Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Pentaho Kettle Solutions

Pentaho I have several favorite authors -- Tim Dorsey, Clive Cussler, and few others that I buy their latest book just because I trust the quality of their work.  Now on that list are Roland Bouman, Jos van Dongen, and Matt Casters.  In a follow up to Bouman's and van Dongen's Pentaho Solutions: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL, the have now produced Pentaho Kettle Solutions which explores the often murky world of ETL and data integration. 

Kettle can be confusing as there are many components with  names such as spoon and pan but these tools are valuable to any DBA who has to feed data into an instance.  If you have a data ware house the tools are invaluable.

This book covers initial steps with Kettle to cleaning up the worst raw data and even getting the information into the now ubiquitous cloud.  Having stumbled along with a few tutorials and the Kettle docs, I can testify that this book is a must have for anyone wanting to use Kettle to feed a database.  The text is clear, the example concise, and the book progresses logically.

Kettle is wonderful for modifying raw data before being sent to your database.  need to clean up telephone numbers from xxx-xxx-xxxx, (xxx) xxx-xxxx, or xxxxxxxxxx in your format of choice?  Or are state or country abbreviations (Ca, CA, Cal., & California) causing problems.  Then you need Kettle and this book.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

MySQL Certification Study Group in Austin

It looks like the good folks in Austin are keeping busy:

Announcing a new Meetup for The Austin MySQL Meetup Group!

What: GeekAustin Fall MySQL Happy Hour

When: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 6:30 PM

Where: Triumph Cafe
3808 Spicewood Springs Rd
Austin, TX 78759
512-343-1875

Mark and Boyd just finished GeekAustin's 10 week MySQL Associate Certification Study Group, and now we're wondering what should be next. Boyd would like to lead a study group for the MySQL Developer I exam, and Mark would like to host a few meetups on replication strategies and other topics of interest.

The Austin MySQL Meetup and the GeekAustin MySQL SIG are hosting a happy hour next Wednesday, September 22, to meet with everyone and find out what sort of events/study groups people would like to see in the coming months.

The happy hour will be hosted at Triumph Cafe on Anderson Lane.

Austin has a great MySQL community. If you're looking to sharpen your skills, or just spend an evening with folks who share your interest, come join us.

RSVP at EventBrite:
http://mysqlhappyhour.eventbrite.com/


RSVP to this Meetup:
http://www.meetup.com/mysql-36/calendar/14779596/

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Oracle Certified MySQL Certifications

I may no longer be in charge of MySQL Certification but it does not mean I am not looking out for those of us with those certs.  I am still moderating the MySQL Certified Professionals Group on LinkedIn and running the North Texas MySQL USers Group.  But I missed Oracle University re-branding the Sun certifications as Oracle certifications earlier this month.  This includes  the MySQL certifications that were re-branded as Sun. 

And for those wanting to take the certification exams, they retain the Prometric numbers set up by Sun.  But you will find them listed as:

310-810 - Oracle Certified MySQL 5.0 Database Administrator Part 1 
310-811 - Oracle Certified MySQL 5.0 Database Administrator Part 2 
310-812 - Oracle Certified MySQL 5.0 Developer Part 1
310-813 - Oracle Certified MySQL 5.0 Developer Part 2
310-815 - Oracle Certified MySQL 5.1 Cluster Database Administrator
310-814 - Oracle Certified MySQL Associate