Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge.
A war-weary US faces off with wary NATO allies in Chicago about money and support for Afghanistan after US combat troops withdraw in 2014. Don't expect any "Mission Accomplished" speeches.
Chen Guangcheng’s flight to New York Saturday marks a major step in difficult and delicate negotiations between Beijing and Washington. But it also spotlights the difficulty other activists face under a government regime and a system of local authority many view as repressive.
A study at the University of Michigan suggests not only that we are likely to tell the truth when we let our fingers do the talking, but that we're also more likely to give more detailed and precise answers to questions.
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Concerns about whether debt-laden Greece will be forced to pull out of the eurozone, and what that would mean for a weakened European economy is the first topic on Saturday&aposs agenda at the Group of Eight summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, a senior administration official said.
Kentucky Derby winner I&aposll Have Another won the 137th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, keeping its hopes for the coveted Triple Crown alive.
Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese activist who ignited a diplomatic frenzy when he escaped house arrest, flies to the U.S. to begin a new chapter in his life as a student.
Shadow ministers urge leader to put pressure on Cameron by promising EU membership poll if Labour win general election
Ed Miliband is being urged by a growing number of shadow cabinet members and senior allies to promise a dramatic in-out referendum on Britain's future membership of the European Union if Labour wins the next general election.
Several figures in the party are pushing the Labour leader to make the pledge well before the next European elections in 2014 to outmanoeuvre David Cameron, who is under heavy pressure to commit the Tory party to a national vote on the issue. The Observer has been told that, after discussions with shadow cabinet members, Miliband is leaving the door open to a referendum – although he is keen to stress that the short-term focus and discussion must be on how to end the current euro crisis.
Allies of the Labour leader say pressure on him to make what would be a historic, high-risk pledge will increase following the appointment of Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, as Labour's policy chief.
Cruddas, a long-time opponent of the euro but otherwise pro-EU, is strongly in favour of an in-out referendum as a means of ending divisive arguments on Europe once and for all. Before his appointment, Cruddas told the People's Pledge campaign for a referendum that the issue was one of "democracy", and said a referendum pledge should be made "immediately, or as quickly as we can". Cruddas is understood to think that such a move would help define Miliband's leadership as bold and distinct from the New Labour years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
A ComRes opinion poll for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror showed how Europe is emerging as an issue that could be pivotal at the next election. The poll showed that 26% of Tories now say they will consider voting for the anti-EU Ukip compared to 11% of Labour supporters and 14% of Liberal Democrats. It also showed the extent of anti-EU hostility Labour would need to overcome if a referendum were held now, with 46% of voters saying they would vote to leave the EU compared with 30% who would vote to stay in.
If Labour did commit to a referendum, the party leadership would campaign vigorously in favour of a vote to stay in – a stance that would be supported by most Labour members.
A referendum would, however, leave the Tories divided, with the party leadership certain to campaign for a vote to remain in the EU, while many MPs and grassroots Conservatives would want to leave. One shadow cabinet member said: "We should have the confidence to say we think we can win this and get on with it. There are issues of timing, about when we make the decision and when one would be held. But it certainly is no longer heresy to talk about it."
A spokesman for Miliband did not deny that the option was being considered, stressing merely that "our position is that we don't think this is what Europe needs at the moment".
Last week, in a sign that the Labour party is gradually preparing the ground for a referendum pledge, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there could be a case in future, for calling a national vote when the current euro crisis was over and the shape of the new Europe was known. This followed similar comments from former cabinet minister and European commissioner Lord Mandelson.
On Thursday Peter Hain, a former Europe minister who stepped down from the shadow cabinet last week but who remains loyal to Miliband, said on BBC1's Question Time that he believed the British people would deserve a say when the time was right. "I think the way things are going people in Britain probably want to make up their minds about whether to stay in Europe or not," he said. "I don't think we should be frightened about giving people a vote."
Sources said that Hain would never have spoken out on the EU issue had he felt such remarks would have been unhelpful to Miliband, or significantly out of kilter with the Labour leader's own views.
Miliband is said to be genuinely undecided and cautious – not least because of the possibility that the country could vote to leave the EU. He is also being advised by some that the move could be seen as crudely opportunistic at a time of crisis in the EU.
Others say that it could put off Liberal Democrats who might otherwise come over to Labour.
Labour enthusiasts for a referendum stress, however, that it would not in any way amount to a watering down of Labour's commitment to the EU. On the contrary, it would be an opportunity to argue the positive case for membership during a national campaign – one that would also help the party build alliances with pro-EU elements of the business community.
While a minority of Labour MPs might want to leave the EU, highlighting divisions within Labour, they say a referendum would cause far deeper splits in the Tory party.
The People's Pledge, which draws support from all political parties, has announced it will hold more local referendums in three Greater Manchester constituencies, Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove, asking people if they want a national vote.
The seats, one in Manchester and two in Stockport, are all represented by Liberal Democrat MPs: John Leech, Mark Hunter and Andrew Stunnell, respectively. This follows its local referendum in Thurrock last month where 89.9% of people who voted backed a referendum.
Ian McKenzie, director of the People's Pledge, said: "The people of Thurrock set the pace last month by voting in huge numbers for a referendum. Voters in Manchester Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove now have the chance to quicken that pace towards a national referendum for the rest of us."
These are the moments Chelsea will always cherish and never forget. They gave everything and finally, when it was all done, they had the European Cup in their possession and a night that will go straight in at number one in their list of great triumphs from the Roman Abramovich era.
It was a rare form of euphoria on a night when, just like Moscow four years ago, it came down to the gut-wrenching drama of a penalty shoot-out. At one stage Bayern Munich were leading 3-1 and the Chelsea players stood in line, heads bowed, fearing the worst. Juan Mata's effort had been saved by Manuel Neuer and at that point Roberto Di Matteo's players knew they were on the brink of walking past the European Cup and not being allowed to touch the silver.
What happened next was extraordinary and went against everything we know about the efficiency of Bundesliga clubs and penalties. Petr Cech started the turnaround by saving from Ivica Olic and with Bayern's next effort Bastian Schweinsteiger's shot came back off the post. David Luiz, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole had all beaten Neuer and suddenly, almost implausibly, it was left to Didier Drogba with probably the last kick of his last match for the club. What a parting gift the Ivorian may have left considering that it was also his 88th-minute goal that had dragged this final into extra time, just as Thomas Müller's goal looked like giving Bayern their fifth victory in this competition.
The trophy was being adorned with red and white ribbons by the time Drogba headed in the equaliser and when it was all over the Bayern players were on their knees. Arjen Robben could barely be lifted from the turf and Schweinsteiger's personal grief had started even before Drogba began the long walk from the centre circle to the penalty area. High in the stands Abramovich could be seen doing that little uncoordinated hop and skip, reminding us that for all the money in the world here is no possible value that can be put on this kind of occasion. Chelsea's owner held Di Matteo in an emotional clinch that makes you wonder how he could possibly now move on the Italian this summer.
This may not be the most exhilarating Chelsea team but nobody can dispute their resolve because those final dramatic moments told only part of the story on a night when Cech also saved Robben's penalty in the first period of extra time. Chelsea's goalkeeper seemed to fill the entire goal at times and probably had legitimate claims to be recognised as the most heroic figure. There were, however, plenty of contenders.
What should not be overlooked is that Bayern are formidable opponents on this ground, with only two home defeats here in the Bundesliga, 49 goals scored and six conceded. They played with great adventure, attacking from the flanks. On one side, Robben was an indefatigable opponent, picking up the ball from deep positions and driving forward. On the other, Franck Ribéry was a constant menace until he was injured in the foul by Drogba that gave Robben the chance to win the game against his former club. It was a silly trip from Drogba and Robben struck his penalty cleanly enough, low to Cech's left. Cech smothered the shot and was first to the loose ball and for the first time you could detect the nerves from the end where Bayern's most beery, boisterous fans had produced a banner before kick-off describing the cup as unser pokal – our trophy.
Chelsea had to endure some intense pressure. Not quite as relentless as the two legs of their semi-final against Barcelona but fairly unremitting all the same. Once again, they had to defend with great togetherness and commitment and their opponents were left to wonder how on earth they had not turned their superiority into goals. With some better finishing, the game would never have reached extra time. Even then, Olic will wonder how he missed the chance that fell to him, unchallenged, after 108 minutes of mostly one-sided action.
