From developer to PostgreSQL specialist with Derk van Veen

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

#Tech #Postgres #Open Source #Citus #Ari Padilla #PostgreSQL #Database #Communities #Path To Citus

36:51

Traditional banks often lack personalized service, and local businesses struggle to find true partnership in financial institutions. Meanwhile, higher education faces scrutiny over relevance and ROI in a world where information is nearly free. Harry Allen helped launch Studio Bank to blend technology with high-touch service, fueled by community investment. At Belmont, he's applying the same entrepreneurial mindset to modernize university operations and embed practical learning experiences, like a one-of-a-kind partnership with Dolly Parton, into academia. In this episode, Harry L. Allen, co-founder of Studio Bank and now CFO at Belmont University, unpacks the bold vision behind launching a community-first bank in a city dominated by financial giants. He shares the leadership lessons that shaped his journey, how to lead through crisis, and why mentorship is the key to filling today's leadership vacuum. Key Takeaways Leveraging both financial and social capital creates a unique, community-first banking model. High-tech doesn't mean low-touch, Studio Bank fused innovation with personal relationships. Leadership means showing up, especially during crisis. Universities must shift from being information hubs to delivering real-world experience. Succession and mentorship are vital to cultivating the next generation of leaders. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Harry L. Allen 01:49 The Birth of Studio Bank 04:29 Leveraging Technology in Community Banking 07:25 The Courage to Start a New Venture 10:37 Leadership Challenges in High Growth 13:02 Leading Through Crisis: The COVID Experience 17:55 Transitioning from Banking to Education 21:16 The Role of Leadership in Higher Education 25:16 Adapting to Challenges in Higher Education 30:04 The Leadership Vacuum in Society 33:17 Advice for Emerging Leaders 35:21 The American Dream and Community Impact No Limit Leadership is the go-to podcast for growth-minded executives, middle managers, and team leaders who want more than surface-level leadership advice. Hosted by executive coach and former Special Forces commander Sean Patton, this show dives deep into modern leadership, self-leadership, and the real-world strategies that build high-performing teams. Whether you're focused on leadership development, building a coaching culture, improving leadership communication, or strengthening team accountability, each episode equips you with actionable insights to unlock leadership potential across your organization. From designing onboarding systems that retain talent to asking better questions that drive clarity and impact, No Limit Leadership helps you lead yourself first so you can lead others better. If you're ready to create a culture of ownership, resilience, and results, this leadership podcast is for you.…

about a year ago 1:11:16

MP3•Episode home

The best days are when things don’t go as planned. Derk van Veen joined Claire Giordano and Pino de Candia on this episode of Path To Citus Con* podcast for developers who love Postgres—to discuss his journey from Java developer to PostgreSQL specialist and DBA. From his first days with DB2 and Oracle, to his work with Postgres, Derk shared how he learned about databases. And how a very smart colleague would break the database on purpose, to give Derk the tough job of fixing it. Another topic: what to do when you need to jump on a problem but your heart rate doubles? What will it take to get that magical feeling of fixing something in the database? And a segue into sharing your expertise as a speaker at Postgres conferences. Because it’s always about the why.

*[Update: July 2024] Path To Citus Con has been renamed to Talking Postgres. All of the past podcast episodes from Path To Citus Con—now called Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano—can be found here: https://talkingpostgres.com

Links mentioned in this episode:

