So, I kind of was excited for Windows 7. I just had a feeling the maybe, just maybe Windows 7 could redeem itself and be comparable to the other superior operating systems out there.

Today, when installing it, I was less than thrilled with the process. I had 2 DVD disks sent to me by HP. Following instructions like a good little boy didn't work out so well. First, the HP Upgrade Assistant disk is supposed to help you backup your computer and BIOS if necessary. I stuck it in and got a message "This is not a qualifying computer."

"Um... yes it is. Remember me having to jump through hoops and walk across flaming hot coals to prove it was a legit computer with a legit Windows operating system in the first place? Yeah, that lame process that took weeks for you to verify? That one. This IS a qualifying computer."

So, it had a number to call. 1-877-280-2271. I called. After waiting for 20-30 minutes I was told "its not our fault, we sent you the correct disks." I would have to call the HP Windows 7 team at 1-800-752-0900. I called. After waiting for another 30 minutes, I get a guy that most likely can't tie his own shoes. "Its not our fault," he says and gives me another number, also to HP: 1-800-474-6836. This time, I wisely avoid the prompt to transfer me to Windows 7team, hoping I can get someone with half a brain. After another 30 minutes of waiting, I get a nice lady from India. At least she genuinely tried to help me, and probably is a competent person. Unfortunately, she couldn't help and finally suggested I re-install Windows Vista, then try again.

"Um..... no. Thank you for your help." I figure the disc is probably checking some value in the registry, or requires one of HP's lame programs that hides on the computer when you first buy it. I got rid of that junk long ago.

So I decide to just do this thing by myself. I have the disks, and all I need is the data on those disks, right?

So I do my own version of backups. I install Windows 7. (BTW - It tells me about 15 of my programs that I use won't work with 7. I go for it anyways, even though 1 program I use quite heavily. I am hoping for some upgrades to that program.)

A million hours later, I get to spend another million hours getting my drivers and everything working.

Windows 7 is finally installed and working on my computer.

Whew! Now lets hope Windows 7 works as advertised, and not like their upgrade process! If not, I am already super close to giving up with Windows and going for a much more sophisticated operating system..... like the free Ubuntu! 

Came across a bug fix from Microsoft that got me laughing:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/168702 

Problem:  Cant import Oracle data into Excel:

Solution:  AND I QUOTE:

"Move Your Mouse Pointer
If you move your mouse pointer continuously while the data is being returned to Microsoft Excel, the query may not fail. Do not stop moving the mouse until all the data has been returned to Microsoft Excel.  "

 

ROFL!

No matter what language I am programming in, regular expressions always seem to come in handy.  Below are some commonly used items, and if I have some time later I will post some examples.

^ start of string
$ end of string
[a-z] letters a-z inclusive in lower case
[A-Z] letters A-Z inclusive in upper case
[0-9] numbers 0-9 inclusive
[^0-9] no occurrences of numbers 0-9 inclusive
? zero or one of the preceding character(s)
* zero or more of preceding character(s)
+ one or more of preceding character(s)
{2} 2 of preceding character(s)
{2,} 2 or more of preceding character(s)
{2,4} 2 -- 4 of preceding character(s)
. any character
(a|b) a OR b
\s empty space (known as whitespace) 

Most websites these days create dynamic pages based on data in a database.  To be indexed in Google or other search engines, Google bots need to know where these pages can be found.  There are a few ways to create your xml sitemaps for your website.  This blog will describe some of the ways that I have done it, then give a recommendation.

Using only MySQL (small sitemap),

/*script to create sitemap to submit to google*/
SET SESSION group_concat_max_len = 4294967295;/*largest value a TEXT/BLOB can have*/
SET @fieldname = 'AA';
SET @out_file = (select concat('"C:\\\\\\\inetpub\\\\\\\wwwroot\\\\\\\sitemapsTemp\\\\\\',@fieldname,'_sitemap.xml"'));
SET @g_start = '\\';
SET @g_end = '\';
SET @g_urls = (select group_concat('\\http://www.yoursite.com/',fieldname,'/something/\\',CURDATE(),'\\monthly\\') from tablename where fieldname = @fieldname);
SET @c = CONCAT('select CONCAT(\'',@g_start,'\',\'',@g_urls,'\',\'',@g_end,'\') into outfile', @out_file,'');
PREPARE runquery FROM @c;
EXECUTE runquery;
DROP PREPARE runquery;

 Problems with the above:  I am putting stuff into variables and using CONCAT, so 1024 is the max amount of characters you are going to get.  Granted, you can get around that problem using some more advanced MySQL, but I would just recommend using a combination of PHP and MySQL.  Here is I how I accomplished the goal:

Using PHP with Ajax:

01.	<?php
02.
03.	switch ($_GET["tablename"]) {
04.	case "tablename":
05.	$myDirectory = opendir('C:\\someDirectoryTemp\\');
06.	while($entryName = readdir($myDirectory)) {
07.	$dirArray[] = $entryName;
08.	}
09.	closedir($myDirectory);
10.	//    count elements in array
11.	$indexCount    = count($dirArray);
12.	//$indexCount = ($indexCount -2);
13.	$indexCount2=($indexCount - 2);//take care of hidden files we dont care about
14.	Print ("$indexCount2 files
15.	n");
16.
17.	sort($dirArray);
18.
19.	/*
20.	This stupid content editor keeps eating my code... I will figure it out and get the code post soon:)
21.	*/
22.
23.	? >

This is not intended to be an expert analysis or scientific comparison.  This is just my personal observations and experience with working closely with each database solution.  My company migrated from MSSQL 2005 to MySQL 5 and the following are some the areas I have noticed differences.

Performance

The first thing I noticed between MSSQL and MySQL was how much memory and space I save on the server.  In our case, typical memory usage for our dbms dropped from 1.5 gigs to .5 gigs, or an improvement of 300%!.  I was very excited.  Website performance obviously saw some improvement as a result of this as well.  Winner: MySQL

Tools

SQL Server Management Studio whoops the solutions I have tried for MySQL.  I have used phpMyAdmin, Navicat, Heidi, and others and have yet to find anything that even comes close to what I can do with Management Studio.  Winner:  MSSQL

Maintenance

In my situation, I wanted a bit of database replication, and of course I was doing backups and restores on a regular basis.  Once again, partly because of the tools, MSSQL was in a league of its own in terms of database maintenance.  I get much more options, better db admin tools, and everything just worked for me without having to research and struggle.  Winner:  MSSQL

Cost

Even if I paid for the Enterprise version of MySQL, it would cost much, much less than MSSQL.  Because our database is much larger than 4 Gigs, the free MSSQL was not an option for me.  There really is no comparison here.  Winner: MySQL

Transactional

Because MSSQL creates default indexes on tables and offers much more in terms of T-SQL, I found working with MSSQL code much easier than MySQL.  During a large data refresh (Updates, Deletes, Inserts) that I do monthly, MSSQL seemed to work much better until I spent alot of time with query, table and overal optimization.  Winner: MSSQL

An the winner is...

For me, MySQL remained the clear winner.  Performance, Cost, and availability of help on the internet was what our company needed most.  However, I recognize that if our company was in a much better situation ($$) and could afford the extra hardware, MSSQL would probably win out because performace was decent, ease of everyday use better, and tools for maintenance much better.