Pedro Andrade joins Fred and Scott to talk about how MySQL's mascot was named. Pedro shares a conversation he had with Ambrose Twebaze where they discuss the competition where Sakila was given her name.

 

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Episode Transcript:

 

00;00;09;13 - 00;00;32;08 

Welcome to Inside MySQL: Sakila Speaks a podcast dedicated to all things MySQL. We bring you the latest news from the MySQL team, MySQL project updates and insightful interviews with members of the MySQL community. Sit back and enjoy as your hosts bring you the latest updates on your favorite open-source database. Let's get started! Hello! 

 

00;00;32;09 - 00;00;55;07 

Welcome to inside MySQL: Sakila Speaks, the podcast dedicated to MySQL. I am a leFred and I'm Scott Stroz. Today we are diving into something fun. Mysql's beloved mascot Sakila the dolphin. Sakila represents more than just the logo. It's a symbol of a global community. It's open-source spirit and its dedication to efficiency and speed in the database world. 

 

00;00;55;11 - 00;01;15;24 

But what's the story behind Sakila? How did a dolphin become the face of one of the most widely used database management systems in the world? And what significance does Sakila hold for the MySQL community, and how does it inspire innovation? To learn about the name of this iconic dolphin, we have Pedro Andrade a long-time MySQl-er of 17 years. 

 

00;01;15;25 - 00;01;39;21 

So, Pedro, can you tell us how Sakila became MySQL's mascot? Was there any particular reason behind choosing a dolphin? Yeah. Hello everyone, this is Pedro Andrade. So, the reason that the dolphin was chosen as a mascot is it represents, the database. Ease of use. So, friendliness. Right? Speed and agility. Because, as we all know, dolphins are very smart creatures. 

 

00;01;39;28 - 00;01;59;29 

So, the name Sequela as an interesting background, it was choose from a naming competition. And I think you personally know the winner. Can you share more about the story, Pedro? Sure thing. So, as you mentioned, I've been with MySQL for a long time, and I'd always been very curious about the experience of the of the person that chose the name. 

 

00;02;00;04 - 00;02;26;17 

In the early days of MySQL and through community sense, what MySQL did is they opened a worldwide contest that was called, "Named the Dolphin Contest". And so, we had submissions from all over the world. And the way the contest went is, the winner would win a couple of T-shirts and a Palm Pilot 3C, which, for those of you that remember, that was the color Palm Pilot, which was a very advanced technology at the time. 

 

00;02;26;23 - 00;02;47;26 

So, I did track down the winner. His name is Ambrose Twebaze. It took me a long time because he's not really on social media. So, after a couple of years of digging and searching, I found him, and he is in, Eswatini. Would you say a landlocked, kingdom in Africa? I spoke to Ambrose recently. 

 

00;02;47;28 - 00;02;56;04 

And I have some, some, interesting questions for the rest of the community to learn. 

 

00;02;56;06 - 00;03;34;21 

Thank you. Thanks again for talking to us. As I mentioned, MySQL is turning 30, in 2025, so that's coming around the corner. And we wanted to just, just revisit, the particularly the, the mascot, our mascot, the dolphin, which was name is Sakila, as you know. And you, you named it. So, this goes back to it and correct me if I'm wrong, but from from what I read, the contest itself was announced in 2001, and then, the submission or the, you know, the, the final, submission was, was chosen on, on 2002. 

 

00;03;34;21 - 00;03;54;21 

Is that right? So it was in 2002. That is that sound about right when you submitted the name? Yeah. Yeah, I think it took some time, but eventually it came through email. I saw where it I was very surprised because, I mean, when you enter something, there are so many people that enter these competitions. You are not expecting anything out of it. 

 

00;03;54;21 - 00;04;14;22 

I mean, we always enter competitions, so for the best or just you do it for the sake of it. Okay, let me just do this. And, what ends up ends. And so ,I did receive after a long time, I received an email that say, no, your name was chosen as the winning. Then they asked a few questions. 

 

00;04;14;22 - 00;04;53;26 

If I could write a few things about, the name, what it means. The name. This, basically, it's from Swaziland. Now, this was it is now rebranded itself as, Eswatini. Sakila, basically, it's a traditional, I don't know, like, stick for warriors was warriors, that used so actually it's pronounced "sagila". So I thought when I was writing there, because, the people who receive this name are not from Africa. 

