The single biggest annoyance of Windows XP (for me, at least) is the language bar. Seems like every time I reboot it’s back. Here’s how to fix it: To close the Language bar (using Classic view in Control Panel): Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, under Text services [...]

INSERT INTO…SELECT locks the table being read by the SELECT statement due to MySQL 5.0’s statement-based replication. Here’s a great post from the MySQL Performance Blog explaining the problem in detail and what to do about it. Note: this problem is supposed to be eliminated when using MySQL 5.1 row-based replication. I thought it would be interesting [...]

I’m a big believer in readability, and I love to write code that is easy to understand. Check out my newly-posted MySQL Style Guide which covers: Simple queries Complex queries Subqueries UNIONS Advanced queries Useful tips: Use table aliases sparingly and only when absolutely necessary (a few extra keystrokes now will save you hours of gazing at cryptic queries later) CAPITALIZE keywords religiously Whitespace [...]

Thanks to the MySQL Performance Blog for this tip: RESET QUERY CACHE; FLUSH TABLES; SET GLOBAL key_buffer_size=0; SET GLOBAL key_buffer_size=14691328;

I recently sat in on a live demonstration of a piece of software my former employer was evaluating. Here are some notes on what makes a great webinar or web demo. Be courteous to all. Call folks by name, be patient, cordial, and friendly. Be confident and comfortable with what you are doing. If you are not [...]

Using register_shutdown_function() to do stuff on script shutdown requires special error handling. Normal error handling does not work within the function called, so if an error occurs inside your shutdown function you get this nondescript error: Fatal error: Exception thrown without a stack frame in Unknown on line 0 The solution was to catch the exception and [...]