There’s been a lot of writing to be had from these fingers this past week! I’m so happy with how things have been turning out and am happy to say that the second installment of Spiral Jackals should be ready in time for tomorrow. I’ve been revisiting my music library and have found many of my old sources of inspiration, and thought I’d share a few with you. So, without further ado, here are some music videos for songs that helped particularly well this week (some of it I never would have expected to draw inspiration from, either):
Covenant – We Want Revolution
Vangelis – Tears in Rain
Hybrid – Dreaming Your Dreams
VNV Nation – Testament
Benny Benassi – Love is Gonna Save Us
This is but a small sampling of what goes through my eardrums throughout a given day, and is definitely not an exhaustive list!
Well, it has officially been 2012 for four days now. In that time I’ve managed to delete my website database while backing it up (hint: don’t do it while tired). If there is anything I learned in 2011, it is that you just need to take what comes at you and leave the experiences with the positives in mind. You know, learn from your mistakes and move on. So while it is certainly sad that I have lost a lot of data, I’m going to take this as a sort of “blessing in disguise” – a fresh start to this year and to my site.
This year will be a good one. I know this because I am going to make it better than last year, and while there’s a lot of amazing transformations that happened last year, I’m setting the bar higher for myself. This is the year for ambition and making large strides toward my overall life goals. This is the year of inspiration in art and faith.
Some highlights of 2011:
Entered into a wonderful relationship with one of the most amazing ladies I’ve ever known
Became an Ubuntu Member after a few years of feeling I wouldn’t make it
Maintained and created new friendships
Moved into an apartment with one of my best friends.
Continuing my research on different styles of databases that I could possibly use for web developing, I have found something interesting about flat file databases. I have always heard mixed things about them, which I can usually lump into two categories: “It’s faster than SQL” and It’s slower than SQL”. The funny thing about this is the fact that both categories aren’t necessarily wrong, until someone decides to use a word like “always” when describing how a flat file database is better or worse.
Both styles of databases have their pros and cons, and what you are doing should help dictate what sort of database you are going to use (not just what you want, but what is the best/most functional). There are a few things that should be looked into before you decide on what database structure you’re going to go with. Is the data static (hardly ever changed or added to) or is it dynamic (always changing)? Is the website that is using this database going to grow and evolve, or is it a “one time” deal?
Is the data static or dynamic? Flat file databases work very well with data that is meant to be stored and not altered very much, if at all. All you have to do is read the file and pull the data that you want, right? Generally speaking, yes. More specifically, you are going to have to find or make a structure/system for declaring how you data is going to be stored (for example, CSV or by line? The great thing about using a SQL database is that the main architecture is already there – all you need to do is define what the columns and rows will hold, and then create the code (in my case, php) to insert/edit/update/remove the data from the rows/cells.
Is the website going to evolve? For many websites, it is natural progression to add more pages and features to it, either to make it more user friendly or to accomodate other forms of data. Flat file databases can be a headache when it comes to large quantities of data (not to mention that you’ll see a performance degredation due to having to read a file [files can only be read from top to bottom]). SQL can link similar tables/rows together by using “joins”, whereas you may need several flat file databases to be accessed and then the data strung together via php, asp, or whatever else you’re using. SQL allows for a more convenient and modular design of your website. SQL is great for allowing greater scalability as more complex data is needing storage.
It is easier to change the code behind a SQL based site than it is to rewrite all of your parsing code when you allow for more complex data. So, unless you are using largely static data storage, SQL is a good choice for storing data.
My laptop hard drive has NOTHING on it. It's 500GB of nothing. Thank you for crashing while doing something, "Windows Recovery" software.about 4 hours agofrom Ping.fm
