Diamond Notes

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 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!

I have a new idea. Actually, to give credit were credit is due, my lovely wife had a good idea. She mentioned it to me a week or so before the spring issue of the magazine came out. Too late for that issue. However, I am going to implement it for the summer issue of the magazine.

So here is what happens. Almost every day I get emails, comments on my blog, or linked-in emails about MySQL DBA positions. I know that many companies are hurting, looking for dbas and MySQL proficient developers. The magazine is targeted at MySQL DBAs and developers. So when someone downloads the magazines you are almost assured of reaching your target audience.

Hmmm…why didn’t I think of this before? A natural match. Now, I don’t want to turn this into a Monster job site, but I think the magazine can offer a service. So, if your company is looking for a MySQL DBA or a developer send me an email at bmurphy AT paragon-cs.com and we can talk. There will be a very reasonable listing fee. The magazine currently comes out once a quarter. In addition to having a job listing in the magazine I will put together a page on the website (http://www.mysqlzine.net) for the job posting.

Hey everyone!! Just wanted you to know that it’s “that time”. The summer issue of MySQL Magazine will be coming out July the 15th. That means that it is time to start gathering the articles. If you have interest in having your words read by thousands of people and having fame and fortune come to you (ok..maybe fame but probably not fortune) than you should submit an idea for an article. Articles must be completed by June the 15th so don’t delay!!

Have I got your interest? Send me an idea for an article to bmurphy AT paragon-cs.com. Anything relating to DBA work on MySQL or software development around MySQL will be considered.

I am looking for someone who would be interested in trying out some software. Give it an honest spin. I need a review written for the upcoming summer issue of MySQL Magazine (http://www.mysqlzine.net).  Maybe two or three pages including screenshots.  The magazine is slated to be released on July the 15th and the article will need to be in by June the 15th.  Please contact me : bmurphy AT paragon-cs.com.  Authors get a small amount of money so there is some incentive!!

A few minutes ago I uploaded the new issue of the MySQL Magazine.  I am very excited about this issue as the quality continues to increase!  Not only do we have a great group of articles, Sheeri Cabral (our new Community Advocate Award winner) did a fabulous job creating an entire new layout and look for the magazine.  It looks absolutely outstanding.  I have told her several times how much I appreciate it, but let me once again take the time to say I appreciate the tireless work she did on the layout.

Here is a list of the table of contents:

A Tour of MySQL Certification

Coding Corner

On Efficiently Geo-Referencing IPs with MaxMind GeoIP and MySQL GIS

Introducing Kickfire

Automatic Query Optimization with QOT

As always, the magazine is free for download and is available from http://www.mysqlzine.net and http://www.paragon-cs.com/mag. Enjoy!!

This is cool.  In the upcoming Spring issue of MySQL Magazine (http://www.mysqlzine.net) I will have a full length article on something very intriguing that will be announced at the MySQL Users Conference (http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2008/public/content/home) that begins on April the 14th.

Join the fun at the conference.  Early registration (and the chance to save money!!) ends February 26th.  I will be releasing the Spring issue at the conference.  Hope to see you there.

Just four days ago I released the winter issue of MySQL Magazine (http://www.mysqlzine.net). However, I wanted to go ahead and get the jump on the spring issue as this quarter will be quite busy. Many of us are either speaking at the MySQL User’s Conference or attending it in April. The spring issue of the magazine will be released on the first day of the User’s Conference so I wanted to make sure that everyone had time to submit an article if they had interest. Any topic relating to MySQL development or administration is acceptable. In particular, I would love to have some submissions on php development with MySQL. As always, I can be reached at bmurphy at paragon-cs.com.

Hope to hear from you soon!