Just used MySQL Workbench Beta 5.2 for the first-time. Why? Extra backups for the server upgrade, better safe than sorry.

MySQL Workbench is now much more than just data modeling – modeling, Querying and server admin are now done in one place. MySQL Workbench replaces MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser.

Other improvements I liked: easy to use with a better UI, you can use SSH and your passwords are now stored in a secured vault.

Please note there will be some downtime today, due to a server upgrade this should improve the overall performance of the website.

If your a gamer don’t buy a BT Home Hub it doesn’t do open NAT. Just spent an hour sorting out a friends Home Hub. Rather than use stateful translation tables you have to set-up port forwarding for each game And because you have to set-up static NAT for games it won’t work if you have two PS3′s. This is rubbish, now I know why they call it a home hub not a router. Save yourself £80, get broadband only and buy a Netgear router from PC world.

MVC 2 is officially released, there are so many excellent features,  but the best feature for me is the strongly typed Html helpers. I’ve been playing around with this feature and will share some of my experiences with you.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/03/11/asp-net-mvc-2-released.aspx

Generally bug fixes and performance enhancements.

One cool addition for me, is the HTML input helpers supporting array/collection indexes, for example: Html.EditorFor(foo=>foo.bar[i]) . I was working around this limitation using Html.EditorFor((foo)=>foo.bar[i], “Bar”) i.e. passing a function expression, but this means you have to pass a template name (to get the correct HtmlFieldPrefix), this addition means cleaner code and no hard references to templates, thanks MVC team.

Another notable change is Query 1.4.1, is now included by default with ASP.NET MVC 2 projects.

More info @ScottGu’s blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/02/05/asp-net-mvc-2-release-candidate-2-now-available.aspx