ads' corner - PostgreSQL News

Call for Sponsors: German-speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2013

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:23:19 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The German-speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2013 is an excellent way for businesses to reach users and developers, or to give something back to the community. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, we have put together several options for you:

http://2013.pgconf.de/cfs

The offers for Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorship are described on the website. Please contact us if you are interested in other forms of sponsorship.

Announcement: German-speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2013

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:23:18 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

PGConf.DE 2013 is the sequel of the highly successful German-speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2011. We maintain the proven concept: November 8th, 2013, the Rhineland Industrial Museum in Oberhausen.

http://2013.pgconf.de/

The call for papers will open in a few days. Registration for the conference will be possible well in advance. Tickets may be purchased online in advance as well as at the entrance. Due to limited capacity, early booking is advisable. For sponsors, we have put together a package that includes among other things, a number of discounted ticket. More in the Call for Sponsors in a separate announcement.

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Chemnitz Linux Days 2013

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:36:00 +0100

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

"Chemnitz Linux Days" is one of the main Open Source and Linux conferences in Germany, for the 15th consecutive year now. And personally it's one of my favourite conferences.

Based on experience from the past two years I decided not to have a booth, but nevertheless submitted two talks. One was accepted: "Replication with PostgreSQL" (slides and script here). On the laptop keyboard&mouse: Andreas Kretschmer. On the microphone: me. It was the first talk in the morning, but the room was full with visitors. We got nice feedback about the talk as well and had to continue discussions outside of the room, when the next talk started.

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New PostgreSQL pg_docbot is live

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:55:00 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

Last night a long-running project of mine went live: pg_docbot v2.

For years, Jan Wieck provided a helper bot (rtfm_please) in the #postgresql IRC channel in the freenode network. Because of protocol changes in the freenode network, this bot was no longer functional. Together with some others we decided to write a quick and dirty new bot. As it is with dirty hacks, not everything was optimal: after timeouts the bot was not able to reconnect - more exactly the POE framework did not even recognize the timeout. Also extending the bot and adding new functionality was complicated. For a while I collected all these problems in my personal bugtracker and about two years ago I started a full rewrite.

Some of the new key features:

pg_docbot's channel limit is gone: a user in the freenode network can only join 20something channels, the new bot was designed from the ground to handle multiple IRC connections and circumvent this problem
function to identify stale urls: the new ?lost command shows all unconnected urls
registered users are now either "op" or "admin": all operators can issue ?learn and ?forget, admins can - of course - do everything
new command to post to all channels: the ?wallchan command let the doc post to all channels
i18n: every channel has a configured language, default is English - all messages in this channel are posted in the configured language (if translation is available)
watchdog on board: every session is monitored and reconnected, if necessary - no more "ads: can you please restart the bot?"
nickname handling: every session is monitoring his (registered) nickname and will reclaim the nick if necessary, also nickserv handling is included now
commands are recognized in different languages: a nice add-on, by-product of i18n, most commands can be used in different languages - like "search" (English) and "suche" (German)
bot can join and leave channels on the fly: not much to say about, just that you can have the bot in a temporary PostgreSQL channel if you like
channels can have paswords now: this works both for configured channels as well as on-the-fly joined channels
autojoin channels: configured but not joined channels are rejoined after a while, also it is possible to configure but not autojoin channels
statistics: the bot runs anonymous stats about his usage, like ?search, ?learn, ?forget and so on

There is still a lot to do, not all of my tickets are closed. If you want pg_docbot talking in your language, please send me translations. The pg_docbot code is on git.postgresql.org.

Next things on my todo list:

verify each URL from time to time: mark unreachable as invalid
intelligent sort order: not yet sure how to solve this problem, right now there is no specific sort order
move pg_docbot to PostgreSQL infrastructure
web interface: the bot should redirect the user to his website if there are more then let's say 2 or 3 urls, to avoid flooding the IRC channels
integration in postgresql.org website: the pg_docbot database contains very useful knowledge, there are plans to integrate this into the search on the main website
integration with explain.depesz.com: every time the bot see's a link from a paste site, it should scan the content and generate a postign on explain.depesz.com
monitor planet.postgresql.org: publish new postings in IRC channels
allow better search: like using a regexp
...

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Call for Papers: Workshop Days in Rapperswil

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 23:30:02 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The Call for Papers for the Workshop Days /ch/open at the HSR (Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil, Switzerland) is open. Among other talks, the team is especially looking for a PostgreSQL workshop.

If you would like to submit a workshop, please go to the website and use the submit form.

The CfP ends June 8th, hurry up ;-)

PostgreSQL table mats

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:56:48 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

My wife lives for tinkering. A while ago she came to me and asked for the PostgreSQL elephant printed in several different sizes. Some days later I got a nice table mat for the desk in our working room ;-)
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Schedule for PostgreSQL devroom at FOSDEM 2012

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:23:37 +0100

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The schedule for the PostgreSQL devroom at FOSDEM 2012 is now available:

http://www.fosdem.org/2012/schedule/track/postgresql_devroom

We will have 8 talks on Saturday, February 4th.

See you there ...

FOSDEM 2012 - PostgreSQL Devroom: Call for Speakers

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:47:26 +0100

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The PostgreSQL project will have a Devroom at FOSDEM 2012, which takes place on February 4-5 in Brussels, Belgium. The Devroom will mainly cover topics for PostgreSQL users, developers and contributors. For more information about the event itself, please see the website at http://www.fosdem.org/2012/.

