screaming.computer

So apparently everyone but myself knew that in MySQL, the utf8 character set is not true UTF-8, but a broken subset that supports only 3-byte characters. Also apparently utf8_general_ci is hopelessly defective and should never be used.

Hmmmph.

What you really want is utf8mb4 and utf8mb4_unicode_ci. This gives you true UTF-8 support and standards-compliant sorting.

Spent part of an afternoon updating all my code and converting my databases to support the correct charset. Should be good-to-go now.

Also updated the database-creation code in my LAMP Server Setup Guide.

This week marks one year since the inspiration for the screaming.computer project first came to me.

I've made gradual progress, working in fits and starts, and taking plenty of detours along the way. This is my ideal mode of development. Even the project goals remain intentionally underdeveloped, which is a clever way for me to shoehorn any interest-of-the-moment under the screaming.computer banner. Not sure why I find this helpful, but I do.

I do have plans, though, and an awesomely-odd end result in mind. It may take a while to get there, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the journey. As I mentioned in the first post here, this has been a platform to exercise my creativity and tickle the odd recesses of my brain. What more could I ask for?!

Here's to another year of screaming.

Cheers!