Diamond Notes

In case you haven’t heard, MySQL today released the next RC of 5.1.25. It is available to the community for download. Download it now and take it for a spin!!

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html

I finished uploading the backup presentation that I did last Monday at the Boston MySQL User’s Group. It is here http://www.paragon-cs.com/presentations. I cover the basics of backup/recovery and disaster planning. Total time is about an hour and three minutes. It was a lot of fun and the Bostonians seem to appreciate it. Thanks Sheeri for filming and editing!!

Hey everyone,

We are in the homestretch on the survey.  It will be up until June the 16th @ midnight EST.  Please take the time to fill it out if you have not done so already.  The more people who fill out the survey the better the results.  Take ten minutes to fill it out.  Doesn’t cost a thing and the results are priceless! Results of the survey will be published in the Summer issue of MySQL Magazine which will be available for download on July the 15th.

MySQL Users survey

I just posted a pdf of the slides from last nights presentation I did at the Boston MySQL Users Group. I thought the meeting went very well with a good turnout and a group who participated in the discussion. I will be posting a video in the next day or two so check back! [[UPDATE the presentation is at http://www.paragon-cs.com/presentations thanks Jason!!]]

Thanks Boston MUG!! It was fun.

And a special thanks to Colin Charles of Sun/MySQL fame. I asked him if I could borrow some information from a blog posting he had done on the new online backup features that are being incorporated into MySQL Server 6.0 (beginning with 6.0.5). He graciously allowed me to do so and it was cool to be able to look down the road at what DBAs will be able to do one day soon with online backups being built in and not an “add-on”.

Monday night I have the honor of speaking at the Boston MySQL Users Group. I will be talking about what I think is the most fundamental topic that a DBA needs to know — backups and recovery. It might be fundamental but it is also a subject that many people don’t understand. Join us for a great evening of pizza, meeting other MySQL’ers and a money back guarantee that I will give a great talk about backups!! Oh wait, there is no charge. Ah well, take a chance. We will have some fun!

The meeting is on MIT’s campus in building E51 room 372 (Cambridge, MA). The signup is here: http://mysql.meetup.com/137/

Looking forward to seeing you!

I landed in Boston this afternoon at a couple of minutes past one. Not sure if I went to the northeast part of the US when I was very young, but I haven’t been there since I can remember. Anyways, it was interesting. Traffic is something else and pedestrians seemingly just wander out into the road at random. Nice.

I am here to begin training for my new job. In July I will be opening an office for the Pythian Group (http://www.pythian.com) in Pensacola, FL. It is going to a great challenge. I will be here with Sheeri Cabral for two weeks and then travel to Ottawa for two weeks at corporate headquarters.

Tonight we went to a meeting that Sun put on somewhere here in Boston. I have no clue where .. we took the subway (two different lines) and then walked for a couple of blocks to a place called The Butcher Shop. It was a nice place. The meeting was a meet/greet type event for local people involved in the Sun world. There was some good discussion about MySQL, how it is being used and how to improve it. There was a panel of four people with Zack Urlocker from Sun/MySQL and two CEO’s from open-source based companies (sorry guys..I don’t remember your companies names..shame on me). Sheeri did a great job providing the MySQL community perspective.

It is good to know that Sun is taking the time to understand what people thinks about how to best develop MySQL. It isn’t a perfect process, but they are trying.

I will be offline for a few days.  This afternoon I leave Durham, North Carolina behind and going south once more to Pensacola, Florida — my hometown.  I am beginning a new job next week.  Since I haven’t asked if I can post about it I guess who my new employer is will remain anonymous for another few days.  Next Tuesday I will be flying up to the northeast corner of the U.S. to begin training.  Looking forward to it!

On another note..don’t forget the survey!  We are having great results but I would really like to ask everyone who uses MySQL in a professional role to please participate.  The larger the number of people who take ten minutes to fill out the survey the better the results.  Survey here: MySQL Survey

I would like to take a minute and publicly thank iContact (http://www.icontact.com) for the exciting work that I have done of late.  I had the honor to work with a talented group of people who are dedicated to their work.  Thanks all!!!

The survey is off and running!! As Mark Schoonover said, we have had over 100 surveys completed already. That is a great start. All good things seem to have challenges however and kwiksurveys, who is hosting the survey, has decided that this weekend would be great time to do upgrade to some newer faster servers. So that is good right? Well unfortunately they are saying the site will be down from Friday May 30th at 15:00 GMT through Monday June 1st, 09:00 GMT. So please keep this in mind!!

On towards 1000!!

With the extensive help of Mark Schoonover I have a survey online for those who use MySQL in their work. You might be a DBA or you might be a developer. If you use MySQL in your job I want your input!! I want as many people as possible to take the survey to get as accurate a picture of MySQL usage as I can. It will take less than ten minutes to take and this will help everyone to have a better idea of what is going on in the MySQL world.

I would encourage anyone to link to the survey to generate as much traffic as possible. I will have it online for three weeks, closing out the survey on June the 16th at midnight EST. The results of the survey will be published in the summer issue of MySQL magazine which will be available July the 15th.

The survey is hosted here: MySQL Magazine Survey

Thanks for your survey input!