They're probably going to acquire someone really soon, just to get a jumpstart on the Paid clicks technology space (PPC). Probably findwhat.com?
Lets face it, Google has algorithmic search sewn up for now, and MSN's search sucks so bad, that they are going to have a heck of a time convincing people to use a "new improved" MSN search.
Let's assume that 50% of American users are already online... If you'e buying books and you've been on the web for more that 1 year, you've pretty much narrowed it down to one or two sites where you're going to ever buy books online. Similarly, you've narrowed down your search preferences.
My landlord loves Dogpile and will never switch even though he knows that Google is better.
My point is that Microsoft will have to aim their search at that 5% of the 50% of US users that are total newbies. And they're going to have to force them to do it through the IE browser and other nefarious means.
The US search market is already well segmented, and unless they are heading for China or India (or post Sadaam Iraq), then I wish them luck.
The thing that makes Postgresql completely different from MySQL is that it is an *active* RDBMS. By active, I mean that you can set it up so if it gets certain kinds of data, it can operate on that data to create new records, delete records, update other tables etc.
Postgresql has the *intellegence* built in. You can write all sorts of georgous functions to do stuff, especially if, like us, your shop uses several languages... PHP, Perl, Java, Python, C++, etc. Why replicate your data related logic in every client language?
Transaction support and file/record locking are the least of your problems. If you do serious database stuff, at some point, you are *going* to want VIEWS, TRIGGERS, RULES, and STORED PROCEDURES (functions). Having this functionality in the database engine, instead of in your code makes a heck of a lot of difference when the time comes to scale.
Coming from a MySQL backgroud in a multi-language shop, we clearly saw the limitations, and decided to switch the entire database platform over to Postgresql a year ago. We haven't looked back since.
Also, I dont think the developers will be able to make MySQL into an *ACTIVE* database anytime soon, simply because of the current architecture of the system as it is now. They are going to need a heck of a lot of system tables and new code, to accomplish even the simplest stored procedure functionality.
I can see VIEWS being a quick hack, but going beyond that with MySQL as it is, will be quite a stretch, and I don't believe they will finish those features until perhaps the end of next year, as it will require almost a complete rewrite of the base engine IMHO.
I have yet to see a reason to do much OO in what is primarily a web scripting language to embed in an HTML page.
If that's all you think of PHP then you've a lot to learn jack.
First... almost no professional web programmer puts HTML in their code anymore (PHP or Perl), we tend to use OOP based templating systems. Makes it much easier to separate content and code in non trivial web applications.
Second... OOP makes it tons easier to write, again, non-trivial apps and libraries.
If all you're doing with PHP (or Perl) is to query a db and write the stuff to the screen, then fine, never use OOP or templates, but for large apps where many interface designers, multiple programmers and PHB's are involved, OOP and templates (be they Perl or PHP) are worth their weight in gold.
I think it's time that we stop saying that "PHP is just a web application scripting language" any more, it has matured quickly into a world class capable language. Why, just a months ago I wrote a PHP daemon, that uses sockets, forking and database connectivity. Up to 1.5 years ago, I would have automatically reached for Perl.
PHP has come very far, and at this juncture, is just as powerful as Perl both on the web -- and on the command line -- with all the new features in the just announced version. Plus, there's the added benefit of you not having to be a slave to CPAN for the tiniest bit of additional functionality.
Our health is in our hands, not our doctor's
on
Complications
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
A few years ago I was really sick. Doctors could only prescribe medicines to supress the symptoms and several gave conflicting diagnoses.
Finally I visited one doctor who told me I needed to drink more water, have a humidifier in my room, and change my diet to largely plant based. In a few days my kidney problems ceased without any drug or surgical interventions.
Over the years since then, I've read, and noticed that the majority of health problems can be easily solved by the patient themselves. Just a little research from your local bookstore, or even the net can go a long way.
Doctors should really only be used to help diagnose your symptoms, and to treat those problems that you cannot yourself.
Instead, many of us see the latest drugs on TV and rush in to the doctor wanting him/her to prescribe them. All drugs are toxic and most have unintended side effects and consequences. If you dont believe me, check out side effects for a few popularly prescribed drugs that patients could easily be solving in more natural ways:
Sure, drugs have their place in certain circumstances, but doctors being in thrall of the pharmaceutical industry really set themselves up for lawsuits from uninformed patients who sometimes pressure them, and many times, medications are seen as the easy way out to shup-up a complaining patient and move on to the other one.
