My talk at the MySQL Users Conference is officially called "
Advanced User Defined Functions in MySQL 5," but if it weren't too late I'd change the name and call it "SQL as a Glue Language."
Sometimes logic should be as close to the data as possible; this is why triggers exist in SQL. MySQL 5 gives you a full-fledged programming language (SQL/PSM), lots of utility functions, and (this is where the "glue" comes in) the ability (using UDFs) to plug into existing C and C++ libraries with ease.
I hope to see you all there Tuesday at 4:30, and then at Jeremy & Hartmut's
UDF Hackfest Tuesday night.