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Federated Storage Engines in MySQL – closest you can get to Oracle Database Links »

For those of us migrating from Oracle to MySQL, one of the features that is missed the most is database links. Database link, fondly called dblink, allows access to remote database from a local database. When it comes to MySQL, accessing different databases residing on the same server is simple and straight-forward. You just use dbname.table_name to access a table residing in a different database, on the same server. If you notice closely, this is equivalent to accessing tables across schemas in Oracle.

Now the question is how do we access database residing on a remote server? This is simple with Oracle. You just have to add an entry in tnsnames.ora and create a database link. However, there is no such feature in MySQL. In order to access a remote table in MySQL, you need to create a table with exactly the same structure (same constraints, indices etc) and use Federated Storage Engine (FSE).

Here is a good example on the syntax of creating a table using FSE. Once the federated table is created, you just access it as a normal table.

So what is the main limitation of FSE of MySQL? Unlike dbLInks, FSE is applicable at a table level, not at a database level. This means, that you have to create federated tables on the local database individually for every remote table that you need access to.

Where would you use FSE? I typically use it as part of ETL for OLAP apps. I create a read-only user to the production environment and then create a federated tables using this login in the reporting environment. I then schedule a cron job that queries the federated table and loads data into my reporting tables. Once done, all my reports run against my local tables (not the federated ones).

Outlook 2010 not responding on Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit »

I had the most painful experience with Outlook 2010 32 bit on Windows 7 64 bit. Don’t ask me why I installed the 32bit version on the 64 bit OS….the 32 bit CD was just handy on that day.

After opening Outlook for couple of minutes, it would stop responding and I had to kill it using the Task Manager. I applied all latest patches, disabled add-ons and tried several other solutions, including deleting and recreating profiles, but none of the solutions helped. I finally moved over to Thunderbird and it worked great for quite some time. And then I got couple of email attachments, which for some reason got corrupted, when I tried to save them from Thunderbird. This got me worried because I had to ask my client to send me attachments several times, in different formats (PPTX, PPT etc). However, I realized that if opened that email using Outlook (I use IMAP), it had no problem opening the attachments. To make the story short, I realized I had to get back to Outlook. I had no other option.

I then uninstalled the MS Office 32 bit version and installed the 64 bit version and now, everything is working perfect.

Nokia will try Microsoft Windows Phone to fight Android »

Nokia announced today that it will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy. It is quite understandable that Nokia wants to be “different” from the Android crowd. Given that Android is pretty successful, it is no easy task, even for Nokia to make its dent.
After trying hard with Symbian and MeeGo, it is now partnering with Microsoft to push Windows Phone platform. It also plans to use Bing for its Search services and its maps (Nokia Maps) service will be a core part of Microsoft’ mapping services. Interestingly Nokia partnered with Intel to create MeeGo a year ago, and it did not take off too well. I am not sure if tying up with Microsoft will help much in the long term. In the short term, it might help, but one has to look at the loyalty of its user base. iPhone users love Apple. Android users love Android for a totally different reason. While Android has nice features, it has Google’s aura around it. It gives a different appeal to the product. I don’t think users look at Microsoft’s products as cool…do you remember Microsoft Zune and Microsoft Kin?? I believe Nokia embracing Microsoft is probably not that smart, but again, what option does it have now?

Windows 7 SP1 releases on February 22 »

Still on Windows XP? Microsoft announced today the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of SP1 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. While the article does not elaborate on fixes/ enhancements on Win 7 SP1, it discusses Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX features on Windows 2008.

Here is the link to Windows lifecycle fact sheet.

IE Screen Resolution and Caching issues »

I am having multiple problems with IE 8. Here are the two main issues I have:

1. Screen Resolution issue – I don’t understand why a web page would render differently on two different computers, that are on the same OS (Windows XP SP3), using IE 8.06 and the same resolution 1024×768???? The page renders fine on both Chrome and Firefox. As is normal in such cases, the page works fine on IE on my laptop and other machines in the office.
2. Caching issue – We have a desktop application that reads an XML file on the server. While the application works fine on all the machines, on one of the machines, it caches the XML content. The desktop app (C#) uses dataset.readXML and specifies the URL. What is weird is that if we open the XML in IE, it too shows the cached information. If we hit CTRL+F5 in IE, it loads the latest version and interestingly, our desktop application also gets the latest content automatically. I am assuming that the readXML call is using the same libraries that IE is probably using. While we have a workaround on the server side (cache-control and page expires HTTP Headers), I am wondering why it has this problem only on that machine. We did try clearing the cache and set “Check for newer versions of stored pages everytime I visit the page”, but that does not help on the machine.

Any thoughts?

Product Ratings and Reviews »

Not very long ago, people used to buy products, based on the brand name alone. Companies had the luxury of spending lot of advertisement money on promoting their brands, by making eye-catching advertisements. Even if the product itself sucked, people would still buy products that are from great brands. Just like every other thing in life, internet changed this too. Consumers posted their experiences on their websites and blogs. This made it somewhat difficult for companies to just sell their product, just because their brand name is great.

Then came “Review Sites”. Professionals reviewed the products on their websites in great details, sometimes even with a video on You Tube. For buyers, this was great as it gave more insight into the pros and cons of the product they wish to buy. Unfortunately, the trend now seems to be changing. I believe most of these professional review sites, if not all of them, are getting sponsorship from the product companies and that influenced the reviews. You see 4/5 or even 5/5 for products, that really sucked big time.

I now see a new website, with a different approach – ratingscorner.com. They claim that they have a different rating system, that takes care of the issues mentioned earlier. From their About Us page, they say “Our easy to use and exhaustive rating system will focus on better and more objective consumer feedback rather than user reviews or comments that may not be effective decision makers.”

I did try couple of products on their site and it looks really promising. The pages also load fast enough and the content seems to be pretty current. I do hope they make a difference in this space and keep themselves clean and simple.

Google URL Shortener API »

Google joins several others by offering URL shortener API. More about it is here. The good thing about it is that since it is an API, it makes sharing of long URLs, pretty easy.