Log Buffer #137

This is the 137th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. Dave Edwards is enjoying a week off, and so as part of my plot to take over the world, I am writing this week’s Log Buffer.

First, the fun stuff: Josh Berkus tells us that the American English Translation of the Manga Guide to Databases is available in Japanese Fairies and Third Normal Form.

Then, the basics:
Giri Mandalika points to an article on Using MySQL with Java Technology. This is a basic article on how to connect, and does not go into all the wonders that Connector/J can really do. Speaking of basics, Decipher Information Systems has an article on Back to the Basics: Refreshing a Regular View Definition in SQL Server and Oracle. Chet Justice, the Oracle Nerd, writes about transactions in ORA-8177 Can’t Serialize Access For this Transaction. There is theoretical information about isolation levels that applies to all database systems. Mats Kindahl explains some transactional theory when talking about why Mixing Engines in Transactions in MySQL can get you into trouble.

It’s hard to get more basic than what data type to use for a single character Matt Reid talks about VARCHAR, TINYTEXT and TINYINT in MySQL Data Type Q&A. In the Oracle world, Randolf Geist has a step-by-step HOWTO for Basic SQL Statement Performance Diagnosis. Grant Fritchey posts that Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans, Chapter 3 is now available. Free e-books to help with query analysis? Awesome!

Backups are very, very important to a DBA. Amit Banerjee of the SQL Server FAQ blog shows How to Backup SQL Server Database to a Mapped Drive. If you’re using SQL Server cluster, check out John Daskalakis‘ article that answers What data should you backup from your SQL Server cluster? If you are using Oracle, you can read part two of Matt Canning’s Extracting DB files from RMAN using DBMS BACKUP RESTORE (part one is here).

If you are ready to go a bit further, Bryan Eisenberg says “Not Using Analytics? You are running out of excuses” and gives some helpful reasons to use analytics, as well as ways to get started, in Building an Optimization Culture by using analytics.

Are you on Oracle or SQL Server and thinking of migrating to MySQL? If so, Ronald Bradford’s presentation on Best Practices in Migrating to MySQL. Haidong Ji also has some tips on Moving Data from SQL Server to MySQL. Maybe you just want to upgrade — in that case, the wisdom of Jason Arneil should be handy — he attended an Oracle 11G Upgrade Workshop and posts about it, including a link to the slides from the workshop.

Most folks know about the concept of “drilling down” in reporting, but what about “drilling up?” John Minkjan has a brief article on OBIEE Simulating Drill Up with Oracle Business Intelligence. Over on the AMIS Technology blog, Lucas Jellema has an article on Using Flashback Query in Oracle SQL to Spot Changes and Compare Records. Guogen Zhang shows some DB2 Examples of Cascading XMLTABLE() in SQL/XML. And Dave Beulke post part two of DB2 Performance Summary, though I found that most of his advice was practical no matter what DBMS you use — for example, “Make sure that you are using the correct database design”, look for a lack of joins and full tablespace scans, etc.

And in Community news:
Susan Visser urges us to Join a Group, pointing out that Channeldb2.com has lots of videos, articles, photos, discussions, and even songs! Catherine Eibner discusses why
It Still Sux to be a Woman Working in IT. Personally I have not encountered many challenges, but I have only been in the field for 9 years. I certainly cannot deny the existence of the problems that many women do encounter, and as Catherine says:

International Women’s day is approaching next Friday the 6th of March, and I thought that perhaps sharing some of the challenges I have faced personally might help to start some discussions around what it is still like to work in the IT industry, to start to talk about why Girls are not studying Technology subjects at school and why so many women are not completing Technology based qualifications, preferring to transfer to other disciplines. Then, of the ones that do enter the IT workforce, so many leave once they reach their 30’s and why only a tiny fraction rarely ever make it to Senior Management.

As she says at the end of the podcast, “It’s time to talk about the issues and challenges we face, so we can start to fix them.” And speaking of podcasts, Brian “Bex” Huff lets us know that part one of a three-part Oracle Enterprise 2.0 Podcast has been released. And earlier in the week I posted the first Drizzle Podcast. And speaking of Drizzle, Barry Leslie announces that PBMS Supports Drizzle (PBMS is the PrimeBase Blob Streaming engine).

Eddie Awad shares Oracle Community Membership Statistics, and North America’s MySQL Community Engineer Dups explains the changes that have occurred and those to come for PlanetMySQL at Logins at PlanetMySQL? What’s Going On? Matt Casters links to a call for freenode.net donations. The direct link to donate is http://freenode.net/#donate (the donation button is on the upper-right side).

Finally, we end with some good news:
Anjo Kolk is the New Dutch Oracle ACE Director in Town and Allen Pang is now an Oracle Certified Master (OCM), and shares thoughts on How to Become an Oracle Certified Master.

