With a new streamlined interface designed to help improve workflow, this update to FileMaker Pro is a must have for all Mac users who work extensively with databases.

When you write good SQL, that use indexes properly there is one more obstacle that can slow down your app. The mySQL optimizer. From versions 3.23 to 5.1 the optimizer has been a problem for me. In mySQL 6.0 SUN/mySQL has resources improving it.

I wrote a post detailing how to pick indexes to get the most out of mySQL here.

Here is a post about the mySQL optimizer and what you can do to speed up your SQL SELECT statements.

What I would like to share with you today, is that UPDATE and DELETE statements can also use optimizer tricks that SELECT uses. Its not documented on the mysql.com but it is possible to do something like

UPDATE [YOUR TABLE] USE …

Mondrian is generally very smart in how it chooses to implement queries. Over the last month or so, I have learned some lessons about how hard can be to make Mondrian smarter.

As a ROLAP engine (I prefer to call it 'ROLAP with caching'), Mondrian's evaluation strategy has always been a blend of in-memory processing, caching, and native SQL execution. Naturally there is always SQL involved, because Mondrian doesn't store any of its own data, but the question is how much of the processing Mondrian pushes down to the DBMS and how much it does itself, based on data in its cache.

The trends are towards native SQL execution. Data volumes are growing across the board, Mondrian is being deployed to larger enterprises with large data sets (in some cases displacing more established, and expensive, engines). …

This is actually old news, but I never thought to file a bug report (until now) or say anything to anyone about it. If you use mysqldump to dump and restore a MySQL table that has INSERT triggers, you can get different data in your restored database than you had when you dumped. The problem? The tool dumps the triggers before the data, so they get added back to the table before the rows are inserted.

Arun has a nice set of simple steps for getting MySQL 6.x working with NetBeans 6.5

Posted via email from David Van Couvering's Posterous

Jeremy has a great post about why DHH’s article on Sharding is….dumb, i mean flawed.

If you’re a startup, and think you’re about to experience tremendous growth, listen to Jeremy, not DHH. I’ll let Jeremy and the other tech heavy hitters handle the technical flaws with his article.

I’m not sure about his definition of “reasonable” is, but I can’t find a single system with 128GB of RAM within my definition of “reasonable”. Secondly, the whole notion that bigger/better/faster is the solution is absurd. That’s like saying we need a bigger land fill because the one we have currently is full. Sure, that’ll work, but how do you install said landfill into place? do you dig under the current one? do you use “bolt on” land …

Over on the 37signals blog, DHH writes Mr. Moore gets to punt on sharding. His argument is basically that if you continually delay fixing your data storage and retrieval layer, Moore's Law will be there to save our ass--over and over again.

Bzzzt. Wrong answer.

Depending on future improvements to fix your own bad planning is a risky way to build an on-line service--especially one you expect to grow and charge money for.

It's easy to forget history in this industry (as Paul pointed out in the comments on that post). There was a point a few years ago when people still believed the clock speed of CPUs would be doubling roughly every 18 months for half the cost. Putting aside …

I was running a hard drive diagnostic using SeaTools for DOS v1.09PH on two exactly the same Maxtor hard drives, see details of the drives below. When I attempted to run a quick scan and then a long scan it received a warning “Overtemp–253″. After doing some research I have come to the conclusion that with certainty that this doesn’t mean the hard drive is running at 253 degrees Fahrenheit. My two drives are well ventilated and do not even feel warm to the touch. In fact this message apparently means according to Seagate that the hard drive does not support SeaTools reading temperatures.

• Brand: Maxtor
• Model: 6Y060L0
• FW: YAR41BW0

Source: Incorrect temperature values for a Maxtor disk

My friend Alex Poole was laid off two days before Christmas from his job as CTO at BGD Group. He's decided to go back into freelancing instead of looking for another job. I've worked with Alex in the past at both LoveFilm and Library House and I can safely say he knows his stuff when it comes to PHP / MySQL development. He can talk non-geek when needed as well!

If you need a senior PHP / MySQL freelancer, you could do a lot worse than to get in touch with Alex.