Fellow slashdotters who are ill, should talk to their doctors, and research natural alternatives from a variety of sources before submitting to surgery and medications. And if surgery and medications are unavoidable, get second and third opinions for convention and alternative physicians. You can save your life that way. Check out sites that expose certain health myths, such as The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for more information.
Re:This might not have the impact we think.
on
Yahoo Buying Inktomi
·
· Score: 1
Remember that Yahoo bought all of Inktomi, not just the server software. Please read the Press Release.
The press release does *not* say that they just bought a piece of Inktomi, or just a specific technology from Inktomi. Please read carefully.
Wrong... they acquired all of Inktomi and their technologies, databases.
The reason they bought Inktomi
on
Yahoo Buying Inktomi
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The reason why they bought Inktomi, is because of the revenue that can make from it.
Inktomi sells inclusion in their results to paying customers. Many results that you normally click on in MSN or other Inktomi distribution partners cost money to the advertiser (about 10 cents each click and up).
To be fair to Inktomi, while they charge for inclusion, your site is still ranked for relevance, so there is no guarantee that your paid links will filter to the top of a search. This is all a Cost-per-Click (CPC) model, or a one time fee for inclusion over a set period of time.
How does this affect Google?
Remember that Google makes their money from search distribution and their sponsored listings. In the short term, it hurts Google a little bit, because they won't be getting paid from Yahoo for that distribution, if Yahoo decides not to use Google in the future. In the long term it does not matter much, because Google's long term revenue model/strategy is the Sponsored Listings (which are being shown at AOL and a variety of their partners), which Yahoo was not displaying at all. So even if Yahoo were sending 1 billion searches over to Google, none of those are monetized at all.
How will this affect Yahoo?
Over the long term, Yahoo will make more money from this deal, than by using Google's results, because many of the clickthrough's in their standard search (again.. if they use Inktomi instead of Google for that), will provide some CPC revenue for them. They basically want to monetize the standard search results, and the Inktomi acquisition will help them to do that.
I've never been turned down for a job I interviewed for, and I dont have a degree, and I've never been fired. My skill sets are sparse: PHP, Postgresql Perl, MySQL, Apache, Linux etc... Here's what I did:
1. Went into detail what I did in the last 3 jobs, I mean serious detail. It means that the people that I'll work well with, will appreciate my resume instead of some PHB looking for acronyms.
2. Include links to articles I wrote, and postings I made in forums for all the above technologies. The last job I got was because they received help from some silly posting I made and forgot about years ago.
3. Include links to interactive sites that you helped build. Forget the pretty stuff, the fancy HTML, that's not what you will be hired for, instead, link to the interactive portions of the site that actually do something.
4. Always have some code samples handy with lots of comments. Include some OOP examples along with traditional procedural code.Even if they dont use OOP, at least they know that you can.
5. Make sure that you will have lots of hits in google, which will turn up all your online activity.
6. Dont bring your resume to the interview. Instead, when they ask for it, give them the URL where they can view it.
7. Refuse a job where they require your resume in Microsoft Word format. It means that they are not really an open source shop, and the PHB's probably use Outlook, Exchange, Office and IE. Tell them that you are refusing the job because of that reason. They will respect you for having the balls to do it, and in the same vein, always submit your resume in text format in the email to the recruiter (not as an attachment).
8. Be assertive in your resume, tell them exactly what you want to do. Dont be vague about what you want to do. Tell them how you can help them, and that you will make a great fit in their org. If possible, tailor your resume for each job you are applying for.
9. Don't mention that you can use a word processor, browser, or spreadsheet. That's passe, everybody's expected to do that. Don't mention that you can admin an NT/2000 box (even if you can), instead, tell them in the interview.
I guess there are more tips out there, but for last 2 jobs and 4 interviews in 6 years, those have worked well for me.
The thing that makes Postgresql completely different from MySQL is that it is an *active* RDBMS. By active, I mean that you can set it up so if it gets certain kinds of data, it can operate on that data to create new records, delete records, update other tables etc.
Postgresql has the *intellegence* built in. You can write all sorts of georgous functions to do stuff, especially if, like us, your shop uses several languages... PHP, Perl, Java, Python, C++, etc. Why replicate your business logic everywhere?
