I’ve been using mySql for many years now for small to medium-large projects. Its a fantastic free database that performs incredibly well. I especially want to tip my hat to the developers for mySql’s extraordinary performance with full-text searching released with 4.0.
However, recently I’ve been loading some databases with a large amount of data and I started to notice an exponential degradation in performance once the dataset started to get large (over 80,000 records).
I thought that I probably just wasn’t doing something right even though I am very concious of open database connections and make good use of indexes and database caching. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to chat with my favorite blogger Jeremy Zawodny at the fantastic Yahoo Search party (very San Francisco Bay Area, Red Herring, loads of venture capital, USWeb/CKS, late ’90s feeling kind of corporate party) for the WebmasterWorld geeks in Vegas this month and I asked him about my problem.
Essentially he clued me in and said that mySql wasn’t really built for enterprise level databasing and that I needed to look elsewhere. I had a too many few free Yahoo drinks and forgot to ask a good question. Hey Jeremy. Is Postgres any better?
Anybody have a copy of Oracle I can bum? 
I wanted to run rsync on a Windows XP machine for some incremental backups of a server so I installed Cygwin. A few days later I decided to just setup a cron for rsync on my Mac at home so I uninstalled Cygwin.
It started the uninstall process with no confirmation. When it was done removing files and registry entries it started killing all running applications and restarting without asking me! After it finished rebooting I couldn’t login with my normal user account. So I logged in as admin and discovered that my normal user was gone! Completely removed.
Beware of cygwin.
Editing the homescreen on a Microsoft smart phone simply involves copying one of the standard Windows homescreen files (*.home.xml found in \Windows), editing it and changing the title tag to something like “Tony’s Home Screen”, and saving it as a new file in \Storage\Application Data\Home. The file has to be named something like this : tonys.home.xml (ending in .home.xml).
Once you’ve dropped the new file onto the phone simply click Start, 9, 1, 4 (Home Screen) and select the Home Screen Layout you defined in the title tag.
I had to replace my phone recently and after much research I settled on the Audiovox SMT 5600. This phone is incredible. The processor is fast and the data comes in pretty fast from AT&T so surfing the web is truly an enjoyment. The browser handles plain HTML websites beautifully.
The level of customization that comes with Windows Mobile 2003 is unlike anything I’ve experienced with a cell phone thus far. I even edited the standard homescreen from AT&T. I replaced the “mMode” links to URLs I actually care about (Google, raleighlist movie listings, Google news, and a personal links page).
The only disappointment so far is that synchronizing contacts, email, and calendar via Bluetooth is nearly impossible. Microsoft ActiveSync does not support Bluetooth syncing but I was able to get it to work. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make ActiveSync use a Serial Cable for syncing and set the COM port of the serial cable to match the COM port for Bluetooth syncing on the phone. Once you are connected it works beautifully but as soon as you walk out of range the link is severed and it is difficult to get it connected again. I’ve given up and use the USB cable only for sync and moving files.
UPDATE ON BLUETOOTH SYNCING : New version of ActiveSync solves the problem!
Here is what raleighlist.org Chapel Hill movie listings looks like in the phone browser:
Everything else I like/dislike about the SMT-5600:
* MSN Messanger is nice and fast
* The camera takes darn good pictures in the daytime
* The camera takes lousy pictures in the low light
* Windows Media 10 plays video and music as smooth as a PC
* I just bought a 512 MB miniSD for lots of storage
* Photo caller ID is handy
* Voice Dialing is much more accurate than the Samsung I used to have
* Camcorder takes pretty darn good videos for such a tiny device
* Sound quality when making calls is good
* Battery life is great
* Get the unlimited data for $25. The other plans are too small.
* Cell phone can be tethered to a laptop for a mobile internet connection
* No car charger is currently available
* Can receive and dial (voice dial) wirelessly with Bluetooth headset
* Some apps don’t have a quit option in the menu and they have to be killed in the Task Manager
I bought my first Bluetooth USB adapter from Best Buy last night so that I could sync up Outlook with my new Audiovox SMT5600.
I got the Kensington Bluetooth USB Adapter only because it was all they had in the store.
This device stinks. The driver is not signed which means XP doesn’t play nice with it. Also the software is extremely slow and seems to be consuming a lot of CPU. The worst part though is that the signal strength is horrible when the phone is sitting on my desk at just 6 feet away.
