XKCD (as usual) makes a very good point – this time about password strength, and I reckon it’s something app developers need to consider urgently. Geeks can debate the exact amount of entropy, but that’s not really the issue: insisting on mixed upper/lower and/or non-alpha and/or numerical components to a user password does not really improve security, and definitely makes life more difficult for users.

So basically, the functions that do a “is this a strong password” should seriously reconsider their approach, particularly if they’re used to have the app decide whether to accept the password as “good enough” at all.

Update: Jeff Preshing has written an xkcd password generator. Users probably should choose their own four …

A little challenge for you… given an existing app that does not know about separate master/slave connections, and you want to enable working in a replicated infrastructure. Simply redirecting all SELECTs to the slave connection will not work. Why?

Hint: there are at least two reasons, depending on other factors. There may be more.

Comments are set to be moderated so providing answers will not spoil it for others. I’ll leave it run for a bit and then approve all comments.

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

seventh entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Using Page Fragments".

In this tutorial, you use NetBeans IDE 6.5 to create an application that includes two JSF 1.2 (Woodstock) page fragment components. One fragment holds the application's logo. The second fragment holds links for navigating between the pages in the application.

A new look to a popular tutorial. Cheers!

--James

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

This sixth entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Performing Inserts, Updates, and Deletes (CRUD)".

This tutorial shows you how to use NetBeans IDE 6.5 and JSF 1.2 (Woodstock) components to build a web application that can create, retrieve, update, and delete database rows. The application provides a drop-down list of master data along with a synchronized detail table. Users of the application can add to, update, and delete the records in the detail table and from its associated database.

MySQL is the database used in this version of the tutorial.

This is the …

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

This fifth entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Building a Tree From Database Data".

This tutorial shows you how to dynamically build a tree structure from data in a database. Using NetBeans IDE 6.5, you build a two-page application, the first page of which includes a JSF 1.2 (Woodstock) Tree component. You populate the first-level nodes in the Tree with names from a database, and the second-level nodes with the trips for that person. The trip nodes are links to a second page, which displays the details for that trip.

MySQL is the database used in this version of the tutorial.

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

This fourth entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Using Databound Components to Access a Database".

In this tutorial, you use NetBeans IDE 6.5 to create and deploy a web application that displays master-detail data from a database that is packaged with the IDE. In the application, you select a person from a JSF 1.2 (Woodstock) drop-down list, and the application displays a table that shows all the trip records for that person.

MySQL is the database used in this version of the tutorial.

A new look to an existing tutorial. Be sure to check this one out.

…

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

This third entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Developing a Visual Web JSF Application".

In this tutorial, you use the NetBeans IDE and JSF 1.2 (Woodstock) components to create and run a simple web application, Hello Web. The example application asks you to input a name and then displays a message that uses that name. At first, you implement this page with an input field. Then you replace the input field with a drop-down list from which the user can choose a name. The drop-down list is populated with names from a database table.

MySQL is the database used in this version of the …

Hi all,

Today I'd like to continue a blog series in which I highlight Web application tutorials for NetBeans 6.5. A few changes have been made to tutorials, among which is the featuring of MySQL as the database of choice.

This second entry in the series will cover the tutorial, "Creating an Ajax Application with Script.aculo.us", which is based on a blog entry by Arun Gupta.

This tutorial demonstrates the usage of the Java Persistence APIs to implement server side pagination (recommended for large sets of data) and to get and display the results in a text field featuring Ajax functionality. Ajax is a technology that combines (X)HTML, JavaScript, and CSS with the power of XmlHttpRequest in the creation of RIAs (Rich Internet Applications). Script.aculo.us is a set of JavaScript libraries to enhance the user …

If you haven't heard of Digsby yet, you have probably been living in some kind of a virtual cave or have no friends. Digsby is a multi-network instant messenger application, similar to Trillian, Pidgin (GAIM), or Miranda. I said 'similar', so what makes Digsy special? Reviews I read so far don't give the real reasons and don't dive into the features in depth. Instead, you get a standard load of marketing BS and in the end to you, the user, Digsby may end up being "yet another IM program." Some reviews describe certain features, but so far I haven't seen one that highlighted THE MAIN REASON why Digsby is different. And may I preface it with: finally somebody got a clue. I never before wanted to write about any other IM client, which already indicates that on the "this is the most awesome meter ever" meter, Digsby is floating somewhere at the top. …

• http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2008/public/schedule/detail/874
• presented by Charles Lee of Hyperic
• Hyperic has the best performance with MySQL out of MySQL, Oracle, and Postgres in their application
• I suddenly remember hyperic was highly recommended above nagios in MySQL Conference Liveblogging: Monitoring Tools (Wednesday 5:15PM)
• performance bottleneck
  • the database
    • CPU
    • memory
  • IO …