a record of thoughts

I will not be preaching or discussing the current state of world economy. It’s still happening and I’m not an expert in it. The point I will be relaying in today’s entry is the sense of being economical in projects.

I am currently developing an application in a few spared hours of my dull life. I’m a few months delayed because of improper planning. The application I am developing requires massive information storage. Information that is improperly organized is simply garbage in a storage bin. Therefore, I will be using a database to organize the information. According to my projection, I can’t afford to use flatfile or filebased database system. I need an engine to run and manage the database system. There only a few RDBMS out there that’re stable enough to handle megabytes of information daily.

If you are talking about software, which company would first pop-up in your head? Microsoft. Since we are all used to Microsoft’s softwares, a programmer would easily decide to use MSSQL Server. In my case, I’m very picky when it comes to database management. I am not loyal to anyone because I choose according to my needs. However, I would avoid MSSQL.

The few reasons I have for ignoring MSSQL Server are (1) there’s a cheaper solution that can offer the same or superior quality, (2) difficult to use [not intuitive]. I can’t say never, but I don’t overestimate my needs because they cost a lot. I’m a Filipino and Filipinos always (not often) believe that the more expensive the product, the more superior it is. I don’t value something because it costs a lot. In database management system industry, it surely is not true. I always use MySQL for my large scale database needs. It’s free, easy to use, portable, and you have unlimited support from the community. And if you are upgrading to enterprise-scale data, then you can purchase an enterprise version for a handsome cost.

I honestly believe that’s economical. At work, I have MySQL deployed so that I can store needed information anytime I want without asking for a budget. The reason why I wrote this is that I’m running source install on my Western Digital MyBook and it’s been hours since I sent a Make command. It’s my way of killing time I guess.

A listing of lines that I like from lyrics of the songs in my current playlist. The playlist in my i-touch-nothing-happens does not have a wide variety of artists. I currently have select artists/bands – Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Travis, Oasis, Queens of the Stoneage, Heather Nova, Chantal Kreviazuk, A Fine Frenzy, Ryan Adams, David Gray, Badly Drawn Boy, Coldplay, Nelly Furtado, Radiohead, Damien Rice, and Robbie Williams. That’s quite a spectrum of moods in a short list. (more…)