Chelsea, in stark contrast, rarely threatened the opposition's goal but it was probably inevitable when two-thirds of the stadium was bedecked in red and their opponents had so many accomplished players. This was a patched-up side in many ways, with John Terry watching from the stands, another three players suspended and two centre-backs coming back from month-long layoffs. David Luiz and Gary Cahill were outstanding. Ashley Cole showed, once again, that he is one of the great big-game footballers and behind them they had a goalkeeper delivering a giant performance. Chelsea may not have offered a great deal going forward but they played as though affronted by the suggestion that Terry's absence would play a critical part.
Their tactics were epitomised by Ryan Bertrand's involvement on the left of midfield, often doubling up with Cole so that Chelsea effectively had two full-backs in close proximity to Robben. In midfield, Lampard curbed his natural attacking instincts to play a more conservative role alongside John Obi Mikel. Di Matteo had set Chelsea up to play very much as the 'away' team, meaning Drogba was often isolated in attack. In the end, you would have to say the manager got it spot on.
Their resistance broke only once, on 83 minutes, when Müller stole in behind Cole to score with a stooping header. A lesser side would have hoisted the white flag but what has become very apparent since Di Matteo took over from André Villas-Boas is that is not the way of this Chelsea team. Mata's corner was whipped across the penalty area and Drogba was fast and decisive, flashing his header into the top corner.
Then the penalties arrived and with their first three attempts, Philipp Lahm, Mario Gómez and, remarkably, Neuer, all scored. At that stage who could have imagined Terry would be walking up the steps to help Lampard lift the trophy?
US and France succeed in putting promotion of growth at top of communique despite Germany's resistance to stimulus package
Barack Obama and the other G8 leaders wrapped up their negotiations on the European crisis at Camp David on Saturday with a pledge to keep Greece in the eurozone and to promote growth.
The communique, which had the growth promise at the top, represents a victory for Obama and the new French president, François Hollande, over German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has resisted calls for a stimulus package.
But it may be shortlived. The communique was short in detail and Merkel could re-establish her dominance next week at an informal European meeting.
The eight leaders meeting at the US presidential retreat in Maryland issued a communique declaring in its opening paragraph: "Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs."
It added: "The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist. Against this background, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognising that the right measures are not the same for each of us."
The communique was issued after almost four hours devoted to the eurozone crisis, which could have a negative impact on the US economy and Obama's re-election chances in November.
Obama favours Europeans adopting a stimulus package similar to the one he instigated in the US in 2009, as does Hollande. They both also favour keeping the eurozone intact, including Greece, though this may in the end prove difficult.
The communique said: "We welcome the ongoing discussion in Europe on how to generate growth, while maintaining a firm commitment to implement fiscal consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis. We agree on the importance of a strong and cohesive eurozone for global stability and recovery, and we affirm our interest in Greece remaining in the eurozone while respecting its commitments."
After three years of facing European leaders committed to deficit reduction, Obama has a new ally in Hollande. Speaking at Camp David, Hollande said European leaders were trying to balance the competing aims of reining in their budgets while stimulating their economies: "As President Obama noted, we need to pursue these two goals simultaneously: budgetary solvency and maximum growth."
Obama and David Cameron clashed with Merkel on Saturday, demanding she drop her G8 resistance to setting out a clear path for Europe out of its crisis. Measures resisted by the Germans included a looser monetary policy for the European Central Bank that would enable quantitative easing similar to that deployed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
At least one girl is killed and another six students are injured, two of them seriously, following a bomb blast outside a school in the southern Italian city of Brindisi.
On the heels of an appeals court win that suggested that Samsung should have been barred from selling its copycat Galaxy 10.1 from the get-go, Apple has now filed a motion for a new injunction against the tablet asking it to be pulled from US shelves. The two companies are scheduled to begin high-level settlement talks on Monday, but should they fail the new injunction request could be ruled on as early as June 7....
The NAACP’s board of directors voted Saturday to endorse same-sex marriage rights – adding the influential voice of the country’s leading black civil rights organization to a debate that has divided the African-American community.
Author of The God Delusion says providing free Bibles to state schools is justified by its impact on the English language
It sounds like one of the most unlikely alliances of recent years. Richard Dawkins, arch-atheist and scourge of the praying classes, has announced support for education secretary Michael Gove's plan to send free King James Bibles to every state school.
The proposal aims to help pupils learn about the Bible's impact "on our history, language, literature and democracy" and will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the authorised version's publication, Gove said earlier this year. Church leaders have approved, but the plan has fallen foul of most non-believers. An online Guardian poll showed an 82% opposition, while the National Secular Society said the £375,000 proposal wasted money and favoured Christianity in multi-faith state schools. Nevertheless, several rich Tory party donors agreed to back the plan and the first Bibles were sent out last week, to the derision of secularists – with the exception of their most prominent and pugnacious recruit: Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and critic of all things clerical.
As Dawkins reveals in today's Observer, support for the Bible plan is justified on the grounds of literary merit and he lists a range of biblical phrases which any cultivated English speaker will instantly recognise. These include "salt of the Earth", "through a glass darkly", and "no peace for the wicked". Dawkins states: "A native speaker of English who has not read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."
Rapprochement would seem to be in the air – until Dawkins's thesis is studied more closely. While Gove believes the Bible is a guide to morality, Dawkins is sure it is not. "I have heard the cynically misanthropic opinion that without the Bible as a moral compass people would show no restraint against murder, theft and mayhem. The surest way to disabuse yourself of this pernicious falsehood is to read the Bible itself," he says.
In fact, its pages are riddled with the advocacy of murder, slavery and theft. Hence his support for Gove's plan: opening the Bible is the surest way to put young minds off its contents. From this perspective, the Dawkins-Gove alliance looks dead before it started.
World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic cruised past Roger Federer in straight sets 6-2 7-6 to reach the final of the Masters 1000 event in Rome Saturday.
Authorities in China have approved Google Inc.'s bid to buy phone maker Motorola Mobility, clearing the way for the $12.5 billion deal to close early next week.
Republicans hope campaign will woo fastest-growing demographic in the US away from Barack Obama
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney has launched an aggressive campaign to woo Hispanic voters away from Barack Obama.
A Spanish-language version of a campaign ad will air this week in key states – the first political ad produced by the Romney campaign since his last Republican rival dropped out of the race.
The ad is called Día Uno, which means day one in English, and features Romney speaking a Spanish-language version of the "I approve this message" tagline that all American presidential candidate put on official TV ads. "Soy Mitt Romney y apruebo este mensaje," the former governor of Massachusetts says stiffly.
The move comes only days after the latest figures released by the US Census showed that for the first time there are more Hispanic and black and other minority babies being born in America than white ones.
Among US minority groups Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing, now making up more than 50 million people, which is one in six Americans. Romney's campaign is keen to make inroads into the demographic group, often stressing socially conservative issues such as opposition to abortion and gay marriage that chime with the Republicans' traditional white base as well as often devoutly Roman Catholic Hispanics.
There are also some senior Hispanic figures in the party. Marco Rubio is a junior senator in Florida of Cuban background. He is popular with the Tea Party base and often cited as an example that the Republican's conservative message can resonate with Hispanic groups.
In lists of Romney's possible vice-presidential picks, Rubio is frequently mentioned and seen as a way of attracting Hispanic voters. Another possible running mate would be Susana Martinez, the Republican governor of New Mexico. The party has also appointed Hispanic outreach directors in six battleground states. Romney himself even has personal links to Mexico as his father, George Romney, was born there.
But the task facing Romney is not going to be easy. In 2008 Obama won 67% of the Hispanic vote compared with Republican John McCain's 31%. A Pew Research poll found that Romney's position had weakened, with his support at 27% while Obama's remained steady at 67%. A Quinnipiac University poll found Romney's support even lower at 24%.
Those figures show that a socially conservative message, based on faith and traditional families, is not quite enough for Republicans to do well in Spanish-speaking America. "There is a faith-based small "c" conservatism that could make Hispanics into natural Republicans. But the problem for Republicans is that Hispanics are also liberal on issues such as social welfare and the role of government," said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside.
But an even bigger issue for the Romney campaign when it comes to wooing Hispanic supporters is immigration. During the nomination race Republican leaders jockeyed with each other to come up with the strictest plans for a border fence until Herman Cain even suggested building an electrified fence.
