As I go through the process of getting familiar with Google AppEngine, I'll post interesting things I learn (mostly so I can find them later). Here's a quick note on GQL query syntax:

Assuming a model called Customer, you can use:

1) customers = db.GqlQuery("SELECT * FROM Customer ORDER BY name LIMIT 10")

2) And since GQL queries always return data objects, you can skip the SELECT * and abbreviate to:

customers = Customer.gql("ORDER BY name LIMIT 10")

3) You can also use parameters like this:

customers = Customer.gql("WHERE name = :1 ORDER BY name LIMIT 10", "Smith")

4) And finally, #3 with named parameters like this:

customers = Customer.gql("WHERE name= :person ORDER BY name LIMIT 10", person="Smith")

Found this little gem on my Facebook feed today. Glad that Shaun has finally come around and become a fan of DotNetNuke.

Got word today that I have received the Microsoft MVP Award for the third time. Of course it is April 1, so it could all be a big joke. I am hoping not.

Dear Nik Kalyani,  

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. We appreciate your extraordinary efforts in ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year...

I am honored. Thanks Microsoft.

This is turning out to be my rant on crappy service by companies week.

Today, after almost four years or mediocre voice quality, I finally decided to ditch my Vonage line. As required by them, I called in to cancel my account.

For 20 mins. straight, despite my increasingly urgent pleas to just cancel my account, the rep kept insisting that I stay for two additional months free and they would have a tech out to my home tomorrow to look at the problem. WTF! I can understand a couple of attempts to keep the customer, but after 20 mins. I could not take it any more and I hung up.

Vonage does not get it...these kind of pushy sales tactics are not going to help their growing decline. It will only make customers more irate and increase negative PR for them. They appear to be totally clueless.

I am going to call them again today and hope I'll have better luck this time.

Guy Kawasaki has a good interview with Mickos here.

My favorite:

Question: Have you had any kind of concerns that MySQL will be run like a "big company"?
Answer: I had those concerns even when we were a small startup! Complacency and arrogance can creep in without your noticing in any sort of organisation. To avoid it, we have taken some specific steps. We have released our software under the GPL thus exposing ourselves to the risk of forking. This keeps us running fast. We have also chosen to serve the fastest paced and fastest growing business in the world such as YouTube, Flickr, Zillow, and Nokia.

This also forces us to run fast. And we have a company culture of no-nonsense and of following The No Asshole Rule by Bob Sutton--pardon my French, but the book by that name is so good. For these reasons, there is no time for complacency. These aspects apply to Sun as well. And if for whatever unlikely reason we would ever encounter some big company behavior within Sun, we will do our utmost to help change it.