A while back Friendfeed posted a blog post explaining how they changed from storing data in MySQL columns to serializing data and just storing it inside TEXT/BLOB columns. It seems that since then, the technique has gotten more popular with Ruby gems now around to do this for you automatically. So when is it a good idea to use this technique?

Sheeri explains, in practice, how to synchronize schemas using MySQL Workbench

SQL is not meant to generate graphics, for sure; but Shlomi sees some cases where generating non-tabular output can be desirable. He explains the basics of working SQL graphics: it is actually possible to do whatever you like.

Why sharding is not always good

How to copy InnoDB table to different database.

Ed Ort, Senior Staff Information Engineer, Sun Microsystems talk with Mark Matthews, Architect, Enterprise Tools, Sun Microsystems about MySQL and Java best practices