MozOO.org is a set of productivity tools for Windows. The key idea
behind MozOO.org is focus. The limited offering provides high value for
a select but very large target group, mainly home and small business
users who “just want to get on with work”. The result is a tiny bundle
(93MB, fits on a MiniCD!) with an easy installer that handles all the
interdependencies and some configuration trickery.
See MozOO.org for more details.

MozOO.org 502 EN is now available, containing:

• Firefox 1.0.1 (browser)
• Thunderbird 1.0 (mail and news)
• Nvu 0.81 (web page authoring/publishing)
• OpenOffice.org 1.1.4
• Language tools (dictionaries) for Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org
• Java runtime environment
• Flash player 7

It doesn’t include MySQL yet, as there
were some problems automating the configuration inside OpenOffice.org
from the MozOO.org installer. It’s fairly easy to install MySQL 4.1
server, Connector/J (JDBC driver) and then use MySQL from
OpenOffice.org. The installer issue should be sorted out with the next
edition of MozOO.org, to make it absolutely zero-effort for non-geeks.

Ahyes, the whole point is of course that MozOO.org is for non-geeks. If
you’re a geek, don’t complain that the CD does not include Putty…
you’re not the target audience! 😉
But your mum might be, or that little business around the corner. So download and burn some copies to hand out!

Interested in some video tutorials for MySQL Query Browser ?

• Visually Building Queries
• Manually Creating Queries
• Creating a Master Detail View
• Comparing Result Sets
• Editing Queries
• Working with BLOBs
• Export a Result Set

Or perhaps you want to see how easy you can use the MySQL Migration Toolkit :

• Oracle Migration
• MS Access Migration

You just need a Flash player in your web browser. That’s all.
The videos were done by the lead of the MySQL GUI team Mike Zinner, and the voice-over is by Mike Hillyer who is a member of the MySQL documentation team.
(Yes you may giggle at the German Windows version used in the migration tutorials, that’ll be re-done 😉

So, here’s a reminder…
Today is your last chance for early reg (up to $300 off!)
http://mysqluc.com/pub/w/35/register.html

You’ll also want to be fast if you need a room at the hotel,
because spaces are running out at the special group rate.
Hotel and Travel Information

memcached by Brad Fitzpatrick (the creator of LiveJournal where my blog is also hosted)

memcached is a high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.

Brad understands perfectly that for some data storage needs, scaling has nothing to do with the power of your database. The fact that you have a database server running doesn’t mean it automatically makes sense to stick everything in there…

Anyway. a very simple but nifty tool you can use. It has quite a few APIs available for different app languages (C, Perl, PHP, Java, etc).

SELECT …. ORDER BY REVERSE(RAND()) LIMIT 10

Reverse (a string function!) random ordering…. ohwell why not!
It will even work, in the strict sense of the word.

Check out the Free Software Magazine project, available on paper and in electronic format. It’s only just started, but it seems to be doing some good work.

Have a look, and tell me what you think of it!

From http://www.mysqluc.com/pub/w/35/register.html

Special Discounts (for the MySQL User Conference)

You may combine a special discount (see below) with the Early Registration Pricing during the Early Registration period to save even more!

Full Time Student	65% off with proof of status, a copy of ID & class schedule.
Academic Instructor	50% off with proof of full time academic instructor status on organization letterhead.
Academic Staff	25% off with proof of full time academic employee status on organization letterhead.
Company Team Discount	10% off per person if you register 3 or more people from one company.
Federal Government Discount	10% off with proof of agency connection.
User Group Members	User Group discounts are available.
Alumni	Have you been a paid attendee at a previous O’Reilly conference or the MySQL Users Conference? If so, you are eligible for a 20% alumni discount.

Note: the conf will always provide the highest possible discount, however, more than one discount is NOT allowed.

User asks about

SELECT … ORDER BY RAND() DESC

As to why you would want random ordering to be descending, and how that might jive, I have no idea 😉

A fully GPL project: http://linuxadvocate.org/projects/roadster/
Roadster implements free GPS mapping, using MySQL with R-Trees as back-end.
On the front-end it’s GNOME with Cairo.
It can use maps directly from the US Census Bureau, other countries that have free road maps (I’ve been told Australia has, also) will work too.

I understand the product is not yet ready for the big releases, but hackers can grab the latest CVS version and go nuts. It sounds excellent.

IS NOT OPERATOR (application with USPTO). I believe it’s been filed on behalf of some Microsoft employees, who are heavily encouraged to come up with as many patentable ideas as possible. Never mind real R&D 😉

So what is this magical new invention?

A system for determining if two operands point to different locations in memory, the system comprising: a compiler for receiving source code and generating executable code from the source code, the source code comprising an expression comprising an operator associated with a first operand and a second operand, the expression evaluating to true when the first operand and the second operand point to different memory locations.

Further reading tells us that it’s about VB classes, and specifically comparing pointers to classes.
Basically it’s the same as

if (ptra != ptrb) ...

in C which has been around since about 1970. There’s some extra checking to see if the operands are actually pointers and such, but that’s trivial stuff you get for free in higher level languages (which you have to do yourself in C).

This patent application is very silly, and not “new” even in the most pathetic basic context.
Granting this application would be further proof of the current sillyness in the US patent system, particularly regarding software patents.
The fact that the application was filed at all is already very sad. They obviously expect it to be approved, why otherwise spend the money….