I'm out here at the BEA Participate conference... or more correctly, I'm up in the hotel writing while everybody else is attending the conference... I'm just tagging along so I can chat with Andy about the book, and get the low-down on what the BEA acquisition means for Oracle.

I asked Victoria Lira over at the Oracle ACE Director program if she could get me a free ticket to the event, but there were none available. Even Oracle employees had to pay their own way! Highly unusual, especially considering that Oracle now owns BEA.

I was surprised at first, until Michelle revealed the free iPod Touch that all attendees got! Damn... I haven't seen swag like that since the dot com days...

I guess now that they are Oracle, they suddenly have money to burn...