• April 17th, 2008
• Filed in
  • Apple
  • Rants
  • Web Development

I have a confession to make.

SQL Server 2000 by MICRO$OFT is the best SQL application I have ever used.

Select query text -> run (ctrl+enter) -> results. nothing out there does this simple behavior.

For everything I love about OSX I do miss a couple of apps since I jumped ship in June of ‘06. A decent SQL application is right up there at the top.

The Candidates

Navicat

 I use Navicat on a daily basis but it drives me IN SANE. All I want is a simple application for running queries that’s easy to navigate and has plenty of hotkeys baked in so I can bounce around with ease and speed. Navicat fails miserably at this. I end up with 5 windows open just to do simple stuff, there’s not enough distinction between the behavior of browsing tables or writing queries. It’s a painful, verbose, hassle. Today I was so pumped I found a couple hotkeys that would save me a lot of time only to find out they were useless because they didn’t put focus on a textarea that would be painfully obvious to anyone actually using the program. Multiple queries require multiple windows and it all ends up being a CF in the end. I’m looking to replace Navicat pronto.

Query Browser

Query Browser could be awesome, but it comes up short. Again a lack of hot keys and cursor focus make using it a pain. Frequent crashes don’t help (it crashed on me twice while writing this). My biggest peeve by far is how Query Browser deals with errors. You end up getting this tiny sliver of an area dedicated to errors. If you get a couple in a row they all stack and become unreadable and you can’t even resize the errors window space OR clear them out. I do like how Query Browser makes use of tabs for multiple queries instead of creating a new window each time (take note Navicat).

phpMyAdmin

I know other mac users who just use phpMyAdmin for all their SQL needs. I hate the lag of a web interface for something that is screaming for an application interface. Again, phpMyAdmin is sans hotkeys. That’s a deal breaker.

Dismay

If anyone can enlightened me please speak up. I’ve looked near and far and this is the only list of apps I have found and I assume it’s pretty comprehensive. I tried a couple of these applications out and found that I was already using the best available out there.

I’m very close to just retreating back to the basics.

Popularity: 6% [?]

• March 10th, 2008
• Filed in
  • Apple
  • Google
  • Premonitions

ReadWriteWeb has an excellent article on why Apple is posed to dominate the next generation of computing. It’s a very good article and I recommend reading it. It talks about why Apple’s software is rock solid and how the very basis of all of their software is light years ahead of everyone.

It’s funny because as much as I love Apple software, at the end of the day I know the future of software in the broadest sense belongs to Google. The computer of the future will be the network and cloud computing. I honestly think when we’re wired enough and fiber optics (or something better) is woven into our very being, we’ll be utilizing thin clients - probably 10th generation iPhones. Down the line (ridiculously far down the line) their lead in hardware is what really sets them apart. Even Google can’t catch up, it’s just not in their DNA. Both of these tech companies are already poised to transform our relationship with “computers”. Google on the OS, Apple on the hardware. You can take that to the bank. Hell I’m already most of the way there. I’m a Google Apps junkie who lives on his MacBook and wants a 3G iPhone like you read about.

What do you think the future holds for computing?

ReadWriteWeb Why Apple Will Dominate Next Gen Computing

Popularity: 11% [?]