On Monday, Ronald Bradford posted that the independent Oracle Developer Tools User Group had opened up their Kaleidoscope Conference, well-known throughout the Oracle community for in-depth technical sessions for developers, to the MySQL community. Giuseppe Maxia posted his thoughts on Tuesday.

We have confirmed that there will be an entire MySQL track at Kaleidoscope! Because Kaleidoscope is less than 8 weeks away, we could not go through a standard call for papers. Ronald and I have been working to come up with appropriate topics and speakers for an audience that uses MySQL but is probably more familiar with Oracle. We contacted folks we thought …

Here’s a sneak peek at a video matrix — this is all the videos that include Pythian Group employees at the MySQL conference. I hope to have all the rest of the videos processed and uploaded within 24 hours, with a matrix similar to the one below (but of course with many more sessions).

This is not my notes about the MySQL conference that just occurred. These are my thoughts about MySQL conferences in general. Baron wrote in The History of OpenSQL Camp:

After O’Reilly/MySQL co-hosted MySQL Conference and Expo (a large commercial event) that year, there was a bit of dissatisfaction amongst a few people about the increasingly commercial and marketing-oriented nature of that conference. Some people refused to call the conference by its new name (Conference and Expo) and wanted to put pressure on MySQL to keep it a MySQL User’s Conference.

During this year’s conference, I heard a lot of concern about whether or not O’Reilly would have a MySQL conference, and whether or not Oracle would decide to sponsor. I heard all of the following (in no particular order):

* If O’Reilly does not have a …

Chief Corporate Architect at Oracle, been at Oracle since 1986, technology and architecture decisions, responsible for all open source at Oracle. Company-wide initiatives on standards management and security — http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2010/public/schedule/detail/12440.

Where MySQL fits within Oracle’s structure.

Oracle’s Strategy: Complete. Open. Integrated. (compare with MySQL’s strategy: Fast, Reliable, Easy to Use).

Most of the $$ spent by companies is not on software, but on integration. So Oracle makes software based on open standards that integrates well.

Most of the components talk to each other through open standards, so that customers can use other products, and standardize on the technology, which makes it much more likely that customers will continue to use Oracle.

Oracle invested …

I had an interesting conversation with Sheeri yesterday. She had pointed out that today was Ada Lovelace Day, a day devoted to highlight and thank the many women in the Information Technology industry for their contributions. She suggested that if I wanted to blog about it she would find that appropriate, given what we’ve achieved here at Pythian.

First, I consider that a huge compliment. And then, a distant second, I told Sheeri – no I don’t think I’ll blog about it, that’s not my thing.

This is the IM conversation that came out of that email exchange when Sheeri and I connected about an hour later. You may or may not find it interesting, but ultimately I thought it was interesting enough to share.

tl;dr: Happy Ada Lovelace Day.

expanded version:

Paul Vallee:
hey sheeri!
Sheeri K. Cabral: …

If you do not know what International Women’s Day is: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Start planning your blog posts for Ada Lovelace day now (March 24th, http://findingada.com/ Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.)

To that end, I would like to point out all the women currently in science and tech fields that I admire and think are doing great things. I think it would be great if everyone, male or female, made a list like this:

The women that have taught me science/tech along the way:

High School:
Mary Lou Ciavarra (Physics)
Maria Petretti (Pre-Algebra, and Academic Decathlon)
Reneé Fishman (Biology)
Lisa Acquaire …

Just the facts:
What: MySQL user community dinner
Who: me, you, and many MySQL community members
When: Monday, April 12th – Meet at 6:30 at the Hyatt Santa Clara or at 7 pm at the restaurant
Where: Pedro’s Restaurant and Cantina – 3935 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054
How: Comment on this blog post to add your name to the list of probable attendees

I was sad that last year there was no community dinner, and I missed the one the year before when Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green made an appearance. This year I am determined not to miss it, and so I am calling for a community (pay-your-own-way) dinner on Monday, April 12th, at Pedro’s – a Mexican restaurant that has vegetarian and vegan options. I think Monday is a better time because many folks arrive …

That’s right — get your free 10-day trial! All the information I know is here:

http://bit.ly/37E9ld

But the basics are: No access to Rough Cuts or Downloads, for new subscribers only. It’s one of those “sign up and if you do not cancel after 10 days, we bill you” — and at $42.99 a month, that’s not a mistake you want to make. Must sign up by Nov. 24th.

To sign up now: https://ssl.safaribooksonline.com/tryitfree

I was asked to send this information along, so I am…Now’s your chance to skim High Performance MySQL, among other high quality books!

For very personal reasons that don’t belong in this article, I decided a few weeks ago that it’s time for me to move on. The year and a half that I worked for Pythian have been a wonderful experience, and this is article is my tribute to this great company.

The MySQL Team

Being able to work side by side with two MySQL experts like Sheeri Cabral and Augusto Bott has been a great experience. I have learned a lot, not only about MySQL, but also about what a great DBA should be like. Both of them are recognized MySQL Community members and regular speakers at the MySQL Users Conference and other events. Sheeri has been named MySQL Community Member of the Year twice in a row. Both are a guarantee of excellent service.

My Predictions For Pythian

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Welcome to the 167th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

Since all that OOW news forced Gerry to give them short shrift last week, let’s begin with blogs on . . . 

SQL Server

Jeremiah Peschka gets our week going with his refresher introduction to SQL Server system databases.

Likewise, Pinal Dave reviews the difference between candidate keys and primary key.

…