You must have heard about Falcon, the new transactional engine being developed in MySQL 6.0. And for all the buzz, you may want to have a look at that.
If you haven’t had time to download and install it, now you can give it a try, thanks to db4free, a free MySQL hosting service, created by Markus Popp.

So, if you want to test Falcon today, get a (free) account on db4free and start hacking!
Be careful:

• MySQL 6.0 is still alpha software!
• The default storage engine in this db4free server is Falcon. When you create a new table, if you don’t specify an engine, you will create a Falcon table.

A sample session:

$ mysql -h db4free.net -u USER_NAME -pPASSWORD -P 3307 DB_NAME
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 125
Server version: 6.0.4-alpha-log MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql > create table t1 (id  int not null primary key, c char(20));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.15 sec)

mysql > show create table t1\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: t1
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t1` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `c` char(20) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=Falcon DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
1 row in set (0.12 sec)

With the Sun acquisition, MySQL becomes part of a bigger company. Some beneficial effects will be felt at the MySQL Users Conference. There will be a passport giveaway program, which is basically a prize drawing with minimal effort from attendees.

MySQL Conference & Expo attendees will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for cool prizes by having an expo hall passport brochure stamped at each participating sponsor and exhibitor booth.
Once attendees have obtained all “stamps” they will be entered into the drawing and eligible to win one of several prizes.

And the prizes will be really juicy.

• Grand Prize Free enrollment in the O’Reilly School of Technology’s ENTIRE four- course PHP/MySQL Certificate series plus 1 year free lab. (Value over $1,700)
• First Prize Sun 24.1-inch LCD Flat Panel Monitor (Value $795)
• Second Prize $500 in O’Reilly books
• Third Prize Make Magazine Special Prize Pack (Value $130)

Information leaked about giveaways at a Sun party, where a Play Station 3 and a Sun Server will be given to the happy audience. How? I honestly don’t know, but if you register to the conference, you will soon find out.
Blogging in these days may lead to disbelief. So I’d better be explicit about it. This is not an April’s fool joke. The prizes are for real!

The last leg of the IRC world tour meetup was initially scheduled for last week, but it had to be changed for technical reasons. The rescheduled time was announced last week, but nobody took into account the Daylight Saving Time, which starts on March 9 in the USA, and on March 30 in Europe. Consequently, the announced Pacific time is right, but the European time is not. So, let’s remind what it is:
The IRC meeting with Bob Brewin will take place on Wednesday, March 12, at 9am PDT, 5pm CET.
For those of you who still live in a single time zone, this timetable can be helpful.

As Kaj announced a few days ago, there is a IRC session with Simon Phipps scheduled for March 6, at 14:00 UTC, 15:00 CET.
Don’t miss it. It’s a great occasion to ask questions, and to chat to a bunch of gurus in the same room, all at once in true URC tradition.
The IRC meeting with Bob Brewin has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 12, at 17:00 UTC, 18:00 CET.