Tag Archives: tool

DbSchema, THE Visual Database Tool

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UPDATE: By now, if you have been reading much of what I write, you most likely have picked up that I put a lot of stock into the Customer Service that I receive from a company, I mean that speaks volumes as to the core of that company as far as I am concerned. I also strive to deliver the utmost in customer service as I go about my day to day travels, so maybe that is why it means so much to me when I am a customer. That being said, when I purchased this piece of software and received my registration information (Name and Key) to unlock it, something was amiss. I believe it was generated and mailed from an automated system, and I don’t know what went wrong, but something did and it didn’t work when I tried to register my software purchase. I emailed tech support and explained the situation, even including relevant details from my purchase receipt. I was hoping for a quick response, but I didn’t expect a reply within mere minutes, and not just some automated “Yeah, we gotcha” message, but a fix for the problem that worked. Oh yeah, that’s good customer service. Maybe I just got lucky this time, maybe not, I prefer to think of it as someone who shares my same vision and passion for kickass customer support! I was so impressed, I had to update my review, and share the good experience. Thanks.

Great stuff ahead! I came across something that I have to share with everyone.  This is a Cool Tool pick from all of us here at Solarum, and it’s a top notch pick if I say so myself.  Let me start by saying that I love databases!  I love to build ’em, tune ’em, tinker with ’em, you name it.  Heck, sometimes I create databases just for fun, even if I don’t need one that instant for an app I am working on.  Speaking of creating and using databases, I do a lot of web development and therefore I use a lot of databases to get done what I want to get done.

About now, you are probably asking yourself why in the world is this crazy nut telling me about his database fetish?  Well, I am glad you asked!  For years now I have been on the lookout for a really good design tool that would let me graphically draw, create, brainstorm, edit … well, whatever the heck I want to do with databases.  Being a visual person, the graphical part of this desire was pretty important to me.  It was also what seemed to be the hardest to find, a good graphical tool.  I tried MySQL workbench, Visio and DBDesigner to name a few, but none of them really stood up to even basic requirements either functionally or visually.  It seems that I could find one or the other, but not both.  Maybe I am just too picky.  Or at least that is what I thought until I ran across this awesome little tool called DbSchema.  Oh yeah!

Not only does this tool perform great for many database operations (reverse engineer a database, design a database, sync project to database, generate SQL files, grouping and more), but I have to tell you that this tool is a work of art, I mean it’s beautiful.  So when you combine beauty, form and function, you get a very nice tool that actually makes me want to work.  Well, maybe … 🙂

You can even download a free version of the tool at http://www.dbschema.com/download.html, so go check it out.

*Note: No compensation or consideration of any kind was received by Solarum for this post/review.

Revo Uninstaller, One Bad Program Remover!

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revo_box2Bad as in good, as in one bad motha’SHUT YO MOUTH!  Jus’ talkin’ ’bout Revo.

Sorry, I digress.  Anyway, this cool tool is called Revo Uninstaller as if you didn’t catch that already, and it’s one of the most useful Windows tools I have come across in a long time.  Don’t get me wrong, all the Cool Tools are great, but this one is a real gem.  What does it do?  The short version is that it uninstalls software.  In reality it does far more than that.  Yes, it interfaces to the standard Windows uninstaller, but it also can find stuff the uninstaller left behind (both registry items and files/directories) and remove them.  It can even monitor an application that doesn’t have an installer and figure out how to go in and remove it.  Now that’s cool.  All in all this has been superb at helping me keep my hard drive clean when I remove applications, and it keeps me from having to do all of that searching by hand like I used to do.  Best of all, it’s FREE!  Yep, you heard me, it’s free.  So go give it a test drive today, I am certain you will love it as much as I do.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Be sure to check out the rest of the Cool Tools that we have listed, you never know, you might find that perfect utility that you have been looking for!