Yes you got it, even while in the restroom here at Google (you can’t say toilets here in the US, because that’s the device), Google keeps you occupied while standing or sitting with the writings of “Testing on the Toilet”.

In Episode 19, TOTT talks about “Converting Old Style Tests”. An interesting read, rather then the daily grind of the front page of USA Today, plus as well as something that can be obviously changed at a longer frequency.

So how was the toilet experience here at MySQL Camp. Well you have toilet warming seats , my first experience, it was a little weird, and then you get the builtin “bidet” as well, with the ability for front cleaning, rear cleaning and then drying. Now that was really weird.

There has been a policy of what photos we can and can’t take and that’s cool, so I can’t post a copy of it. I will however show …

The great thing about this unconference, is the lack of total formal structure. For now , our first session we are having an open introduction of people, there are at good 60+ people here already, and people rolling in, and it’s great to hear people’s background, and also to bag Jeremy Cole at every opportunity. We have a variety of people from various backgrounds, companies and experience levels.

We are in the Kiev room, with power build into the desks, lots of desk space and full 360% swivel chairs. This is just another example of the company’s clear thinking about it’s requirements.

There have already been some very funny stories, I should have made more earlier notes. Here are some.

Adam Ritter (Proven Scaling ride winner) was the first to bag Oracle, really bold move with Ken Jacobs from Oracle …

I’m outside enjoying a very lovely Danish and Orange juice with Jay and Leslie, and like 3 motorised scooters and a guy on a skateboard goes past. Did I mention how cool this place is!

Back in the foyer and Sheeri is sitting in the leather massage chair, as more people start streaming in. She has her laptop there and is IM’ing her boyfriend.

“So I’m in a massage chair at Google head quarters”. And his response is , “like right now”. Well here will be the photo and video when we find somebody with a card reader for my camera.

Jay’s looking a little worried, registrations are now over 200, 202, yesterday is was 150, and like 3 days ago, still in the 70s & 80s. People must have found out a free event at MySQL. We are going to kick people out that don’t contribute. It is a unconference.

So now that I write this, registrations are at 206.

So like two minutes later, some official looking Google people come over and saw “Come on over and get your Google Shirt”. So before the last past is even cold, we have our own Googlewear.

A minute later, Leslie is back again saying, guys and lady (Just for Sheeri), “Contintental breakfast is ready in the room”. Now to check out the Google Food!

Everybody here (that is not us visitors) are wearing Google shirts. It must be an official clothing label.

So Sheeri says “Actually they are just extras, they have been hired for the day.”

So the latest quote from Leslie is “Eat, joy and be merry, and stay inside the blue lines”. Of course I should also mention when we arrived the parking security guy said. “Follow the second yellow brick road”. This is going to be a weekend just of quotes!

We have made it to MySQL Camp being held at Google Head Quarters in Mountain View California. Directions WOOT!!!

So we are at the lobby reception of Building 40, and I’m lounging back in a large green beanbag behind all the name tags, this is so cool, the problem is with all our technology, nobody yet has the capability to read the photos from a digital camera so I can upload it. Both Sheeri and myself have left the right stuff in our hotel room. So stay tuned.

Leslie our Google co-coordinator wants her business card to read “Hacker Herder” which sounds so cool. This whole weekend is going to be a blast. More to come.

At dinner at the MySQL Camp I found a new way these American’s store their ice.

MySQL AB invited me to Frankfurt to talk about their PHP native driver project. While I am not much of a C-hacker, I do know database API's and users preferences in them quite well from my work on MDB2. As such my job was to present a wish list for features. Do note that this is a wish list and any features I mention in this blog post are not yet in any definitive plan. Aside from that, I also took it upon me to make sure that whatever we do, we try to keep the API as clear and simple as possible.

Anyways, at first I was wondering if the chance for a speed increase was really worth MySQL AB throwing developers at this. I am also not that concerned about the license of libmysql. With the FLOSS exception everything seems more or less ok. So why go through all the trouble? A lot of the wish lists items could easily be implemented on top of …

Frank was on a role with MySQL quotes (it’s 1am here in New York - All that Red Bull & Vodka). Here are some of them:

Let me scale you!

Wanna scale.

Scale me Baby!

Backup Now!

MySQL - DBA Friendly.

MySQL - Use the Attitude.

MySQL. Be Bold!

MySQL. Look Again

MySQL - Coming to a website near you.

One small step for Data, one giant leap for DBA.

Data, we are serious about it.

My Job, My Passion. MySQL.

MySQL. Never Doubt.

MySQL. Scaling made Easy.

MySQL. Scaling all you want.

Got MySQL!

Do it with MySQL.

Scale Yourself.

MySQL or die.

I’ve also done some of my own shirts designs (see small images below), a number …

I already knew my way around the open source database scene when I started preliminary research for my diploma thesis last December. However writing this paper has been a great opportunity to dive into this topic really indepth, dispelling some misconceptions of my own along the way. Once I finished my last courses at university in March, I began to focus on this topic. Obviously I was still doing some open source and commercial development on the side during this time. So all in all I probably put in around 6 months of time in this.

On Wednesday I picked up the nicely bound copies of my 173 page diploma thesis. I dropped off at one copy of it at the university yesterday. So today I am releasing the paper to the public. The fancy title is as follows:
Synergies and Opportunities:
Open Source and Commercial Vendors
A study of the …