JDBC to Mysql connectivity issue

 i have downloaded jdbc driver for mysql. and also installed mysql.
i can login to mysql normally through commandline but when i run my application it cannot connect to database.
the name of database i want to use is OS. user id is Vikram and password is viki.
the code i am running is

import java.sql.*;
public class DBCon{

private static Connection Db;
public static void main(String[] args) throws
                        ClassNotFoundException,SQLException
{
String url="jdbc:mysql://localhost/OS";
String userID="vikram";
String password="viki";

  Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
  Db=DriverManager.getConnection(url,userID,password);
}
}

the program runs till Class.forName... but when getConnection is called an exception occurs... the error is:

Exception in thread "main" com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '????????????????' at line 1
   at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:1026)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:956)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:3558)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:3490)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sendCommand(MysqlIO.java:1959)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sqlQueryDirect(MysqlIO.java:2109)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.execSQL(ConnectionImpl.java:2642)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.configureClientCharacterSet(ConnectionImpl.java:1818)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.initializePropsFromServer(ConnectionImpl.java:3544)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.createNewIO(ConnectionImpl.java:2156)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.<init>(ConnectionImpl.java:781)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getInstance(ConnectionImpl.java:348)
   at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:284)
   at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(libgcj.so.10)
   at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(libgcj.so.10)
   at DBCon.main(DBCon.java:14)

i have no way outta this.!