"There was some crazy stuff coming out," said Bowler. In eventually winning the contest, Romney tacked far to the right, opposing a law that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to go to college, praising a controversial Arizona law that many critics have said is racist, and urging illegal immigrants to "self-deport" from America before a planned crackdown on benefits they can claim.
None of those sentiments will have endeared him to Hispanic voters. Indeed they even infuriated Martinez, who criticised Romney in an interview with Newsweek. "Self-deport? What the heck does that mean?" she told the magazine. She went on to say Republicans needed to change their language and adopt more nuanced policies on the issue. "I have no doubt Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign. But now there's an opportunity for Governor Romney to have a sincere conversation about what we can do and why," she said.
It will not be easy. Any softening of Romney's hard line on immigration will see him anger his Tea Party base. However, many experts believe the long-term demographic trends of America mean the Republicans will have to work out a way of appealing to Hispanic voters eventually or potentially face a permanent exile from the White House.
"The Republican party is becoming older, whiter and more Protestant at a time when America is becoming younger, browner and less Protestant," said Bowler.
(Reuters) - Google said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the last regulatory hurdle to a deal that would allow the world's No. 1 Internet search engine to develop its own line of smart phones. Google, which will be the newest entrant to the handset market, announced plans for the acquisition last year in a bid to secure Motorola's valuable patents and pave the way for a pairing of Google's Android mobile software and Motorola's handset business. U.S. ...
Arizona — where a top election official has said President Obama might not make the ballot because of questions about his birth certificate — is one place where it is enjoying a resurgence.
CAMP DAVID, Md. — President Obama on Saturday declared Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions a “grave concern” for world leaders, as the United States and its allies signaled they were prepared to follow through with tough new economic sanctions next month.
Following China's approval of the deal, Google is set to acquire smartphone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion as soon as this coming week.
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An Indian woman wonders how she can possibly trust her husband. After all, two months into their marriage, he still hasn't changed his Facebook status.
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Big issues are on the table as President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney begin the general election campaign: jobs and the economy, the future of health care, taxes, spending, the size and scope of government. What is missing is any serious discussion of the one question that overrides all others: Can Washington govern?
Three men accused of making Molotov cocktails had been planning to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home, and other targets during this weekend's NATO summit, prosecutors said Saturday.
Geraldo Rivera insisted again Friday that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie represented a kind of ‘thug wear’ that could have alarmed George Zimmerman, who shot Martin to death. The hoodie debate is not over.
A rare annular eclipse, where a ‘ring of fire’ outlines the moon as it crosses the sun, will greet US viewers Sunday evening. Residents of the US West will have a good shot at seeing the full fire ring.
An expected 'pop' in share prices never came as Facebook went public this week. But Facebook's IPO was a measured affair, lacking in irrational exuberance, and laying the groundwork for the network's main challenge: Turning 'friends' into consumers.
These delightful boxing felines were equipped with miniature boxing gloves and set to brawling by none other than legendary douchebag Thomas Edison, as a means of promoting his newfangled moving picture device in 1894.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is looking like a very unlikely vice-presidential pick for Mitt Romney.
Martinez, who has already said she wouldn’t leave the state because of a developmentally disabled sister, has now also come out against Romney’s illegal immigration policy, saying: “Self-deportation? What the heck does that mean?”
Last night, I hosted “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The full show is here. But I’m particularly proud of this segment looking at how Facebook’s IPO and U2’s Bono explain the shocking rise in income inequality:
Friday marked the much-anticipated Facebook IPO, and boy, do we have have a lot of resources for that topic. Whether you have no idea what an IPO is or you want to know how it might affect you, use our weekly features roundup to catch up.
A Pixar animator opened a small access door in his office, got on his hands and knees and crawled through the opening, and discovered a "secret" room. The rest, as they say, is history.
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With The Story of Send, Google follows a single email as it travels through wires, under streets, through an ISP’s high-rise, in and out of Google’s various gear, including one of its vast data centers, and finally up a tower and out via a telco’s data system into a smartphone. What happens in the data center is explained in a video that lasts more than seven minutes, with a sped-up voice-over like you hear in disclaimers at the ends of ads for car dealers and pharmaceuticals. There are lots of other promotional side-trips like that one, along the way.
What it doesn’t tell is the real story of email as we use it today. That story starts with RFC 821, by Jon Postel, posted in August 1982. It begins,
The objective of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is to transfer mail reliably and efficiently.
SMTP is independent of the particular transmission subsystem and requires only a reliable ordered data stream channel.
What makes SMTP so useful and universal today is that it intentionally transcends any intermediator’s silo or walled garden. It simply assumes a connection. So do the POP (RFC918 and IMAP (RFC1064) protocols (used at the receiving end), for which the relevant RFCs were issued in 1984 and 1988.
Those protocols ended up winning — for all of us — after it became clear that their simplicity, and their oblivity to the parochial interests of network owners and operators, were what we really needed. That was in 1995. In the meantime, a pile of proprietary and corporate email systems competed in a losing battle with each other. Compuserve, Prodigy, MCI Mail, AppleLink, and a host of others were all obsoleted by the obvious advantage of having nobody own the means by which we simply send electronic mail to each other.
The main intended message of The Story of Send is a green one: Google saves energy. A secondary message is that Google is a big nice company that treats your mail well and has good security practices. But the main unintended message — or at least the one that comes across — is that email is a big complicated business, and you need big complicated companies to do it right. It also ignores the real story, which is about a handful of simple protocol.
Two voices in the wilderness of corporate rah-rah that ought to be heard on this are Phil Windley and Bob Frankston.
Phil has a terrific blog post called Ways, not Places, in which he makes a good straightforward case for understanding the Internet in term of ways (protocols) rather than places (e.g. domains, with locations, addresses, and the rest). Because it’s the ways that make everything else possible.
In his essay on Ambient Connectivity, Bob says, “The nuanced definition of Ambient Connectivity is that we can view connectivity as infrastructure but we need to take responsibility if we find ourselves disconnected. This is in contrast with today’s telecom industry in which we’ve shifted responsibility to providers and can only assume connectivity where a third party has subscribed to a service and there is an unbroken chain of providers all the way to your destination.” The latter is the case that Google makes. Its also the case argued by every bill we get from our phone and cable companies.
But we need to keep hearing the all-but-silent argument for the Net and its protocols. Because without those we wouldn’t have the rest.
In the latest move in a complex series of patent-related cases, Apple filed a motion in a U.S. district court late Friday to ban Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.
Top 10 Tech is presented by Chivas. Access a world of exclusive insider benefits – private tastings, special events and the chance to win a trip for you and three friends to the Cannes Film Festival. Join the Brotherhood.
Congress is currently weighing a law that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia. Willie Parker, a Washington-based obstetrician, is one doctor who has performed late-term abortions here and stands to be directly affected, should that law pass. An obstetrician for two decades, he only began performing abortions eight years ago, largely out of what he says was concern for women’s needs going unmet. Parker is primarily based in Washington and Philadelphia, but also travels monthly to see patients in Alabama.
I'm here at Maker Faire in San Mateo. If you aren't one of the 100,000 people here to celebrate The Greatest Show (and tell) on Earth, you can still experience it through our Maker Faire Live site, with five different video feeds. Gareth Branwyn and I will be interviewing makers on the Fishbowl Camera feed. Join in on the fun by tweeting with the #makerfaire hash tag.
First lady Michelle Obama hosted the significant others of foreign leaders who are visiting the United States for the Group of Eight summit for a tour and lunch Saturday at the White House while the leaders of the world’s biggest economies talked business elsewhere.
As the social network floated on the stock market, its employees marked the occasion with discretion … and onion rings
The guests wore jeans and T-shirts. The venue was a sports bar. The menu was buffalo wings, mini-burgers, pizza and beer. The entertainment was a mechanical bull, which bucked in a corner, and screens showing basketball and football. Welcome to a hundred-billion dollar party, Facebook-style.
It looked like college kids out for a typical Friday night, but the scene in the Old Pro, an unremarkable bar tucked off a sidestreet in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, was the celebration of a cultural and financial milestone which mesmerised the world.
"Yeah, it's been a big day," grinned a lanky software engineer. "So we're here chugging a few." He checked his watch. "Still happy hour."
