Category Archives: postgres

conference, pgconference, postgres, postgresql, user groups, USPA , ,

PostgreSQL Conference East – this Saturday and Sunday

We’re wrapping up all the little details for the conference:

  • Wireless access is secured! Each person will have their own account. You’ll receive it when you register.
  • Our final schedule is available!
  • The last few talks have been rolling in. I’m very excited about the round table Sunday morning with Joshua Drake (USPA and PostgreSQL SPI Liaison), Bruce Momjian (PostgreSQL Core) and Magnus Hagander (PostgreSQL-EU). Bring some questions! We’ll be on IRC taking remote questions as well.
  • I’ll be giving a talk on ptop Sunday too!
  • Also very excited to get together with other Women In Open Source!

We’re all getting together at the Greenbelt Chevy’s on Friday night. Let me know if you’d like to join. I’ve made a reservation for 20.

pgconference, postgres, postgresql 1 Comment

PostgreSQL Conference East – buckets of awesome!

We’re gearing up for PostgreSQL Conference East!

Slides are coming in, food’s been ordered, and we’re working out the final details of the space and recording. One of our committee members has a few digital cameras, so we’re hoping to record video in all three rooms.

Reading through the slides, I’m very excited to see Portland-local Jeff Davis’ talks on his work with the Ruby PostgreSQL driver, and a more general talk on Logic and Databases. Jeff has been a fixture at PDXPUG, and I’m happy he’s able to come out for the conference.

David Fetter is giving a crowd favorite, A Flock of PLs. And Michael Bryzek looks to be giving an simple and elegant talk explaining how to solve a common queuing problem for web application developers.

If you’re from the DC area, please suggest fun things to do while we’re in town (May 29-30). Especially good places to eat near the University of Maryland at College Park.

postgres, postgresql, USPA 2 Comments

United States PostgreSQL Association launched!

I’m excited to announce today that some members of the PostgreSQL community and I are launching the United States PostgreSQL Association.

Here’s the text from the press release:

The United States PostgreSQL Association is launched! Our draft mission can be found at http://www.postgresql.us. We will support PostgreSQL in the US through user group development, conferences,
education initiatives and fun.

We will be a sister organization to PostgreSQL EU, the Japanese PostgreSQL User Group, and other international PostgreSQL groups.

The founding members are Joshua Drake, Selena Deckelmann (me) and Michael Brewer.

Nomination and election of four additional board members will occur at the upcoming PostgreSQL Conference West, October 2008. General membership is open to anyone who wants to support the use of PostgreSQL in the US. The organization is being registered as a non-profit headquartered in Portland, OR, and we are applying for 501(c)3 status.

We are still working out details, but please watch http://www.postgresql.us for updates!

Questions, Comments? We’d love to hear from you. Please send us a message at board postgresql.us.

Look forward to more information over the next few days and weeks about our plans. In the meantime, you can have a look at our mission statement and goals.

pdxpug, postgres, postgresql, user groups 6 Comments

extreme database makeover: RT meeting recap

[Update: David Wheeler provided the SQL that came out of this meeting.]

Extreme Database Makeover: The crowd

Last night, PDXPUG and Code-n-Splode got together to refactor the database for RT. David Wheeler, Jeff Davis and Mark Wong led the discussion.

Through the course of the meeting, the group chose to pick out a few key features that would be better served if the database schema was more normalized, and offered a few new constraints we thought would help manage the data. Toward the end of the meeting, Igal suggested having a Perl workshop to refactor the code related to one or more of the database changes. The idea here was to be helpful, rather than just poking holes in the schema.

David started the discussion off with an introduction to RT. RT was created about 10 years ago by Jesse Vincent of Best Practical, and the database schema has been augmented over the years to accommodate new functionality. They support both MySQL and PostgreSQL as backends, and tend to dislike using database-specific technology.

