Version 6.2.4 maintenance release includes:

• Enhancement that allows a procedure to be recreated with a different number of parameters
• Fixes for 29 bugs

For details see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/connector-net-news-6-2-4.html

MySQL Connector 6.2.4 :

1. Provides secure, high-performance data connectivity with MySQL.
2. Implements ADO.NET interfaces that integrate into ADO.NET aware tools.
3. Is a fully managed ADO.NET driver written in 100% pure C#.
4. Provide Visual Studio Integration

If you are a current user, we look forward to your feedback on all the new capabilities we are delivering.

As always, you will find binaries and source on our download pages.

Please get your copy from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.2.html.

To get started quickly, please take a look at our short tutorials.

MySQL Connector/NET Tutorials
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/connector-net-tutorials.html

Blog postings and general information can be found on our Developer Zone site.

MySQL Developer Zone
http://dev.mysql.com/usingmysql/dotnet/

.NET Forum
http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?38

Blog
http://planet.mysql.com

Connecotor/NET Documentation and details on changes between releases can be found on these pages

If you need any additional info or help please get in touch with us by posting in our forums or leaving comments on our blog pages.

This is maintenance release.  Please review the change log (included with product or at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/connector-net-news-6-1-5.html) for details.

Thank you for working with MySQL!

The new features or changes in this release are:

• Visual Studio 2010 RTM support
• New sql editor.  Create a new file with a .mysql extension to see it in action
• Please check the changelog and release notes for more information

What we know may be broken
Documentation is not yet integrated into VS 2010.

Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Now with Soluto, they can just install the slick program, reboot their system, and let it do the work.  It uses a kernel-driver along with a database of applications and user experiences they have collected to determine what an application does and make recommendations to you.

I installed it but it found little it could do to speed up my system.  I have already trimmed almost all the fat from my rig.

Here’s a shot of the UI.

You can hover over this timeline of your boot and it will explain each element, what it does, and give you a recommendation as to pausing (not starting) or delaying (start on-demand).  So the next time uncle Bob calls and wants you to speed up his computer, just send him to Soluto!

I love Wordpress.  Really there isn’t a better blogging platform on this platform.  It’s that good.  And I’ve been using it to self-host my blog for the past year or so.  For awhile, I hosted it using II6 on WHS v1.  That was a real pain as it took several days to find a URL rewriting solution that worked with IIS6.  The past few months I’ve been hosting it on my Windows 7-based media center.  Since that runs IIS7, URL rewriting was easier using the standard URL rewrite module.

A few days ago I decided to test out WHS “Vail”.  After installing it, I wanted to move my blog onto it so I downloaded the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.  It promptly let me know that it couldn’t find any products in my selected language.  Huh?  This is what drives people crazy about Windows software.  Crap just doesn’t make sense sometimes.

I googled and found several links describing how to manually setup Wordpress on Windows Server 2008 but each of them had about 30 steps.  Sheesh.  I was about to punt back to media center when I remembered trying out XAMPP a few months back.

Man, this thing is beautiful.  I downloaded the installer, double clicked it, and watched it dump Apache, MySQL, and a bunch of other stuff into c:\xampp.  It then brought up this nice UI where I could enable Apache and MySQL as a service and start them.

A simple file copy of my wordpress folder to the c:\xampp\htdocs, a copy of my wordpress mysql database to c:\xampp\mysql\data and create the proper username in mysql and I was set.  That only other thing I had to do was to open the appropriate holes in my Windows firewall.  Five minutes and I was done!  Windows may be pretty awesome but XAMPP is pretty awesome too.

I’m writing this under Windows 7 but I’m typing it into the web UI.  I’ll likely hang out in OS/X a bit more as I have some video editing I need to do and iMovie just blows away any free products on Windows.

I signed up for Mint several months ago but they just recently added my bank so I can manage my checking and savings accounts.  The charts are great.  The quick links that show my spending in a given category are nice.  And the budget tracking and alerts are awesome.  They also recently added a feature that allows you to manually add a “pending” transaction.  This is part of what I needed to fully move.  The other thing was the ability to “reconcile” transactions against the bank.  This is where the workaround comes in.

The way mint works is that you login and then it downloads transactions from your bank and shows you all non-pending transactions along with your current balance.  Seeing my current balance is nice but I also want to see money spent on things that have not cleared yet such as bills paid or large expenditures I just made.  This is where the manual add comes in.

To reconcile your receipts to the bank you have to be a little clever.  You have to use the tags feature of Mint.  First, create a new tag called ‘Checked’.  You can call it whatever you like but I thought ‘Checked’ sounded good.  Then you need to apply the ‘Checked’ tag to all of your transactions that you are satisfied are correct.  My guess, at this point, is that is all of them.

The next thing is to understand that when new transactions come in they have no tags applied.  So, to see all transactions that are ‘not checked’ then you simply need to do a search.  Enter this in the search box -tag:Checked.  That means find me all transactions that are not checked.  Then, compare each one with the receipts you have and apply the checked tag appropriately.

It’s actually very easy.  Now you have the power of mint with the ability to add pending transactions and reconcile your account with your receipts.  Nice.

So far what’s the verdict?  Well, there are some things I really like and some things I don’t.  Here’s a breakdown of the software I was using on Windows, what I’m using on Mac, and if it’s better or worse.

• HydraIRC is  a great Windows IRC client.  On the Mac I’m using Colloquy and I must say I prefer Colloquy.  It’s faster to connect and has a better default profile for notifying you when things happen.  With HydraIRC you could easily miss a PM. Not going to happen with Colloquy.
• Skype is skype
• I use Digsby for IM, Facebook, and Twitter on Window.  On the Mac, I’m using Adium for IM and Facebook and Twhirl for twitter.  This is a push.  I prefer how Adium handles conversations but prefer Digsby for twitters.
• Use Chrome for browsing on both but I have to say that I prefer Chrome on Windows.
• I love how Apple Mail handles mail.  The keyboard interface is great and the find is awesome.  Much better than Thunderbird. I also love the LDAP integration with Address Book (seeing my co-workers pictures in mail is great)
• iMovie is GarageBand is better than anything at the same price on Windows
• iPhoto is ok

I still plan on finishing my 30 day experiment.  Will I stay on OS/X after the experiment is over?  I doubt it.  There’s simply not enough ‘can’t live without’ features on OS/X to justify the pain.  Ok, back to work.