First session of Tuesday morning at the MySQL Users Conference (2006) is Mike Hillyer and Arjen Lenz presenting An Introduction to Database Normalization and Joins.

Not a new subject for me, but I've heard good things about this presentation (has been given at a number of conferences) so want to see what it's about.

What is the overall idea with database normalization?

• 
  
• cure "spreadsheet syndrome"
  
• store minimal info
  
• remove redundancies
  
• remove anomalies (accidental differences because data is entered multiple times)
  
• restructure data
  

Presentation will cover the first three forms of normalization. Mike shows an example of a book table with lots of data piled up into single column rows.

First Normal Form

• all …

Today’s first session — “The Java Advantage in MySQL” by Philip Antoniades. I’ve seen Philip speak before (at the Boston MySQL Users Group) so I knew it was going to be good.

Enterprise level Java
Connector/J
Bulk of the code in Connector/J code is that it’s tested and works with most major application servers.
Pure Java
SSL

Entirely in-house code base (java/mysql)
open source, gpl
created by Mark Matthews
need java 1.4 to compile
small footprint driver

can set up config to cache prepared statements.

Profiling tools for developers:
Time executions
Time prepared statements
log prepare vs. execute occurrences (are you executing more than preparing?)

Debugging tools for developers:
Logging — StandardLogger …

The first conference day has started and I have uploaded a couple of photos.

The conference center entrance:

The opening session:

In reading Richard MacManus' Why Google is extending RSS, I couldn't help feeling that he was missing the point a bit. It's as if he was focusing on the small things ("Why RSS?") rather than looking at the bigger picture of where all this is going.

It's not about building an easier onramp to Google Base.

Well, it is. But, again, that's the small stuff.

GData is the realization of the future that Adam Bosworth spoke about at the 2005 MySQL Users Conference.

It just so happened that I re-listened to his talk a several weeks ago during a walk to the bank. Hearing it for the second time, I was much more receptive to his ideas about creating a simple and open replacement for all the …

All I had to do was fill in a speaker evaluation form from yesterday, and now I've won a radio shark and headphones. Nice.

Tags for this post: mysql mysqluc conference open source massive winnings
Related posts: I won a radio shark and …

All I had to do was fill in a speaker evaluation form from yesterday, and now I've won a radio shark and headphones. Nice.

Tags for this post: mysql conference mysqluc2006 conference open source massive winnings …

I know how much I hate data entry. So do the MySQL folks a favor — if you’re at the Users conference, fill out an evaluation form for the conference at:

http://www.oreilly.com/go/confeval

and a speaker evaluation for each session at:

http://www.oreilly.com/go/spkreval

It took me a while to find the links, so I’m posting them here. I find myself writing down comments during the talk anyway, so having the browser open and writing comments directly into the eval form is useful for me.

And you have your laptop with you anyway (you’re reading this, aren’t you?). So pop open a browser and spend 2 minutes after each presentation giving feedback. Who knows, you might win something too!

Mike writes a good summary of the MySQL Conference opening keynote State of the Dolphin: Interview with Kaj, Monty and David of MySQL.

I’d like to add just two comments.

Firstly, it was great to see community awards to Giuseppe, Roland, Marcus and Rasmus. Well done!

Second, it was a great thing to see on the slides a reference to Paul’s PBXT Transactional Storage Engine. A MySQL storage engine from the community. I’ve had a chance to meet Paul and have a number of great discussions with him. I wish him all the best, and I’m happy to contribute what I can to see his engine make it into the MySQL product in the future.

Tuesday’s Keynote speaking from the MySQL Users Conference including a presentation from Greg Gianforte of RightNow Technologies on “Bootstrapping: Starting an Open Source Business With Almost No Money!” Read More.

Taking directly from Greg’s presentation, here are some key points for bootstraping that meant something to me.

• Sales is Job #1
• Don’t spend Beyond Your Means
• There Is Always Another Way
• What is Your Noble Purpose?

Some great points. In summary, not having funds should not be an excuse, find another way . You just need to think creatively. I agree completely, thinking creatively is something I do well. Immerse yourself - talk to lots of people, …

Was just introduced in the keynote and looks kinda cool. It isn't packaged in Ubuntu yet, which is a shame...

Tags for this post: mysql mysqluc workbench sql ubuntu linux
Related posts: MySQL Workbench; Links from Rasmus' PHP talk; Off to the …