Using Database Comments to Track Columns With Sensitive Data

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Using Database Comments to Track Columns With Sensitive Data

Learn how to use Laravel’s database migrations to create comments on tables and track sensitive data in database applications.


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Laravel News

Middle Aged Dad Jam Band: Cannonball

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Middle Aged Dad Jam Band: Cannonball

The way-too-good-to-be-playing-in-a-garage Middle Aged Dad Jam Band is back with another great cover. This time, they’re joined by Reno 911! alum Kerri Kenney-Silver, who lends her vocal talents to this spirited rendition of The Breeders’ track Cannonball. It’s a fun and energetic performance that’s sure to bring back good memories for ’90s kids.

The Awesomer

The New How to Train Your Dragon Trailer Is Amazing but Filled With Spoilers

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Hopefully, you’ve seen and are generally familiar with the original How to Train Your Dragon. If so, then you are in for a treat with a brand new trailer that was just released for its upcoming live-action remake.

The trailer, which is centered on the fact the film was filmed for and will be released in IMAX, is wildly epic. It soars through the mountains of Berk, blasting John Powell’s unforgettable score, and features not just the loving relationship between Toothless and Hiccup, but big scenes from the film’s final battle.

Those scenes in particular are very much geared toward fans of the original because anyone who hasn’t seen or doesn’t remember the original is going to look at them and be like “Oh, wow, so that’s what happens at the end of the movie.” So watch if you dare, but if you do, you are going to want to see this movie on the biggest screen possible.

Yes, those scenes versus that mountain of a dragon are from the end of the movie. And yes, Hiccup does fall into a billow of flames with Toothless going down to save him. Those are certainly spoilers. However, it’s everything before that which really grabs us in this trailer.

We get so much more of the Hiccup and Toothless relationship here. More of their playful beginnings, more of their mid-air bonding, and more of how that relationship changes not just Hiccup, but his Viking culture in general.

Look, if you know and love How to Train Your Dragon, odds are you are going to love this movie. It’s very, very similar. And, if for some reason you don’t know that original movie, wow. You are in for a treat. These films are incredibly special, which is why Universal is already working on a sequel to this one.

Written and directed by Dean DeBlois, How to Train Your Dragon stars Mason Thames, Gerard Butler, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, Peter Serafinowicz, and others. It opens June 13.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Gizmodo

Best Database Diagram Tools– Free and Paid 

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Scalable systems live or die by schema clarity. That’s why most engineers now use database diagram tools to map, manage, and document their structures. But not all tools are built for modern, fast-moving teams. Here’s a look at the top database diagram tools making a difference in 2025.

The post Best Database Diagram Tools– Free and Paid  appeared first on Devart Blog.

Planet MySQL

Streamline Mass Insertions with Laravel’s fillAndInsert() Method

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Streamline Mass Insertions with Laravel's fillAndInsert() Method

Laravel’s fillAndInsert() method combines the performance of bulk insertions with Eloquent’s model-level casting and attribute preparation. This feature eliminates the traditional speed-vs-functionality trade-off when working with mass data operations.


The post Streamline Mass Insertions with Laravel’s fillAndInsert() Method appeared first on Laravel News.

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Why Windows 7 Took Forever To Load If You Had a Solid Background

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Windows 7 came onto the market in 2009 and put Microsoft back on the road to success after Windows Vista’s annoying failures. But Windows 7 was not without its faults, as this curious story proves. Some users apparently encountered a vexing problem at the time: if they set a single-color image as the background, their Windows 7 PC always took 30 seconds to start the operating system and switch from the welcome screen to the desktop.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen explains the exact reason for this. According to him, a simple programming error meant that users had to wait longer for the system to boot. After logging in, Windows 7 first set up the desktop piece by piece, i.e. the taskbar, the desktop window, icons for applications, and even the background image. The system waited patiently for all components to finish loading and received feedback from each individual component. Or, it switched from the welcome screen to the desktop after 30 seconds if it didn’t receive any feedback.
The problem here: The code for the message that the background image is ready was located within the background image bitmap code, which means that the message never appeared if you did not have a real background image bitmap. And a single color is not such a bitmap. The result: the logon system waited in vain for the message that the background has finished loading, so Windows 7 never started until the 30 second fallback activated and sent users to the desktop. The problem could also occur if users had activated the "Hide desktop icons" group policy. This was due to the fact that such policies were only added after the main code had been written and called by an If statement. However, Windows 7 was also unable to recognize this at first and therefore took longer to load.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot

