New Year wishes of famous InterBase/Firebird people to the community

By Marina Novikova, December, 24th, 2003

Q: What do you expect from the coming year?

Ann Harrison: Lots of exciting developments as Firebird incorporates features from Yaffil and from Jim's new project Vulcan. Vulcan will produce a native 64 bit Firebird on the AMD 64 and Sparc. Knowing Jim, there will probably be a number of other improvements.

Jason Wharton: For it to go as fast or faster than this year. Time flies when you are having fun.

My wife and I are expecting our 5th child so we have a delivery to look forward to.

Helen Borrie: I'm looking forward to the book being finished and on the shelves by March. For the longer term, things currently starting up with regard to Firebird 2 (the Vulcan project and the Yaffil merges) are going to make 2004 the best yet.

I hope that Mozilla will stop using our Firebird name and let this problem go away peacefully.

But let's not throw 2003 away without heaping high praise on Dmitry Yemanov, Nickolay Samofatov, Arno Brinkman, Claudio Valderrama, Alex Peshkoff, Paul Reeves and all of the people who did such a brilliant job on bringing the Firebird 1.5 engine, clients and packaging to fruition.

Paul Beach: I never expect anything, but I can hope. Within the specific context of my environs, I hope that Firebird and IBPhoenix continue to prosper and grow. On a larger scale I hope the mess in Iraq created by the US and UK governments settles down to something approaching normality as soon as possible.

Arno Brinkman: I expect that Firebird will grow more and more to an interesting database for a even growing users-group. Further I hope I can work on the Firebird project as I did last year.

Craig Stuntz: I guess my daughter will start and finish potty training.

Besides that... Early on, lots of new software: InterBase 7.1 Service Pack 2 should be out in January, if not sooner. I'll be releasing updates to InterBase PLANalyzer and InterBase Performance Monitor. And Delphi 8 will include IBX for .NET. Later in the year, I'm not sure. I have a couple of ideas which have been pushed back due to lack of time in my schedule; I'll see what I can get around to doing.

Mark O'Donohue: I think Firebird usage will continue to grow, as 1.5 goes out the door and 2.0 gets seriously underway. V2.0 has some good activity going for it, with Jim, Claudio, Nickolay, Dmitry, Alex, Arno, (and many others) all already providing great input.

I think the foundation will continue to grow, and be able to support more fb development activities. I particularly want to see the QA side of firebird get more rigorous and automated.

Q: How will you celebrate the New Year?

Ann Harrison: We celebrate Christmas with my family - a very small gathering and a big roast beef dinner. New Year's Day gets off to a bang, literally, as Jim fires his cannon at midnight. From noon to six on New Year's Day, we invite lots of friends over for food and drink and good company. Any of your readers in the Boston area are welcome - just drop me an e-mail for directions.

Jason Wharton: I'll put up a futile effort to slow down and relax more this coming year. We most enjoy the simple things of life. Being together with family.

Helen Borrie: All of my family (four generations, with me at Level 2) will be going to Christchurch, New Zealand, for Christmas to celebrate my parents' 60th wedding anniversary on Dec. 29. I will be back home in Australia on Dec. 30. I will celebrate the New Year with a quiet toast to our wonderful community.

This New Year is totally different to the one in 2000 when, apart from the Millennium, so many of us were furiously engaged on telephones and email, getting the "Save InterBase" campaign into gear. It was an inspiring moment in our history that is clear and crisp in my memory. I will celebrate that anniversary, too.

Paul Beach: Quitely, and at home. My wife (a hospital consultant) will be on call so we won't be doing anything exciting.

Arno Brinkman: Nothing special. just very simple together with our neighbours. Waiting till it's 1 january and wish everyone the best and then going to sleep ;-)

Craig Stuntz: All of my time outside of work these days is spent with my family. There's really no time for anything else -- not that I mind too much.

Mark O'Donohue: On a boat with the family, swimming on a deserted beach, mirror calm water, a great sunset, and finally watching the local fireworks from the
boat while eating prawns and drinking champagne - it wasn't bad at all.

Q: What presents will you give to your relatives and friends? And to yourself?

Ann Harrison: My father has the electric train set his parents gave him when he was five, in 1927. We've added pieces to it over the years and now it fills his living room. I'll give him some "new" antique switches and a cross-over. Jim gets an AMD 64. I'm making some agility equipment - jumps and stuff to climb - for my dog. For me, I don't know. They always surprise me. Especially the dog.

Jason Wharton: I've given my family a new home that meets our needs much better. It has a very big yard of 1.25 acres. We have some new family pets. A German Shepherd pup and some alpacas. http://www.cienegacreek.com/

On top of this we are also getting two used quads (small 4-wheelers) from a friend of mine. One adult size and the other child size. It's a popular thing people in our neighborhood like to do and I did a lot of as a boy. Arizona has many interesting places to explore and quads are ideal off-road transportation.

