So, yesterday, just one day after writing a short article about ENUM and SET and having it pointed out to me that data does not have a place in data structures (which is absolutely correct!), what did a developer want me to do at work but change an existing ENUM to add one item?

Well, having learned a bit, I suggested an alternative. The performance of our site depends on using ENUMs in the way I described, so we must continue to use them. Additionally, I was listening to Robin Schumacher making comments about how some folks “over-normalize” their data and need to do too many JOINs as a result.

Technically speaking, it’s not possible to “over-normalize” a data structure. But I’ll let that slide, because I know exactly what he meant.

At any rate, the alternative I suggested was to add …

Yesterday was the day that the European of the Year award was published in Brussels. Florian was awarded the European Campaigner of the Year title. European Voice reports:

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is the European of the Year

Brussels 29 November 2005: The Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker was declared “European of the Year” at an awards ceremony in Brussels hosted by European Voice this evening. Juncker, nominated for bucking the trend on the European Constitution, secured a yes-vote from his citizens after voters in France and the Netherlands had rejected the treaty.

European Voice, published by The Economist Group, is the leading European weekly newspaper. A distinguished panel of opinion leaders from across the EU - including three former Heads of State - selected the 50 nominees. The winners …

Larry Ellison, billionaire CEO of Oracle Corporation, has recently agreed to donate $100 million to charities.  The donation is part of a settlement recently approved by a California judge.  Ellison will have up to 90 days to identify the recipient of the donation and will have up to 5 years to make the donation.  Sounds like a win-win situation for Larry and the charities.

• CNet: …

for the non lisp hackers - this sets some c mode options depending on the name of the path to the source file.


;; run this for mysql source
(defun mysql-c-mode-common-hook () (setq indent-tabs-mode nil))

;; linux kernel style
(defun linux-c-mode-common-hook () linux-c-mode)

(setq my-c-mode-common-hook '(lambda ()
(turn-on-font-lock)
(setq comment-column 48)
)
)

;; predicates to check
(defvar my-style-selective-mode-hook nil)

(add-hook 'my-style-selective-mode-hook
'((string-match "MySQL" (buffer-file-name)) . mysql-c-mode-common-hook)
)

(add-hook 'my-style-selective-mode-hook
'((string-match "linux" (buffer-file-name)) . linux-c-mode-common-hook)
)

;; default hook
(add-hook 'my-style-selective-mode-hook
'(t . my-c-mode-common-hook) t)

;; find which hook to run …

The sieve of Eratosthenes finds prime numbers by creating a list of numbers, taking the smallest number in this list that is not stroken out and striking out all of its multiples, then going on to the next number that is not stroken out and so on.

For example, if the starting list is (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) (we do leave out 1, because it is not a prime), then the first number from the list is 2, and therefore 4, 6 and 8 cannot be primes and are removed from the list: 2 is prime, and the list is now (3, 5, 7, 9). Lowest number from the list is 3, and therefore 6 and 9 cannot be primes, leaving (5, 7) and so on.

Continue reading "Exploring stored …

I received an unexpected, but welcome, surprise in my email in-box today. Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies, emailed me to suggest a broader definition of an open source company. I've blogged this before, but not with the thoughtfulness that Greg's email evinces. (Tim O'Reilly has written on this before, as well.)

Is RightNow any less an open source company than Red Hat, which layers a "proprietary" certification/service offering on Linux? Or SugarCRM, which layers proprietary bits on open source? Or Novell? Or IBM? Or …

Wow, this really is too cool to believe!

I'm one of the lucky three grand prize winners in the You Make MySQL 5.0 Rock! contest. I bet that sounds cheesy, but I really never imagined I would be one of those lucky three. It goes without saying I'm very very pleased indeed! Brilliant!

I just want to say: Thank You! to the MySQL team, it's a great honour. And hey, Arjen, I didn't mind sucking up at all ;-), as a matter of fact, I can't wait until the next contest.

Well, now that I'm at it, I want to speak up in favour of a couple of MySQL community personalities that I respect and think highly of. To a large extent, my motivation to occupy myself with MySQL has to do with being inspired reading their posts on various MySQL forums, their blogs and in …