Thunderbolts Is Marvel Back to Doing What Marvel Does Best

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Over the past 20 years, Marvel movies became “Marvel Movies” thanks to the company’s incredible ability to weave together multiple stories and characters in meaningful, fun, and emotional ways. The movies rewarded you for watching them by enriching characters you already knew, introducing new ones you didn’t, and constantly teasing the future. In the past few years, however, the company has gotten away from that with several movies and shows that never quite struck the right balance. Never quite perfected that famous Marvel alchemy. That changes with Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts is Marvel once again doing what Marvel does best. It mixes together characters from previous shows and movies, tells a story of actual substance, and is filled with excellent performances tackling surprisingly dark material. It has its own voice and tone, but still manages to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel cohesive. The film may not reach the highest highs of the franchise’s past, but it’s light years away from the lowest lows.

Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef, Robot & Frank), Thunderbolts uses characters from Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, and others, to tell a story about underdogs. A story about redemption. A story about choosing to be your best self even when the world is against you. All of which starts with Yelena (Florence Pugh) who, since we last saw her on Hawkeye, has been doing covert ops for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Yelena doesn’t feel great about it, though. The missions are monotonous. She’s bored, sad, lonely, and feels both unfulfilled and aimless. She yearns for something more, and that’s exactly what she’s about to get, just not in the way she expects.

Thunderbolts Tower
Valentina is at the center of it all – Marvel Studios

Like Yelena, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) have also been working for Valentina. They’re also all second-fiddle heroes: Yelena to her sister, Walker to Captain America, Ghost to Ant-Man, Taskmaster to everyone etc. But, when Valentina needs to cover up one of her projects that went sideways, she aims to have all of them killed simultaneously. This, and their shared experiences as pseudo-villainous underdogs, bonds them. Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) join in the struggle against Valentina too, and the Thunderbolts are formed. Sort of. They don’t want to be a team. They shouldn’t be a team. But at least they have each other.

Which is exactly the point. Huge sections of Thunderbolts are focused on explaining why the characters need the team. Yelena, Walker, Ghost, and the rest are all struggling with what they were, what they want to be, and what they can be. And so, to varying degrees, each character gets moments of self-exploration, self-doubt, and ultimately self-discovery. That’s driven by a very wordy screenplay, written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, which often feels more like an indie film than a big, Marvel, summer blockbuster. There are long dialogue scenes throughout, most of which are funny and charming, while others are a little too driven by exposition. But that focus on character and relationships gives Thunderbolts a tone that feels oddly understated.

With one or two exceptions, almost everything in Thunderbolts is impacted by that restraint. The action scenes are not all that elaborate. The story is relatively straightforward and compact, taking place over just a few days. Most of the entertainment is driven by the hilarious banter shared between everyone. Which, in the MCU, takes some getting used to. But the actors are all so good that they create undeniable chemistry in virtually every relationship. Eventually, that more understated tone becomes the film’s biggest strength. It sets it apart and keeps us guessing throughout.

Thunderbolts Yelena Bob
Yelena and Bob bring everything together – Marvel Studios

Watching these characters interact in fun, funny, and fascinating ways is the beating heart of Thunderbolts. The characters have real conversations about their pasts, their feelings, loss, abuse, pain, everything. As a result, at times, the film can get a little dark and uncomfortable. But that’s good because it allows the movie to go places you really won’t expect, especially in the film’s powerful, unforgettable final act.