Transaction support and file/record locking are the least of your problems. If you do serious database stuff, at some point, you are *going* to want VIEWS, TRIGGERS, RULES, and STORED PROCEDURES (functions). Having this functionality in the database engine, instead of in your code makes a heck of a lot of difference when the time comes to scale.
Coming from a MySQL backgroud in a multi-language shop, we clearly saw the limitations, and decided to switch the entire database platform over to Postgresql a year ago.
No need to apologize! You were right the first time. For a desktop that one is staring at all day, it should be fairly easy and smooth on the eyes.
I think the folks at Ximian are to be commended. I dual boot X between KDE and Ximian, I frequently go over to KDE but always run back to Ximian/Gnome.
Even though there are less features, you end up doing more because it all fits together so well.
Ok, mark me down as a troll,or flamebait but I think the Wine project should change their License to:
"This program will actually run Windows programs. It will be reasonably easy to install. It will consistently work with about 50% of windows programs..." and so on.
Everyone's up in arms about the License and the program really does not consistently work as yet. What gives?
Am I asking too much? Are they close enough to making it really work so that they now need to firm up the license arrangements?
I've also been working on approx 7000+ lines of PHP code over the past several months http://makunu.com
After 3 months coming back to your code, even though it's well commented you start to wonder... "WTF was I doing!?". But guess what, it works! And it usually works well.
I've found with this project, its better to just go in and modify the code. Another thing... do it in with lots of little subs/functions that serve as black boxes. Because of this approach, when the time came for us to switch from Mysql to the more robust Postgresql, then we didn't have to change any code.
Another thing we did was to make the system to be like a "plug-in" type of architecture, so adding or getting rid of modules was childs play without having to rip out the heart of the application.
One drawback to our large library of functions, is that it took a fairly long time to load with each web request. This library contains massive quantities of small functions that do everthing for logging errors to database independent access. But was there a way around this besides senselessly duplicating code... I dont think so.
With such a large code base, I really have no plans to rewrite it any time soon. This system will end up being massively patched over the next few years.
In the tons of sci-fi (almost exclusively) that I've read over the last 25 years, the one that's had the most impact was Jack Vance.
For sheer inventiveness, language, and the fact that the trappings of science is relegated to the background of the story, makes Vance a must read, and means that he will last well into the future.
O the worlds! The Dying earth, "Showboat world", "Alastor Cluster", not to mention the cultures: "Trills", The Pnume, "The Connatic", "The Dirdir". The list goes on.
If you love a good mix of ancient and advanced technology, with Fantasy & Sci-fi combinations pick up the Demon Princes series of novels, or the omnibus editions.
Recently we installed SUSE Linux for SPARC on one of our Dual Processor UltraSparc II 400MHZ boxen.
We were pleasantly surprised in the speed increase that a none-combursome OS running on some very good hardware could give. We tried RedHat and Mandrake versions, which were even faster than the SUSE version.
In effect, our SPARC hardware got a new lease on life with the software change. Try it, you might like it!
The thing that what frightened me most (I hope this is fake!!!), is the amount of power that AOL/TW has.
Their ability to "Stall XP" could actually be carried out.
I'm no Micro$oft fan, but this would be killing the beast to replace it with a slightly nicer beast?
Billg: You mean there are actually prople who want to buy computers without windows?
Ballmer: And those damn goatse.cx vendors are selling them too.
Billg: What shall we do?
Ballmer: I know, lets...
How fast is this thing?
What are its limitations?
How scaleable is it?
Has any slashdot reader installed and used this before?
The fact that it is available for my 2 favorite languages (PHP, Perl) in my book makes it a Good Thing (TM), but I guess that until there is some feedback from the community on my above questions, the download rate might be a little low.
Recently I wanted to move an access database to a more robust platform. Some tables had a few hundred thousand records.
The MySQL ODBC connection was not the problem, Access was the problem, because of its non-standard SQL and some problematic data types. PostgreSql was almost seamless in converting the data, but there were problems there too.
In another project, what I did was to use the corp's existing MS-SQL database and my Linux web server with PHP. Installing the Sybase drivers (or FreeTDS), I was able to get VERY SPEEDY access to the MS-SQL server running on NT. Everything rocked. So we were able to have the best of both worlds... my bosses insane desire to have Access Applications, and our desire to have a web based Linux/PHP/Perl front end to the same database. You should look into this solution.
