Dear Reader,
Seeing my recent superficial review of MySQL Workbench and knowing that I like SQLyog, my buddies over at webyog pinged me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing SQLyog also. Knowing me as they do (I’ve been a beta tester for several years) they did the one thing they knew would get my attention, they gave me an enterprise license. (Actually, they replaced the one I had and had lost)
Dear Reader,
Those of you who know me, know I am an old school database guy. One of the things I miss from my pre-web programming days is sitting down with an Entity-Relationship Diagramming tool and painting a picture of the database I want for my application. Since moving to MySQL as my primary database, I’ve tried out several ERDs. I’ve loved at least one, hated most others for either lack of features or price tag – or both – or been generally just unimpressed. Recently I got an email from MySQL saying the latest version of their ERD tool had been released. Honestly, it had been a while since I had taken a look at it so I thought maybe I’d give it a go. Below is what I consider a very superficial review of this tool and a couple of conclusions, both good and bad.
Dear Reader,
I’ve been working on a project for a while now and it’s finally ready for testing. Queuebuddy.com started life as a way to help me keep track of movies I want to see but don’t feel like paying to see in the theater. (If you are really curious, email me, I’ll give you what Wife 1.23 refers to as “The Hollywood Speech”) Anyhow, you can register, login and grab the bookmarklet. Then when you are surfing imdb.com you can click on the bookmarklet when you are on a page of a movie you want to see on DVD> When it comes out on DVD.
There’s no fee, there’s no commitment and other than an email when the DVD comes out, we won’t even bug you. So if your interested, drop by and try it out.
Two notes:
Oh yeah, as with every web 2.0 property, this is a BETA. There will be bugs and I’m a programmer, not a designer, so it’s pretty ugly right now.
One final note, it’’s written using the newly released Zend Framework 1.0. I’m working on a tutorial for DevZone that shows some of the things I learned.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
Dear Reader,
Ok, I’ve got 2 really primo jobs hanging out in my mail box and before I start pimping them on CL and elsewhere on the net, I thought I’d post them here for my friends or friends of friends.
I am helping a friend and previous employer, Jupiter Hosting. (www.jupiterhosting.com), find a few good people to flesh out their operations team. The first thing they are looking for is a
“Unix Systems Administrator | WEEKEND DAY SHIFT OPERATIONS”.
Now first, I’ve got to limit this San Jose/Santa Clara/Silly-con Valley area people as this is an on-site position.
To fill this position you will have to be fluent in FreeBDS and Most current Linux distros. There’s a hardware support involved in this job. (rack, cable and IP servers) You’ll also do a little troubleshooting of hardware. (backup the hard drive, pull it out, fling it against the wall, install a new HD and restore the backup, re-rack the server before the original harddrive is finished spinning down. the normal Herculean efforts that Admins perform on a daily basis at a hosting company)
The job is mainly software support though. You need a thorough (and yes, I mean seriously thorough) understanding of the following packages:
There are other qualifications and restrictions. Drop me an email and ask for the complete job description if you are interested.
This is a great position and a super company to work for. I personally know a lot of the people on the Ops teams and you won’t find a better group to work with.
They are also looking for an “Operations Manager”. Someone who knows all of that but can also manage the teams.
These type of positions don’t come around often. I’ll be posting them around the net in the next few days but if you want to be considered for one of them early, send me your resume IN A TEXT FILE to calhr@1100tech.com. Make sure you specify “Admin” or “Ops Manager” in the subject line.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
p.s. NO AGENCIES! and sorry, no telecommute.
Dear Reader,
Since it was requested, here is a screenshot of the page in action. 
This is a package that came to me recently. Just so you know, packages can be tracked for up to 365 days after delivery. (I guess that’s in case you forgot you got it.)
Anyhow, I’m working on the AJAX version of this. I also implemented caching of the cities and geocodes since most cities don’t move. (Yes, I know, except for Springfield and if that’s the first thing that came to YOUR mind then you really need to stop watching the Simpsons so much) That’s why, if you put in the package ID in the screen shot, it’ll go pretty quick because it only has to ask UPS for the info and the Google geocoding comes from the database. One interesting side effect, as more people use this, I’m planning on building a map that shows things like:
Things like that. Why? Because I can. (Why is not really important here, this is a hobby!)
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
=C=
Dear Reader,
I finally found time to write a mashup. Actually this started out as a project for a customer and this page is just an unbranded version of the one I gave to them.
http://www.calevans.com/trackups.php is the URL. It’s really very simple. You put in a valid UPS package id and it tracks it via UPS’s API and then displays a Google map of where your package is/was.
It was fun to write. I’m still working out some kinks in version 1. Version 2, which is about 50% done is an all AJAX version. Once I get it done I’ll probably write up a quickie article on how I did it. (Like anyone with Google and half a brain can’t figure it out.)
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
Dear Reader,
OSCON is a mind field. There are way too many Zealots here for civil discourse to take place. it’s no wonder tech conventions have to serve so much alcohol. Here are 2 observations.
1: I made the mistake of mentioning to someone that I prefer using MySQL over it’s open source rival. The gentleman (I’m being nice) verbally lunged at me. His words were “I only use *the tool* that works.”
Hey, Mr. Twentysomthing, you were the only tool in the room at that moment. I was designing databases before you were born. I’ve worked on everything from small 30-table databases to multi-terabyte systems. I certainly do not need your help in selecting the proper RDBMS for my projects. I won’t hold it against your technology that it’s represented by people like you. The product is good, it’s just not the most popular. Being rude to people is NOT the way to make it more popular.
Oh and it’s ok to be polite to someone who doesn’t agree with you, ass-hole.
2: I was wandering the tradeshow floor looking for technologies I wanted to write about. At one place, I asked what underlying technologies they supported. He rattled off the usual list and then said the strangest thing. He said
“Pretty much everything except ‘technology X’, I can’t stand ‘technology X’”.
I smiled politely and moved on. But here’s a hint to vendors, know who you are talking to. Not that I’m special or important, but if you are talking to someone who works for ‘company Y’ and ‘company y’ is very closely associated to ‘technology x’, even to the point of having their corporate tagline be “The ‘technology X’ company” maybe you can skip the “I hate ‘technology X’ speech.” It really doesn’t make any difference to me.
If you don’t support it, that’s fine, I’m not a Zealot like Mr. #1 above. Explaining that you hate “technology X” does not win you any points with me. It does make me wonder though if you are nothing more than a market-roid reading from your corporate talking points instead of a developer who has actually implemented ‘technology X’ and knows why his company doesn’t support it.
As always, the views posted on THIS blog are my own. They do not reflect the views of my employer, my family or the voices in my head. If your gonna be hating because of them, hate me.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
This is my blog. Sometimes it's my deep thoughts, sometimes it's a journal of things I've learned. Every now and then it's my box of shattered dreams. Most of the time though, it's just the place I like to write. Sit with me as I show you some postcards from my life. While you are here, do me a favor and leave a comment.
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