He and his colleagues clinked beers, manifestly happy. Facebook had just completed its first day as a public company after one of history's most frenzied share sales valued it at $104bn. The trading took place in New York but the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, stayed with 2,000 employees at their colony in Palo Alto, the capital of social media.
As the largest shareholder Zuckerberg, 28, ratcheted up a paper fortune of $20.4bn. An estimated 88 employees saw the value of their individual holdings exceed $30m. The extraordinary sums, the website's mercurial rise and its role in connecting more than 900 million people made the initial public offering (IPO) an event watched far beyond Wall Street.
Had they received this windfall, Russian oligarchs might have celebrated by buying Manchester United. Investment bankers might have bought bigger yachts and jets. The lords of tech munched onion rings. "The taste that can't be beat," according to the bar's website.
"This town, it's a very unusual place," said David Batista, manager of the Palo Alto Creamery, a cafe where Zuckerberg used to map strategy over milkshakes. "You could be sitting beside a billionaire and not know it. A day like today and where do they go? A sports bar. It's all very low key."
Internet revolution, Hollywood movie, global impact on human interaction, byword for self-promotion – few outsiders consider Facebook to be discreet. But employees are exactly that.
"You might think as soon as they make a million they buy a house in Palo Alto, but a lot of these guys live in apartments, don't have girlfriends and bicycle to work. And they work all the time," said Alan Dunckel, an estate agent. Those who did buy houses – $1,000 per square foot – did not flaunt wealth, he said. "They wear T-shirts and hoodies." Many sellers, said Dunckel, had withheld properties in hopes of a boom. "Expectations are huge." Facebook has promised $1.1m to Menlo Park's cash-starved authorities to fund capital projects, prompting hopes more will follow.
The employees' celebration at the Old Pro, however, was muted. Whereas non-Facebook groups booked tables with their names on them, Zuckerberg's troops clustered in anonymous little knots. They had been drilled by headquarters not to speak to the media. Ostensibly it was to avoid spooking the markets at a delicate time but it followed a company tradition of reticence – opacity, critics say – ironic given concern over Facebook users' privacy guarantees.
"Sorry, buddy. Normally I'm really interesting to talk to but I just can't right now," one employee, drinking an ale, smiled sheepishly. Others recoiled as if questions were radioactive. One confirmed a rumour that Zuckerberg was hosting a party for some staff that night at his home – a relatively modest $7m house – several blocks away.
Blink on the highway and you could miss the company's Menlo Park headquarters, a nondescript complex of two and three-storey buildings which employees of the previous occupier, Sun Microsystems, nicknamed San Quentin, after the jail. An entrance billboard with the familiar thumbs-up icon is Facebook's only concession to marketing.
Instead of trumpeting its historic day the company rebuffed interview requests and corralled television crews in a car park across the street. While the Observer interviewed an employee's mother inside the grounds – "a historic day for the way the world is going", she was saying, beaming – security guards swooped, complaining about trespass, and threatened to summon police.
Friday's bounty was preceded by austerity. On Thursday night employees made a round-the-clock "hackathon" of writing code. They wore newly printed T-shirts which said: "Stay focused & keep hacking."
Some emerged early Friday for a ceremony at the centre of the complex known as Hack Square, where Zuckerberg rang the opening bell to start the Nasdaq stock market's trading. Then they returned to their computers.
Canteens with free gourmet food and outstanding coffee keep staff inside the complex, disappointing nearby restaurants and cafes. Hairdressers like Nina Phana, however, who runs a salon two blocks down, say the techies emerge for the occasional trim and blowdry. "They tip good."
A hundred billion dollars is a gargantuan sum for a company started eight years ago in a college dorm, and the fact that Friday's frenzied trading ended with shares at $38.23, just a fraction over the opening price, stoked claims the company was overvalued.
Ali Ghotbi, an executive at Box, a cloud computing developer, shrugged off concerns of another dotcom bubble. "Back in the 90s it was, oh, you have a website, here's a million dollars. Now it's more controlled, more selective."
A colleague, Tom Cochran, predicted Box would be Silicon Valley's next big thing. "Our chief executive, Aaron Levie, is a genius like Mark Zuckerberg. But with charisma."
The rate of startups in this corner of San Francisco bay – renovated premises filled with newly arrived geeks with Harvard and MIT baseball caps – suggests widespread confidence. Or hubris.
A Tyrannosaur fossil suspected to have been smuggled from Mongolia is set to be auctioned May 20. Scientists want the fossil to be donated to science and say the sale would further fuel illegal looting of fossils.
Crowd-funding service Kickstarter has gained a lot of attention of late because of some massive success stories in the world of gaming, but small developers have been using the fundraising site to gather money for ambitious mobile titles almost since Kickstarter was created.
Call it diversity or fragmentation, there’s no getting around the fact the mobile scene’s become riddled with Android-powered handsets. Nearly 4,000 in fact. A recent report from OpenSignalMaps has tracked some 3,997 unique phones, tablets and other connected devices powered by Google’s mobile OS. And while this wide range of gadgets has helped Android become a frontrunner in the mobile race, it’s also caused a staggered ecosystem to maintain. ...
On Sunday, May 20, a spectacular astronomical phenomenon will occur when our moon passes between the Earth and the sun. The result for the luckiest of viewers will be an annular (or ring-shaped) solar eclipse. Many others will gladly "settle" for the similarly beautiful partial eclipse.
WFNX is D-E-D, dead. The last remaining Boston indie major market radio station, WFNX, has been sold to Clear Channel Communications. 17 full- and part-time staffers, including almost all the current radio personalities, have been laid off. The station will continue to operate for a few months with a skeleton crew until the FCC approval and changeover.
Stephen Mindich, the station's owner, sent a memo announcing the sale and blaming the extended recession as the culprit. The intellectual property of the station is retained (the name, music library, etc.), with only the frequency, 101.7, being sold. In an interview with WBUR, Mindich leaves the door open for a potential Internet radio future for WFNX. WBCN has followed a similar path. Former long-time staffer Sharon Brody comments.
Clear Channel released a statement including "This was a great opportunity to expand our footprint and our listenership in Boston" — Clear Channel already owns four major market stations in the Boston area.
Once a week, we catch you up on Macworld's biggest stories from the past week, in case you missed them. This week, we ruminated on the futures of iOS and OS X, covered Hotkeysgate, and offered a slew of reviews.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has been the target of public wrath after announcing he would be renouncing his U.S. citizenship and moving to Singapore, a haven where capital gains aren't taxed one bit. Will Facebook follow in his footsteps by funneling money through international subsidiaries to maneuver around the American tax code?
Dr Robert Spitzer apologises for 'fatally flawed' study, published in 2001, which claimed gay people could be 'cured' if properly motivated
One of the most influential figures in modern psychiatry has apologised to America's gays for a scientific study which supported attempts to "cure" people of their homosexuality.
The survey, published in 2001, looked at "reparative therapy" and was hailed by religious and social conservatives in America as proof that gay people could successfully become straight if they were motivated to do so.
But Dr Robert Spitzer has now apologised in the same academic journal that published his original study, calling it "fatally flawed". "I believe I owe the gay community an apology," his letter said. "I also apologise to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works."
Spitzer's letter, which was leaked online before its publication in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, is sure to cause delight among gay civil rights groups and stir up anger among social conservatives, who have used the study to combat the acceptance of homosexuality as a normal part of human society.
Reparative therapy is popular among Christian conservative groups, which run clinics and therapy sessions at which people try to become heterosexual through counselling. Gay rights activists condemn such practices as motivated by religious faith, not science, and call them "pray away the gay" groups.
Spitzer's study looked at the experiences of 200 people undertaking the therapy, including subjects that had been provided by religious groups. He then asked each person the same set of questions, analysing their responses to the therapy and their feelings and sexual urges afterwards. He concluded that many of them reported feelings of changes in their sexual desires from homosexual to heterosexual.
Spitzer's stance was notorious, because in 1973 he had been instrumental in getting the American Psychiatric Association to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in its diagnostic manual: a move seen at the time as a major victory for gay rights.
His 2001 study caused a huge stir because many people felt that it was not rigorous enough for publication. The central criticism was that Spitzer had not paid enough attention to the fact that subjects might lie about their feelings or be engaged in self-deception.