MySQL is great and all, but don't forget the ability to mix and match solutions.
Slashdot Mirror
Lets face it, Google has algorithmic search sewn up for now, and MSN's search sucks so bad, that they are going to have a heck of a time convincing people to use a "new improved" MSN search.
Let's assume that 50% of American users are already online... If you'e buying books and you've been on the web for more that 1 year, you've pretty much narrowed it down to one or two sites where you're going to ever buy books online. Similarly, you've narrowed down your search preferences.
My landlord loves Dogpile and will never switch even though he knows that Google is better.
My point is that Microsoft will have to aim their search at that 5% of the 50% of US users that are total newbies. And they're going to have to force them to do it through the IE browser and other nefarious means.
The US search market is already well segmented, and unless they are heading for China or India (or post Sadaam Iraq), then I wish them luck.
Postgresql has the *intellegence* built in. You can write all sorts of georgous functions to do stuff, especially if, like us, your shop uses several languages... PHP, Perl, Java, Python, C++, etc. Why replicate your data related logic in every client language?
Transaction support and file/record locking are the least of your problems. If you do serious database stuff, at some point, you are *going* to want VIEWS, TRIGGERS, RULES, and STORED PROCEDURES (functions). Having this functionality in the database engine, instead of in your code makes a heck of a lot of difference when the time comes to scale.
Coming from a MySQL backgroud in a multi-language shop, we clearly saw the limitations, and decided to switch the entire database platform over to Postgresql a year ago. We haven't looked back since.
Also, I dont think the developers will be able to make MySQL into an *ACTIVE* database anytime soon, simply because of the current architecture of the system as it is now. They are going to need a heck of a lot of system tables and new code, to accomplish even the simplest stored procedure functionality.
I can see VIEWS being a quick hack, but going beyond that with MySQL as it is, will be quite a stretch, and I don't believe they will finish those features until perhaps the end of next year, as it will require almost a complete rewrite of the base engine IMHO.
So go ahead, mod me up, and mod me down :-)
Start using Laser Printers.. o wait...
Many other average Joes use and prefer other search engines too.
So what's my point? Hmmm... I forgot.
We've used XEON's on our DB server for a few months now. The performance has been outstanding. You also see 4 processors when you run top.
At first we thought this was an error, and got in touch with Dell's tech support. But the geeks there said this is normal behavior.
If that's all you think of PHP then you've a lot to learn jack.
First... almost no professional web programmer puts HTML in their code anymore (PHP or Perl), we tend to use OOP based templating systems. Makes it much easier to separate content and code in non trivial web applications.
Second... OOP makes it tons easier to write, again, non-trivial apps and libraries.
If all you're doing with PHP (or Perl) is to query a db and write the stuff to the screen, then fine, never use OOP or templates, but for large apps where many interface designers, multiple programmers and PHB's are involved, OOP and templates (be they Perl or PHP) are worth their weight in gold.
I think it's time that we stop saying that "PHP is just a web application scripting language" any more, it has matured quickly into a world class capable language. Why, just a months ago I wrote a PHP daemon, that uses sockets, forking and database connectivity. Up to 1.5 years ago, I would have automatically reached for Perl.
PHP has come very far, and at this juncture, is just as powerful as Perl both on the web -- and on the command line -- with all the new features in the just announced version. Plus, there's the added benefit of you not having to be a slave to CPAN for the tiniest bit of additional functionality.
Finally I visited one doctor who told me I needed to drink more water, have a humidifier in my room, and change my diet to largely plant based. In a few days my kidney problems ceased without any drug or surgical interventions.
Over the years since then, I've read, and noticed that the majority of health problems can be easily solved by the patient themselves. Just a little research from your local bookstore, or even the net can go a long way.
Doctors should really only be used to help diagnose your symptoms, and to treat those problems that you cannot yourself.
Instead, many of us see the latest drugs on TV and rush in to the doctor wanting him/her to prescribe them. All drugs are toxic and most have unintended side effects and consequences. If you dont believe me, check out side effects for a few popularly prescribed drugs that patients could easily be solving in more natural ways:
Zocor - http://www.medications.com/index.php?act=se&drug=Z ocor
Yasmin - http://www.medications.com/index.php?act=se&drug=Y asmin
Paxil - http://www.medications.com/index.php?act=se&drug=P axil
Levaquin - http://www.medications.com/index.php?act=se&drug=L evaquin
Sure, drugs have their place in certain circumstances, but doctors being in thrall of the pharmaceutical industry really set themselves up for lawsuits from uninformed patients who sometimes pressure them, and many times, medications are seen as the easy way out to shup-up a complaining patient and move on to the other one.
