Open Source and MySQL Will Rise, Legal Foes Will Fall -- "2004 was a portent of things to come for Linux in 2005, both because of what didn't happen (SCO Group's victory) and what did (the rise of open source software), according to Marten Mickos, CEO of Sweden-based MySQL AB. In this interview, he predicts how those events, which included the success of MySQL's database, will play out in 2005." Mickos will be speaking at O'Reilly's upcoming MySQL Users Conference.

Range-Keyed Queries -- Dan Tow ran into an interesting dilemma on an Oracle mail group regarding a recurring class of SQL tuning problems. In this article, he presents the original single-row query problem and shows the route to the most viable solution. Dan is the author of SQL Tuning.

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Wrong-Errors Bugs: A New Class of Bug? Dan Tow has a fascinating proposal to present: the recognition of a new class of database bug, dubbed the wrong-error bug. Dan suggests ways to eliminate most of these bugs while increasing the optimizer's freedom to find the best path to the data. Dan is the author of SQL Tuning.

Using the New MODEL Clause in Oracle Database 10g -- One of the great new features of Oracle Database 10g is its new MODEL clause. This article looks at some examples of the MODEL clause in action, and shows how to use it to move PL/SQL logic directly into SQL. Practical, expert best practices for Oracle SQL are outlined in the recently released Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition.

Cooking Up a User Interface -- No matter how much you do behind the scenes to create a solid and robust application, users of the application see only your user interface. Chapter 9 of Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition shows you how to design a UI that is workable, aesthetically pleasing, and helps users get their work done. Learn how to take full advantage of special keystrokes, create a map-based interface and forms that carry data forward from record to record, and much more. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.