For more than a decade Spitzer shrugged off the attacks and stood by his work, but he has now admitted that his critics were right. "I offered several (unconvincing) reasons why it was reasonable to assume that the subject's reports of change were credible and not self-deception or outright lying. But the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject's accounts of change were valid," Spitzer wrote.
In an interview with the New York Times last week, Spitzer, who is 79 and suffers from Parkinson's disease, described how he had written his letter of recantation in the middle of the night after agonising over the study's impact.
He had also recently been visited by a gay magazine journalist, Gabriel Arana, who had described to him his own experience going through reparation therapy and how damaging it had been and how it had led to thoughts of suicide. "It's the only regret I have; the only professional one," Spitzer told the New York Times, which described him as being almost in tears as he talked about his decision to admit he was wrong.
"In the history of psychiatry I don't know that I've ever seen a scientist write a letter saying that the data were all there but were totally misinterpreted. Who admitted that and who apologised to his readers. That's something, don't you think?" Spitzer told the newspaper.
Gay rights group Truth Wins Out published the full text of the letter on its website and hailed the moment as a major step forward. "Spitzer's apology to the victims of 'pray away the gay' therapy … marks a watershed moment in the fight against the 'ex-gay' myth," the group said.
Political tensions have escalated again between the UK and Spain over a territory eager to prove once more that it is 'more British than the British'
In Gibraltar, said chief minister Fabian Picardo, children learn history fast. "They can say 'the treaty of Utrecht' when they are around a year old," laughed Picardo, an Oxford-educated socialist with a picture of the Queen in his office. "We start them young."
It was that agreement, signed in 1713, that granted the 426m-high rock jutting out where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic to the British "in perpetuity". And as Gibraltar swathes itself in red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's jubilee, it is revelling in its reputation for being "more British than the British".
"It's about the symbolism, really," said taxi driver Eddie Castle. "We do like to irritate the Spanish when we can. But they get their own back: whenever there is a row, they get their own back by making things very difficult for people at the border."
The queues of cars waiting to cross from the tiny 2.6 sq mile territory into Spain have lengthened dramatically in the last week, as Spanish border patrols have been ordered to make things more difficult for motorists and workers, increasing security checks in a move condemned by Picardo as "childish".
The latest row in the centuries-old fractious relationship between Gibraltar, London and Madrid is, as many have been over the years, about royalty.
On Friday, the Queen held a jubilee lunch for the world's monarchs at Windsor Castle – the largest gathering of crowned heads in over 50 years, with 24 kings and queens in attendance. The one notable absentee was Queen Sofía of Spain, distantly related to both the Queen and Prince Philip, who pulled out after her government said her attendance would be "inappropriate" in view of a forthcoming trip to Gibraltar by Prince Edward and his wife.
The British ambassador was called into Spain's foreign ministry to hear of the ruling party's "disgust and upset" at the Count and Countess of Wessex's visit. So it must have been with a certain mischief that Picardo told the Observer it was a "great pity" that the Queen herself was not also coming to the island.
"She would be very welcome here. I like to think she has not come because she has been so busy. In Gibraltar, people will celebrate the jubilee whether they are from republican families or monarchist families. It's not really about that here. The royal family transcends those arguments – the Queen is a figurehead of Britishness, an important symbol for us, and I say that as the grandson of a republican."
It was the Queen's visit in 1954 that triggered General Franco's anger at the British retention of a symbol of Spanish nationalism. He called it a "dagger in the spine of Spain" and in 1969 launched the blockade of the Rock that lasted until 1985. The intention of Charles and Diana to begin their honeymoon there in 1981 resulted in the King of Spain boycotting their wedding.
"We are not an island, but we consider ourselves one," said Picardo, who believes many of the rows have been diversionary tactics. "There are tensions: generally they arise when the Madrid government has trouble and strife it doesn't want people to concentrate on. I have great sympathy for them at the moment with the financial crisis.
"When we say here 'the Spanish' in a derogatory fashion, we tend to mean your chap in Madrid, the institutions; we have no problems between ordinary people, at the human and personal level."
But there is a problem at sea: a row over Spanish fishing boats in effect breaking Gibraltar's "no net" marine protection laws while fishing in waters that Spain claims for its own. The row has had politicians scurrying back through old treaties and legal entitlements and citing everything from Napoleonic "cannon shot" rules to UN conventions, but Picardo says he is now a "hair's breadth" from creating a mechanism to try to resolve the dispute with a cross-border working party.
"We don't believe that we should just turn a blind eye to that. If we accommodate these fishermen, then we would have to change our law. Spain has 8,000km of coastline, we have three," he said.
In the Gibraltar Bookshop – its windows a tribute to the Queen's 60-year reign and displaying a poster declaring "Keep Calm and Rule Britannia" – owner Jackie Scriven is looking forward to the jubilee street party and other celebrations planned. "We have to have the Spanish respect us, from our territorial waters to our Queen," she said. "When we remember what the Spanish did to us during the blockade, it was horrendous. They didn't let us have water, blood supplies, even the sacramental wine for the churches. We had to watch the ships sailing past us with food for Morocco, we couldn't get in or out except by boat.
"We've been British for 300 years and we are really loyal subjects. Even the younger generation are enthralled: more and more they are speaking English on the streets."
The economics of Gibraltar have little to do with patriotism. Its tax status means the island has more registered companies than inhabitants. Marriages can be arranged quickly for non-residents – John Lennon married Yoko Ono here and Sean Connery married here twice – and it is a hub of offshore banking and online gambling, but Gibraltar has the air less of a European Las Vegas and more of a Torquay-by-Andalucía. Its efforts to establish itself as a telecommunications base have been hampered by Spain's refusal to recognise its dialling code.
Tentative efforts by British leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to broker a joint sovereignty deal have been foiled by two no votes in referendums, in 1967 and in 2002. It remains UK policy that Gibraltar's status will not change without its people's consent.
Meanwhile the cold war with the mainland goes on. Ships that have visited Gibraltar are not allowed to go into Spanish ports. Spain does not recognise the Gibraltar government and refers to Gibraltarians as "transients", on the grounds that the legitimate population was expelled in the 18th century.
Out on a main street bristling with bunting – where pubs sell British grub and M&S advertises "UK prices" next to little shops selling T-shirts saying "Proud to be British" – political views are generally relaxed. Schoolgirls in white and burgundy uniforms crowd into Top Shop chattering in a mix of Spanish and English. "I'm Gibraltarian, or maybe English, both," said Catherine, 14. "My dad would kill me if I didn't say British but I think, for me, Gibraltarian," said Rose, 14.
"Are you kidding me?" said a 15-year-old boy in designer sunglasses with a Spanish surname, when asked if he feels linked to Spain. "Nobody hates them or anything, but it's a different world in Gib." And as far as the majority of the inhabitants are concerned, it's a case of bring on the jubilee.
The world kept moving ahead of Friday's Facebook stock debut, which, it turned out, wasn't all that spectacular. Did you manage to tear yourself away from the IPO coverage?
[Read more]
Aaron Shapiro is CEO of Huge, a global digital agency based in Brooklyn, and author of Users Not Customers. He has spent more than a decade as a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and management consultant.
Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng was hurriedly taken from a hospital and put on a plane for the United States on Saturday, closing a nearly month-long diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.
Facebook IPO generated no big stock gains on its first day of trading. But Facebook has many of the traits that made Apple, Microsoft, and Google great in the long run.
SpaceX's first attempt to send its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station ended abruptly Saturday morning when computers aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut off the craft's engines just after ignition.
Wreckage discovery dashes hopes that Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22, were able to board liferaft before vessel sank
Coastguards have stopped searching for two missing fisherman after their vessel and liferaft were discovered on the seabed.
A survey ship, Odyssey Explorer, discovered the wreck of the Purbeck Isle lying 10 miles off Portland, in Dorset, at a depth of 50 metres. It was reported missing at 5.30pm on Thursday.
The body of skipper David McFarlane, 35, was found on Friday but there has been sign of two more crewman – named locally as Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22.
Desperate efforts to find his two companions continued amid hopes that Prowse and Craig could have taken to the liferaft of the 36ft "potter" boat when they ran into difficulty. But the raft was discovered onboard the wreck at 11am on Saturday.
Portland coastguard's rescue co-ordination centre manager, Mark Rodaway said: "After a prolonged and extensive three-day search, sadly, the time has now passed when we could have hoped that the two remaining crew members from the Purbeck Isle would be found alive.
