I recently stumbled across a pretty useful tool for mysql DB design.  It’s called DBDesigner 4 by fabFORCE.  I’ve found it to be a pretty useful tool for visually designing my databases, establishing relationships within said databases, and exporting the SQL.

Now I am aware that there is a successor to DBDesigner 4 by Sun Microsystems called MySQL Workbench, but I have yet to give it a shot.  Perhaps in the coming days I’ll give that a try and update this post.  For the time being, I thought I would share this tool with the world.

Here is why Genius is the perfect feature for Apple to release at this time

Apple is great at following the trends of their customers.  The iPod, despite not being the first mp3 player, really did revolutionize the way people listened to music.  As they saw their users becoming interested in videos and podcasts, they shifted and adjusted their products and software. It’s what they do.  One trend that has developed since the dawn of the iPod and iTunes is that people’s music libraries have grown and grown.  Many users have gigs and gigs of music.  I’ve heard people brag about how many days [or even weeks] worth of music they have in their collection.  This is a good thing, dot get me wrong.  I’m a proponent of people loving and having tons of music, but it presents a problem. You cant want to listen to every type of music at the same type.  Shuffle becomes useless.

How do you organize all of this music so that you can hear what you want when you want?

Well users are inherently lazy.  Some users will create playlists, some will organize their music meticulously and have only their favorite files prepared for playback, but most users will shuffle their iPods and constantly skip the sings they don’t like.  I, not too long ago, removed near 80% of my music from my library to stop hearing the songs I like but don’t want to hear all the time from popping up when I put my iPod or iTunes on shuffle.

Apple’s Genius solves this problem beautifully.

By combining the data they have mined from the mp3 sales in their music store and the data you have provided in you library they can dynamically generate a playlist of your own music that matches the style, tone, and feel of a song you select.  Think of it as Pandora with your own music library.

This means that users can have the playlist they need with minimal work.  Now you don’t have to feel like you need to limit your library because you know you can always get that perfect playlist at the click of a button.

Genius.

UPDATE:  I’d like to add that not only did they solve this problem, but they did it in a way the places ads for new songs in front of your eyes.  Very clever Steve.

MediaTemple (mt) is just simply the best hosting company ever.

I have been through my share of hosting troubles. I think the worst was in the earlier part of the decade, I had hosting through some small company [i hosted with them on a recommendation from a friend]. Everything was fine for about 6 months. Then they closed up shop and moved, aka disappeared into the night. and of course I had paid for two years. I never did track them down. Damn elusive hosting companies.

After that I rolled the dice with godaddy. I figured i need to be with a company that wasnt gonna cut and run with my money this time, and for the most part I was satisfied with godaddy. I love using godaddy for domains. [sidebar: always go to retailmenot and get coupon codes before buying anything] My problem with their hosting was well… it was kind of a pain in the ass. The interface was terrible. UI is not their strong suit. It takes too many clicks to accomplish a task. I will say however that once I figured out how to accomplish each task everything worked fine. Also, I couldn’t easily manage multiple sites. Which as you can see from my work page, is a problem.

So this fall I went to the future of web design conference in NYC and media temple sponsored the after party. Now I’d heard of media temple before but i thought that like so many other web 2-ish companies they were just regurgitating the same services with a cool logo on the front. But after the amazing party they threw at the conference [and it was quite amazing] when my hosting was up for renewal I thought I’d give it a go. I’m so glad I did.

I purchased their grid-service which costs $20/mo. If you pay for the year its $200 [$40 off] so i did that. Well actually i used another coupon code from retailmenot so i wound up getting 15% off which brought it down to like $170.

Anyway people, the point is they are an excellent hosting company. They have a proprietary control panel that is sleek, sexy, and functional. There are no guessing games. There is no learning curve. The system just makes sense. They also have a great knowledge base and a multitude of support options. Their customer service is quick and responsive. and best of all their technology is amazing. the grid service system is perfect for someone like me and will handle traffic spikes with ease. you can host up to 100 sites on one acount with ease. bottom line they’re amazing.

I’ve also been using their dv server system, which is much more complicated [rightfully so] but it lets you do amazing things as well. Most notably, resell hosting with full control, set up personal control panels for clients, and re-brand the entire system [as well as a ridiculous list of other things]

Bottom of the line. I love MediaTemple (mt).

First Impressions

I haven’t fully taken enough time to definitively say I recommend this product. First impression… impressive [thats what she said], but I have yet to fully build a store and/or explore all of the functionality of the system. Nor have I really taken the time to examine the code and the functionality. So far I have found a lot of things I like and a few I don’t. They are as follows.

Positives

• Highly functional
• great interface [both usable and aesthetically pleasing]
• tons of features

Negatives

• Slow load times [this could be caused by a number of things. I’ll be able to diagnose this issue after I take a look under the hood.
• Too much functionality. It seems that this thing is loaded to the brim with functions by default. Some of the functionality could have been held back. Maybe provided as widgets or plugins as to lighten the load of the basic package.
• Difficult to theme. I took a quick peek at what it takes to theme this thing and it doesn’t look like a picnic. Now granted it’s not terribly hard change the header and footer and keep the stock theme the same, but thats cheap. I am definitely going to play with this part of the system some more and will most likely dedicated a full post to it.

I have done my fair share of work with open source e-commerce systems before. I have used ZenCart, osCommerce, etc. etc. before, never with much enthusiasm. They all work [some better than others]. Magento blows them all away. Finally, an opensource cms that not only works, but is sexy at the same time. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but at a glance, it certainly looks better than the alternatives.

I have done a little research, and it seems what makes Magento different from the other ecommerce systems is that it isn’t the usual opensource effort put forth by a community of programming enthusiasts. It’s actually being built and developed by a company called Varien and released under an open source license. Not that they’re doing this out of the kindness of their heart though. They are just experimenting with a new business model. They are still attempting to monetize their product, however, by selling a laundry list of services, such as installation, design, support, training, etc. I like their strategy - get the system out there and build a community of users. This is a forward thinking company, and I hope this strategy pays off for them.

I’m gonna play a bit more then I’ll give a break down of the pros and cons of Magento.

Wordpress launched version 2.5 of their excellent blogging software last week. Now I know what you’re thinking.

Wordpress says my site is out-of-date. What should I do? Should I upgrade it? Is it still going to be the same simple system I’m used to? Will my Themes and plug ins still work?

Well simply put, the update is great. The system is a little different. Navigation has been changed around a bit but I’d say its for the better. The guys at Happy Cog and Automatica did an excellent job of enhancing an already amazing system.

Now as for whether or not you should upgrade… as always, it depends. I would say most everyone should upgrade. The front end hasn’t changed to much so most all themes will work fine with the new system. Also, most plug ins should be find. But for those that rely on plug ins that customize and change the control panel on the back end, you may want to wait until your plug ins support the new version. Granted this is only if you really and truly rely on said plugin.

In conclusion, 2.5 is awesome. The improvements made really enhance the usability of the system. I would upgrade if i were you.