We are now accepting proposals for talks. Please note that we only accept talks in English.

Each session will last 45 minutes (including discussion), and may be on any topic related to PostgreSQL. Suggested topic areas include:

Developing applications for PostgreSQL
Administering large scale PostgreSQL installations
Case studies and/or success stories of PostgreSQL deployments
PostgreSQL tools and utilities
PostgreSQL hacking
Community & user groups
Tuning the server
Migrating from other systems
Scaling/replication
Benchmarking & hardware
PostgreSQL related products

Of course, we're happy to receive proposals for talks on other PostgreSQL related topics as well.

Please use our conference website to submit your proposal:

https://www.postgresql.eu/events/callforpapers/fosdem2012/

The deadline for submissions is December 20th, 2011. The schedule will be published and speakers will be informed by the end of the year.

Please also note my email about hotel reservation:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgeu-general/2011-11/msg00000.php

German-Speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2011 - A résumé

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:47:38 +0100

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The German-Speaking PostgreSQL Conference 2011 is over!

It was a very good event and the response was much greater than expected. Thanks to all who have come to Oberhausen - despite the start of the carnival at the same day. Honestly, I had 50 visitors set as the limit to declare the event a success for myself. Two days before the conference we had to close the registry because the planned capacity at that time were already almost fully utilized. At this time, we had almost 90 registrations - including walk-ins we certainly topped the 100.

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German-speaking PostgreSQL Conference - Last chance for registration

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:46:23 +0100

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

The German-Speaking PostgreSQL Conference takes place on November 11th in Oberhausen, Germany. Last chance for your registration!

We are happy to announce Astrid Emde as Keynote Speaker, she will talk about the PostGIS project, one of the main influences to PostgreSQL.

Please note, that your ticket is also valid for the OpenRheinRuhr which takes place at the same location over the weekend.

See you next week in Oberhausen.

GSoC 2011 - phpPgAdmin

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:57:10 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

Google Summer of Code 2011 is in the second term. Leonardo Sápiras passed the midterm evaluation and continues his work on the phpPgAdmin plugin infrastructure.

His work is already in an advanced stage, time to take a look and show you, what's possible.

Continue reading "GSoC 2011 - phpPgAdmin"

PostgreSQL@FrOSCon 2011

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:10:09 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

FrOSCon is the annual Free and Open Source Conference, which takes place at the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in St. Augustin, Germany.

As usual, PostgreSQL has a devroom and we will host a number of talks, most of them in German, but also one in English.

The list of talks is available at the FrOSCon website: http://programm.froscon.org/2011/schedule/2011-08-20.html You have to scroll right to the second page.

Honestly: I don't know, why the FrOSCon folks chooses pink for our devroom in the schedule. I mean, hey, pink. Not blue, not black, PINK! Ridiculous!

Anyway, looking forward to meet you in St. Augustin in a not so far future.

CHAR(11)

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:50:19 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

Was the first time that I actually had the chance to attend CHAR(11). For various reasons (speak: my wife had tickets for a musical) I could not attend last year.

After arriving in Cambridge and a decent dinner on Sunday, I went early to the venue on Monday (*wow*). Registration: check, breakfast: check, EMC booth: check, tea: check - maybe not in this particular order. Let's start the day.

Most of the talks were very interesting and it's good to see, how others attempt to solve the same problems we have in Greenplum. Because of many questions, Simon organized a podium discussion with Yeb Havinga, Willem Dijkstra (both MGRID), Koichi Suzuki (Postgres-XC) and Rob Klopp (Greenplum) just before lunch. It's also interesting that people would like to see some of the technology in PostgreSQL - we have to talk with our product management, if we can make this happen.

Monday ended in a very good dinner in a near college, it looked a bit like the big hall in Harry Potter - just the candles were missing ;-) Tuesday ended in a barbeque outside the venue. Both gave the chance for the usual conversations which I enjoyed a lot.

Hopefully I can attend again next year.

Go to CHAR(11)

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:19:00 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

CHAR(11), the conference about Clustering, High Availability and Replication takes place in Cambridge, UK. As usual, it is also one of these conferences where you can meet a fair share of the PostgreSQL folks.

Had to rent a car, because I have another appointment right after the conference. Boy, I tell you: driving on the left side of the street is ok. At least that's what I usually do on German motorways. But having the wheel of the right side of the car is just insane. Anyway, I made my way to Cambridge - without any accidents.

Met Dave, Harald, Jan and Magnus at the venue and a beer later we went out for dinner. Dave and Magnus made a reservation in the Browns restaurant only some minutes away. Some more people joined us over the evening. The food was nice, and Dave actually tried to order better drinks than I did. Well, he tried ;-)

Looks like we will see another interesting database conference.

PostgreSQL@FrOSCon 2011 - Call for Papers

nospam@example.com (Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 01:13:11 +0200

Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum

Like in the last years, the German-Speaking PostgreSQL User Group again has a Devroom at the FrOSCon 2011, taking place on August 20/21in St. Augustin, Germany.

Now we are looking for all kind of PostgreSQL related talks. All slots are 45 minutes.

Please submit your talk to froscon@pgug.de. Deadline is Juli 20th.

We also have a booth. If you visit FrOSCon, please step by and have a chat with us.