database object model :: Mar 31th (Thu) 2005 @ 9:28 PM

I was up late last night going though a tutorial on how to convert dvd's to OGM files OGM files, have the extension .ogm, is an Ogg Media File. Like DVDs, OGM files can have switchable subtitles. The video part of our OGM files has been encoded with XviD or Divx, and the audio part has been encoded with Ogg Vorbis. The problem with tutorials is they never tell what to do when it does not work. Anyway, after being up far too late I got the conversion process going. This morning I got a few minute to check out my new copy of Wicker Park with Josh Hartnett saved as ogm. The video is great. Not only does it have the subtitle (easily turned on and off) but also the directory commentary. With bplayer, the best media player I am able to switch to and from the English digital audio and the directors cut. The size is lager then I had hoped at 1.1 GB but I think there are some extra settings to get it smaller.

Yesterday, I over-heard my boss talking on the phone about filling the engineer position. He said he is looking for an entry level with good computer skills. I want to jump in to the office, "I am here, when do I start!?" So think about how to play this, I tried to put myself in his shoes. If I promote the drafter am any better off, I will still need to fill a position. They have had so many bad drafters here, that all they talk about. If I where the boss I would know I could never find a better drafter, but maybe he is a better engineer. Maybe I should stop working so hard and then I will get a promotion.

On the database topic, I found a presentation recorded in February by a developer that work for MySQL Ab the company that created and maintain the open-source database MySQL. It is about database normalization. For example, say we are listing contact with phone numbers. Some contact may have one or more phone numbers and a number maybe the same for 1 or more contacts, being they all work in the same office. This is of course a many-to-many situation. Very similar to my case with my web app PasswordChian, where a category may have one or more entries a password entry may have one or categories. The presentation notes when done correctly this requires three tables; one for the contact, one for the phone numbers, and a "link" table that has contact id and phone number id. Where both id's are combined to create a primary key. I am glad I found this presentation because I have seen it does so other way that just seemed so stupid. For example, in the contact table having multiple entries for the same contact to list all their phone number seems like such a waste of space. As a side note, I got a book for the library called "Inside the database object model" by Donald K. Burleson. It just what I have been looking for and explains database design that groups information in to classes with properties. This is something have been doing for a while with the programming langue by encapsulating all sql queries into a class. So for the outside, nothing is needed about the database structure, just the data it holds. The book takes this to the next level and talks about databases structure that handles this as opposed to the program allowing for a very flexible database with lots of room to grow.

I am very upset with the bike shop, Handlebars. The work they did on my bike last week was the pits. Not only did the new brakes squeal like a pig but also the front wheel was not on tight and if it where not for the safety tabs on the fork I am sure the wheel would have fallen out bring me injury. On top of that, they left a big starch on the bottom of the backstay for the work stands. This after I had previous questioned the methods of securing the bike in, which goes again the Barnett's Manual (the premier bike, maintenance manual, over $100) suggesting the use of the seat post and not the seat tube. To top the whole thing off the had the never to lecture me about oiling the drive chain when all the did was slap the shit on, didn't both to clean the old off and the front derailleur still wasn't working correctly. I really went to tell them what I think, if for nothing else but for them to be more carefully in the future. Do you think it's better to send an email or talk to the owner in person? Anyways, the Cannondale cyclocross has been great. As long as I don't think to much about the distance, it just seem to happen. Yesterday I rode almost 40 miles. I have gotten very good at changing tires; I am down to 3 minutes flat with a hand pump.

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