This is the 137th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs. Dave Edwards is enjoying a week off, and so as part of my plot to take over the world, I am writing this week’s Log Buffer.

First, the fun stuff: Josh Berkus tells us that the American English Translation of the Manga Guide to Databases is available in Japanese Fairies and Third Normal Form.

Then, the basics:
Giri Mandalika points to an article on Using MySQL with Java Technology. This is a basic article on how to connect, and does not go into all the wonders that Connector/J can really do. Speaking of basics, Decipher Information Systems has an article on Back to the Basics: Refreshing a Regular View Definition in SQL Server and Oracle. Chet Justice, the Oracle Nerd, writes about transactions in ORA-8177 Can’t Serialize Access For this Transaction. There is theoretical information about isolation levels that applies to all database systems. Mats Kindahl explains some transactional theory when talking about why Mixing Engines in Transactions in MySQL can get you into trouble.

It’s hard to get more basic than what data type to use for a single character Matt Reid talks about VARCHAR, TINYTEXT and TINYINT in MySQL Data Type Q&A. In the Oracle world, Randolf Geist has a step-by-step HOWTO for Basic SQL Statement Performance Diagnosis. Grant Fritchey posts that Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans, Chapter 3 is now available. Free e-books to help with query analysis? Awesome!

Backups are very, very important to a DBA. Amit Banerjee of the SQL Server FAQ blog shows How to Backup SQL Server Database to a Mapped Drive. If you’re using SQL Server cluster, check out John Daskalakis‘ article that answers What data should you backup from your SQL Server cluster? If you are using Oracle, you can read part two of Matt Canning’s Extracting DB files from RMAN using DBMS BACKUP RESTORE (part one is here).

If you are ready to go a bit further, Bryan Eisenberg says “Not Using Analytics? You are running out of excuses” and gives some helpful reasons to use analytics, as well as ways to get started, in Building an Optimization Culture by using analytics.

Are you on Oracle or SQL Server and thinking of migrating to MySQL? If so, Ronald Bradford’s presentation on Best Practices in Migrating to MySQL. Haidong Ji also has some tips on Moving Data from SQL Server to MySQL. Maybe you just want to upgrade — in that case, the wisdom of Jason Arneil should be handy — he attended an Oracle 11G Upgrade Workshop and posts about it, including a link to the slides from the workshop.

Most folks know about the concept of “drilling down” in reporting, but what about “drilling up?” John Minkjan has a brief article on OBIEE Simulating Drill Up with Oracle Business Intelligence. Over on the AMIS Technology blog, Lucas Jellema has an article on Using Flashback Query in Oracle SQL to Spot Changes and Compare Records. Guogen Zhang shows some DB2 Examples of Cascading XMLTABLE() in SQL/XML. And Dave Beulke post part two of DB2 Performance Summary, though I found that most of his advice was practical no matter what DBMS you use — for example, “Make sure that you are using the correct database design”, look for a lack of joins and full tablespace scans, etc.

And in Community news:
Susan Visser urges us to Join a Group, pointing out that Channeldb2.com has lots of videos, articles, photos, discussions, and even songs! Catherine Eibner discusses why
It Still Sux to be a Woman Working in IT. Personally I have not encountered many challenges, but I have only been in the field for 9 years. I certainly cannot deny the existence of the problems that many women do encounter, and as Catherine says:

International Women’s day is approaching next Friday the 6th of March, and I thought that perhaps sharing some of the challenges I have faced personally might help to start some discussions around what it is still like to work in the IT industry, to start to talk about why Girls are not studying Technology subjects at school and why so many women are not completing Technology based qualifications, preferring to transfer to other disciplines. Then, of the ones that do enter the IT workforce, so many leave once they reach their 30’s and why only a tiny fraction rarely ever make it to Senior Management.

As she says at the end of the podcast, “It’s time to talk about the issues and challenges we face, so we can start to fix them.” And speaking of podcasts, Brian “Bex” Huff lets us know that part one of a three-part Oracle Enterprise 2.0 Podcast has been released. And earlier in the week I posted the first Drizzle Podcast. And speaking of Drizzle, Barry Leslie announces that PBMS Supports Drizzle (PBMS is the PrimeBase Blob Streaming engine).

Eddie Awad shares Oracle Community Membership Statistics, and North America’s MySQL Community Engineer Dups explains the changes that have occurred and those to come for PlanetMySQL at Logins at PlanetMySQL? What’s Going On? Matt Casters links to a call for freenode.net donations. The direct link to donate is http://freenode.net/#donate (the donation button is on the upper-right side).

Finally, we end with some good news:
Anjo Kolk is the New Dutch Oracle ACE Director in Town and Allen Pang is now an Oracle Certified Master (OCM), and shares thoughts on How to Become an Oracle Certified Master.