Last week we asked what do you do on Father’s Day and 35% said nothing. This weeks question is…

With MySQL, there are a variety of different types of fields. These types of fields correlate to the type of data that will be stored within them. By defining what type of data you will be storing within a field, you give MySQL a better idea of how to handle queries to this data, and you also open up some other possibilities within MySQL.

There are a couple of different categories of types: numeric, date and time and string. Numeric types of data include things such as integers, floats, decimals and boolean values. Date and time types are special MySQL formatted fields that can include the date, the date and time, a unix timestamp (in a MySQL format) or a year. String data fields include text, “blobs”, specific sets of possible values, variable characters strings and more.

There are far to many different types to be able to define them all here. However, the MySQL Reference Manual has some extensive documentation of data types, which is a good place to start learning about them. Once have learned the different data types, you can then factor them into your database structure plan.

Next week we’ll be taking our database structure and making it into a database. We’ll use what we’ve learned about proper structures and data field types to create our efficient and expandable database.

When you first start out with your business, you may be approaching a very specific niche or approaching a very specific demographic. For example, if you run a small organic produce market, there is a good chance that you will largely attract only people who are already interested in organic produce and are willing to the pay the price premium that goes along with that type of product. Word may spread among people who lead that kind of lifestyle.

If your business continues to grow, it will become necessary to expand beyond this smaller niche and demographic if you want to gain any more customers. Going back to the small organic produce market, you may start to consider supplying fruits and vegetables to local restaurants and eateries. This is not a market that you would have approached when you were only selling at the regular consumer level. You still have the same products; you’re just selling them to another set of customers as well.

The same can be said about many of the people who largely market their products and services online. The people who are in that niche and have that set of interests may be able to find your company online, but at some point, you may consider expanding into a more traditional market as well, directing that traffic back toward your online business. Say, for example, that you sell arts and crafts via an Etsy or eBay store.

When you start out, most of your marketing efforts will likely be geared toward online shoppers already. Eventually, you may look into more traditional retail channels, possibly supplying a local store, taking out an ad in the local newspaper, or other related possibilities.

To expand your reach, you must also expand your perspective. Take off those blinders and see how far your business can grow.

We will celebrate our last hooray before we retire for the summer by hosting the biggest Meetup of Meetsup ever. Not only will SEVEN OTHER MEETUPS be joining us at Ceilis Irish Pub but prizes will also be given throughout the night.

Third Tuesday Meetup, Vancouver Blogger’s Meetup the Real Estate Technology Meetup, the Young Professionals Meetup, the WordPress Meetup, the Vancouver Sales Performance Meetup and the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup Group are joining forces to put together one big networking event for you.

When is the event happening?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Where is it happening?
Irish Ceilis Pub - 670 Smithe Street – Vancouver

Registration
To register for this event you need to register here.

Ajax (which stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML) is the technology behind many “Web 2.0″ applications. Ajax is used to exchange data with the server in the background, without the need to refresh the page. Ajax creates a more seamless experience for the user, making the web application feel more like a desktop application.

Ajax is used extentively in many of the websites you (probably) visit daily. Web sites such as Gmail, Google Reader, Twitter and even the administration of WordPress using Ajax throughout. Without Ajax, these web sites would be much slower and clunkier to use. Which would, effectively, ruin the simulated experience of using a desktop application.

Ajax’s concept is fairly simple. Using Javascript, data is sent or requested to/from a server, which then returns back something. Still using Javascript, that return from the server is then used to replace (or add to) what the current page is displaying. Basically you can change the whole page, without requiring the page to reload. Ajax is invisible to the user, and most actions can be carried out in less than one second, recreating the desktop experience – on the web.

However, Ajax exists differently in different browsers, creating a lot of extra cross-browser scripting required in Javascript. To make Ajax seem less daunting, and easier to achieve, we’ll be showing you how to do it in jQuery. jQuery greatly simplifies the process, making it easier for you.

The issue that you may encounter with many webcams is that you can only point them in one direction. A lot of the time, you have to adjust the base of the webcam if you want it to look up, down, to the left, or to the right. Wouldn’t it be easier if you had a webcam that could easily point in just about any direction that you’d like?

That’s the idea behind the not-so-creatively-named USB 2-in-1 Web Cam from Brando. The Hong Kong-based company is known for releasing a series of different gadgets and trinkets, and webcams are no exception. This particular product isn’t terribly innovative in terms of recording video, but you can very easily tilt it up to 180 degrees or rotate it around up to 360 degrees.

The video will be recorded at a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution at 30 frames per second. This is nowhere near being among the top of the class, but it’s usually quite adequate for video conferencing and other similar applications. The tilt-swiveling base is the real key here and it’s also nice to see that it is completely plug-and-play for Windows XP and Vista. No need to deal with any drivers. You’ll also find that it has a reasonable 2GB of internal memory.

The current asking price is $33.