MySQL replication is quite different to replication on other DBMSes I’ve used (Sybase). It’s pretty easy to setup, it’s quick and solves many problems.  However one thing it can’t do which frustrates me enormously is provide the ability to replicate the contents of multiple source databases into a single destination database.  I’ve used this type of functionality before, mainly to allow independent nodes to replicate to a central reporting node.

However, MySQL has almost all the funtionality to do this already. It’s just built into the mysql daemon, mysqld, and not separate from it.

The functionality is there: connectivity to a master (the existing I/O thread), the storage of the replication changes and connectivity to the local db. It’s this last part which currently is part of the mysqld and is not able to talk to an external mysqld. If this were possible you could have a separate mysql …

Today I started writing a PC client for MXit, because the existing ones suck. Since the company uses a proprietary variation of the jabber protocol to reduce bandwidth usage, I have to decode the protocol myself.. Will post details of it later...

Get MXit http://www.mxit.co.za/web/downloadmxit.htm

Today, in one of my project I’ve to check empty fields.

The field name is: answer it’s type is TEXT and Default value is NULL

In my SQL query I was checked at first answer != NULL (if the answer is not null, i.e if the answer is not empty), But this was not showing the correct result.

Then I changed it to answer != ” ( i.e ” means empty string) then it showed the correct result.
Then I test with this answer != ‘NULL’, and it also showed the correct result.

Everyone and their mother are throwing out their predictions for 2009 nowadays, itâ€s a new fad. Itâ€s like youâ€re not cool anymore if you donâ€t have twitter, a Mac, and a set of random predictions for the next 12 joyous months.

So I decided to throw in a few ideas of my own to be part of the cool crowd again (how much cooler can I be already, you might think, and I wouldnâ€t blame you).

Disclaimer (read it, tough guy)

What this post is:

• about the future of technology and the Internet, 2009 and beyond.
• my ideas on what is going to happen or should happen. If they happen to match someone elseâ€s ideas – it doesnâ€t mean I ripped them off, it just means we share the same opinions and theyâ€re more likely to come true.
• awesome.

What this post is not:

…

Percona has been building and contributing to open-source software since the company was founded, and individually we've been doing the same thing for many years.  We think it's a huge value for our customers and the community.

We're involved in a dozen or so open-source projects, but our three core efforts at the moment are the following:

• Percona patches, which are included in our own MySQL builds and then in OurDelta builds and perhaps others as well
• XtraDB, which is our new high-performance transactional storage engine
• Maatkit, which is a toolkit that provides advanced functionality for MySQL.

We have a team of dedicated MySQL developers working on the server …

We just shipped and installed the Kickfire appliance in the data center of our first web 2.0 customer this week. We’re very excited about this new customer. With already over a million active members, this company continues to grow in spite of a challenging economic environment because it has a clearly defined audience and a business model which adds value to its members while adding money to its coffers. Part of the value add to their member base comes from well-targeted discount and coupon offers. In order to achieve this, the company runs complex analytics to understand members’ behaviors and responses and uses this data to help its advertising customers better target their offers.

As with many web 2.0 companies, this customer has built its application on MySQL. MySQL has helped them scale their web application well but was presenting performance and scalability challenges for their analytics. With their fact table in the …

This post is about a PL/SQL feature that doesn't get enough respect, "invoker's rights".First off, what's its real name? Depending on the source, you'll see the feature name spelled "invoker's rights", "invokers' rights", or "invoker rights". That makes a difference -- you'll get different results in Google depending on what combination of singular, plural, and possessive you use. And to be

There's one thing which I believe I never mentioned so far, though it is certainly worth to be mentioned. db4free.net runs on a dedicated server at easyspeedy.com from Denmark, who use servers from Sun Microsystems and are a Certified Sun Partner.

I got reminded of this fact when I received an email from easyspeedy, wishing me a good new year, telling me about plans for 2009 and including the uptime statistics of 2008, which were as follows:

10 months of 100% uptime
1 month of 99.98% uptime
1 month of 99.97% uptime

Sure, uptime on db4free.net was a bit lower since these statistics only show how much the server has been up (and down) on their side.

Anyway, it's one more example where …

I'm not trying to push Sun hardware here, I'm not even paid for doing so, I'm just reading up on what is available. In my experience, the probably most common MySQL box is the DL380 from the guys that also make a nice steak-sause (I'm not sure I can mention names here). This is a nice steady workhorse of box that's been around since the Lincoln administration or something like that. A good old box anyway, with ample space for disks and stuff and there is also the smaller brother, the DL360.

Now Sun has, since last summer or so, an entry level x86 box in it's offering. I haven't tested it, but am curious of any real world experiences with this machine, which is competitively priced, it seems, the Sun …