Pugh is a showstopper throughout, giving us a Yelena we’ve never seen before. The old one is in there, complete with MMA takedowns, expert sharpshooting, and dry humor, but this Yelena is also incredibly raw and vulnerable. The deep dive allows her to, eventually, blossom into the latest top-tier Marvel Studios character. Harbour is having the time of his life as Red Guardian, delivering all manner of high-energy humor and parental emotion. Russell and John-Kamen seem incredibly game and excited to add more meat to each of their characters too, while Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is, well, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and all the excellence that brings with it.

One odd addition to the team, though, is Stan as Bucky. Bucky is a beloved, legacy Marvel character that’s never been part of the A-team, and struggles to find that role here. He gets some amazing moments, but his story is the least interesting of the bunch because we’ve already seen it across several movies and a full TV show. Bucky already found his calling. He found his purpose and joining up with this crew only adds to, but never enhances, his mystique.

Thunderbolts Sebastian Stan
Bucky is back – Marvel Studios

Bucky’s lack of depth is contrasted by a vast depth in a new character named Bob, played by Lewis Pullman (who, yes, also played a character named Bob in Top Gun: Maverick.) Yelena, Walker, Ghost and Taskmaster find Bob in the bunker Valentina tries to kill them all in and it’s quickly revealed he has incredible powers. How he fits in with the Thunderbolts, and his personal struggles, add another crucial piece to the film’s puzzle, giving the story some big, MCU stakes in an otherwise more grounded tale.

And yet, even with that character at the forefront, Thunderbolts never betrays its indie vibe. That’s especially prevalent in the film’s third act set piece, which is kind of out of left field but also perfectly earned by the story before it. The scene is action-packed and emotional, but not at all what you are expecting. Which, in a way, also describes the movie itself.

When Marvel brings characters from multiple projects together on the big screen, it has an earned reputation and expectation to deliver massive spectacle. Thunderbolts isn’t that. It’s a film that has action, excitement and one of the best end credit scenes in recent years, all while never losing its smaller, indie soul. The characters, like the movie, are underdogs. But ones that, a few tiny blips aside, ends up a winner.

Thunderbolts opens in theaters Friday.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Gizmodo

I Stopped Letting Photos Pile Up on My Phone: This Routine Keeps Me Clutter-Free

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Tired of seeing 10,000+ photos (most of which I never actually looked at), I realized that I needed to be more proactive in organizing my Camera Roll. Now, my multi-step (but simple) routine stops photos from cluttering my phone.

1

Auditing My Favorited Photos Each Month

I often mark images as Favorites when I want to share them with others because it’s an easy way to find them in my catalog. But while some people leave them here for simple access, I rarely look at them again later. So, the only logical way to stop clutter and organize my iPhone photos is to audit this part of my Photos app.

Each month, I review my Favorited photos and critically assess whether I truly want to keep them. Most of the time, the answer is no; I’ve already used them for their intended purpose, which is to either post on Instagram or share with my friends and family.

If I need the image later, I can always get it from wherever I shared it. However, since it doesn’t need to consume space on my phone, I don’t want to see it in my Favorites.

2

Clearing Out My Screenshots Folder

Most of my screenshots are for practical purposes. I often keep them when traveling for public transport directions, especially when I may not have access to mobile data. In other cases, I take screenshots of emails, statements, and other documents that I’ll need in the near future.

Apart from a couple of screenshots, I’ve rarely needed to keep them longer than roughly three months after taking them. However, they’re some of the easiest things to forget about—and over time, they’ll needlessly clutter my Camera Roll and eat away at my storage space.

Thankfully, my iPhone has a dedicated Screenshots folder. Going here and deleting everything is very straightforward and takes me a few minutes at most. I normally do this every 1-2 months, and I always do it after a trip.

3

Deleting Duplicate Files

I sometimes download duplicate images, especially when saving photos from my full-frame camera. Since these files are often much bigger in size, they quickly eat away at my storage space. I am certain that I wouldn’t have needed to upgrade iCloud so soon if I had removed my duplicate files.