Fellow slashdotters who are ill, should talk to their doctors, and research natural alternatives from a variety of sources before submitting to surgery and medications. And if surgery and medications are unavoidable, get second and third opinions for convention and alternative physicians. You can save your life that way. Check out sites that expose certain health myths, such as The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for more information.
The press release does *not* say that they just bought a piece of Inktomi, or just a specific technology from Inktomi. Please read carefully.
Wrong... they acquired all of Inktomi and their technologies, databases.
Inktomi sells inclusion in their results to paying customers. Many results that you normally click on in MSN or other Inktomi distribution partners cost money to the advertiser (about 10 cents each click and up).
To be fair to Inktomi, while they charge for inclusion, your site is still ranked for relevance, so there is no guarantee that your paid links will filter to the top of a search. This is all a Cost-per-Click (CPC) model, or a one time fee for inclusion over a set period of time.
How does this affect Google?
Remember that Google makes their money from search distribution and their sponsored listings. In the short term, it hurts Google a little bit, because they won't be getting paid from Yahoo for that distribution, if Yahoo decides not to use Google in the future. In the long term it does not matter much, because Google's long term revenue model/strategy is the Sponsored Listings (which are being shown at AOL and a variety of their partners ), which Yahoo was not displaying at all. So even if Yahoo were sending 1 billion searches over to Google, none of those are monetized at all.
How will this affect Yahoo?
Over the long term, Yahoo will make more money from this deal, than by using Google's results, because many of the clickthrough's in their standard search (again.. if they use Inktomi instead of Google for that), will provide some CPC revenue for them. They basically want to monetize the standard search results, and the Inktomi acquisition will help them to do that.
I've never been turned down for a job I interviewed for, and I dont have a degree, and I've never been fired. My skill sets are sparse: PHP, Postgresql Perl, MySQL, Apache, Linux etc... Here's what I did:
1. Went into detail what I did in the last 3 jobs, I mean serious detail. It means that the people that I'll work well with, will appreciate my resume instead of some PHB looking for acronyms.
2. Include links to articles I wrote, and postings I made in forums for all the above technologies. The last job I got was because they received help from some silly posting I made and forgot about years ago.
3. Include links to interactive sites that you helped build. Forget the pretty stuff, the fancy HTML, that's not what you will be hired for, instead, link to the interactive portions of the site that actually do something.
4. Always have some code samples handy with lots of comments. Include some OOP examples along with traditional procedural code.Even if they dont use OOP, at least they know that you can.
5. Make sure that you will have lots of hits in google, which will turn up all your online activity.
6. Dont bring your resume to the interview. Instead, when they ask for it, give them the URL where they can view it.
7. Refuse a job where they require your resume in Microsoft Word format. It means that they are not really an open source shop, and the PHB's probably use Outlook, Exchange, Office and IE. Tell them that you are refusing the job because of that reason. They will respect you for having the balls to do it, and in the same vein, always submit your resume in text format in the email to the recruiter (not as an attachment).
8. Be assertive in your resume, tell them exactly what you want to do. Dont be vague about what you want to do. Tell them how you can help them, and that you will make a great fit in their org. If possible, tailor your resume for each job you are applying for.
9. Don't mention that you can use a word processor, browser, or spreadsheet. That's passe, everybody's expected to do that. Don't mention that you can admin an NT/2000 box (even if you can), instead, tell them in the interview.
I guess there are more tips out there, but for last 2 jobs and 4 interviews in 6 years, those have worked well for me.
The thing that makes Postgresql completely different from MySQL is that it is an *active* RDBMS. By active, I mean that you can set it up so if it gets certain kinds of data, it can operate on that data to create new records, delete records, update other tables etc.
Postgresql has the *intellegence* built in. You can write all sorts of georgous functions to do stuff, especially if, like us, your shop uses several languages... PHP, Perl, Java, Python, C++, etc. Why replicate your business logic everywhere?
Transaction support and file/record locking are the least of your problems. If you do serious database stuff, at some point, you are *going* to want VIEWS, TRIGGERS, RULES, and STORED PROCEDURES (functions). Having this functionality in the database engine, instead of in your code makes a heck of a lot of difference when the time comes to scale.
