As part of both my UltimateLAMP side project, and my greater involvement with MySQL Workbench, I’ve been wanting to review and document the database schemas of Open Source products.

Indeed, as part of discussions with Mike Zinner of MySQL AB at the recent MySQL Users Conference, I suggested an idea used in the Java World, for example by Clover and Agitar, where to promote the usefullness of their respective tools (in this case code coverage), they provide results against Open Source Products. For an example check out Clover Examples.

With MySQL Workbench, to get some greater …

DaveM talks about Ingo’s new SMP lock validator for linux kernel

A note reminding me to go take a look and see what can be ripped out and placed into various bits of MySQL and NDB. Ideally, of course, it could be turned into a LD_PRELOAD for pthread mutexes.

Anybody who wants to look deeper into it before I wake up again is welcome to (and tell me what they find)

I am looking for a job starting this fall. By that time I should also hold a degree in computer science from the TU Berlin. My tasks on the job should be some how at least partially connected to open source and covering at a minimum 2 of the following 3 fields of expertise (in order of most preferred):

• SQL RDBMS like MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, PostGreSQL (especially portability and migration)
• Community Relations (helping companies work with people from the community and vice versa)
• PHP (preferably database driven intranet applications or frameworks)

I would prefer to be able to stay in Germany, specifically Berlin. Though its all a question of finding the right place and challenge. For example I have no problem telecommuting from home with occasional trips to an office; even for a few weeks now and then with a sleeping bag. Actually I …

Here are some steps involved. Using the current MySQL defacto engine InnoDB. Of course, Falcon, PBXT and others will enable alternative engines to be used.

Convert Table Storage Engine Types

$ mysql -u[user] -p[password] [database] -e "SHOW TABLES" | grep -v "Tables_in" | sed -e "s/^/ALTER TABLE /" | sed -e "s/$/ ENGINE=InnoDB;/" > upgrade.sql
$ mysql -u[user] -p[password] [database] < upgrade.sql

NOTE: This may not work for all tables, for example those with FULLTEXT indexes will fail.

For the introduction of Referential Integrity we need to ensure the following.

• Each Foreign Key column should have an index. Prior to 4.1 I think this was a requirement, however it’s a good general practice regardless for SQL performance.
• The datatype must match between Primary Key and Foreign Keys. The most obvious oversight is normally UNSIGNED, however you also for example have INT …

Following my implementation of UltimateLAMP, read heaps more at this thread, I undertook to provide customisations of a MediaWiki Installation. Here is the first lesson that you can undertake if you wish to beautify the default MediaWiki Installation.

For the purposes of this demonstration, I am going to help out Jay & Colin and propose a restyle the MySQL forge to fit in with the default Home Page. Hopefully you will see it there soon!

For the full lesson Read More Here

Lesson 1 - Updating the default Monobook.css

There are several different ways to make style changes, the simpliest is to customise the system …

I won an iPod at php|tek. Since Apple does not support Vorbis Ogg my options were either to install some third party firmware or to sell the iPod. I went with option #3 and gave it to a friend of mine who is moving to South Africa for an internship that will have him traveling a fair bit. Since he is still using mp3 he got it as a farewell present. Now other friends have noted an interest in iPods as well. Since apparently outside of IT iPods giveaways are less common I will try to get each of them an iPod with my awesome computing skills (Ok, I won the first one with drinking alcohol, but I still have not really acquired the taste for drinking so ..).

Anyways the purpose of this post is to highlight some issues in MySQL that will hopefully get fixed in …

As I discussed earlier in A picture can tell a thousand words, I outlined briefly what the intention of UltimateLAMP was for. Let me spill the beans so to speak.

What is UltimateLAMP?

UltimateLAMP is a fully functional environment allowing you to easily try and evaluate a number of LAMP stack software products without requiring any specific setup or configuration of these products. UltimateLAMP runs as a Virtual Machine with VMware Player (FREE). This demonstration package also enables the recording of all user entered information for later reference, indeed you will find a wealth of information already available within a number of the Product Recommendations starting with the supplied Documentation.

My executive punch line with the “right” buzz words is:

You have heard of all the hype in …

Expect a longer post in the near future on upgrade procedures. For now enjoy this quote from a gentoo user illustrating the worst way to upgrade.

linolium: is there a way to wipe every single table and start over from scratch?
linolium: ( the upgrade from mysql 4 to 5 didn’t go as smoothly as planned
me: did you read the upgrade notes?
linolium: no, I just hoped that portage would be kind enough to do those things for me

I’m a keen advocate of MySQL. However, while I use it and promote it within my limited IT circles, I often wonder how MySQL can get better traction and exposure, especially within both the industry sectors and physical locations where I am presently.

This presents a dilemma, it’s almost like the term that has been used in Venture Capital, and in the well named book, Crossing the Chasm. I see and believe that MySQL already has good penetration within certain industry sectors, specifically Internet Based, Startup Based, or Small Based segments. However, I’m sure within other commercial sectors, MySQL has either a token exposure or little to no exposure at all, at least in the circles I mix with.

So how can MySQL the product and MySQL AB the company get both better exposure and …

I’ve started now to actively use more of the MySQL Workbench, MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser and MySQL Migration Toolkit. I am traditionally a very command line person, and it’s important that these skills are never put on the back burner. For all those budding Developers and DBA’s you need these skills, expecially for any MySQL Certification.

To indicate my indent, I’ve even created a new blog category specifically for MySQL GUI Products.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Mike Zinner from MySQL AB really …