So I’m working on a product catalog, and I’ve decided to use a ‘types’ table to help shorten the number of null columns in my database (see diagram below).

The diagram shows 5 tables:

product_line - the seasonal line of products (A grouping, like 2006/2007)

product_sex - the sex of an individual product (mens, womens, unisex)

product - the individual product (assigned a lineID and a sexID)

product_detail - detail about a product (dependent on product_detail_type)

product_detail_type - the types of detail that are inserted into product_detail

Now, here’s where I’m getting a little muddled: When I’m trying to get the product detail back for a product, some or all of the product_detail_type options may/may not be filled (eg: some products may not have sizes, or may not have features). I’d like to, in a single query, get back the product details for each product.

I know I can use some joins to get data back, but the returned values need to be the detail_type.type (eg: content=>”some content”, features=>”a list of features”).

I know I can do this - I’ve done it a hundred times before (specifically a current project that uses a global ‘types’ table extensively), but sometimes you’re so close to your solution you can’t see it. Forest for the trees, my friends.

So a few weeks ago I was on the hunt for a wide angle lens attachment for my little digital camera. Now, I know the manufacturer doesn’t supply one, and my camera doesn’t even have threads to accomodate an attachment, but I knew (from video posts and blogs) that using a wide angle video lens, with a little superglue or duct tape could achieve result I was looking for.

A couple stores later, I had what I was looking for. Well, sort of. The distortion isn’t quite as great as I’d hoped (wait till I upload the peephole pictures I’ve taken*), but still, it’s a good start. And a lot of fun to play with.

*About the peephole pictures. No, I’m not turning into a pervert. What I meant was, since I’m a little dissatisfied with the wide angle attachment, I went to Home Depot and bought a 180 degree peephole for a front door (you know, the little thing you look through to make sure the pizza guy is really the pizza guy?). While I can’t easily glue/tape this thing onto my camera, I have been able to hold it up to the lens for some interesting effects. Once I get to a home computer, I’ll load up some of those photos for you.

This thing is gonna take over my life.

Now, it’s a little difficult using as we’ve got crap for wi-fi in our new home (we haven’t succumb to Comcast yet and are still leaching bandwidth from our neighbors). That, and there’s a host of other computers in the house already:

• A G5
• A Mac Mini
• An iBook
• A G3 Pismo powerbook w/ wireless adapter
• My Toshiba Ubuntu laptop
• 4 G3 Bondi blue towers
• 3 Pentium PC’s (1 running XP, 1 running Ubuntu, 1 running Windows server 2003)
• The Crackberry

With all these damned devices around, why would I want the ipod touch?

• Cool factor - this thing is elegant and smooth as hell
• When I’m out of the house and don’t need a full desktop, but need better Web rendering than my crackberry can offer, you can’t beat the ipod’s interface.

I will say this against the ipod (something I’ve always said) - and it’s not just the ipod, it’s nearly all keyboard interface devices - I still love the crackberry’s keyboard the best. I am having a slower time typing on the ipod, but others have told me that will pick up. I hope so, because posting to my wordpress blog is pretty smooth.

It’s funny how a little thing like new business cards can refresh your desire to take on the world.

In my case, I got my OSNAP.net business cards this past Monday and I’ve been recharged ever since our 10-year anniversary went so poorly. I’ve been in a “never say die” mode since October, but now I feel like “the world is my oyster” instead. Points:

1. Caching the XML for city and state show listings (a majority of our listings are for the default view of upcoming events by city) will improve performance a great deal.

2. New country codes, new city and regional gps information will allow us to pinpoint live events for the IRE (more on IRE after the new year).

3. IRE! I know, I wrote above “more on that after the new year,” but I’ve got to be honest with you, if we spoke face-to-face, my description of IRE would blow your socks off.

Alright, I’m short on time, and this post is taking away from valuable development time on my projects, so back to work!