Use this form to familiarize yourself with MySQL Swell offerings. (Linux Lunacy IV, Perl Whirl '04, and MySQL Swell will be running concurrently. Conference attendees may take up to five seminars from the other two conferences at no additional charge.)

To help us tailor the MySQL Swell program, please select those courses that might interest you -- were you to come along on our cruise.

You may choose any and all of the 1-, 1.5-, and 4-hour seminars. The conference fee is $995 and includes all courses, course materials, and the Bon Voyage Cocktail Party.

A Guided Tour of the MySQL Source (4 hours)
Speakers: Brian Aker, Michael "Monty" Widenius

Some tours are for tourists, while others are better suited to adventurers. This session falls into the latter category.

Bring your pith helmet, a machete, and a good C++ manual. Brian Aker and Monty Widenius are going to take you into the semi-charted wilds of the MySQL source code.

During the tour, Brian Aker and Monty Widenius will show you how the major parts of MySQL are implemented. The important sections of code for each sub-system that is covered will be shown and discussed.

Attendees of this session will gain a clearer understanding of how MySQL behaves and may be able to modify MySQL to suit their own development needs better.

This session is meant for advanced users who have a solid working knowledge of both C++ (or C) and database systems. This session makes an excellent primer for the "Extending MySQL with C, Perl, and Java" and "Writing a MySQL Storage Engine" sessions.

The History of MySQL (1 hour)
Speakers: David Axmark, Michael "Monty" Widenius

David Axmark and Monty Widenius, old friends and MySQL co-founders, talk about how the MySQL project came into existence and why they chose to make it Free/Open Source Software. Learn how the project has grown from its roots as a part-time, two-man venture into one of Open Source's success stories and hear about the challenges they have encountered along the way.

The State of the Dolphin (1.5 hours)
Speakers: David Axmark, Michael "Monty" Widenius

Each year, David Axmark and Monty Widenius outline the current state of the MySQL community and the MySQL core development efforts in their popular "State of the Dolphin" talks.

At MySQL Swell, they will be giving an extended version of the session so that they can cover all of the major events in the last year -- ranging from the release of MySQL 5.0 to the cool stuff that has been happening with MySQL Cluster.

For an overview of what is happening on the other side of the fence, attend Larry Stefonic's "The State of MySQL AB" session.

Extending MySQL with C, Perl, and Java
(1.5 hours) Speaker: Brian Aker

Do you find yourself needing to extract quantitative information from very large databases? Or do you find that, in some cases, selecting large amounts of data is not practical. Large data sets can be costly to extract from a large database. When you think of these types of needs, you start to think of data warehousing. From there you start thinking about big machines with large (and costly-to-license) commercial databases.

MySQL offers UDFs (User Defined Functions) which give you the ability to extend MySQL for data warehousing needs. Using UDFs, you can build functions that do complex data analysis inside of the database. The functionality of UDFs is not limited to traditional character and number data; exotic binary data like images and music can be analyzed as well.

Examples in C, Perl, and Java will show how you can take well known open-source libraries like Image-Magick and use these inside MySQL. Additional examples will be shown using myPerl. With myPerl, you can even bypass the need to learn the internal structure of MySQL UDF structure and instead use a popular and easy to use scripting language like Perl.

An Introduction to MySQL 5.0 (1 hour)
Speaker: David Axmark and Kaj Arnö

An overview of the major features of MySQL 5.0, along with a discussion of the current state and future plans for the product.

The Future of MySQL (1 hour)
Speakers: Brian Aker, David Axmark, Larry Stefonic, Michael "Monty" Widenius, and Kaj Arnö

Over the last six days, the MySQL Swell attendees will have been presented with a complete picture of the current state of and future plans for MySQL.

This session provides a public forum for the attendees to give their feedback on MySQL and to help shape MySQL's future plans, products and policies.

