MySQL

The world's most popular open source database

Contact a MySQL Representative


  • MySQL.com
  • Developer Zone
  • Partners & Solutions
  • Customer Login
  • DevZone
  • Downloads
  • Documentation
  • Articles
  • Forums
  • Bugs
  • Forge
  • Blogs
 
  • Pages

    • Press Release: “Kaj Arnö Appointed MySQL VP of Community Relations”
  • Archives

    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • November 2007
    • October 2007
    • September 2007
    • August 2007
    • July 2007
    • June 2007
    • May 2007
    • April 2007
    • March 2007
    • February 2007
    • January 2007
    • December 2006
    • November 2006
    • October 2006
    • September 2006
    • August 2006
    • July 2006
    • June 2006
    • May 2006
    • April 2006
    • March 2006
    • February 2006
    • January 2006
    • December 2005
    • November 2005
    • October 2005
    • September 2005
  • Categories

    • Architecture of Participation (50)
    • Connectors (12)
    • Documentation (4)
    • Events (46)
    • Falcon (5)
    • GPL (8)
    • GUI (3)
    • Licensing (11)
    • MySQL (206)
    • MySQL Cluster (5)
    • MySQL Proxy (4)
    • MySQL Server (31)
    • MySQL Users Conferences (25)
    • MySQL Workbench (5)
    • Photography (11)
    • PHP (9)
    • Release Policy (20)
    • Ruby on Rails (5)
    • Running (5)
    • Summer of Code (8)
    • Sun (46)
    • Sun visits (23)
    • Travel (20)
    • Uncategorized (1)
    • Use cases (8)
    • Virtual company (36)



Kaj Arnö
« Talking to MySQL Founders Monty and David on Sun
Becoming MySQL’s Ambassador to Sun »

Teaching Sun a lesson

Part of what makes me very happy about our Sun deal is the interest Sun has expressed in learning from us. That has been evident in all the various meetings here in Orlando — be it with the founders, with the individual departments, or in front of the entire audience.

So as a way to teach Sun a first lesson, I had prepared a gig for the end of the presentations during the morning. We have a tradition of singing songs in our company, stemming from our Scandinavian heritage. “We take this very seriously”, I had heard Rich Green comment. And I’m happy he meant it in a very respectful manner: Corporate culture is important. Drinking songs themselves are meant to be purely fun, and not taken seriously, although they are surrounded by plenty of fairly rigid tradition.

In order to make it light for our future colleagues from Sun, as well as our own recent recruits as well as others unfortunate enough not to know the simplest of all drinking songs by rote, we prepared a phonetic translation for Helan går and put it up as a slide:

Helan går: Phonetic version (sing this!)

Hell and gore
Shung Hop father Allan Allan ley.
Hell and gore
Shung Hop father Allan ley.

Oh handsome in the hell and tar
hand hell are in the half and four.
Hell and gore <drink now>
Shung Hop father Allan ley

A few of us probably sang that without understanding what the underlying Swedish words actually mean. So this brings me to:

Helan går: Translated version (think this!)

The first drink (”whole glass”) goes,
sing <long expression of joy>!
The first drink goes,
sing <short expression of joy>!

And anyone who doesn’t take the first drink,
will be disallowed the second drink.
The first drink goes!
<drink here and now>
Sing <short expression of joy>

The original version, which is both phonetically correct, and carries the right meaning, goes like this:

Helan går: Original version (learn this!)

Helan går
sjung hopp faderallan lallan lej.
Helan går,
sjung hoppfaderallan lej.

Och den som inte helan tar,
han ej heller halvan får.
Helan går,
sjung hopp faderallan lej.

Links:

  • Helan går video & audio on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyZpCs3i71s

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 20:17 and is filed under Events, MySQL, Sun, Virtual company. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Teaching Sun a lesson”

  1. Web Design and Development Blog Says:
    January 16th, 2008 at 23:00

    Haha! Brilliant song.

  2. Jan Danielsson Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 4:33

    Finkultur! :-)
    Brilliant med de tre versionerna, även om den sista är nog för mig.
    Hade du med ett helrör renat också (a whole-tube purified)? :-)

  3. Mike Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 8:41

    That’ll teach em… Make sure you practice this every day, and several times a day…

  4. Anon Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 10:14

    Next up! Halvan

  5. Peter Krantz Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 14:26

    Well, I always thought you translated the first line as “Hell Al Gore”…

  6. Ashcrow Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 14:35

    You are totally correct. Corporate culture is one of the most important things for companies and hopefully Sun will be able to learn from MySQL’s culture.

  7. Örjan Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 15:15

    I would like to point out that the term “helan” in no way refers to the entire glass, but simply means the first (as in “helan, halvan, tersen, kvarten, kvinten …”).

    A common misinterpretation of the song is that you must drink up the entire glass, while it is more likely meant merely to point out the fact that without drinking a first glass, you cannot drink a second.

  8. Elias Kai Says:
    January 18th, 2008 at 15:42

    Great for another Uppsala company.
    Best is to teach sun a lesson but often most acquisition ends up after 4 years in a conflict, so watch out.

Leave a Reply

Kaj Arnö is proudly powered by WordPress MU running on Blogs.mysql.com.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).