MySQL is frequently touted as the world’s most widely used relational database management system. Many of the worlds most well known web applications and web sites use MySQL as their data repository. The popularity of MySQL has continued to grow while at the same time many were taken aback by the lack of many features considered to be essential to a ‘real’ rdbms. Such naysayers have done little to impeed the growth or development of MySQL. The first edition of MySQL in a Nutshell, published in 2005 gave users a handy reference to using MySQL. The second edition published in 2008 with coverage of many new features that MySQL fans proudly proclaim as an answer to all those critics clamoring for a more well rounded rdbms.

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I am extremely interested in building user driven sites that allow for scaling up communication and collaboration between individuals that share common goals. There are a number of approaches to this type of problem. Of course, as always – one can pick a platform, language, etc. and start building from scratch. Another option is to choose a framework and build from there. But what intrigues me most, and I am seeing a lot of people take this approach, is to find an existing solution that is extensible and using that as the platform. This means the jump to a working site is immediate. Many of these environments are being built on top of content management software.
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Orson Scott Card’s work Ender’s Game began as a novelette, that he says he wrote as a means of leading up to the full story he had developed, Speaker for the Dead. Ender’s Game was published as a full novel in 1985, won the Hugo and Nebula awards (as did Speaker for the Dead in ’86 and ’87). I think it is safe to say that Ender’s Game is ensconced in its position as a science fiction classic. Now, 23 years later, Card has finished the first direct sequel to Ender’s Game in his new novel Ender in Exile.

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John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe now spans four novels, The Last Colony is the third. Of those initial three this is the one that is most a sequel. The first, Old Man’s War and the second, The Ghost Brigades each stand alone. And I think that The Last Colony actually can do so as well, but this is the first where the main characters are both from the previous books. That said, this is still a complete story and may even appeal to readers who may have not been crazy about the previous books.

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