bug or feature, <> 'blah' does NOT work with null records

[matt_lists]

I cant tell if this is a bug or a feature.

Select from table where col <> 'blah'

I use this all the time with other databases, works great, gives me 
everything that's not "blah"

but in mysql, it wont work if there's null records in the table

I have to do this, select from table where ( col <> 'blah or isnull(col) )

using 4.0.16 (every time I try to upgrade, I get bit by date bugs with 
the odbc drivers)