Matt Asay tagged me with a blog meme (sounds worse than it is) to write 5 things that most people probably don't know about me.  Let me apologize in advance for such a self-centered posting; I swear I'm just following orders!  Here are few little known facts, though people who read this blog regularly may know a couple of these already. 

1. I'm a marathon runner
   Running a marathon is harder than almost anything else you can do. Harder than working in a startup, harder than writing humor, harder than marriage.  But it's also a very rewarding experience.  I learned more in running my first marathon than almost anything else in life.  I've run 10 marathons in ten years as well as …

We just published a technical document about what to consider for backup and recovery of the remote MySQL server, for example, when your online forums and wiki are located at managed hosting service provider.

For any database backup the primary considerations are the consistency of the backup and impact on users and applications. A backup of the remote MySQL, however, has extra challenges related to:

• network usage
• security, and
• flexibility of recoverability of MySQL data to a different host.

We discuss the trade-offs to consider, and describe how to use Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) for several common scenarios. For example, we provide HOWTO for a use case when you want to ensure security of backup data on the wire and at rest.

I'll echo what Kris Buytaert said about the MySQL Symposium in Amsterdam in March. It is going to be a great few days filled with a lot of detail about MySQL.

Among others, I'm looking forward to Jim Starkey's talk about Falcon Internals. Also looking forward to hanging out with other MySQLers, and Planet MySQLers.

Hope to see you there.

Some time ago, our GUI tools development team started a contest to shake out the bugs in the MySQL GUI applications, especially the MySQL Administrator and the MySQL Migration Toolkit.

The contest ran for about 3 months and resulted in more than 170 bug reports, of which the team fixed all the significant ones (over 120) by now. This is quite impressive, especially considering the relatively small size of the GUI development team. I am very happy to see that the quality of these tools has been improved, they are quite useful, especially for users not keen on using the command line.

The new MySQL Administrator 1.2.8 and MySQL Migration Toolkit 1.1.8 have now been declared production …

Some time ago, our GUI tools development team started a contest to shake out the bugs in the MySQL GUI applications, especially the MySQL Administrator and the MySQL Migration Toolkit.

The contest ran for about 3 months and resulted in more than 170 bug reports, of which the team fixed all the significant ones (over 120) by now. This is quite impressive, especially considering the relatively small size of the GUI development team. I am very happy to see that the quality of these tools has been improved, they are quite useful, especially for users not keen on using the command line.

The new MySQL Administrator 1.2.8 and MySQL Migration Toolkit 1.1.8 have now been declared production …

MySQL provides its replication for High Availability (HA) and for read Scale-out. Generally it is known that in a MySQL replication you can only replicate from one Master to many slaves. In this Whitepaper it is shown how a set-up can look like to replciate from two masters to one slave. Caution: Use these informations with care!!!

2007 is already looking like a great conference year. In the upcoming year, I've decided to diversify the conferences I attend in order to meet new people, address new communities and in general increase PHP's exposure in new places.

As always, the period before and after the holiday season is quiet, but towards the end of February things pick up rapidly. Here's what I've already got on my schedule:

AjaxWorld Conference & Expo - …

More Customer Momentum Around the Microsoft-Novell Agreement, Novell / Microsoft (Press Release)

JasperSoft announces reaches 5,000 customers as momentum for Open Source Business Intelligence Accelerates, JasperSoft (Press Release)

OpenMFG Follows ERP Upgrade with Open Source Report Writer, OpenMFG (Press Release)

ZRM for MySQL is Now Available for Ubuntu, Zmanda (Press Release)

Trolltech releases Qtopia 4.2.0, Trolltech (Press …

New MySQL Administrator and Migration Toolkit released - Find a bug and win an iPod!

I just received great news today. Eben Moglen has agreed to keynote the conference. He joins Matthew Szulik (CEO, Red Hat), Marc West (CIO, H&R Block), Marten Mickos (CEO, MySQL), and one other IT executive (that I can't name just yet) as our distinguished keynotes for the conference. If you haven't heard Eben speak, you're in for a treat. He is masterful, and will seriously challenge a lot of conventional thinking about what "open source" means, and how freedom contributes to capital.

This complements a speaking faculty that also includes senior IT executives from Activision, AIG, Bank of America, Davis Polk Wardwell LLP, US Department of Defense, E*Trade, H&R Block, and others, as well as senior executives from leading industry players like MySQL, Alfresco, SugarCRM, Oracle, Microsoft, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray & Cary, Intel, Olliance Group, Red Hat, Matrix Partners, Mayfield Fund, and a range of others.

This is, hands down, …