Recently I got to spend a day with Jan Kneschke at his home in Kiel, Germany. This was an excellent opportunity to interact directly with a fellow MySQL employee and resident expert in several fields. Doing this on my own vacation time enabled me to control what I wanted to achieve.

Jan uses Linux, Windows and Mac OS/X all actively and with Synergy enables a single keyboard and mouse to work seamlessly across his three screens. I knew you could do this, just last year I tried to find out the software that could do it without obvious success.

Of interest was our discussion in English, while he was also communicating on IRC in German during the day. Being multi-lingual …

You have to love error messages some times. Today in MySQL is was “ERROR 1289 (HY000): The ‘UNKNOWN’ feature is disabled;”

What was even more interesting is the error message and indeed the error number changed across different versions. I took the time to also review the error in the current versions of 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0.

5.0.37/5.0.51a - ERROR 1289 (HY000): The ‘InnoDB’ feature is disabled; you need MySQL built with ‘InnoDB’ to have it working
5.1.19/5.1.23/6.0.4 - ERROR 1286 (42000): Unknown table engine ‘InnoDB’
6.0.0 - ERROR 1289 (HY000): The ‘UNKNOWN’ feature is disabled; you need MySQL built with ‘UNKNOWN’ to have it working

You can read more at Bug #29373

Not sure during my vacation which part of the creative brain has taken over, but I’ve become rather obsessed with marketing graphics and associated words being used across the MySQL and Sun MySQL websites, (See previous examples here and here).

Here are a number of more interesting references from the front page of the www.mysql.com site.

• The MySQL website now has a MySQL/Sun logo, noting it starts with the MySQL logo first.
• MySQL & SUN Come together. Freedom & Innovation Fast, innovative, open database solution now with world class service and support (dolphin jumping at sunset)
• Unlimited Possibilities. Deploy an unlimited number of MySQL …

Yesterday I mentioned the new The official Sun-MySQL WebSite. It interested me with the navigation, graphics and content used to describe MySQL.

Greg of One Free Voice in a comment raised a very valid question, he could not find the MySQL Reference Manual, see comments. (I should also point out Greg it is no shame to reference the MySQL manual even daily, I’m an expert in the field and I easily reference the manual multiple times a week, and for reference the single most important page for me is Option and Variable Reference. I’ve also forgotten when using multiple languages in MySQL what is OFF/ON, simple solution is in the mysql client go SELECT ON; and see it it’s 1 or 0.)

Well, I …

As already reported the deal is done (see Sun Press Release, Kaj - Ambassador to Sun comments). I’ve had a look at the Official Sun-MySQL website.

Here is a review of the interesting words and images on the new site.

• Overview - Ultimate Scalability for the Web Economy (dolphin & sunset)
• Features - It Just works (windsurfer with island view)
• Tech Specs - Celebrate the Possibilities (skydiver on snowboard)
• Perspectives - Open, Fast, and Free Just Got Better (snowboarders viewing the mountain scape)
• Support - Unbeatable Duo - Open Source and Global Support (couple showing the V symbol)
• Training - Get …

The problem

Hands up those that don’t monitor their production MySQL web server. I’m a little surprised by this, but I’ve visited several clients that have absolutely no monitoring other then “the customers will tell us when something is wrong”. The lack of system monitoring is one of the topics in my book “101 ways to screw up a successful startup”.

Why is monitoring important? First it can tell you when something is wrong, most monitoring systems introduce some level of constraints that trigger notifications via email, SMS or red flashing screens. Second, and I consider more important, is it allows you to analyze change and compare results over time. Let’s say you added more memory to your server, and then remembered to also increase the MySQL buffers appropriately. How much improvement did it make? Rather then “it seems faster”, you can have hard and fast numbers to back it up.

The …

There has been plenty of press this week regarding Microsoft making a bid for Yahoo. This week the Wall Street Journal Article From Uncertain Future To Leading Yahoo Bid has prompted me to the following observations. I quote several points:

The bid, he said on the call, is “the next major milestone in Microsoft’s companywide transformation” to incorporate online services.

as Microsoft pushes the bid and, if successful, tries to meld Yahoo with Microsoft.

Microsoft had been negotiating to buy online ad company DoubleClick Inc. but lost that deal to Google, which paid $3.1 billion. Microsoft in May countered, spending $6 billion on online ad company aQuantive Inc.

While Microsoft should continue investing in its own online services, it …

I read yesterday in The Wall Street Journal an interesting article in Personal Technology, “Solid-state drives challenge hard drives in speed, but not value”. While the title does sum up nothing new, the barrier to entry to embracing new technology is always cost, and early adopters may not have deeper pockets, but it’s also about being a alpha geek.

As the article states “Solid-state drives have some key advantages. Because that lack moving parts, they are faster, draw less power, and harder to damage and are quieter”. It also backed this up with some results.

What I did not realize, is the new MacBook Air has a 80GB HHD version at $1,799 and as 64G SSD version at $2,798. Testing showed that there was little difference in battery life between these models, however with the …

I have been noticeably absent on my comments in this topic, something I was pinged about yet again today by another colleague.
Did I have nothing to say? No. It’s just I’ve not been able to say much, or actually do anything in the past 7 days due to strong bought of the flu which has kept me in bed near 5 days straight (coincidently aligning perfectly with MySQL’s recent ACM. Go figure that luck).

So what are my thought’s here. (Ok, I’m going to waffle a bit with my point of view, but my key technical points for those of you that just want that, scroll down to the next section heading)

Overall I believe it’s a good thing, on the surface and at the moment. As mentioned MySQL was on an IPO path, I’d would have liked the option to buy my own MySQL shares, be part of a company that got to that point (have worked for 2 failed startup Internet companies previously). I think there would have been many a proud MySQL …

Diary: January 21st 2008 - Martin Luther King Day (Day doctor’s practices are closed BTW.)

“I have a dream”, poetic . Actually I have thumping 5 day straight headache but that’s another story.

I have a dream for MySQL Camp III. A 48 hour Global Hackfest. I ran this by Jay over Thanksgiving, to get back to more the purpose of the Camp, for hackers, coders and the very experience to get to together to share their skills, and for those at the top of our respective game to learn just a little more. MySQL Camp II was a success to attendees in general, but of little value to the experts.

I hope to get us middle to advanced ground. Here is an overview.

• 48 hour event
…