Browsing MySQL from Command Line

To view a MySQL schema from the command line, use the commands show databases;, show tables; , and describe . See the following example:

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema | 
| email              | 
| elggDB             |
| wikiDB             | 
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)


mysql> show tables
    -> ;
+------------------+
| Tables_in_email  |
+------------------+
| access_sender    | 
| alias            | 
| transport        | 
| user2domains     | 
+------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> describe alias 
    -> ;
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
| Field    | Type             | Null | Key | 
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
| id       | int(11) unsigned | NO   | PRI | 
| username | varchar(128)     | NO   |     |
| domain   | varchar(128)     | YES  |     | 
| enabled  | enum('Y','N')    | NO   |     |
| goto     | varchar(128)     | NO   |     |
| notes    | varchar(255)     | YES  |     |
| updated  | timestamp        | NO   |     |
+----------+------------------+------+-----+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Google Solar?

Google is investing in solar energy. (Google actually invests in many things, they have to with as much cash as they are bringing in each year.) Google has some of its own engineers looking specifically at producing cheap mirrors for solar thermal power plants. A Reuters article covers the concept.

Weihl said Google is looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four."

"Typically what we're seeing is $2.50 to $4 a watt (for) capital cost," Weihl said. "So a 250 megawatt installation would be $600 million to a $1 billion. It's a lot of money."