"Our final area of investigation was to search for the missing liferaft in the hope that they had been able to board it before the vessel sank, but sadly this new information means that this search will now be terminated," he said.
This is the mysql man page, I'll put other information on here some other time.
mysql is a simple SQL shell (with GNU readline
capabilities). It supports interactive and non-interactive
use. When used interactively, query results are presented
in an ASCII-table format. When used non-interactively (for
example, as a filter), the result is presented in
tab-separated format. The output format can be changed
using command-line options.
If you have problems due to insufficient memory for large
result sets, use the --quick option. This forces mysql to
retrieve results from the server a row at a time rather
than retrieving the entire result set and buffering it in
memory before displaying it. This is done by using
mysql_use_result() rather than mysql_store_result() to
retrieve the result set.
Using mysql is very easy. Invoke it from the prompt of
your command interpreter as follows:
shell> mysql db_name
Or:
shell> mysql --user=user_name --password=your_password db_name
Then type an SQL statement, end it with `;, g, or G and
press Enter.
You can run a script simply like this:
shell> mysql db_name < script.sql > output.tab
OPTIONS
mysql supports the following options:
o --help, -?
Display a help message and exit.
o --batch, -B
Print results using tab as the column separator, with
each row on a new line. With this option, mysql does
not use the history file.
o --character-sets-dir=path
The directory where character sets are installed. See
Section 7.1, "The Character Set Used for Data and
Sorting".
o --compress, -C
Compress all information sent between the client and
the server if both support compression.
o --database=db_name, -D db_name
The database to use. This is useful mainly in an option
file.
o --debug[=debug_options], -# [debug_options]
Write a debugging log. The debug_options string often
is 'd:t:o,file_name'. The default is
'd:t:o,/tmp/mysql.trace'.
o --debug-info, -T
Print some debugging information when the program
exits.
o --default-character-set=charset
Use charset as the default character set. See
Section 7.1, "The Character Set Used for Data and
Sorting".
o --execute=statement, -e statement
Execute the statement and quit. The default output
format is like that produced with --batch. See
Section 3.1, "Using Options on the Command Line" for
some examples.
o --force, -f
Continue even if an SQL error occurs.
o --host=host_name, -h host_name
Connect to the MySQL server on the given host.
o --html, -H
Produce HTML output.
o --ignore-space, -i
Ignore spaces after function names. The effect of this
is described in the discussion for IGNORE_SPACE in the
section called "THE SERVER SQL MODE".
o --local-infile[={0|1}]
Enable or disable LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA
INFILE. With no value, the option enables LOCAL. It may
be given as --local-infile=0 or --local-infile=1 to
explicitly disable or enable LOCAL. Enabling LOCAL has
no effect if the server does not also support it.
o --named-commands, -G
Named commands are enabled. Long format commands are
allowed as well as shortened * commands. For example,
quit and q both are recognized.
o --no-auto-rehash, -A
No automatic rehashing. This option causes mysql to
start faster, but you must issue the rehash command if
you want to use table and column name completion.
o --no-beep, -b
Do not beep when errors occur.
o --no-named-commands, -g
Named commands are disabled. Use the * form only, or
use named commands only at the beginning of a line
ending with a semicolon (`;). As of MySQL 3.23.22,
mysql starts with this option enabled by default.
However, even with this option, long-format commands
still work from the first line.
o --no-pager
Do not use a pager for displaying query output. Output
paging is discussed further in the section called
"FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS".
o --no-tee
Do not copy output to a file. Tee files are discussed
further in the section called "FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS".
o --one-database, -O
Ignore statements except those for the default database
named on the command line. This is useful for skipping
updates to other databases in the binary log.
o --pager[=command]
Use the given command for paging query output. If the
command is omitted, the default pager is the value of
your PAGER environment variable. Valid pagers are less,
more, cat [> filename], and so forth. This option works
only on Unix. It does not work in batch mode. Output
paging is discussed further in the section called
"FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS".
o --password[=password], -p[password]
The password to use when connecting to the server. If
you use the short option form (-p), you cannot have a
space between the option and the password. If you omit
the password value following the --password or -p
option on the command line, you are prompted for one.
The password should be omitted on SysV-based UNIX
systems, as the password may be displayed in the output
of ps.
o --port=port_num, -P port_num
The TCP/IP port number to use for the connection.
o --prompt=format_str
Set the prompt to the specified format. The default is
mysql>. The special sequences that the prompt can
contain are described in the section called
"FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS".
o --protocol={TCP | SOCKET | PIPE | MEMORY}
The connection protocol to use.
o --quick, -q
Do not cache each query result, print each row as it is
received. This may slow down the server if the output
is suspended. With this option, mysql does not use the
history file.
o --raw, -r
Write column values without escape conversion. Often
used with the --batch option.
o --reconnect
If the connection to the server is lost, automatically
try to reconnect. A single reconnect attempt is made
each time the connection is lost. To suppress
reconnection behavior, use --skip-reconnect.
o --safe-updates, --i-am-a-dummy, -U
Allow only those UPDATE and DELETE statements that
specify rows to affect using key values. If you have
set this option in an option file, you can override it
by using --safe-updates on the command line. See the
section called "FBMYSQLFR TIPS" for more information
about this option.
o --secure-auth
Do not send passwords to the server in old (pre-4.1.1)
format. This prevents connections except for servers
that use the newer password format.
o --show-warnings
Cause warnings to be shown after each statement if
there are any. This option applies to interactive and
batch mode. This option was added in MySQL 5.0.6.
o --sigint-ignore
Ignore SIGINT signals (typically the result of typing
Control-C).
o --silent, -s
Silent mode. Produce less output. This option can be
given multiple times to produce less and less output.
o --skip-column-names, -N
Do not write column names in results.
o --skip-line-numbers, -L
Do not write line numbers for errors. Useful when you
want to compare result files that include error
messages.
o --socket=path, -S path
The socket file to use for the connection.
o --table, -t
Display output in table format. This is the default for
interactive use, but can be used to produce table
output in batch mode.
o --tee=file_name
Append a copy of output to the given file. This option
does not work in batch mode. Tee files are discussed
further in the section called "FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS".
o --unbuffered, -n
Flush the buffer after each query.
o --user=user_name, -u user_name
The MySQL username to use when connecting to the
server.
o --verbose, -v
Verbose mode. Produce more output. This option can be
given multiple times to produce more and more output.
(For example, -v -v -v produces the table output format
even in batch mode.)
o --version, -V
Display version information and exit.
o --vertical, -E
Print the rows of query output vertically. Without this
option, you can specify vertical output for individual
statements by terminating them with G.
o --wait, -w
If the connection cannot be established, wait and retry
instead of aborting.
o --xml, -X
Produce XML output.
You can also set the following variables by using
--var_name=value options:
o connect_timeout
The number of seconds before connection timeout.
(Default value is 0.)
o max_allowed_packet
The maximum packet length to send to or receive from
the server. (Default value is 16MB.)
o max_join_size
The automatic limit for rows in a join when using
--safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000,000.)
o net_buffer_length
The buffer size for TCP/IP and socket communication.
(Default value is 16KB.)
o select_limit
The automatic limit for SELECT statements when using
--safe-updates. (Default value is 1,000.)
It is also possible to set variables by using
--set-variable=var_name=value or -O var_name=value syntax.
This syntax is deprecated.
On Unix, the mysql client writes a record of executed
statements to a history file. By default, the history file
is named and is created in your home directory. To specify
a different file, set the value of the MYSQL_HISTFILE
environment variable.
If you do not want to maintain a history file, first
remove if it exists, and then use either of the following
techniques:
o Set the MYSQL_HISTFILE variable to /dev/null. To cause
this setting to take effect each time you log in, put
the setting in one of your shell's startup files.
o Create as a symbolic link to /dev/null:
shell> ln -s /dev/null /.mysql_history
You need do this only once.
