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  • MariaDB source visualisation with Gource

    MariaDB source visualisation with Gource

    Gource is a tool which can take a source code tree and create beautiful visualisations out of it. I’ve used it a few times before for various projects. This weekend I spent a little bit of time playing with it and applying it to MairaDB Server to see what it would produce. The end result… Read more

  • One week with KDE Plasma

    One week with KDE Plasma

    My go-to Linux distribution when I’m setting up my workstations is Fedora. I have been using it since Fedora Core 1 and RedHat 9 before that. I can’t even remember what RedHat version I started with now. I often try other distributions out and sometimes use them for a few months but I always end… Read more

  • Coding and decoding crash dump handlers

    Coding and decoding crash dump handlers

    All software has bugs. Even if you could possibly write the perfect bug free software all the layers down have bugs. Even CPUs as can be seen with the recent Meltdown and Spectre bugs. This means unfortunately sometimes software will crash. When this happens it is useful to capture as much information as possible to… Read more

  • Correcting MariaDB ColumnStore Benchmarks

    Correcting MariaDB ColumnStore Benchmarks

    With MariaDB ColumnStore 1.1 Beta now released I quickly checked Twitter today to see what the response so far has been. I noticed that someone had posted up a benchmark comparison of MariaDB ColumnStore against a couple of other databases with data that doesn’t quite add up. Read more

  • How MariaDB ColumnStore’s filenames work

    How MariaDB ColumnStore’s filenames work

    Unlike most storage engines, MariaDB ColumnStore does not store its data files in the datadir. Instead these are stored in the Performance Modules in what appears to be a strange numbering system. In this post I will walk you through deciphering the number system. If you are still using InfiniDB with MySQL, the system is… Read more

  • Tech job interviews are broken

    Tech job interviews are broken

    I have a friend who was hit by a workforce reduction at a company I used to work at (as was his entire department). He is a brilliant engineer who has worked on some massive projects. But is struggling to find somewhere new in-part due to the insane way the recruitment process works in our… Read more