Explaining the PostgreSQL concurrency control mechanisms by Derk van Veen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkxwaN46K88
Podcast: Path to Citus Con Ep03: Why give talks at Postgres conferences with Álvaro Herrera & Boriss Mejías: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/why-giving-talks-at-postgres-conferences-matters
Blog: A Deep Dive into Table Partitioning part 3 by Derk van Veen & Cosmin Octavian Pene: https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/maintenance-under-pressure
Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: https://stephenking.com/works/nonfiction/on-writing-a-memoir-of-the-craft.html
PechaKucha, 20 slides for 20 seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha
pgChess: PostgreSQL 9.1+ extension for the game of Chess on GitHub: https://github.com/gciolli/pgChess
FOSDEM PGDay 2023 talk by Derk van Veen: Fighting Write Amplification By Stimulating Hot Updates Through The Fill Factor: https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2023/schedule/session/4196-fighting-write-amplification-by-stimulating-hot-updates-through-the-fill-factor/
Blog: Fighting PostgreSQL write amplification with HOT updates by Derk van Veen & Dave Pitts: https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/postgresql-hot-updates
FOSDEM PGDay 2024 talk by Derk van Veen & Boriss Mejías: High Available Configurations Are Very Common For Postgresql. But How Do You Investigate Performance Problems When The Standby Can't Keep Up?
https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2024/schedule/session/5164-high-available-configurations-are-very-common-for-postgresql-but-how-do-you-investigate-performance-problems-when-the-standby-cant-keep-up/
FOSDEM PGDay 2024 slides by Derk van Veen & Boriss Mejías: High Available Configurations Are Very Common For Postgresql. But How Do You Investigate Performance Problems When The Standby Can't Keep Up?
https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2024/sessions/session/5164/slides/460/HA_delay_analysis.pdf
X post with picture about Derk and Boriss’ talk on FOSDEM PGDay 2024 by Devrim Gündüz: https://twitter.com/DevrimGunduz/status/1753348159026130959?s=20
Blitz Chess game: https://www.chess.com/terms/blitz-chess
CFP for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres (free & virtual event) open until April 7th 2024: https://aka.ms/posette-cfp-2024

28 episodes

From developer to PostgreSQL specialist with Derk van Veen

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

Links mentioned in this episode:

Explaining the PostgreSQL concurrency control mechanisms by Derk van Veen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkxwaN46K88
Podcast: Path to Citus Con Ep03: Why give talks at Postgres conferences with Álvaro Herrera & Boriss Mejías: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/why-giving-talks-at-postgres-conferences-matters
Blog: A Deep Dive into Table Partitioning part 3 by Derk van Veen & Cosmin Octavian Pene: https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/maintenance-under-pressure
Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: https://stephenking.com/works/nonfiction/on-writing-a-memoir-of-the-craft.html
PechaKucha, 20 slides for 20 seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha
pgChess: PostgreSQL 9.1+ extension for the game of Chess on GitHub: https://github.com/gciolli/pgChess
FOSDEM PGDay 2023 talk by Derk van Veen: Fighting Write Amplification By Stimulating Hot Updates Through The Fill Factor: https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2023/schedule/session/4196-fighting-write-amplification-by-stimulating-hot-updates-through-the-fill-factor/
Blog: Fighting PostgreSQL write amplification with HOT updates by Derk van Veen & Dave Pitts: https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/postgresql-hot-updates
FOSDEM PGDay 2024 talk by Derk van Veen & Boriss Mejías: High Available Configurations Are Very Common For Postgresql. But How Do You Investigate Performance Problems When The Standby Can't Keep Up?
https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2024/schedule/session/5164-high-available-configurations-are-very-common-for-postgresql-but-how-do-you-investigate-performance-problems-when-the-standby-cant-keep-up/
FOSDEM PGDay 2024 slides by Derk van Veen & Boriss Mejías: High Available Configurations Are Very Common For Postgresql. But How Do You Investigate Performance Problems When The Standby Can't Keep Up?
https://www.postgresql.eu/events/fosdem2024/sessions/session/5164/slides/460/HA_delay_analysis.pdf
X post with picture about Derk and Boriss’ talk on FOSDEM PGDay 2024 by Devrim Gündüz: https://twitter.com/DevrimGunduz/status/1753348159026130959?s=20
Blitz Chess game: https://www.chess.com/terms/blitz-chess
CFP for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres (free & virtual event) open until April 7th 2024: https://aka.ms/posette-cfp-2024

28 episodes

#Tech #Postgres #Open Source #Citus #Ari Padilla #PostgreSQL #Database #Communities #Path To Citus

All episodes

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
12 years of Postgres Weekly with Peter Cooper 1:16:54