Continue reading →

postgres, postgresql

twittering on 2008-02-22

  • coffee + laptop = disassembled laptop #
  • whatever, @linuxpoet. u want one. #
  • 15 teeny screws later, that keyboard is off and the air compressor blew another 8 oz of coffee out. #
  • considering purchasing a new keyboard. #
  • @notbenh u still coming to pdxpug? #
  • @notbenh if you’d be willing to be laptop provider, that’d be awesome. we were going to use my robot. not anymore. #
  • @kanejo gonna have to check out peter’s 19th hole. sounds awesome. #
  • @notbenh not really, probably just ability to go to web and look things up. #
  • stuff white people like: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/ #
  • laptop fully functional! #
  • josh drake came to PDXPUG last night. that was fun 🙂 #
  • @andeezy when i have kids, i want to have twins. unfortunately, it is not in the cards. #
  • just finished rearranging office. qi flowing auspiciously. #
  • @adamd yay for bikes! #
  • mmmm. sushi. #
  • i love getting emails from the waffle cart about them having apple crisp this weekend. #
conference, postgres, postgresql, user groups 4 Comments

LAPUG Launch!

DSC_0030.JPG

Saturday night, February 9, at 8pm, Richard Broersma and a crew of 15 launched LAPUG. Noel Proffitt, from the City of Garden Grove, gave a great talk on time-oriented (or temporal) database design.

He presented an example of a set of columns, rules and triggers for tracking both valid and transaction time. Noel also was kind enough to give a plug to the temporal data type that Jeff Davis and I presented last PGDay before OSCON. There was some suggestion that Jeff should submit the code for version 8.4.

We also showed off the new PUGs website, and talked a little about what had brought people to the BoF.

A few students from Cal Poly were there, along with many experienced administrators from around LA. Richard mentioned that his company was willing to host the group’s first meeting, and Noel offered to bring a projector. The group also asked about potential topics, so I am going to start a talks repository on the PUGs site. Ultimately, I’d love to have the authoritative and searchable repository of PostgreSQL talks for all PUGs to use as starting points and references.

Thanks go to Robert Broersma for taking the initiative and announcing the meeting, and Joshua Drake for scheduling the BoF. Also, it was a pleasure to spend the weekend with Joshua, Robert, David Fetter and Josh Berkus in the SCaLE PostgreSQL booth.

I’m looking forward to great meetings from LAPUG in the future!

conference, open source, postgres, postgresql 2 Comments

At SCALE Feb 8-10

Just a quick note that I’ll be at SCALE February 8-10. I’ll be attending the Women in Open Source track (with maybe a quick side-trip to DOHCS: Mobile decision support in Tanzania), and then helping with the both Saturday and Sunday. You can direct message me on Twitter (selenamarie) if you’re interested in meeting up!

I’m also looking forward to the PostgreSQL BoF on Saturday night (8pm, Laguardia room), and maybe having some sunny weather!

conference, gender, open source, postgres, postgresql, women, womenintech 1 Comment

Women in Open Source: a focus group in March

Thanks to one of Audrey’s RSS feeds, I read Women in Computer Science – An Endangered Species of a New Kind? this afternoon. About the same time, I received email from a professor at UMD who is helping organize PostgreSQL Conference East. She would like to hold a Women in Open Source Focus Group session during the conference, and we’re looking for participants.

Continue reading →

conference, postgres, postgresql 2 Comments

PostgreSQL User Group Liaison – that’s me!

Last week, I accepted the role of User Group Liaison for PostgreSQL in North America. Thanks, Joshua Drake, for nominating me. And thanks to everyone who commented on the thread. I was smiling for a couple days from the nice things that were said.

My first task is to upgrade the now elderly PUGS server – the site for our User Group blogs. Look for an updated site on Monday!

I will be attending SCALE on February 8-10. I’ll definitely be seeing talks from the Women in Open Source track, hanging out at the PostgreSQL Booth, and attending the LA PostgreSQL Users Group BoF session at 8pm, Saturday February 9 in the Laguardia room. See you there!

Update: I made the PostgreSQL Weekly News!