Web Sites

What is testing?

In software development this is a simple question. What is [the purpose of] testing? If asked to give a one sentence answer what would you say? I have asked this simple question of attendees at many presentations, and also to software developers I have worked with or consulted to.

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Improving performance – A full stack problem

Improving the performance of a web system involves knowledge of how the entire technology stack operates and interacts. There are many simple and common tips that can provide immediate improvements for a website.

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Monitoring MySQL options

My recent poll What alert monitoring do you use? showed 25% of the 58 respondents to bravely state they had no MySQL monitoring. I see 1 in 3, ~33% in my consulting so this is consistent.

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HiTCHO Top tech tips

I recent visit with old Brisbane friend HiTCHO which I met at the Brisbane MySQL Users Group in 2005, has lead to this cool list of some hardware and software technologies he used that I am now considering or have already implemented or purchased.

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Twitter Tips

I have in the past questioned the value of Twitter as an effective business tool, but it continues to defy the trend of inability to bridge the business gap with social media.

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Where is the innovation?

The 2009 MySQL Conference has closed it’s submissions for papers. This year the motto is “Innovation Everywhere”. Last weekend’s Open SQL Camp in Charlottesville, Virginia, we had the chance to talk about the movements in the MySQL ecosystem.

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Javascript Helpers

Combined with my old favorites of Dynamic Drive , DHTML Goodies and Brain Jar , I’ve added the following to my list of Javascript sources. Mochikit JQuery

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It begins, the downfall of current Web 2.0 sites

The current US financial situation has claimed a victim in the Web 2.0 world — Uber . I’m not sure if this is the first significant name, but it will not be the last site running MySQL where investors will be quick to cut losses and move on.

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Brand identity with undesirable domain names

Choosing a domain name for your brand identity is the start. Protecting your domain name by registering for example .net, .org, and the many more extensions is one step in brand identity.

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To www or not www

Domain names historically have been www.example.com , written also with the protocol prefix http://www.example.com , but in reality www. is optional, only example.com is actually needed. www. is technically a sub-domain and sub-domains incur a small penalty in search engine optimization.

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Domain name trends

It started with del.icio.us/ (which now ironically redirects to http://delicious.com ), and now it’s becoming more the trend to create a domain name with the extension included for effect. With unique .

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Websites in review – Week 1

I often come across new websites, quite often by accident, or by indirection in links from looking at other details. The Internet is an amazing place, and one could spend all day reading such a variety information and only touch on just a few specific topics.

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Interesting site of the day

TwitHire – For those employers that both have Twitter accounts and time to advertise a job in 140 characters or less. There should be a website that is devoted to everything based on Twitter.

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Finding, exposing and referencing good material

I came across www.problogger.net by accident. Like many sites and information these days, you simply don’t find via search engines because your normally searching for something specific. I did find it via several levels of hyperlinks.

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