Whilst a truncate table operation is underway a lock mutex around the table is created to ensure data consistency; if using innodb file per table the physical .ibd file must be removed which is a painfully slow operation under ext3.
Tags: data warehouse, MySQL, performance
In short, if your systems failed in the Amazon cloud this week, it wasn’t Amazon’s fault. You either deemed an outage of this nature an acceptable risk or you failed to design for Amazon’s cloud computing model.
via The AWS Outage: The Cloud’s Shining Moment – O’Reilly Broadcast.
Tags: foundation, performance, security
Having worked with interaction and graphical design for iPhone applications during the last couple of years I’ve managed to pick up some lessons the hard way, and in this post I would like to share my thoughts on a couple of do’s and don’ts.
Tags: usability
Take one Central European folk dancing team, a small folk band and an added overlay showing array locations and get them to dance the algorithms in time to “appropriate” folk music. The result is slightly surreal and for a time at least slightly hypnotic.
Tags: digression
Although some analysts questioned the finding of search dominance, its a user behavior that gets stronger every year. Today, many users are so reliant on search that its undermining their problem-solving abilities. Ironically, the better search gets, the more dangerous it gets as people increasingly assume that whatever the search engine coughs up must be the answer.
via Incompetent Research Skills Curb Users Problem Solving Jakob Nielsens Alertbox.
Tags: education
Clients say the darnedest things. The other day, one scoffed, “Anyone who’s looking at our website on a stupid little phone screen probably isn’t our customer anyway.”
MySQL specific?
select make_set(255,’bit0′,’bit1′,’bit2′,’bit3′,’bit4′,’bit5′,’bit6′,’bit7′);
select (1,2,3)=(1,2,3);
Summary:
A single mobile screen with almost no features still required 10 design changes to meet usability guidelines for mobile websites.
via Optimizing a Screen for Mobile Use (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox).
The link to the iteration of the page design is worth following as well.
Summary:
The easier it is to find places with good information, the less time users will spend visiting any individual website. This is one of many conclusions that follow from analyzing how people optimize their behavior in online information systems.
via Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster (Alertbox).
Worth pointing to. Been out there since 2003.
Tags: usability