Thankfully, my Photos app also has a folder for removing duplicate files. When I clear out my phone, it’s very easy to go into here and remove any duplicates. I’m often surprised at how many there are, and it’s one of the easiest ways to declutter my device.

4

Clearing My Photos at the End of Each Trip

When I travel, I take more photos and am likely to store more than I need. Everything seems like it’s worth keeping on a trip, but once I return home, I can look at my Camera Roll with a clear mind.

First, I mark anything I might want to keep as a Favorite. I also send images that others might want to see to ensure that I don’t delete anything that might be important to someone else. Everything else gets removed.

Once a couple of days have passed, I’ll assess my Favorites. If I don’t want to keep something, I’ll similarly delete it.

5

Choosing Photos to Store in Cloud Software

In addition to iCloud, I store my photos in Google Drive and Dropbox. I store most of my full-frame photos in Dropbox, while Google Drive is my go-to option for phone images. In some cases, I’ll transfer pictures from my phone rather than keeping them on my camera roll.

Most of the time, I store older phone pictures—which I class as anything older than three years—in Google Drive. Since I always back up my full-frame camera’s photos to Dropbox, I only keep them on my phone if I truly think that I’ll need to access them. I have the Dropbox app on my phone, so it’s not hard to re-download my pictures.

6

Searching Photos Based on My Camera

Besides having lots of photos from my full-frame camera, I’ve often saved pictures from my old cameras on my phone. When I haven’t cleared out my Camera Roll for a while, I frequently forget about those. Thankfully, however, I don’t need to scroll through years’ worth of images to find them.

My phone has a helpful feature where I can search for images based on the device they were taken on. So, if I want to clear out images from a specific device, I can make the process much smoother than would otherwise be possible. This does not work with other iPhones, but if you have a DSLR camera, I recommend trying this tip.

7

Deleting Photos After Sharing

One of the easiest ways I’ve decluttered my phone’s pictures and mastered the Photos app on my iPhone is by not keeping images after I send them to others. I often take pictures of my friends and family when out and about, and I typically send them everything. This often means that they’ll receive 10+ versions of the same image—which is great for helping them to choose if they actually want to use each image.

However, it’s less ideal for me. I often keep every version of these pictures after transferring them, when in reality, I only need one. To tackle this problem, I now keep one version of each image and then remove the rest.

8

Removing Folders That I No Longer Need

Organizing photos into folders is one of the best ways that I categorize my images. While I mostly use these for travel, I’ll also create folders for special events. Doing so makes it easier for me to keep everything organized and access my pictures whenever I need to.

But just because I create one folder, it doesn’t mean that I will need it forever. Rather than hoarding different folders, I think it’s easier to remove them when they no longer serve their purpose. When doing this, I can decide which images I’d like to keep within each folder as well.

I audit my folders less often than other parts of my Photos app; it’s normally something I do every six months or so. Doing so makes my clearouts more meaningful.

9

Clearing Out the Recently Deleted Folder

Decluttering my Camera Roll is about more than just deleting pictures from the main folders. Even though files will automatically be removed after 30 days, I would rather not wait. So, I then go into the Recently Deleted folder and get rid of everything I’ve just deleted.

Before finalizing my deletion, I’ll quickly check and ensure that I haven’t deleted anything by accident. Once I’ve done that, I then feel more confident. Doing this ensures that I truly declutter my phone and don’t keep anything that does not need to be there.

10

Auditing the Recently Saved Folder

I save a lot of pictures so that I can use them elsewhere, which means that my Recently Saved folder is always bigger than the average person’s. However, my biggest problem with this folder is that I haven’t "recently" saved most of the images that appear here. I sometimes see pictures that are over four years old, which is quite frustrating.

When decluttering my camera roll, I’ll go through my Recently Saved folder and delete anything I no longer need. For newer images I’ve added, this is equally as important; it means that I remove all pictures that have served their purpose. If I need the picture later, I can normally trace it back to wherever it was saved from.

Though it felt daunting in the early days, I find it quite easy to keep the Photos app on my phone decluttered. It just takes a bit of proactivity and some clear systems.

MakeUseOf