So, we’re coming up on that time again. When I moved back to Malta in order to work for Pythian one of the things that I wanted to do was to involve myself more in the community. Currently, I’m doing this by trying to keep an active blog with tips and tricks, good standard knowledge, and just overall trying to enlighten people. I’m also doing this by organizing a MySQL User Group here in Malta.

We’re set to have our 2^nd meeting this coming Thursday, the 28^thof August, in Ta’ Xbiex where we have graciously been donated a board room and projector (and parking space, luckily) for use. I’m trying to get one of our members to give a session about security (not only on MySQL, but also on the OS level to secure the process), and I know there is work being done on a presentation on MySQL Cluster, which I personally find very interesting and can’t wait to see.

In this second meeting, we’ll again focus on general best practices and free discussions, in order to share our knowledge as much as we can. The last meeting was in Mellieha and it was a success — we had a good turnout and some very interesting discussions. Darren, one of our members, blogged about our meeting here and so did I in one of my previous posts.

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Well, nobody from Sun showed up in person, but we got a great rendition of “Where were you when you heard THE NEWS that Sun bought MySQL?” from Mark Rubin, the MySQL Sales Engineer for the New England area, and from Giuseppe Maxia, who revealed something very interesting and riveting.

From there, Giuseppe gave a short talk on what it’s like to work at MySQL, and then we moved on to the topic of the user group meeting, “What is MySQL Cluster Good For?”

The slides for the talk are downloadable in PDF Format 61kB and Flash (SWF) format, 31kB

The video can be played at http://technocation.org/node/572/play and downloaded (404 Mb) at http://technocation.org/node/572/download.

I just put together on “meetup.com” the first Pensacola MUG meeting.  The first meeting is scheduled for August the 5th at 7:00 pm at the Panera Bread right outside the entrance to Cordova Mall.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous user group meetings I have attended and wanted to see if we can get a group growing here in Pensacola.  No formal agenda for the first meeting, just want to meet everyone and find out what people want to hear about in the future. I can be reached @ bmurphy AT paragon-cs.com.

The information and signup is at: http://mysql.meetup.com/300/.

That’s right. MySQL now has a user group in Paradise.

I am always looking into connecting with other MySQL professionals, to share the laughs and tears, and to enjoy what we love working with every day, MySQL. I have always wanted to bring us all together, and I thought that this would have a good chance of doing so. Since I live in Malta, this made for the perfect location for it. If you live in Malta, or perhaps in Sicily or Tunisia, and want to take a trip, please do join us at our first meeting.

We will be having our first meeting in Mellieha, and please RSVP to me personally via email, westerlund (at) pythian.com if you want to attend. The date is set for Thursday, July 31^st at 6pm. We will discuss the current use of MySQL, its future, and whatever else comes into mind. I myself would love to hear usage stories for our first meeting, so we all get an understanding of how MySQL is used in Malta and environs.

I will make sure there are some refreshments to be had.

Let’s keep ourself educated and aware of how other people solve problems that we all sometimes encounter, as well as their interesting technical solutions. And let’s have some fun doing so!

Small local user group meetings have their own beauty because of the special intimate atmosphere. We expected somewhat higher attendance but it seems that people were already in the holiday mode — it’s been a somewhat hot day and school kids had their last classes yesterday — so we’ve got about half of expected 50 attendees.

I should say that it’s been a nice and relaxing day for me. I started the morning reviewing my slides and then continued at the airport and on the flight. My flight to Toronto arrived just a bit late but I had plenty of time so I arrived quarter to one at the Oracle office building in Toronto (technically, Mississauga).

Djordje Jankovic and Carol Legros, who invited me there in the first place, were already there and, being a nice host, Djordje took me downstairs for a quick lunch. When we were back, the audience was almost ready so I just few 5 minutes to hook my laptops up which is more than enough — I know my Mac well enough now to avoid any surprises. Kenotes even managed to display few PowerPoint slides that Djordje used starting the meeting. By the way, he admitted that Keynotes is way cooler than PowerPoint. Well, that’s no brainer!
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Today I’m doing a presentation at the Toronto Oracle User Group meeting. It’ll be my first time there and I’m really looking forward to it.

My session is called Oracle 11g New Features Out of the Box. It went pretty well at Collaborate 08 and I think it will be the right audience at the TOUG meeting. I’m reviewing the slides at the moment — usual last minute tweaks but it’s time to leave to the airport — my flight is in 1.5 hour.

I have already checked-in on both the flight to Toronto and return. I didn’t know that you can check-in online on the return flight without completing one-way first. Well, I like technology advancing. :)

In summary:
Who: you, me, MySQL/Sun
What: MySQL User Group with free swag, food, and a short workshop to boot.
When: 7-9 pm, Monday March 10th
Where: MIT Building E-51, room 372
Why: why the heck not! Because Sun just bought MySQL, and because there’s a user group each month.
How: RSVP optional but requested for accurate headcount for swag, food, etc.
To RSVP anonymously, please login to the Meetup site with the e-mail address “admin at sheeri dot com” and the password “guest”. Increment the number of guests that the admin user is bringing. Thanx!

The March 2008 Boston MySQL User Group meeting will have a *brief* workshop on what types of applications are good for applying MySQL Cluster technology.

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