We often recommend to set lighttpd in front of apache to handle http requests (more about http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2006/05/21/speedup-your-lamp-stack-with-lighttpd/ ) , redirect dynamic requests to apache and handle static files by itself. I just gathered step-by-step instruction how to do that in 10 minutes, as it may be not so obvious.

• Of course you need lighttpd by itself, it's available on http://www.lighttpd.net/download
• You may want pcre-devel packet, which allows to use regular expressions in lighttpd.conf. For CentOS boxes we just run yum install pcre-devel
• Take sample config file lighttpd-1.4.XX/doc/lighttpd.conf and put to /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
• Create directory to store log files, e.g. …

I acquired an Eee PC for my Phoebs. On special somewhere, unfortunately not a pink one ;-)
While I see that lots of people are replacing the Asus/Xandros OS with Ubuntu for Eee or other distros, I've decided to stick with the default for now. It's a very easy desktop to use, with all clutter, confusion and traps disabled but still accessible through other means. Traps you ask? Yea... traps. A three-year-old with a mouse is a dangerous mix ;-)

So, why have a computer for a 3 year old anyway, and why an Eee, and ....?
Phoebe is already quite aware that work generally involves using a computer, so she insists having one on her little play desk: "for work"; that's no reason to give her one though. Eee starts very quickly, being flash based and in its default simple desktop mode. Smurf gets easily bored so any regular machine just doesn't cut it (believe me I've tried).

But kids these days must to become …

Everybody knows than Nagios can be used as a service monitor to monitor things like Load Averages, MySQL Replication Status, RAID Array States, etc… Fewer know that there are plug-ins to monitor MySQL Performance Status, such as check_mysql_perf. Fewer still utilize Nagios’ built-in triggering mechanism to execute an additional script on the event of [...]

If you haven't signed up for our webinar - Turbo Charging MySQL Reporting and Data Warehousing with Kickfire, you can do so at the link below.

I will be one of the panelists discussing our exciting new appliance and how it can help accelerate your MySQL database performance now and into the future.

http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/web-seminars/display-146.html

And again we're on our mission to keep XAMPP up-to-date and just released the first betas of the upcoming XAMPP version.

In this beta we updated: Apache (2.2.9), MySQL (5.0.51b), PHP (5.2.6), phpMyAdmin (2.11.6), mod_perl (2.0.4), OpenSSL (0.9.8h), and eAccelerator (0.9.5.3).

XAMPP beta versions are always for testing purposes only. There will be no upgrade packages from and to beta versions. To all testers: Many thanks in advance!!

Get the downloads at XAMPP BETA.

I usually try very hard to not write about IBM. But the following from Matt Asay requires a reply. Regardless, IBM isn't in the habit of open sourcing technology in which it has a lead or at least a strong position, such as it does with DB2. IBM strategically invests in open source to undermine the margins of its competitors, not its own. Really? Take a look into OSGi, SCA, Apache HTTP Server or the countless other open source projects into which IBM has open sourced technology. This technology didn't undermine competitors; it helped customers and competitors alike (and let's... READ MORE

Truncating all tables in a database is a common problem which arises a lot during testing or debugging.
One of the most common answers to this question is to drop & recreate the database, most likely utilizing the shell. For example, something like this:

mysqldump --add-drop-table --no-data [dbname] | mysql [dbname]

This dumps the entire schema structure to disk, without dumping any data, and with commands for dropping existing tables. When loading it back into mysql, it essentially truncates all the tables in the database. Basically, this is a decent solution for many uses.

We had a requirement for a solution that needed these additional features:

1. Does not require shell (We work with both Linux and Windows)
2. Resides inside the MySQL Server (To minimize outside dependencies - for example - the mysql command line client)
3. Can truncate only specified tables using a …

There's a story on CNet about IBM considering open sourcing DB2. While there are no immediate plans, IBM UK's director of information management software Chris Livesy has said that market conditions may make it unavoidable. "Looking at IBM's heritage in contributing to the open-source market, we've been particularly keen to lead that market. Open source is an interesting space, as a whole. As the future unfolds, and the economics become clearer, there's going to be more commitment to open source by everybody. We've made good steps towards that." And why not? A while back, I predicted that within 10 years... READ MORE

How To Set Up WebDAV With MySQL Authentication On Apache2 (Debian Etch)

This guide explains how to set up WebDAV with MySQL authentication (using mod_auth_mysql) on Apache2 on a Debian Etch server. WebDAV stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning and is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allow users to directly edit files on the Apache server so that they do not need to be downloaded/uploaded via FTP. Of course, WebDAV can also be used to upload and download files.

On my current project my team had to develop a portlet interface. Users can load portlets and organize them in multiple tabs with 3 columns per tab. They can reorganize the order of their tabs and move portlets within a tab an also move them to new tabs. Portlets are always placed at the top left when they get added or moved to a tab. Furthermore portlets and tabs can be removed, though the last delete operation can always be undone. All of this essentially required me to devise a plan for how to manage ordered lists inside an RDBMS.

Note that while this was written for MySQL (it makes heavy use of MySQL session user variables), I am using the Oracle style named placeholder support that PDO emulates for MySQL. So do not get confused by ":foo" in the SQL statements. This is just like the "?" you should know if you ever used prepared statements with MySQL. Furthermore I am using pseudo code control logic around the SQL. I think it should be …