 

00;04;53;26 - 00;05;18;04 

They don't know how to pronounce this name. So it's being pronounced as "Sakila". Okay. But for us, here in southern Africa, here. So I'm still in Eswatini, by the way. It's pronounced as, "sagila", but it's very good because the name that came up, maybe that was the best, because now that means it's unique. It's not. 

 

00;05;18;09 - 00;05;38;03 

It's no longer what I thought it was going to be, but, in terms of pronunciation, but it's still the same name because we pronounce it k. Here is a G "sagila", which is sort of like a stick. But it's fine. I think that was the best. Sakila also sounds very nice and fuzzy. It's unique and actually. 

 

00;05;38;03 - 00;05;54;23 

So that is, my favorite part about about the whole story. So, so first, I don't know if I probably told you, but when I, when I finally did find you, it really had been a couple of years that I, that I been searching and it and I'm trying to remember where exactly. Fine. Because you are not on LinkedIn. 

 

00;05;54;25 - 00;06;13;06 

And I was searching the web, and if I'm not mistaken, I actually found you, a song that you had posted or a track on Mixcloud. I think that's what it was. And I probably reached out to you through there or something like that. And then when we finally talked and, you told me that the name was actually meant to be "Sagila". 

 

00;06;13;06 - 00;06;33;02 

I think you said it was a typo. It was. It was just, that much more special. And. Yeah. So you and I have looked up, "sakila", as you mentioned, it's a walking stick. And so let me ask you, when you, that. Well, how did you hear about the contest? First of all, did you just see the the posting on MySQL.com or how did you learn about the name The Dolphin contest? 

 

00;06;33;04 - 00;07;00;02 

I think I frequently used to go to MySQL.com, sometimes download the latest MySQL. And so I read about it then. Then I decided to to join the I mean, Eswatini, do is to be called Sagila. Like, you know, and some sort of a tool. It's a tool based, I believe also, MySQL is sort of a tool in some sort of application. 

 

00;07;00;02 - 00;07;27;11 

It does. It has some purpose in the applications. So I thought, well, this is a tool. Let's, maybe it's a suitable name for tool like that. Yeah. It's good. And let's see. So you and so you had, you had been using MySQL. What about more generally speaking on open source. Do you, have you ever contributed code or, you know, you contributed to MySQL or, or any other open-source software? 

 

00;07;27;13 - 00;07;51;22 

Are you mostly a user or do you develop or do you, have you submitted any changes of code to, to open-source software? Open-source software – I am more like a user, just like, then I was using my database because we are using it for as a PHP backend because MySQL and PHP. I don't know what you'd call that. 

 

00;07;51;27 - 00;08;25;07 

In the States, I don't know, it's maybe like, if you're talking about food, I think it's what you guys call is it's is it "mac and cheese"? So they go together sort of the LAMP stack? Yes. In the technical terms, yes. So it was a tool of choice in terms of if you the PHP, you had no choice but to sort of have your back end is MySQL the other option, which cumbersome to work with. 

 

00;08;25;09 - 00;08;48;20 

And in terms of me writing code, no, I'm not that fancy. I'm not that sophisticated that I can write. Well, changing code. No, I'm just, the only way is to interact with, if in MySQL, it's still the same way if I have, like, we have, websites that we sort of develop in WordPress. 

 

00;08;48;20 - 00;09;08;17 

So the back end, there are always going to be, again, MySQL. What version of MySQL are you running these days, like a 5.7 or an 8 dot something? Now it's very tricky. I'm not sure because we do not host this and we sort of like it's in the cloud. It's whatever on they have, but the others have the latest. 

 

00;09;08;19 - 00;09;39;21 

I would have to look in the details, but, you know, this ISP is running the latest because for some reason, for security purposes, the upgrade to PHP, I see, I think 8.2 or something, but MySQL I really haven't really seen the actual version. But it's also it should also be the latest because the others like does something behind not necessarily what's out because the others prefer to use as a production release or something. 

 

00;09;39;24 - 00;10;03;21 

Yeah, I'm not really particular about that, but, the latest, that's what I can say. It might be the one version behind, but, the latest. Well, I mean, so so you have been you have been using MySQL probably. I mean, so before 2001. Right