for a “mature” SQL RDBMS product that’s been around for a long time now is quite extreme in my opinion. And five patches for WebLogic? IIS gets something like one a year. Oracle needs to get its act together.

Azure pricing announced

ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley published the details about Azure pricing. From reports she links to in her post, it looks like it is marginally less expensive than Amazon’s offering. I think the 99.95% connectivity SLA is a bit weak.

OpenAmplify 1.1 released

OpenAmplify has released version 1.1 of its flagship product. The new version is faster, improves how it scrapes Web pages, and is much better at linking various concepts in the document together.

The Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever is now online

Jeff Blankenburg announced that the Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever is now online. A few months ago, I tried it when there were about 6 or 7 puzzles on the site; the puzzles were definitely entertaining.

2009 Silverlight Control Builder Contest

Page Brooks announced the 2009 Silverlight Control Builder Contest. The prize list is extensive and enticing. Final submission date is September 19, 2009.

Micro Focus’ ReUZE allows migration from mainframes to Windows

Micro Focus announced ReUZE, a system that allows existing mainframe code to be moved to the .NET platform with little to no rewriting required in most cases. This looks like a great option for companies that want to get off of the mainframe platform but have legacy applications that cannot be left behind.

Mozilla makes it easier to contribute to Firefox add-on developers

In a show of support for the add-on developers who have helped make Firefox so popular, Mozilla is testing a new site called Contributions that lets users donate to their favorite add-on developers. It also provides a forum for add-on developers to tell the world a little bit about themselves, why they write add-ons, and so on.

I think that this is a smart move on Mozilla’s part. Add-ons are a major factor in Firefox’s popularity, and it can do nothing but good things to give some support to the otherwise anonymous, unpaid folks who are making those add-ons.

Kalido Connect 2009 announced for October

Kalido has announced that its annual Kalido Connect conference will be held on October 6th this year. From what I can tell, the conference will be 100% online, which allows participates to attend without the cost of transportation, hotels, etc.

J.Ja

Disclosure of Justin’s industry affiliations: Justin James has a working arrangement with Microsoft to write an article for MSDN Magazine. He also has a contract with Spiceworks to write product buying guides.

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