MySQL tools and settings

MySQL tools
apt-get install mytop

ANALYZE TABLE;

SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ COMMITTED ;
SET sql_mode='TRADITIONAL' ;

SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0;
SET NAMES utf-8;
SET CHARACTER SET utf-8;

(or optionally: latin2 or cp1250, cp1251, etc.)

source: MySQL modes
source2: MySQL charset