aaron

Sorting a query in MySQL ignoring the word “The”

When you have a database of books or movies, some of the titles begin with “The.” If you do a regular ORDER BY on the table, all the titles that start with “the” get clumped together. One option is running an unsorted query and sorting in PHP, but it would be better to sort at the database level. Here is a query I came up with to do that, using an IF function in MySQL! SELECT *...

aaron

Phone as a Wifi access point!

This is pretty much the coolest thing in the world! I am posting from my laptop which is connected to my cell phone’s wifi connection, using Sprint’s EVDO connection to the internet. The software that enables me to do this is called wmwifirouter. Earlier this month they released their first final version of the software, and started charging for it. It’s not outrageously priced, but you...

aaron

Syncing Windows Mobile with OS X and Google Calendar

Image by nino63004 via Flickr Well I did it! I got the HTC Mogul on Sprint’s SERO plan. Everything has been pretty painless so far. Activation was easy, text messaging works, and Internet browsing is pretty fast! Now comes the hard part: getting my data to sync between Windows Mobile and OS X. There is an excellent program out there that is made exactly for this: Missing Sync. While not free, I do...

aaron

Cell phones hurt my brain

But not in the radiation kind of way… in the omg-too-many-things-to-think-about kind of way. I’m in the market for a new cell phone and provider. I’ve been on a Verizon family plan for the last 5 years, always with the free phone that comes with the plan. I’m switching to my own plan when the family contract is up. I’ve been pretty happy with the quality of calls on Verizon,...