FBMYSQLFR COMMANDS
mysql sends SQL statements that you issue to the server to
be executed. There is also a set of commands that mysql
itself interprets. For a list of these commands, type help
or h at the mysql> prompt:
mysql> help
List of all MySQL commands:
Note that all text commands must be first on line and end with ';'
? (?) Synonym for `help'.
clear (i Clear command.
connect (
) Reconnect to the server. Optional arguments are db and host.
delimiter (d) Set statement delimiter. NOTE: Takes the rest of the line as new delimiter.
edit () Edit command with .
ego (G) Send command to mysql server, display result vertically.
exit (q) Exit mysql. Same as quit.
go (g) Send command to mysql server.
help (h) Display this help.
nopager (
) Disable pager, print to stdout.
notee ( ) Don't write into outfile.
pager (P) Set PAGER [to_pager]. Print the query results via PAGER.
print (p) Print current command.
prompt (R) Change your mysql prompt.
quit (q) Quit mysql.
rehash (#) Rebuild completion hash.
source (.) Execute an SQL script file. Takes a file name as an argument.
status (s) Get status information from the server.
system (!) Execute a system shell command.
tee (T) Set outfile [to_outfile]. Append everything into given outfile.
use () Use another database. Takes database name as argument.
warnings (W) Show warnings after every statement.
nowarning (w) Don't show warnings after every statement.
Each command has both a long and short form. The long form
is not case sensitive; the short form is. The long form
can be followed by an optional semicolon terminator, but
the short form should not.
In the delimiter command, you should avoid the use of the
backslash (`) character because that is the escape
character for MySQL.
The edit, nopager, pager, and system commands work only in
Unix.
The status command provides some information about the
connection and the server you are using. If you are
running in --safe-updates mode, status also prints the
values for the mysql variables that affect your queries.
To log queries and their output, use the tee command. All
the data displayed on the screen is appended into a given
file. This can be very useful for debugging purposes also.
You can enable this feature on the command line with the
--tee option, or interactively with the tee command. The
tee file can be disabled interactively with the notee
command. Executing tee again re-enables logging. Without a
parameter, the previous file is used. Note that tee
flushes query results to the file after each statement,
just before mysql prints its next prompt.
Browsing or searching query results in interactive mode by
using Unix programs such as less, more, or any other
similar program is possible with the --pager option. If
you specify no value for the option, mysql checks the
value of the PAGER environment variable and sets the pager
to that. Output paging can be enabled interactively with
the pager command and disabled with nopager. The command
takes an optional argument; if given, the paging program
is set to that. With no argument, the pager is set to the
pager that was set on the command line, or stdout if no
pager was specified.
Output paging works only in Unix because it uses the
popen() function, which does not exist on Windows. For
Windows, the tee option can be used instead to save query
output, although this is not as convenient as pager for
browsing output in some situations.
A few tips about the pager command:
o You can use it to write to a file and the results go
only to the file:
mysql> pager cat > /tmp/log.txt
You can also pass any options for the program that you
want to use as your pager:
mysql> pager less -n -i -S
o In the preceding example, note the -S option. You may
find it very useful for browsing wide query results.
Sometimes a very wide result set is difficult to read
on the screen. The -S option to less can make the
result set much more readable because you can scroll it
horizontally using the left-arrow and right-arrow keys.
You can also use -S interactively within less to switch
the horizontal-browse mode on and off. For more
information, read the less manual page:
shell> man less
o You can specify very complex pager commands for
handling query output:
mysql> pager cat | tee /dr1/tmp/res.txt
| tee /dr2/tmp/res2.txt | less -n -i -S
In this example, the command would send query results
to two files in two different directories on two
different filesystems mounted on /dr1 and /dr2, yet
still display the results onscreen via less.
You can also combine the tee and pager functions. Have a
tee file enabled and pager set to less, and you are able
to browse the results using the less program and still
have everything appended into a file the same time. The
difference between the Unix tee used with the pager
command and the mysql built-in tee command is that the
built-in tee works even if you do not have the Unix tee
available. The built-in tee also logs everything that is
printed on the screen, whereas the Unix tee used with
pager does not log quite that much. Additionally, tee file
logging can be turned on and off interactively from within
mysql. This is useful when you want to log some queries to
a file, but not others.
The default mysql> prompt can be reconfigured. The string
for defining the prompt can contain the following special
sequences:
Option Description
v The server version
d The current database
h The server host
p The current TCP/IP port or socket file
Your username
YOUR FULL USER_NAME ACCOUNT NAME
\ A LITERAL ` BACKSLASH CHARACTER
A NEWLINE CHARACTER
A TAB CHARACTER
A SPACE (A SPACE FOLLOWS THE BACKSLASH)
_ A SPACE
R THE CURRENT TIME, IN 24-HOUR MILITARY TIME (0-23)
THE CURRENT TIME, STANDARD 12-HOUR TIME (1-12)
M MINUTES OF THE CURRENT TIME
Y THE CURRENT YEAR, TWO DIGITS
Y THE CURRENT YEAR, FOUR DIGITS
D THE FULL CURRENT DATE
S SECONDS OF THE CURRENT TIME
W THE CURRENT DAY OF THE WEEK IN THREE-LETTER FORMAT (MON, TUE, ...)
P AM/PM
O THE CURRENT MONTH IN NUMERIC FORMAT
O THE CURRENT MONTH IN THREE-LETTER FORMAT (JAN, FEB, ...)
IA COUNTER THAT INCREMENTS FOR EACH STATEMENT YOU ISSUE
S SEMICOLON'SINGLE QUOTE"DOUBLE QUOTE.PP ` FOLLOWED BY
ANY OTHER LETTER JUST BECOMES THAT LETTER.
IF YOU SPECIFY THE PROMPT COMMAND WITH NO ARGUMENT, MYSQL
RESETS THE PROMPT TO THE DEFAULT OF MYSQL>.
YOU CAN SET THE PROMPT IN SEVERAL WAYS:
O USE AN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE
YOU CAN SET THE MYSQL_PS1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE TO A
PROMPT STRING. FOR EXAMPLE:
SHELL> EXPORT MYSQL_PS1="(@H) [D]> "
O USE AN OPTION FILE
YOU CAN SET THE PROMPT OPTION IN THE [MYSQL] GROUP OF
ANY MYSQL OPTION FILE, SUCH AS /ETC/MY.CNF OR THE FILE
IN YOUR HOME DIRECTORY. FOR EXAMPLE:
[MYSQL]
PROMPT=(\U@\H) [\D]>\_
IN THIS EXAMPLE, NOTE THAT THE BACKSLASHES ARE DOUBLED.
IF YOU SET THE PROMPT USING THE PROMPT OPTION IN AN
OPTION FILE, IT IS ADVISABLE TO DOUBLE THE BACKSLASHES
WHEN USING THE SPECIAL PROMPT OPTIONS. THERE IS SOME
OVERLAP IN THE SET OF ALLOWABLE PROMPT OPTIONS AND THE
SET OF SPECIAL ESCAPE SEQUENCES THAT ARE RECOGNIZED IN
OPTION FILES. (THESE SEQUENCES ARE LISTED IN
SECTION 3.2, "USING OPTION FILES".) THE OVERLAP MAY
CAUSE YOU PROBLEMS IF YOU USE SINGLE BACKSLASHES. FOR
EXAMPLE, S IS INTERPRETED AS A SPACE RATHER THAN AS
THE CURRENT SECONDS VALUE. THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE SHOWS
HOW TO DEFINE A PROMPT WITHIN AN OPTION FILE TO INCLUDE
THE CURRENT TIME IN HH:MM:SS> FORMAT:
[MYSQL]
PROMPT="\R:\M:\S> "
O USE A COMMAND-LINE OPTION
YOU CAN SET THE --PROMPT OPTION ON THE COMMAND LINE TO
MYSQL. FOR EXAMPLE:
SHELL> MYSQL --PROMPT="(@H) [D]> "
(USER) [DATABASE]>
O INTERACTIVELY
YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR PROMPT INTERACTIVELY BY USING THE
PROMPT (OR R) COMMAND. FOR EXAMPLE:
MYSQL> PROMPT (@H) [D]>_
PROMPT SET TO '(@H) [D]>_'
(USER) [DATABASE]>
(USER) [DATABASE]> PROMPT
RETURNING TO DEFAULT PROMPT OF MYSQL>
MYSQL>
EXECUTING SQL STATEMENTS FROM A TEXT FILE
THE MYSQL CLIENT TYPICALLY IS USED INTERACTIVELY, LIKE
THIS:
SHELL> MYSQL DB_NAME
HOWEVER, IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE TO PUT YOUR SQL STATEMENTS IN
A FILE AND THEN TELL MYSQL TO READ ITS INPUT FROM THAT
FILE. TO DO SO, CREATE A TEXT FILE TEXT_FILE THAT CONTAINS
THE STATEMENTS YOU WISH TO EXECUTE. THEN INVOKE MYSQL AS
SHOWN HERE:
SHELL> MYSQL DB_NAME < TEXT_FILE
YOU CAN ALSO START YOUR TEXT FILE WITH A USE DB_NAME
STATEMENT. IN THIS CASE, IT IS UNNECESSARY TO SPECIFY THE
DATABASE NAME ON THE COMMAND LINE:
SHELL> MYSQL < TEXT_FILE
IF YOU ARE RUNNING MYSQL, YOU CAN EXECUTE AN SQL SCRIPT
FILE USING THE SOURCE OR . COMMAND:
MYSQL> SOURCE FILENAME
MYSQL> . FILENAME
SOMETIMES YOU MAY WANT YOUR SCRIPT TO DISPLAY PROGRESS
INFORMATION TO THE USER; FOR THIS YOU CAN INSERT SOME
LINES LIKE
SELECT '' AS ' ';
WHICH OUTPUTS .
