Peeled Carrots by Stephen Blake

I was recently looking a a free database schema tool to produce a technical specification for a MySQL database. I downloaded and installed a number of freeware software tools, but most of them didn’t quite offer the functionality that I needed. Also, some of them were extremely “clunky” and need quite a lot of refining - not sure of the names of the software I tried, but thats not really the point of this post.

After awhile I came across MySQL workbench. I think its a great piece of software, especially since its free The most useful feature I found was to be able to import a db schema from a .sql file and then the application gives a great representation of the schema. The one thing I didn’t find was how to show foreign key links between tables - If anyone can tell me how to do this I would be grateful.

So, if you’re on the lookout for a free tool to give a good representation of a database schema, then do go ahead and try MySQL workbench.

Since the beginning of the year I have started running a bit more seriously after my brothers convinced me to run the Cape Town Two Oceans half marathon with them in April this year.

I also decided to buy a heartrate monitor to help me with my training. So after a bit of research I bought a
“Garmin Forerunner 50” heartrate monitor and footpod bundle. It’s been almost a month now since I bought it and I think it’s freaking awesome!!

The heartrate monitor gives you all the data you need to train effectively. One can set target zones for how hard one wants to train and the watch has an alarm which goes off when one is outside the range set. This can get a bit annoying if you are struggling to stay in the zone for the day, but then again you should plan how hard you want to train before hand.

The footpod is also great, it gives speed, distance, cadence and number of steps. It’s surprisingly accurate and when I plotted some of my routes on Google maps, the distance was out by a few hundred meters. It is however really simple to calibrate though, so once you do that it is a lot more accurate.

The most fun part about the whole system though is the software which is available from the Garmin website. Once installed on your pc it uploads data from the watch via a usb receiver (included in the bundle). Then the data is plotted on a graph and one is able to see speed, distance, heartrates, etc. Also it gives total distances for the week, which helps with meeting your weekly mileage goals.

Then, one can upload the data from the desktop application to an online version of it called Garmin connect. The interface is really sweet and its great to be able to view your workouts online.

Bottom line is, that if you’re looking for a basic heartrate monitor and footpod I would defintely recommend getting the “Garmin Forerunner 50“. Now all I need to do is run more

Spotify, is a new digital music application which connects to the internet and provides the users with an absolutely massive music library. It is still in beta, but I have been fortunate enough to have been given a sneak preview into the capabilities of the application.

What does “Spotify” mean?
The name Spotify is a combination the words SPOT and IDENTIFY. Spotify helps you spot and identify the favorites you forgot about, or maybe didn’t even know you had.

The search feature is lightning quick and the range of music which is available is mind blowing. My only concern at the moment is regarding rights issues of the music which is available. I mean they have millions of songs available to stream free of charge, so is it legal? I suppose time will tell…

I just hope that the company releases Spotify soon, because I bet there are loads of music fans out there dying to get a copy of the software.

Before I write my first post I need to clarify something: This is the first post that I am officially writing on peeledcarrots, even though I have a number of previous entries on my blog. All of the previous posts are entries which I have written on our companies blog technovated

To get to the title of my first post - “Life is too short to dance with fat girls”. I heard it yesterday while watching Episode 8 of Californication, a new American mini series, where David Duchovny plays Hank Moody, a famous author with writers block. Hank’s father tells him that while the two of them are having a father to son chat at a bar - I had a good chuckle when I heard him say it

Also, it really appealed to me because its pretty much a synonym for the tag line for my blog “Life’s too short to have to peel carrots.” Cause it’s really true, I mean not literally…well i suppose it is, sorry ladies, but one should really make the most of ones life and live for the moment - Carpe Diem.

Back to the series, I think that it is an absolutely epic series and I would definitely recommend it to anyone…except my mom though, cause it contains some pretty graphic sex scenes and lots of swearing. Sorry mom

It is quite an unusual role for David Duchovny though - I mean the only other thing that springs to mind when one hears his name is X Files and that hardly compares to a smooth talking womanizer who drinks and smokes way too much. But, I think he does an awesome job and I really enjoyed watching the series.

So, if you’re looking for a 12 episode mini series which is pretty scandalous but is really funny then go see “Californication” - its great!!