Keeping It Simple
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The Next-Gen Databases
A user recently asked: I’m learning traditional Relational Databases (with PostgreSQL) and doing some research I’ve come across some new types of databases. CouchDB, Drizzle, and Scalaris to name a few, what is going to be the next database technologies to deal with? SQL is a language for querying and manipulating relational databases. SQL is…
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Verifying a Company Uses Best Practices
A user recently asked how to use the Joel Test in an interview, to confirm that a software company practices what they preach with regard to professional software development habits: I’ve got an interview with a company that claims to score a 12 on the Joel Test. […] What are some ways of determining if…
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Do I really need version control?
A user recently asked: I read all over the internet (various sites and blogs) about version control. How great it is and how all developer NEED to use it because is a god bless. Here is the question: do I really need this? … I usually work alone (freelancer) and I had no client that…
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SQL Antipatterns Tutorial at the MySQL Conf & Expo 2009
My tutorial proposal was accepted, so I’ll be speaking April 20 at the MySQL Conference & Expo 2009 in Santa Clara. My tutorial is “SQL Antipatterns Strike Back.” SQL Antipatterns are frequent blunders committed by software developers, both novice and expert. I gave a similar tutorial last year, and I think it was well-received. I’m…
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Enough is enough, PlanetMySQL
Lately planetmysql.com has shown an increasing amount of commercial promotion for Sun products. Many recent articles included in this supposedly MySQL-related feed aggregator have nothing to do with MySQL. Now I see an article included in the feed from ComputerWorld, about database researcher David Dewitt getting a job at Microsoft. Not only is this non-MySQL-related…
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Building MySQL from Bazaar
I wanted to try using MySQL source from its new VCS, Bazaar, and I saw Daniel Fischer’s extremely helpful post “Getting started with Bazaar for MySQL code“. Thanks Daniel! Downloading using Bazaar is indeed slow, as Daniel warns. I am constrained to 1MBps ADSL, and the intial download took quite a bit of time. I…
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ActiveRecord does not suck
I’ve been reading a few blog postings such as Kore Nordmann’s ActiveRecord sucks and Mike Seth’s ActiveRecord sucks, but Kore Nordmann is wrong. ActiveRecord is fine. It is a tool that does just what it’s designed to do. What sucks is when developers try to make it do other things than what it’s intended to do. I…
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SQL Antipatterns slides
Monday I gave a presentation at the MySQL User Conference in Santa Clara. I uploaded my presentation materials as a PDF to my website. It’s available under the Creative Commons 2.0 license for non-commercial, no derivative use. Download the PDF at http://www.karwin.com/downloads/SQL_Antipatterns_MySQLUC2008.pdf
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Speaking at the MySQL Conference
It’s time for the 2008 MySQL Conference. This year should be especially interesting. Sun announced they would acquire MySQL on Jan. 16 – fewer than eight weeks ago (I bet it doesn’t seem that way to the folks involved). The deal was closed only Feb. 26, and I’m sure there are still months of work…
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TDD lesson from Sudoku
I am a Sudoku addict. I like to analyze the logic strategies for solving these puzzles. I even gave a presentation at OSCON 2006 about using SQL to solve Sudoku puzzles. The image I’m including is a screenshot from jigsawdoku.com, copyright 2008 by Rachel Lee and Gideon Greenspan. This is my favorite Sudoku web interface…
Got any book recommendations?