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BATCH MODE, SEE SECTION 5,
"USING MYSQL IN BATCH MODE".
FBMYSQLFR TIPS
THIS SECTION DESCRIBES SOME TECHNIQUES THAT CAN HELP YOU
USE MYSQL MORE EFFECTIVELY.
DISPLAYING QUERY RESULTS VERTICALLY
SOME QUERY RESULTS ARE MUCH MORE READABLE WHEN DISPLAYED
VERTICALLY, INSTEAD OF IN THE USUAL HORIZONTAL TABLE
FORMAT. QUERIES CAN BE DISPLAYED VERTICALLY BY TERMINATING
THE QUERY WITH G INSTEAD OF A SEMICOLON. FOR EXAMPLE,
LONGER TEXT VALUES THAT INCLUDE NEWLINES OFTEN ARE MUCH
EASIER TO READ WITH VERTICAL OUTPUT:
MYSQL> SELECT * FROM MAILS WHERE LENGTH(TXT) < 300 LIMIT 300,1G
*************************** 1. ROW ***************************
MSG_NRO: 3068
DATE: 2000-03-01 23:29:50
TIME_ZONE: +0200
MAIL_FROM: MONTY
REPLY: MONTY.SPAM.COM
MAIL_TO: "THIMBLE SMITH"
SBJ: UTF-8
TXT: >>>>> "THIMBLE" == THIMBLE SMITH WRITES:
THIMBLE> HI. I THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. IS ANYONE FAMILIAR
THIMBLE> WITH UTF-8 OR UNICODE? OTHERWISE, I'LL PUT THIS ON MY
THIMBLE> TODO LIST AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
YES, PLEASE DO THAT.
REGARDS,
MONTY
FILE: INBOX-JANI-1
HASH: 190402944
1 ROW IN SET (0.09 SEC)
USING THE --SAFE-UPDATES OPTION
FOR BEGINNERS, A USEFUL STARTUP OPTION IS --SAFE-UPDATES
(OR --I-AM-A-DUMMY, WHICH HAS THE SAME EFFECT). IT IS
HELPFUL FOR CASES WHEN YOU MIGHT HAVE ISSUED A DELETE FROM
TBL_NAME STATEMENT BUT FORGOTTEN THE WHERE CLAUSE.
NORMALLY, SUCH A STATEMENT DELETES ALL ROWS FROM THE
TABLE. WITH --SAFE-UPDATES, YOU CAN DELETE ROWS ONLY BY
SPECIFYING THE KEY VALUES THAT IDENTIFY THEM. THIS HELPS
PREVENT ACCIDENTS.
WHEN YOU USE THE --SAFE-UPDATES OPTION, MYSQL ISSUES THE
FOLLOWING STATEMENT WHEN IT CONNECTS TO THE MYSQL SERVER:
SET SQL_SAFE_UPDATES=1,SQL_SELECT_LIMIT=1000, SQL_MAX_JOIN_SIZE=1000000;
SEE SECTION 5.3, "SET SYNTAX".
THE SET STATEMENT HAS THE FOLLOWING EFFECTS:
O YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EXECUTE AN UPDATE OR DELETE
STATEMENT UNLESS YOU SPECIFY A KEY CONSTRAINT IN THE
WHERE CLAUSE OR PROVIDE A LIMIT CLAUSE (OR BOTH). FOR
EXAMPLE:
UPDATE TBL_NAME SET NOT_KEY_COLUMN=VAL WHERE KEY_COLUMN=VAL;
UPDATE TBL_NAME SET NOT_KEY_COLUMN=VAL LIMIT 1;
O ALL LARGE SELECT RESULTS ARE AUTOMATICALLY LIMITED TO
1,000 ROWS UNLESS THE STATEMENT INCLUDES A LIMIT
CLAUSE.
O MULTIPLE-TABLE SELECT STATEMENTS THAT PROBABLY NEED TO
EXAMINE MORE THAN 1,000,000 ROW COMBINATIONS ARE
ABORTED.
TO SPECIFY LIMITS OTHER THAN 1,000 AND 1,000,000, YOU CAN
OVERRIDE THE DEFAULTS BY USING --SELECT_LIMIT AND
--MAX_JOIN_SIZE OPTIONS:
SHELL> MYSQL --SAFE-UPDATES --SELECT_LIMIT=500 --MAX_JOIN_SIZE=10000
DISABLING MYSQL AUTO-RECONNECT
IF THE MYSQL CLIENT LOSES ITS CONNECTION TO THE SERVER
WHILE SENDING A QUERY, IT IMMEDIATELY AND AUTOMATICALLY
TRIES TO RECONNECT ONCE TO THE SERVER AND SEND THE QUERY
AGAIN. HOWEVER, EVEN IF MYSQL SUCCEEDS IN RECONNECTING,
YOUR FIRST CONNECTION HAS ENDED AND ALL YOUR PREVIOUS
SESSION OBJECTS AND SETTINGS ARE LOST: TEMPORARY TABLES,
THE AUTOCOMMIT MODE, AND USER AND SESSION VARIABLES. THIS
BEHAVIOR MAY BE DANGEROUS FOR YOU, AS IN THE FOLLOWING
EXAMPLE WHERE THE SERVER WAS SHUT DOWN AND RESTARTED
WITHOUT YOU KNOWING IT:
MYSQL> SET =1;
QUERY OK, 0 ROWS AFFECTED (0.05 SEC)
MYSQL> INSERT INTO T VALUES();
ERROR 2006: MYSQL SERVER HAS GONE AWAY
NO CONNECTION. TRYING TO RECONNECT...
CONNECTION ID: 1
CURRENT DATABASE: TEST
QUERY OK, 1 ROW AFFECTED (1.30 SEC)
MYSQL> SELECT * FROM T;
+------+
| A |
+------+
| NULL |
+------+
1 ROW IN SET (0.05 SEC)
THE USER VARIABLE HAS BEEN LOST WITH THE CONNECTION,
AND AFTER THE RECONNECTION IT IS UNDEFINED. IF IT IS
IMPORTANT TO HAVE MYSQL TERMINATE WITH AN ERROR IF THE
CONNECTION HAS BEEN LOST, YOU CAN START THE MYSQL CLIENT
WITH THE --SKIP-RECONNECT OPTION.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE REFER TO THE MYSQL REFERENCE
MANUAL, WHICH MAY ALREADY BE INSTALLED LOCALLY AND WHICH
IS ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE AT HTTP://DEV.MYSQL.COM/DOC/.
AUTHOR
MYSQL AB (HTTP://WWW.MYSQL.COM/). THIS SOFTWARE COMES
WITH NO WARRANTY.
2008 scandalz.net
Suddenly, Professor Liebowitz realizes he has come to the seminar
without his duck ...
On the heels of an appeals court win that suggested that Samsung should have been barred from selling its copycat Galaxy 10.1 from the get-go, Apple has now filed a motion for a new injunction against the tablet asking it to be pulled from US shelves. The two companies are scheduled to begin high-level settlement talks on Monday, but should they fail the new injunction request could be ruled on as early as June 7....
Once a week, we catch you up on Macworld's biggest stories from the past week, in case you missed them. This week, we ruminated on the futures of iOS and OS X, covered Hotkeysgate, and offered a slew of reviews.