Coming from a MySQL backgroud in a multi-language shop, we clearly saw the limitations, and decided to switch the entire database platform over to Postgresql a year ago.
We haven't looked back since.
No need to apologize! You were right the first time. For a desktop that one is staring at all day, it should be fairly easy and smooth on the eyes.
I think the folks at Ximian are to be commended. I dual boot X between KDE and Ximian, I frequently go over to KDE but always run back to Ximian/Gnome.
Even though there are less features, you end up doing more because it all fits together so well.
Everyone's up in arms about the License and the program really does not consistently work as yet. What gives?
Am I asking too much? Are they close enough to making it really work so that they now need to firm up the license arrangements?
I know what you mean!
I've also been working on approx 7000+ lines of PHP code over the past several months http://makunu.com
After 3 months coming back to your code, even though it's well commented you start to wonder... "WTF was I doing!?". But guess what, it works! And it usually works well.
I've found with this project, its better to just go in and modify the code. Another thing... do it in with lots of little subs/functions that serve as black boxes. Because of this approach, when the time came for us to switch from Mysql to the more robust Postgresql, then we didn't have to change any code.
Another thing we did was to make the system to be like a "plug-in" type of architecture, so adding or getting rid of modules was childs play without having to rip out the heart of the application.
One drawback to our large library of functions, is that it took a fairly long time to load with each web request. This library contains massive quantities of small functions that do everthing for logging errors to database independent access. But was there a way around this besides senselessly duplicating code... I dont think so.
With such a large code base, I really have no plans to rewrite it any time soon. This system will end up being massively patched over the next few years.
In the tons of sci-fi (almost exclusively) that I've read over the last 25 years, the one that's had the most impact was Jack Vance.
For sheer inventiveness, language, and the fact that the trappings of science is relegated to the background of the story, makes Vance a must read, and means that he will last well into the future.
O the worlds! The Dying earth, "Showboat world", "Alastor Cluster", not to mention the cultures: "Trills", The Pnume, "The Connatic", "The Dirdir". The list goes on.
If you love a good mix of ancient and advanced technology, with Fantasy & Sci-fi combinations pick up the Demon Princes series of novels, or the omnibus editions.
So true...
Recently we installed SUSE Linux for SPARC on one of our Dual Processor UltraSparc II 400MHZ boxen.
We were pleasantly surprised in the speed increase that a none-combursome OS running on some very good hardware could give. We tried RedHat and Mandrake versions, which were even faster than the SUSE version.
In effect, our SPARC hardware got a new lease on life with the software change. Try it, you might like it!
The thing that what frightened me most (I hope this is fake!!!), is the amount of power that AOL/TW has.
Their ability to "Stall XP" could actually be carried out.
I'm no Micro$oft fan, but this would be killing the beast to replace it with a slightly nicer beast?
Billg: You mean there are actually prople who want to buy computers without windows? Ballmer: And those damn goatse.cx vendors are selling them too. Billg: What shall we do? Ballmer: I know, lets...
How fast is this thing?
What are its limitations?
How scaleable is it?
Has any slashdot reader installed and used this before?
The fact that it is available for my 2 favorite languages (PHP, Perl) in my book makes it a Good Thing (TM), but I guess that until there is some feedback from the community on my above questions, the download rate might be a little low.
This is a good way for me to get my dog to let himself in and out of the house.
Don't laugh... it would work! There's not too much difference between our eyes and my dog's eyes.
Can I run apache, PHP, mod_perl in a cluster of these suckers?
Recently I wanted to move an access database to a more robust platform. Some tables had a few hundred thousand records.
The MySQL ODBC connection was not the problem, Access was the problem, because of its non-standard SQL and some problematic data types. PostgreSql was almost seamless in converting the data, but there were problems there too.
In another project, what I did was to use the corp's existing MS-SQL database and my Linux web server with PHP. Installing the Sybase drivers (or FreeTDS), I was able to get VERY SPEEDY access to the MS-SQL server running on NT. Everything rocked. So we were able to have the best of both worlds... my bosses insane desire to have Access Applications, and our desire to have a web based Linux/PHP/Perl front end to the same database. You should look into this solution.
MySQL is great and all, but don't forget the ability to mix and match solutions.