Helen Borrie: No presents at all this year for family but, for my friends, a book. :-)

Paul Beach: We don't tend to give or recieve presents, mainly because the number of close family members that we have, are small. However I will think carefully on what to get my wife :-)

Arno Brinkman: My girlfriend will receive a ornament from me. Myself... I think a wireless network.

Craig Stuntz: For myself, nothing; I'm more interested in spending time with my wife and daughter than buying things. I'm getting my wife a tagine and we're getting my daughter a Rody. Don't tell them!

Mark O'Donohue: Christmas is all about kids, so for the two boys we've got kites, radio controlled cars (boy they were cheap) and a gameboy advanced, as well as eukio cards (I don't know what they are either) and more. I got a tent, a digital multimeter (finally) and use of the extended "Lord of the Rings" (both I and II) DvD's for two week. My daughter got a pet rat - at least it's better than the ferret she had on loan for a few weeks 4mths ago.

At the local school christmas concert the grade 2 kids were left with no illusions as to what to expect.

http://www.firebirdsql.org/rabbits/skywalker/11_ImGettingNothingForChrismas.mp3

Q: Year 2003. What was good, what will you remember about this year?

Ann Harrison: Lots of things were good. One of the best was the First Annual Firebird Conference in Fulda. Meeting so many other contributors and Firebird users was great, even if I spent most of the conference trying to get my blob filter to work. Beyond that, watching the community grow and word about Firebird spread made me very happy.

Jason Wharton: 2003 has been yet another year of living the good life. My family and I are all healthy and quite happy. I can't think of anything that matters more.

I'll remember saving my son's life when he slipped out of the house and over in our neighbor's swimming pool. It was a blessing from God and those who watch over my family and I that I was given inspiration to locate him so fast that he was kept from any damage of suffocation.

Helen Borrie: A lot of very good things and no seriously bad ones. The Firebird Foundation took off astonishingly; Firebird 1.5 happened; Yaffil "came home" to consolidate our best talents; my book was accepted for publication; we had our first conference in Fulda; some amazing things happened in the Russian and Brazilian user communities. I met some of my best friends face-to-face for the first time. And, right at the end, Jim Starkey stepped back into the code.

Oh, and it rained in New South Wales and broke the three-year drought!!

Paul Beach: I think I would rather forget 2003 and concentrate on 2004 :-)

Arno Brinkman: I remember the Firebird conference very good and had a good time there. It was nice to meet a lot developers and users there. Hopefully we'll meet more developers and users in 2004. Whereas the Yaffil merge with Firebird still needs to be done I already see this as good point from the Year 2003.

Craig Stuntz: Mostly watching my daughter walking, talking, and learning things I didn't expect her to do until she was five years old. I'm also finishing a very significant release for my employer -- we've been working on it for over a year now and just burned the final CD master today.

Mark O'Donohue: A lot has happened in the last year in firebird, it was great to meet (nearly) everyone face to face at Fulda, the foundation worked well, the
fb1.5 codebase went forward, the merge with Yaffil, and Jim getting back involved in fb.

Also for me on a personal level, we also finished building the new house - now I just need to pay for it :-).

Please, wish something to our community!

Ann Harrison: I wish us all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Jason Wharton: I wish that everyone in our community will have a major breakthrough in attaining those things their heart desires most. We have a tendancy to withhold great blessings from ourselves and others purely because we don't think they are possible. My hope is that we will all take fresh hope and courage and apply ourselves with success.

I've held onto my dream with IBO for 8 years now and there were times I really had to muster up faith. Somehow I found the courage to do so and I am very grateful of it. It's been a lot of work but it is so fulfilling to see it helping so many people make the best of their software development efforts.

As far as hopes for life go, my hope is that people will take many more deep breaths and hold onto the spirit of love that the holiday season helps to increase. There isn't enough time here to hold onto grievances and resentment. Love is infinitely accessible, thus what good does it do to inventory how much we give or receive?

Helen Borrie: I wish that 2004 will be everything you want it to be. Keep doing what you are all doing. If something is missing that you want to happen, don't be hesitant about volunteering. Don't say "Firebird should..." but "How could I...?" Everything good that happens around Firebird happens because somebody kicks it off. Wanting to help is good, actually getting in there and doing it creates the magic.

Paul Beach: Have a good whatever, wherever and lets look forward to the New Year.

Arno Brinkman: I wish you all a happy new year and the best wishes for 2004. That 2004 may become a Firebird year ;-)

Craig Stuntz: I wish everyone success with their projects and peace for the world.

Mark O'Donohue: In addition to world peace, happiness, and financial wellbeing, I hope all your sql queries return the correct answer in as little time as
possible!.