Get a Random Row on a HUGE db

[gunmuse]

I am wanting to display a random page from my site, But I have over 12,000 articles right now and we add over 150 per day.  What I wound up doing was a Virtual DOS attack on my own server because the 40 mb db was being loaded to many times.   I have tons of memory and a Dell Dual Xeon 2.8 gig.   Can someone think up a better way of doing this?  I wish Mysql would just bring me back 1 valid random row  It could be used in so many ways it should just be a part of MySql anyway.   <?php ini_set("display_errors", '1'); header("Pragma: private"); header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false); header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); require_once("firebase.conf.php"); $dbi = new DBI(DB_URL); $stmt = "Select * from firebase_content Order By rand() DESC Limit 0, 1"; $result = $dbi->query($stmt); while($row = $result->fetchRow()) {  $title = $row->title;  $cate = $row->category;  $get = "Select cat_url from firebase_categories where cat_name='$cate'";  $now = $dbi->query($get);  $rows = $now->fetchRow();  $url = ""> $link = $url . $title; } header("Location: http://www.prnewsnow.com/$link"); exit; /* Sudo code that I am trying to create to relieve server stress. function randomRow(table, column) { var maxRow = query("SELECT MAX($column) AS maxID FROM $table"); var randomID; var randomRow; do { randomID = randRange(1, maxRow.maxID); randomRow = query("SELECT * FROM $table WHERE $column = $randomID"); } while (randomRow.recordCount == 0); return randomRow; } */ ?> Thanks Donny Lairson President 29 GunMuse Lane P.O. box 166 Lakewood NM 88254 http://www.gunmuse.com 469 228 2183