My SQL knowledge is fairly basic.  I am an interactive designer, not a strict low-level coder, so I am looking for solutions that do not require cryptic or highly detailed SQL, when I want to access a DB system.
If you want to access the WP MySQL database tables, you can of course include the ‘wp-db.php’ [...]

Yes the blog header, when included in other pages (non-wordpress pages) can REALLY slow down your page loading.
However, the problem was not what I thought it was — the system querying the database for the WP configuration information, and then subsequently executing my own scripts. It always seemed just a little TOO slow for [...]

I am pretty much addicted to WordPress. It is simply my favorite development platform. It’s open source, it’s PHP and MySQL, and things just work out of the box. Well.
If you are running live WordPress installations, you may come to a point where you need to make an actual copy of your [...]