Deploying Large Databases with MySQL (1 hour)
Speakers: Brian Aker, David Axmark

Multi-terabyte database deployments come with their own interesting set of challenges. This session will discuss case studies of large MySQL databases and will provide recommendations for:

• hardware choice

• hardware use

• platform choice

• storage engine choice

• buffer tuning

• platform tuning

• backup strategies

An Introduction to MaxDB (1 hour)
Speaker: David Axmark and Kaj Arnö

MaxDB by MySQL is a re-branded and enhanced version of SAP DB, SAP AG's open-source database. MaxDB is a heavy-duty, SAP-certified open-source database that offers high availability, scalability, and a comprehensive feature set. MaxDB complements the MySQL database server, targetted for large mySAP ERP environments and other applications that require maximum enterprise-level database functionality.

This session provides an overview of the major features of MaxDB, along with a discussion of the current state and future plans for the product.

An Introduction to MySQL Cluster (1 hour)
Speaker: David Axmark

MySQL Cluster is a project that is brewing away in the back corners of MySQL. By the time that MySQL Swell rolls around, MySQL Cluster should be out of the shadows and ready for primetime. This session will provide an overview of the major features of MySQL Cluster, along with a discussion of the current state and future plans for the product.

The Internals of the MySQL C API (1 hour)
Speakers: Brian Aker, Michael "Monty" Widenius

The C API for MySQL is the base of most available MySQL APIs -- from PHP and Perl, to Lisp and Matlab. This session will take you on a detailed walk through the API, providing the attendee with the detailed knowledge required to get the most out of the C API and other APIs that are based on it.

The State of MySQL AB (1 hour)
Speaker: Larry Stefonic

Each year, at the MySQL User Conference, MySQL CEO Marten Mickos discusses the state of the business side of MySQL in his "State of MySQL AB" address. For this year's MySQL Swell, we have asked Larry Stefonic, MySQL VP of Sales, to present this session.

Larry will discuss the important business events in and around MySQL over the last year. He will also provide his analysis of how the hybrid MySQL business model has shaped (and been shaped) by events in the industry and in the community.

The MySQL Development Model (1 hour)
Speakers: Brian Aker, David Axmark, Michael "Monty" Widenius

After a long day of dreadfully nice weather and stimulating Turkish culture, return to a more normal geekly existence by learning how the MySQL development model works.

Brian, David and Monty will discuss the different models that MySQL has tried and adopted over the years -- ranging from "Just Code It" to SCRUM to "Just @#%$@# It!". Our current development model will be discussed in detail -- with coverage on how it was designed, what works and what has failed.

The Case for MySQL in the Enterprise (1 hour)
Speaker: Larry Stefonic

Using a combination of case studies, solid industry knowledge and glib wit, Larry Stefonic will outline the case for MySQL's use in the enterprise world.

Writing a MySQL Storage Engine (1 hour)
Speaker: Brian Aker

Have you ever wanted to extend MySQL in strange and wonderful ways? Many people do not realize that a powerful and flexible API for doing this (via binding new storage engines like InnoDB and MyISAM into MySQL) already exists. In this session, Brian Aker will walk you though the process of writing a simple storage engine and binding it into MySQL.

Along the way, you will also learn some interesting things about the implementation of the existing storage engines and the overall design of MySQL.

This session will be most useful to you if you have strong C/C++ skills.

The MySQL Grand Tour (4 hours)
Speakers: Brian Aker, David Axmark, Michael "Monty" Widenius

Your MySQL tour guides Brian, David and Monty will take you on a scenic afternoon tour of MySQL land. Highlights of the tour will include the lush green fields of stable functionality, the cool forests of little-known functionality, the ripening fruit of new features, and the dragons and fire of SQL standard compliance.

We recommend that you bring a notepad or laptop, a towel for mopping off the sweat and a few cool drinks with a parasol in them.

MySQL Database Tuning (1.5 hours)
Speakers: Brian Aker, Michael "Monty" Widenius

Learn how to squeeze the best performance out of your MySQL installations. Topics such as query analysis, buffer tuning, query optimization and platform issues will be discussed.