Archive for August, 2005

Splitting up a database

I’m using a single MySQL database to handle all of my projects (this very blog, Élyste, Anticubed) and I realized its size was around 60mb. So I thought I should split it up in two different databases, since the tables that contain my Shortstat’s stats were around 58mb.

I don’t know if I’m right but I thought that if my projects data was in a leaner database, it could be accessed faster — because I recently experienced some slowness problems on the MySQL server.

What I did is, I exported all Shortstat’s tables to a single .sql file with phpMyAdmin and, after creating another databse in another host, I imported this 58mb .sql file in it with this command I found on a WordPress codex page:

mysql -h mysqlhostserver -u mysqlusername -p databasename < exported_file.sql

After deleting the old stats tables from my main database, its size was now 2mb, which is more convenient for daily backups than a 58mb one.

You might ask why I didn’t use the function in phpMyAdmin to import data instead of using MySQL command line? It’s because phpMyAdmin can’t handle file whose size is above 10mb.

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Portable Thunderbird 3

Thunderbird - Reclaim your inboxI was getting tired of using my webmail client to check my new email messages at school, since it’s the only place I can, I gave Portable Thunderbird a try. It’s fantastic! Thunderbird is quite great, but taking it with you on your USB key is greater.

Why didn’t I try Portable Firefox you may ask? It’s because it’s already installed on every computer at school. Finally, our so-loved-favorite-web-browser is considered by the staff, since I had to install it on any computer I was using last year.

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The two things 3

The two things that are on every blogger’s sideblog, or remaindered links, or del.icio.us account these days are:

  • A List Apart 4.0; Really, great redesign, we couldn’t expect less from the major leading website when talking about web standards, but, did it really need to be featured on mostly every CSS showcase galleries? Nevertheless, I’ll still buy this t-shirt.
  • Google Talk; yes, Google is not doing something new here (talking in IM) but the thing is that they do it for free. That’s always been the reason why Google is so popular and loved by all: free technologies (think about Gmail).

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School tomorrow 5

That’s it. The summer is over. After mostly 80 days of working in a row, with only 1 (one) day off in the whole summer, I’m glad to start something new; a brand new term at Cégep.

Since this is our second year, the courses will be focused more on “professional” skills, such as team-working skills, autonomy, professionalism. We’ll also study technologies like:

  • JavaScript (good), but check the little note below this list.
  • ASP (bad), I prefer PHP.
  • SQL (good)
  • XHTML (good)
  • CSS (good)
  • Flash (bad), but can be good when working on static media.

Ajax? You must be kidding, the staff only begins to take CSS seriously; they’re 3 years late. Ajax is 8 months old; Forget it.

This year will be an interesting one, probably more than last one, because of friends I now have, teachers I now enjoy, and school I don’t get lost into.

Well, at least I’m not as nervous as I was last year…

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The green cover

Agenda (front)If you are studying at Cégep de Ste-Foy and reading this blog — first, congratulations, you are three. — you probably noticed that the 2005-06 agenda’s cover looks like exomel style. The cover is an exact duplicate of this weblog’s header image, isn’t it?

Well, maybe not. Perhaps that green was chosen because of the theme of this year’s agenda: environment. Nevertheless, that’s great of them. Although I didn’t see my name in the credits page.

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My WordPress plugins 3

After using WordPress for more than 7 months, I decided it was time to share my work with other WP users. My two (2) WordPress plugins are now available for downloading.

  • Relative Posts is a plugin that put relative links in the <head> of a document. For example, when viewing a single entry, it will place rel="next" linking to the next entry in chronological order.
  • Email Comment Author is a plugin that places an email link to each comment, thus allowing the blog owner to reply privately by email to the comment’s author. Only admins can view the link.

What are you waiting for? See the plugins!

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What’s your browser? 13

Inspired by Jon HicksOS X browser Survey 2005, I decided to do the same thing, but with cross-platform. I’d like to know what browser you’re using, not only based on the stats I get with my referrer logs, because there’s a lot of confusion on user-agent declaration, especially about Opera, which declares itself as Internet Explorer.

So, what web browser are you using? Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, Camino, Netscape, Mozilla, etc.?

If you are using both PC and Mac, tell us which browser you use on each platform.

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Bulletproof Web Design 4

I just received my copy of Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm this morning. What a great book! OK, I didn’t read the whole thing, but at least, the first two chapters “Flexible Text” and “Scalable Navigation” were quite helpful. and I’m so eager to read chapter #8, titled “Fluid Layouts” — in case you didn’t notice, the site’s design is now liquid.

Dan’s concept of “bulletproof” is very interesting. It combines accessible, flexible, yet visually appealing web design methods.

That was not a book review. You might read one about this book here in two weeks or less.

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Why can’t I 7

I’m asking myself why can’t I appreciate my website’s design for more than two months. I created the “Cherry” theme two months ago, which I used to replace the “Summer” theme which was made around two months before it.

Why? Why do I still love SimpleBits‘ design each time I come there? Is is the fact that I work on my site everyday, and by seeing the design each time, I’m getting more used to it… and I come to hate it? Dunno.

I would like to create a design that would be time-proof.

Is it normal to hate a design, when you see it 20 times a day? I guess it is.

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