Use PyObjC to code Python under the Mac Cocoa framework, and MySQLdb to interface with MySQL! That’s the advice I got in reply to my recent blog. The discussions were so inspiring that I spent all time when out running yesterday daydreaming about how wonderful it will be to rediscover the aesthetics of programming and regain the control over my personal IT.

So, to recap a bit of my thinking: Once a programmer, always a programmer. If you’ve learned how to code and to master your own IT life to a certain degree, you get used to it. At least I did. But then fate wrote a declaration of incapacity for me. Not only did I become a manager and got to do less and less coding. More aggravatingly, I changed operating systems. Gone …

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who read and gave their 2 cents about the [WordPress Plugin Development] How To Include CSS and JavaScript Conditionally And Only When Needed By The Posts post. The article was well received and will hopefully spark some optimizations around loading styles and scripts.

Here are some discussions and mentions around the web:

• an article on Weblog Tools Collection
• a forum post on WP Tavern
• …

1. mytop -- a MySQL top implementation to show you why your server is so damn slow right now.
2. What Could Kill Elegant High-Value Participatory Project? -- The problem was not that the system was buggy or hard to use, but that it disrupted staff expectations and behavior. It introduced new challenges for staff [...]. Rather than adapt to these challenges, they removed the system. [...] No librarian would get rid of all the Harry Potter books because they are "too popular." No museum would stop offering an educational program that was "too successful." These are familiar challenges that come with the job and are seen to have benefit. But if tagging creates a line or people spend too much time giving you feedback? Staff at …

I’m really proud to announce the release of the version 1.0 of mysql-snmp.

What is mysql-snmp?

mysql-snmp is a mix between the excellent MySQL Cacti Templates and a Net-SNMP agent. The idea is that combining the power of the MySQL Cacti Templates and any SNMP based monitoring would unleash a powerful mysql monitoring system. Of course this project favorite monitoring system is OpenNMS.

mysql-snmp is shipped with the necessary OpenNMS configuration files, but any other SNMP monitoring software can …

It may sound like a dramatic number, and that’s because it is. One thing that is enjoyable about working on beta applications is finding new solutions and better methods to improve the user experience. The original method for displaying the recent addition of overview analytics data in the beta version of Kontrollbase was to run [...]

The Problem

I've had MySQL on my Windows 7 laptop for a bit (as part of wampserver), mostly for local offline WordPress development.

However, even though MySQL is relatively stable, I've been observing a vast quantity of intermittent MySQL errors, as reported by WordPress in the PHP error log (C:\wamp\logs\php_error.log). Here are some examples:

[05-Jan-2010 09:47:51] WordPress database error Error on delete of
'C:\Windows\TEMP\#sql17e0_1a2_6.MYD' (Errcode: 13) for query SELECT t.*, tt.* 
FROM wp_terms AS t INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy AS tt ON tt.term_id = t.term_id 
INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships AS tr ON tr.term_taxonomy_id = 
tt.term_taxonomy_id WHERE tt.taxonomy IN ('category') AND tr.object_id IN (3) 
ORDER BY t.name ASC made by require, require_once, include, get_footer, 
locate_template, load_template, require_once, dynamic_sidebar, 
call_user_func_array, …

One of the things that I am really happy about in MariaDB is that we have our releases available as apt (and yum for Centos) repositories. This is largely thanks to being able to build this on the OurDelta package build infrastructure (which again builds on things like the Debian packaging scripts for MySQL).

Something like the Debian apt-get package system (which is also used by Ubuntu) is one of the major innovations in the Free Software world in my opinion. Debian has spent many years refining this system to where it is today. Want to run the mysql client, but it isn't installed? Just try to run it on your local Ubuntu host:

    $ mysql
    The program 'mysql' can be found in the following packages:
     * mysql-client-5.0
     * mysql-client-5.1
    Try: sudo apt-get install <selected package>
    -bash: mysql: command not found

Installing …

Last week, my colleagues Giuseppe, Kai and myself attended the SAPO Codebits event in Lisbon, Portugal. Codebits is an annual, invite-only hacking event, which went on for three days. The venue they chose this year was the "Cordoaria", a former rope factory located in the Belém district, close to the 25 de Abril Bridge (which is an impressive sight!). I have been told that the Cordoaria is the longest building in Portugal and I have no doubts about that! The building is so long that the crew used bicycles to get from one end to the other. I've taken a number of …

Like I said earlier, every tiny change that the test suite reveals after code changes is significant. I caught a very subtle “bug” today in recent changes to mk-query-digest (a.k.a. mqd). If you like to read about subtle bugs, read on.

An mqd test on sample file slow023.txt began to differ after some pretty extensive code changes of late:

< # Query 1: 0 QPS, 0x concurrency, ID 0x8E38374648788E52 at byte 0 ________
---
> # Query 1: 0 QPS, 0x concurrency, ID 0x2CFD93750B99C734 at byte 0 ________

The ID which depends on the query’s fingerprint has changed. It’s very important that we don’t suddenly change these on users because these IDs are pivotal in trend analyses with mqd’s --review-history option. First some background info on the recent code changes and then the …

This blog post is a by-product of my preparation work for an upcoming talk titled "Why you should be using a distributed version control system (DVCS) for your project" at SAPO Codebits in Lisbon (December 3-5, 2009). Publishing these thoughts prior to the conference serves two purposes: getting some peer review on my findings and acting as a teaser for the actual talk. So please let me know — did I cover the relevant aspects or did I miss anything? What's your take on DVCS vs. the centralized approach? Why do you prefer one over the other? I'm looking forward to your comments!

Even though there are several distributed alternatives available for some years now (with Bazaar, git and …