That reminds me of an idea for a photo sharing website I had, 
tentatively called LeftOutrJoinr. It would be like Flickr, but instead 
of pictures everywhere, visitors would be given a command line into 
which they would be able to enter their own SQL queries to call up 
photos to appear on the page via AJAX. I see it becoming quite popular 
among 3-5 people.

Alex


Tim Spalding wrote:
> I'd consider teaching them how to use SQL directly.
> 
> I've done it at LibraryThing. I take employees from the simplest
> SELECTs all the way to a people-who-have-X-also-have-Y self-join in
> one long hands-on lesson. It doubles as a sort of test, and I've even
> used it in hiring. LibraryThing's two full-time librarians got there
> with flying colors; I've had programmers who stumbled. (Not
> surprisingly they didn't work out.) Once someone understands SQL
> itself, you can throw a helper, like PMA, at them too.
> 
> I think there's a real opportunity for empowerment here. Teach a man
> to SELECT and he'll never have to, um, fish again.
> 
> Tim
> 
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Tim McGeary <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I use Webmin.  http://www.webmin.com/
>> It gives me a GUI for all of my vital sysadmin needs that I can't remember
>> how to do at the shell.
>>
>> It has a MySQL GUI interface that works very well.  And you can setup user
>> accounts to have access to certain parts of Webmin, like just MySQL.
>>
>> Easy RPM install, and inside Webmin is an app to upgrade itself.  Can also
>> install Perl modules, edit your php.ini file, etc.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Tim
>>
>> Tim McGeary
>> Senior Systems Specialist
>> Lehigh University
>> 610-758-4998
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Google Talk: timmcgeary
>> Yahoo IM: timmcgeary
>>
>> Ken Irwin wrote:
>>> Hi folks,
>>>
>>> I have some straightforward MySQL data tables that I would like to be
>>> editable by some of my less-techy colleagues. I tend to think of phpMyAdmin
>>> as a perfectly serviceable and reasonably interface for updating database
>>> tables, but I'm told that it's kind of intimidating to the uninitiated.
>>>
>>> Are there alternatives that are meant for non-admin-types? I'd want
>>> something with read/write permissions, but that could be targeted at just a
>>> few tables, wouldn't have any of the more potent tools (drop, empty, etc.).
>>> In the ideal world, I might like something that would prevent users from
>>> doing things like accidentally changing primary key data and things like
>>> that.
>>>
>>> I've thought about writing something, but I suspect that would be
>>> reinventing the wheel. Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ken
>>>
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Alex A. Dolski
Web & Digitization Application Developer
Lied Library, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 457041
Las Vegas, NV 89154-7041
(702) 895-2225 (phone) / (702) 895-2280 (fax)