Monday stuff

[yendi]

1. Had a good weekend with Miss Kid while shadesong was at Philcon. Shopping happened. As did cleaning and organizing (I even built a desk!).

1.5 In the process of cleaning and organizing, I found my copy of Saga Frontier! The one I bitched about being unable to find this summer! Woohoo! I know that many others consider this game the black sheep of the Square PS1 empire, but I always considered it one of their top two games (along with Final Fantasy Tactics).

1.7 I also burned my arm rather painfully on the oven door as I was dealing with biscuits. Ouch.

2. Speaking of pain, my Jets fell apart in the fourth quarter, which actually appears to be a part of their game plan this season. That said, their defense played a great game against a team that should have slaughtered them, and I'm not really that upset. By all rights, we should have been 0-2 with blowout losses in each of the last two weeks.

3. Job-wise, it looks like the skills I'm going to have to increase include XML and MySQL. THe former is getting addressed. Anyone have any good tips for places to address the latter?

4. Another reason to love Ken Jennings: He's a grammar cop!

5. Speaking of language issues in general, the always-wonderful Language Log notes that the use of punctuation marks as a replacement for written curse words can be traced to 1591, when empty parentheses were used in lieu of naughty words. That's some surprising (), yo.

Comments

[tempestmir.livejournal.com]

I took a beginning SQL class with Oracle, many years ago. They had office space down near the old FAO Shwartz building...on Berkeley Street.

They have a course listing online (http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=3), maybe you'll see something that will fit your needs.

[yendi]

Oh, sure. Like Oracle would know anything about databases. :-)

Seriously, I'd forgotten to see what they offered, but the $3000 a course is probably a little too much to justify over here for the amount that I'll use it.

[tempestmir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're a bit steep. I think there was a $1500 course there, too, but it might not be the right information for you.

I did the DBA course at Clark U, in Braintree, a few years ago (and have yet to use the information, once, but that's besides the point) and I think they offer night courses, but it takes forever to get through it, that way, and I fear their prices aren't much better.

Don't know which university you're with, but maybe they have something? Or one of the ten million other schools around here... :) Good luck!

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Kiralee (my wife) has been taking a 15 week intensive database and programming course that covers MySQL, XML and Java extensively with Clark University in Braintree but it's not the sort of thing you can do while hold down a day job (it's basically 5 hours a day, 5 days a week).

Trying to find something that covers these in a non-intentisive night school kind of thing around here is actually quite difficult to find.

[tempestmir.livejournal.com]

I think Clark might offer their DBA course as a night option. It's been awhile, so I can't recall...

[yendi]

Thanks. Clark's courses might be more than I need (or can afford) right now, but I'll keep an eye on the assorted other colleges around here that might offer something similar.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

SQL for Dummies (http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-047004652X.html)

It will at least get you started. It's more about the concepts of SQL than specific SQL environments.

[yendi]

Thanks -- the Dummies series is hit-or-miss enough that I no longer assume it'll be a good resource for a topic. But that should be an easy enough one to dig up.

[ckd]

There's a local MySQL meetup that meets each month at MIT, organized by awfief. That may be a useful thing to get to in and of itself, and I'm sure folks there can suggest other resources as well.

[yendi]

Thanks -- I don't think I'll be immersed in sql enough to justify the meetup as a regular event, but I might try to hit one of them.

[texmorgan.livejournal.com]

PHP and MySQL (http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Dynamic-Web-Sites/dp/0321336577/sr=1-2/qid=1164036846/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-7463348-3407062?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Larry Ullman is the only book you need. It is by far one of the best books ever written on teaching MySQL. I have the first edition and would kill to have the second due to some of the stuff in the first being outdated. It is worth every penny you pay for it.

[yendi]

Thanks! We've got a Safari Tech Books Online subscription here, and that's in the library.

[jasra]

I have a good MySQL and Perl for the Web book that I like, but I don't know if that's your context for MySQL or not.

A basic SQL class will help a lot. Then (what I did when I was first using SQL), pick up a "Nutshell" or reference type book so the commands are quickly looked up. Plus a better, more fleshed out book and you should be set. :)

[yendi]

That's pretty much my plan of action. :-)

And yeah, this isn't for web work, per se, but for manual queries and troubleshooting a database.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Those biscuits can be dangerous. Just leave them in the oven until they are black, and they are much less fiesty.

[yendi]

Less tasty, as well, alas.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

True.

I guess I will risk the hand damage when I make my corn bread and stuffin' muffins this week.

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

You built the desk yourself!!! You don't need me any more!

SOB... My reason for living is over.

No really, you followed the instructions and built the Ikea desk. Does it liike hold stuff?

[yendi]

It helped that it was only four pieces total, so even I couldn't mess it up. :-)

And we still need you for entertainment center! :-)