Category Archives: postgresql

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.

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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.

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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!

conference, pdxpug, pgconference, portland, postgres, postgresql

winter break is over!

Sadly, my winter vacation is over. I needed a couple weeks to recharge after a crazy year of wrapping up old stuff (finally done with the ERP project) and starting lots new things (Legion of Tech, PostgreSQL Conferences, my first cyclocross race!).

If you’re interested in more about me, you can check out my profile at Portland On Fire, a new project from Raven Zachary about Portland residents. Raven is planning to profile a new person every day this year. I’m January 6.

Also, don’t forget about PostgreSQL Conference East. Registration will open this week! The call for papers will be open until February 3, 2008. I’ve got my work cut out for me arranging all the details from here, but I’m looking forward to working with some great community members out in College Park, MD.

I’m giving a talk on January 17th, titled “10 new things you can use in PostgreSQL version 8.3”. Last week, I felt like PDXPUG was running itself — we’ve got the next six months of talks lined up already. I’ll be publishing our calendar over on the PDXPUG blog tomorrow.

postgresql

hugo nominees announced

== Hugo nominees announced == http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/105093922/hugo_nominees_announ.html (from Boing Boing) Cory Doctorow: This year's Hugo nominees are out — congrats to all the great nominees! It's amazing to see great books like “Glasshouse,” “Rainbows End,” and “Blindsight” on the ballot, along with stories like Ian McDonald's “The Djinn's Wife,” Bill Shunn's “Inclination,” Geoff Ryman's “Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter,” Ben Rosenbaum's “The House Beyond Your Sky” not to mention Neil Gaiman's “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” Tim Pratt's “Impossible Dreams” — and the list goes on! An art book by Picacio, a bio of Alice Sheldon, a memoir by Chip Delany; badass movies like Children of Men and V for Vendetta, and a really top-flight list of Campbell nominees! Christ, it's going to be hard to pick favorites this year. Novel Michael F. Flynn, Eifelheim (Tor) Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon (Del Rey) Charles Stross, Glasshouse (Ace) Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End (Tor) Peter Watts, Blindsight (Tor) Novella “The Walls of the Universe” by Paul Melko (Asimov’s, April/May 2006) “A Billion Eyes” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, October/November 2006) “Inclination” by William Shunn (Asimov’s, April/May 2006) “Lord Weary’s Empire” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, December 2006) Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson (PS Publishing) Novelette “Yellow Card Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Asimov’s, December 2006) “Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth” by Michael F. Flynn (Asimov’s, December 2006) “The Djinn’s Wife” by Ian McDonald (Analog, July 2006) “All the Things You Are” by Mike Resnick (Jim Baen’s Universe, October 2006) “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter” by Geoff Ryman (F&SF, October/November 2006) Short Story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things) “Kin” by Bruce McAllister (Asimov’s, February 2006) “Impossible Dreams” by Timothy Pratt (Asimov’s, July 2006) “Eight Episodes” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, June 2006) “The House Beyond Your Sky” by Benjamin Rosenbaum (Strange Horizons, September 2006) Related Book Samuel R. Delany, About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews (Wesleyan University Press) Joseph T. Major, Heinlein’s Children: The Juveniles (Advent) Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon (St. Martin’s Press) John Picacio, Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio (MonkeyBrain Books) Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari, eds., Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches (ISFiC Press)

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