Small details – big problems!

Postgresql

I had serious problems with performance of my SQL query last week (I’m not familiar with SQL as I’d like to be). I needed to develop statatistic report and one part of its was very slow.
I didn’t understand why. I spent one day to find cause of delay. Well, I’ve found the bottleneck! Problem was in data type cast.

Continue reading Small details – big problems!

The Best Free Desktop Linux

MEPIS Logo

Linux presses Windows more and more. Now the ascendant tactical scheme for Linux is a release of desktop which can be right for unsophisticated users (I mean, no familiar with system administration). MEPIS is one of fair treat desktops based on Debian (Debian is a free Linux distribution that focuses more on stability than being “state-of-the-art”).
MIPOS has following advantages:

  • it is distributed as a single live CD;
  • it allows to play MP3, mpeg, DVD etc (you need to install only few packages);
  • it comes with several Voice Over IP programms: Skype, Free World Dialup, GnomeMeeting;
  • it includes office tools: OpenOffice, AbiWord, Gnumeric, FreeMind, Scribus;
  • it comes with several tools to work with graphics i. e. transfer and capture files from just about any camera;

More details about installation and customization of MEPIS you can find in the Michael C. Barnes’s article “The Best Free Desktop Linux . . . and how to make it better”.

Simplify Business Logic with PHP DataObjects

PHP

I’ve found quite interesting article on ONLamp.comSimplify Business Logic with PHP DataObjects.

"You can implement data access layers in more than one way, but here, we’re interested in DataObjects.

The concept of DataObjects comes from some very well-documented design patterns, namely the Data Access Object and Transfer Object patterns. These patterns can be quite complex, but with a little imagination, we can use their fundamental ideas and purpose to make our own data layer in PHP 5 much easier to work with."

It’s a good news that PHP sticks to the philosophy of patterns which can make life of developers easier.

7 November is public holiday or shameful date?

Revolution
Today is Public holiday in Russia. It’s day of October Revolution 1917 when Soviet epoch began. Russian People have diametrically opposed opinions about that time.
I think that we shouldn’t to reject and forget 80 years of history of our country. But I’m sure that civil war and others negative things of Soviet epoch are not a good cause to celebrate.

Thunderbird 0.9 has been released

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is my favourite mail client with GUI (sure, mutt is the best :)). So, a new version of Thunderbird has been released. There are some new features:

  • Saved Search Folders allow to display messages based on previously set search criteria.
  • Group messages in a folder supports groupping by attributes such as date, sender, priority or a custom label
  • Global Inbox support for POP3 users has been improved

Please, see a full list of changes in Thunderbird 0.9 Release Notes.