Guiness World Record Certificate in your name - Firefox 3

On June 17th 2008, Firefox decided to set the Guiness Book of World Record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours. Mozilla foundation urged its users the world over to update their browsers by downloading the latest version namely Firefox 3. And the response was so massive on the D-Day that, there was an outage at the Mozilla data center for several hours. Once the servers were back online, the downloading continued and Firefox set the world record well within the 24 hours.

The record is 15,067,570 downloads (15 Million). Country wise, USA tops the list with a whooping 4 million + downloads. Surprisingly, sans the US, relatively small countries like Iran and France clocked more downloads than its larger counterparts like India and China.

If you are one of the people who downloaded Firefox on June 17th, then congratulations !!; You are a part of the Guiness Book of World Records. And the people at Firefox are ever too grateful to forget your valuable contribution.

So go ahead and download your own personalized Guiness Book of World Records Certificate (Ahem ... Firefox 3 Download Day Certificate that is) for helping set the record. Here is mine shown below.

OpenSUSE 11.0 released

OpenSUSE has released its latest version aka 11.0 today. This version contain cool innovations and new features. Some of them being inclusion of KDE 4.04, a brand new themed installer, latest Linux kernel (2.6.25.4) and a slew of features specific to OpenSUSE.

For a list of new features, read the release notes. And check out the screenshots of the installer to get an idea on how easy it is to install on your machine.

Wine 1.0 - The first stable release of Wine after 15 years of development

After 15 long years of active development, Wine software which makes it possible to run native Windows applications, has reached it's milestone 1.0 version. What are the features of this new stable release of Wine you ask ? Well, one of the prerequisites of the version 1.0 release, I am told, was that it should be able to run Adobe Photoshop CS2 flawlessly in Linux. And that has been achieved. Check out if and how far your favorite Windows application works in Wine by visiting the Wine Application Database.

You can download the binary packages or the source at the WineHQ website.

How do astronauts go to bathroom in outer space

A NASA engineer answers one of the age-old questions every kid has: What happens when you go to the bathroom in outer space? A little insight into zero-gravity toilet design.

Opera 9.50 web browser released

Opera has released yet another version of its flagship web browser by the same name. It comes with unique features, many of which are not yet available on alternate web browsers out of the box.

I have always found using Opera to be a pleasant experience. Some of the new features found in Opera are as follows :

1. Opera Link : For the very first time, all your bookmarks, speed dial and notes taken in Opera web browser will follow you around where ever you go. You can even access them from your mobile phone. The catch being you have to be using an Opera web browser. Opera provides space on their server to store your bookmarks and other settings which makes this possible.
2. Quick Find : Opera keeps track of not only the web addresses you visit but also words from pages you have visited. So if you do not remember the web address but remember a word on the web page, typing it in the address bar will let you zero in on the exact web page.
3. Better fraud protection.
4. A sharper skin.
   

Opera also claims that -

It’s faster, lighter and pushes us further out in front of other browsers, by blending the mobile and desktop worlds together in new and powerful ways.

But let the end users be the people who decide that. Why not visit Opera and download the latest version namely 9.5 and take it for a spin ? For all you know, you might get hooked to yet another fabulous web browser.

MySQL - Cheat Sheet

MySQL is a small, fast and highly configurable DBMS. It supports a number of different table fileformats, depending on the requirements of the user.

These are the main MySQL clients and processes (mysqld):

• mysqld - MySQL server daemon
• safe_mysqld - Server process monitor
• mysqlaccess - Tool for creating MySQL users
• mysqladmin - Utility for administering MySQL
• mysqldump - Tool for dumping the contents of a MySQL database. Useful for backing up a database from within the console.
  
• mysql - Command line interface to MySQL
• mysqlshow - List all MySQL database
• Mysql Administrator - This is a GUI tool which makes administering mysql database a painless task. Read more about it here.
  

Field Types in SQL

INTEGER - A whole number
VARCHAR(10) - Up to 10 characters.
CHAR(10) - Fixed number of characters
DATE - A date
DATETIME - Date and time
FLOAT - Floating point numbers

Field Types specific to MySQL

TEXT - Allows up to 65535 characters
DECIMAL(10,2) - Up to 10 digits before the point, 2 after.

Create a database

$ mysqladmin --user=ravi --password=xxx create database addressdb

Using the database

$ mysql --user=ravi --password=xxx
mysql> USE addressdb

Create a table

mysql> CREATE TABLE p_addr (i INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,address TEXT,email VARCHAR(30),pincode DECIMAL(10),phone DECIMAL(15),website TEXT);

Add a column called "name" to the table

mysql> ALTER TABLE p_addr ADD name VARCHAR(30);

Inserting values into table

mysql> INSERT INTO p_addr VALUES (1,"My, present, address","ravi@localhost",681024,2122536, "http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com","Ravi");

List the contents of the table

mysql> SELECT * FROM p_addr;

Delete a row from the table

mysql> DELETE FROM p_addr WHERE i=1;

Rename a column in the table from "address" to "home_address"

mysql> ALTER TABLE p_addr CHANGE address home_address INTEGER;

Note: You cannot use this method to rename a column which is a primary key.

Change an existing record in the table

mysql> UPDATE p_addr SET name="Sumitra" WHERE i=2;

Delete the table from the database

mysql> DROP TABLE p_addr;

List the databases

$ mysqlshow --user=ravi --password=xxx
+-----------+
| Databases |
+-----------+
| addressdb |
| myblog    |
| mysql     |
| test      |
+-----------+

List the tables in the database "addressdb"

$ mysqlshow --user=ravi --password=xxx addressdb

Database: addressdb
+---------+
| Tables  |
+---------+
| p_addr  |
| mytble  |
| phonebk |
+---------+

These are only a subset of the commands in mysql. But this will be enough for creating and maintaining a simple database.

Unbreakable Linux - Free Linux DVD set from Oracle

First it was Ubuntu and now it is Oracle's turn. That is right; here is a wonderful chance to get yourself a DVD set of Oracle's Unbreakable Linux. Essentially Unbreakable Linux is Red Hat Enterprise Linux sans the Red Hat trademarks.

Oracle claims Unbreakable Linux delivers enterprise-class support for Linux with premier backports, comprehensive management, cluster software, indemnification, testing and more, all at significantly lower cost.

Fig: Enter your email id and a password.

Fig: Enter your name and address.

To order your Free DVD of Oracle Unbreakable Linux with free shipping and all, visit this page and click the "Register Now" button. If this is your first visit to the Oracle website, you will have to create an Oracle account. Next enter your shipping address which is the address to which you would like to receive the DVD set and press "Submit". That is it. Oracle will ship you a brand new DVD set of Unbreakable Linux.