Sometimes we may need to know geocode of some specific postal location. For example, you have some shops catalogue and want to show shop locations on the map. Then, you will need to ask some service about map marker coordinates. If geocode service is not available or it can’t parse provided address, you will not be able to show map to your users. To solve such problem I’ve created small PHP-module, that helps me to get reliable results from set of miscellaneous geocoding services.

As for now, module can use Google Maps API, Yahoo Maps Services, Geocoder.us and …

activerecord now supports mysql 4.1 (and later) out of the box whether you are using new or old-style passwords, because they applied my patch for handling the related protocol changes correctly.

(it?s not quite out-of-the-box yet ? the fix will appear in the next major release of rails, i guess. it?s fixed in their repository.)

now if only the upstream developer would show signs of life, and get that fixed. i?d complain about that more, but there?s a lot of windows around here.

Our good friends at MySQL and Pentaho are hosting a webinar about ETL for MySQL using Pentaho Kettle. 

ETL is a multipurpose technology, from straight data integration to data migration to reporting systems.  Kettle is primarily used in building Data Warehouse/Data Marts but can also be used for doing other useful MySQL admin tasks. 

Matt Casters and Lance Walter will give you the low down on Kettle:
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/web-seminars/etl-using-pentaho-kettle.php

I recommend it, even if you’re not interested in MySQL.  You’ll be surprised that an Open Source ETL tool is so visual and easy to use you may consider it for all kind of tasks.

There's a good article from LinuxDevices that quotes IDC on sizing the open source market. IDC did a study of 5,000 developers in 116 countries showing that open source is being used by over 70% of developers. (Ok, so clearly there is still some work to be done!)

While this statistic may not be startling to those who have been using open source for years, it indicates that open source continues to become more mainstream.  Over 50% of the organizations had open source software in production, and that number seems poised for more growth given all the development usage.  It seems obvious to me that the next generation of killer applications will be based on open source.  Lets face it, once the majority of developers embrace it, it's all over but the shouting.

• LinuxDevices: …

What this project aims at is to stimulate the implementation/adoption of free software, open source software and open standards in the Bulgarian Government Administration (BGA) and other sectors of management, in the economics and at home.

There will be a reading of the EU requirements and a review on which of the open standards are suitable for the current status of the BGA. The project has the objective to prepare the migration from present-day to open source EU recommended technologies. We will create a special guide that will focus on how to migrate, how to make this process easier and how to create the prerequisites for doing so.
We will review all of the available OS and software possibility, covered by this project that can be used in the BGA and other sectors.

We need supporters and fresh ideas. Please let me know if you are able to help us with your experience, knowledge or by other way.

The (probably and hopefully) last beta versions of XAMPP for Windows and Linux are available for public download in our XAMPP BETA area. New in this version are: Apache 2.2.3, MySQL 5.0.24a, PHP 4.4.4 and 5.1.6, and phpMyAdmin 2.8.2.4.

Beta releases are only for testing purposes. We would very much appreciate it if you could test this release and let us know if you run into any problems.

If no problems are found the final version will follow this weekend.

Follow me to the XAMPP BETA area

By nat

We build our conferences to reflect our Radar, and EuroOSCON is no different. Here's who'll be keynoting in Brussels in two weeks' time:

Tim O'Reilly

Tim's going to talk more about the challenges facing open source. From services as an alternative to the distribution that triggers open source licenses, to software that's useless without its accompanying data, and other facets of the 2006 software world that weren't issues in 1996.

Tor Norretranders

The conference focuses on user-generated content, applying the skills and lessons of open source beyond software. Tor has written about generosity, which appears to be a key part of open source.

Steve Coast

Steve wowed people at Where …

InnoDB uses its own mutexes and read-write locks instead of POSIX-mutexes pthread_mutex*, the main reason for that is performance, but InnoDB's implementation isn't ideal and on modern SMP boxes can cause serious performance problems.
Let's look on InnoDB mutex (schematic for simplification):

PLAIN TEXT CODE:

1. spin_loop:
2. for (i=0; i<innodb_spin_locks;i++)
3.   if (mutex_try_lock()) return; // success
4.  
5. // we are here if spin loop was not successful
6. reserve_cell in array of cell;
7. wait on condition_variable in reserved cell;

innodb_spin_locks is configurable via system variable innodb_sync_spin_loops (default value is 20)

There we have:
1. Spin-loop - InnoDB uses spin-loop in hopes thread locked mutex is very fast and will release mutex while current thread runs in …

(See bigger version with better quality at https://chorizo-scanner.com/flash_morcilla )

This video shows you how Morcilla, our brand new PHP extension, lets Chorizo! have a look inside your application on the server.

We are able to hook into every PHP function and trace the payloads of Chorizo!. By default, Morcilla hooks into the whole MySQL function family, fopen, mail, include/require/include_once/require_once, preg_* and others. With a ZendEngine patch, we are able to trace unset variables and a lot more.

See the video how it works (Google Video, YouTube). Check out the …

The (probably and hopefully) last beta versions of XAMPP for Windows and Linux are available for public download in our XAMPP BETA area. New in this version are: Apache 2.2.3, MySQL 5.0.24a, PHP 4.4.4 and 5.1.6, and phpMyAdmin 2.8.2.4.

Beta releases are only for testing purposes. We would very much appreciate it if you could test this release and let us know if you run into any problems.

If no problems are found the final version will follow this weekend.

Follow me to the XAMPP BETA area