Category Archives: MySQL Conference

Meet me at MySQL UC 2006

Are you coming to the MySQL Users Conference 2006? This year it’s April 24-27, 2006 in Santa Clara, CA. Sadly for me, I don’t get to travel anywhere for the conference: It’s practically in my backyard.

I’m presenting a session and a tutorial, and participating in a Panel and a Hackfest session this year:

  • MySQL GIS: Overview and Tools — I’ll talk about what GIS is useful for, how to get data in and out, and give some demos using PHP.
  • Replication for Scaling and High Availability — An honest look at how replication really works, when it doesn’t work, and what you can expect. An in-depth look at how replication can be used to meet your high availability goals as part of a robust failover system.
  • HackFest A: Creating New UDFs — Build your own UDF, ask questions, see examples, participate in discussion about MySQL’s support for User Defined Functions (UDFs).
  • Panel: Scale Out — Ask questions, compare notes, get expert advice about scaling your high performance MySQL applications.

I’ll see you all there! If you want to meet up with me, or have some ideas for a discussion, BoF, dinner, etc., drop me a line.

Interesting Systems: Trakm8

Yesterday, at the MySQL User Conference 2005, I hosted a Birds of a Feather session on MySQL and GIS. I spoke with a couple of guys from Trakm8, a company from Dorset, England. They have a very fascinating system built on top of MySQL’s GIS support and some of their custom tracking devices. They showed me their software and we discussed their platform. I gave them some (hopefully useful) tips regarding MySQL.

Their system includes an embedded PC, a GPS, and a GPRS modem (cell phone), and given some power is able to track a vehicle (or anything else) anywhere within coverage of the cell network. This is exactly the kind of people and projects/products I was hoping to get at my BoF session. As an aside, there’s a funny BBC story on Trakm8 that’s definitely worth a read and a chuckle. Awesome work guys, and good luck!