Author: karlbunyan

The Gothic Temple, Landmark Trust, Stowe

The Gothic Temple, Landmark Trust, Stowe

Having just come back from a trip to Landmark Trust’s ‘Gothic Temple’ in Stowe I can absolutely recommend it. Staying in a temple in the middle of dozens of acres of National Trust grounds is fantastic. The temple has a triangular footprint wrapped around the central circular (domed) space with turrets at each corner of …

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TRUNCATE TABLE on MySQL InnoDB databases

TRUNCATE TABLE on MySQL InnoDB databases

Having come up against the extremely poor performance of using TRUNCATE instead of DELETE on MySQL InnoDB tables (see previous post MySQL Truncate slow performance problems) I thought I better come up with a solution that didn’t mean leaving a table to clear for an hour. The solution is to use a combination of SHOW …

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Multiple SQL queries using MySQL and PHP

Multiple SQL queries using MySQL and PHP

Something that I’ve had problems with using MySQL/PHP is the limitation of only being able to run one line of SQL at a time. Using something such as Microsoft SQL Server it’s possible to write multiple lines of SQL and run it all in a single database call. Until stored procedures (in MySQL 5) are …

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Optimising MySQL a query with packed keys

Optimising MySQL a query with packed keys

I’ve been learning more about MySQL lately and particularly optimising SQL queries on large tables. Large, in this case, being at the moment hundreds of thousands of rows but soon to be millions. One of the problems I’ve had is that MySQL sometimes decides not to use an index even when a handy one seems …

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Restaurant review: Gili Gulu sushi restaurant, London

Restaurant review: Gili Gulu sushi restaurant, London

It’s hard not to know about Yo Sushi, the ‘famous’ conveyor belt sushi restaurant, but what’s not so well known is that the idea is almost a direct import from Japan where such restaurants are more common. Gili Gulu is another along the same vein in central London just off the main stretch between Leicester …

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PHP 5 class constants and subclasses

PHP 5 class constants and subclasses

Another one of those ‘I wish PHP 5 did this…’ moments has occurred to me with class constants. The addition of constants is good but the problem is when it comes to subclassing. The code on the PHP 5 site: class Foo { const constant = “constant”; } echo “Foo::constant = ” . Foo::constant . …

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MySQL Truncate slow performance problems

MySQL Truncate slow performance problems

I was having problems with a MySQL TRUNCATE taking a long time on a very large table (with foreign keys). I had thought that TRUNCATE ran more quickly than DELETE but, according to the MySQL manual, that isn’t the case with InnoDB tables. In this case there is no difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE and …

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Restaurant review: Vic Naylor’s, Clerkenwell, London

Restaurant review: Vic Naylor’s, Clerkenwell, London

Vic Naylor’s in Clerkenwell is one of a collection of reasonably up-market restaurants along St John Street. On entering the bar/restaurant one is struck by the effort that has been put into the interior, yet somehow it appears very natural. It’s also slightly more distinctive than the formulaic modern interiors that seem to be the …

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Fantasy football league team

Fantasy football league team

We’re at second in an office Telegraph’s fantasy football league at the moment, which is pretty good, but one of the directors is in the lead and apparently has won for the past two years. Our fantasy football team consists of: Goalkeeper: J Lehmann (Arsenal) Defenders: W Bridge (Chelsea) A Cole (Arsenal) J Carragher (Liverpool) …

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Review of Yamaha Fazer FZ6 600

Review of Yamaha Fazer FZ6 600

Having not ridden a motorbike for some 7 years I sat astride the Yamaha Fazer 600 with some trepidation. I had chosen the bike as it looked like it would have a reasonable amount of power to ‘break me in’ to the world of bigger bikes, but with a less racey style than the CBR’s …

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