DB2 Express-C 9.5 Released

A new version of DB2 Express-C was made available by IBM today. As you might already know DB2 Express-C is a free dataserver without limits on database size or number of users.

We got this news from Antonio Cangiano, a IBM Engineer that likes DB2 and Ruby on Rails. Seems like a nice guy! :P

You won’t find this new version on IBM DB2 Express-C Website, but you can download the Linux Version here and the Windows Version here.Mac version is still not available. This is probably the down side as many of us are waiting for IBM to ship a Express-C DB2 version for Macintosh. Hopefully next time?

I still didn’t tested the new DB2 but according to Antonio

Version 9.5 brings to the table a great deal of new enhancements and features. Among these there is also the reduced amount of memory requirements and the improved efficiency of operations on Linux. Oh and it will also make you rich and more beautiful. I mean, pureXML support has been greatly improved and it is a release that is sure to please many people on both Windows and Linux.

I know the t-shirt looks great. Hopefully Vítor will send me one! :P

IBM DB2 Student Ambassador

Andava a ver o blog o Celso Martinho com um artigo muito interessante sobre como fazer citações a partir de um blog para, por exemplo, usar num trabalho cientifico quando recebi um email que já esperava à algum tempo.

Foram anunciados os primeiros IBM DB2 Student Ambassadors Portugueses e, para minha felicidade, fui um dos escolhidos. Os outros dois representantes são o Hélder Pereira e o Simão Soares, sendo que a Universidade do Minho é a primeira a constituir um grupo deste tipo em Portugal.

Vai ser óptimo ter a oportunidade de trabalhar de perto com uma empresa como a IBM, especialmente quando os colegas que foram escolhidos são tão competentes. Novidades em breve.. :P

Para já, e para finalizar, a minha versão do que é um tesourinho deprimente.

DB2 Express C for Mac

I attended a conference by Vítor Rodrigues on DB2 pureXML approach on University of Minho last Wednesday. I was quite please to see that DB2 Express C was available for free and that, as far as I’m concerned, all features where available. You might not know this but most of my colleagues use Mac, so the main downfall for the presentation was the fact that no Mac version was available. Well, according to Antonio Cangiano that about to change. IBM is working on some beta version of DB2 for Mac, and it’s not just the client. It’s the whole thing. You can check for details here.

Another thing worthy of mention, the post Cangiano made about Haskell. It’s called Haskell Eye for the Ruby Guy and, in a certain way, represents that topic introduced here some days ago. Definitely worth the time you will spend reading it.

The ever growing software complexity requires the power of high level abstractions and the functional paradigm which helps us adopt a more declarative programming style where the side effects are marginalized.