MySQL Quickpoll 
For the Java and MySQL Webinar Series and Developer Resources site, which of the following topics are most interesting?
By Robin Schumacher, VP of Products at Calpont | February 12, 2010
Some technologies come on the information technology landscape and stay, providing long-lasting benefits, whereas others are more of a short term fad and ultimately end up disappearing because the value they supplied was too niche oriented and/or they were quickly supplanted by another technology that is better. Recently, articles, blogs, analyst reports, and other media outlets have been noting the rise and usage of column-oriented databases in the areas of data warehousing, analytics, and other business intelligence/read-intensive situations. And on the MySQL front, there are a couple of column DB’s that are now available for you to use.
Are column-oriented databases a technology that is destined to stay and provide long-term benefits or will it be relegated to the forgotten pile of other software that came on the scene quickly and then disappeared?
By Giuseppe Maxia | December 24, 2009
The release of MySQL 5.5 has brought several enhancements. While most of the coverage went, understandably, to the semi-synchronous replication, the enhancements of partitioning were neglected, and sometimes there was some degree of misunderstanding on their true meaning. With this article, we want to explain these cool enhancements, especially the parts that were not fully understood.
By Lenz Grimmer | November 10, 2009
Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI3) is a desktop virtualization technology that provides virtual desktop access, brokering, and hosting, enabling Windows, OpenSolaris, or Linux virtual desktops. These desktops can be accessed by using existing PCs, Macs or thin clients such as Sun Ray.
By Robin Schumacher | October 28, 2009
In Part 1 of this article, I took you through some of the reasons why a column-oriented database based on MySQL can be compelling. We also examined the architecture of InfiniDB, which is an open source analytic, reporting, and read-intensive database, and how its modular design helps you scale both up and out. Now let’s kick the tires of the database so you can see these things in action.
By Robin Schumacher | October 27, 2009
Let’s be honest: working with big databases is a lot of fun. There’s something cool about dealing with tables that have hundreds of millions or billions of rows in them, loading huge amounts of data, building star and snowflake schemas for data warehouses/marts, optimizing query performance, and all that jazz. Yes, working with big databases is a lot of fun. On the other hand, let’s be honest: working with big databases is not a lot of fun. There’s a lot of pain in dealing with tables that have hundreds of millions or billions of rows in them, waiting for huge amounts of data to be loaded only to have the load job toss its cookies and fail when it’s 99% done, building special schemas that you wonder whether make any difference at all, and trying to figure out why just a simple two-way join query has been hanging for over an hour. Yes, working with big databases is not a lot of fun.