17 days ago1:16:54

1:16:54

What drives someone to publish 600+ issues of a Postgres newsletter for over a decade? In Episode 28 of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , Peter Cooper —creator of Postgres Weekly—shares how his days of rustic programming and QBASIC fanzines on Usenet led to a newsletter empire that now reaches nearly half a million developers each week. We dig into the BBC's "big tent" editorial influence, an accidental business model that just worked, and the perils of "temporary" hacks. Plus: spam filters, a Photoshop addiction, and one very cheesy story (dairy-free). Links mentioned in this episode: Newsletter: Postgres Weekly Cooperpress: List of newsletters Newsletter: Latest issue of Postgres Weekly on Jun 19, 2025 Newsletter: Postgres Weekly issue with horrible graphic Newsletter: Very first issue of Postgres Weekly on Mar 13, 2013 Newsletter: Ruby Weekly , the first Cooperpress newsletter Book: Beginning Ruby Third Edition , by Peter Cooper Podcast episode: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley Feed reader: Feedbin GitHub repo: feedbin/feedbin Feed reader: Feeder Email testing software: Litmus GitHub repo: MGML markup language for email Paper: The Design of Postgres GitHub repo: PGRX for building Postgres extensions in Rust Podcast news: Podnews.net for daily briefings about podcasts Wikipedia page: BBC Micro Wikipedia page: ZX Spectrum Cal invite: LIVE recording of Ep29 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Jul 9, 2025…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
How I got started with FerretDB (& why we chose Postgres) with Peter Farkas 1:29:53

8 weeks ago1:29:53

1:29:53

How does a trek to K2 base camp in the Himalayas spark the idea for a database company? In Episode 27 of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , guest Peter Farkas —CEO and co-founder of FerretDB—shares the origin story of this open source MongoDB alternative. (Spoiler: “Ferret” wasn’t the original name). We dig into why Postgres was the obvious choice, what “true open source” means to Peter, and how FerretDB is now powered by the open source DocumentDB extension from Microsoft. Plus, why Hungarian Trappist cheese might deserve a footnote in database history. Links mentioned in this episode: GitHub: FerretDB/FerretDB repo Blog: FerretDB 2.0 GA: Open Source MongoDB alternative, ready for production ACM SIGMOD: The Design of Postgres, published 15 June 1986 Postgres Weekly: Issue 591 featuring FerretDB GitHub: Microsoft/DocumentDB open source repo Conference talk: From MongoDB to Postgres: Building an Open Standard for Document Databases at POSETTE 2025 OSI Blog: The SSL is Not an Open Source License RedMonk Blog: OSS: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back , by Stephen O’Grady Talking Postgres Ep18: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley OpenDocDB: initiative to define an open standard Wikipedia: K2 (yes, the mountain) Go Blog: The Go Gopher xkcd: webcomic 927 on Standards Wikipedia: Trappista cheese Cal invite: LIVE recording of Ep28 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Jun 18, 2025…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Open Source Leadership with Bruce Momjian 1:48:21

13 weeks ago1:48:21

1:48:21

What does it take to lead a global open source project like Postgres? In Episode 26 of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , we sit down with Bruce Momjian —co-founder and core team member of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group—to explore the art of leadership in a volunteer-run open source community. Bruce shares what “servant leadership” really means; how saying I’m sorry can help make problems go away; and how letting go of who-gets-the-credit can fuel collaboration. We also dive into Bruce’s origin story, from shaping Postgres’s early days to mastering the art of public speaking. Pro tip: if you see a man in a bow tie at a Postgres conference, be sure to say hello—it’s probably Bruce Momjian! Links mentioned in this episode: Open source project website: postgresql.org Website: Bruce Momjian Video of talk: Building Open Source Teams at FOSDEM 2023 Slides: FOSDEM talk on Building Open Source Teams Wikipedia: John C. Maxwell Harry Truman quote: It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit The New Stack: How to Generate AI From a Database EDB Blog: Bruce Momjian’s Insights from PGConf India 2025 Conference schedule: PGConf India 2025 Book: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker Video of talk: Why Database Teams Need Crew Resource Management by Chris Travers Wikipedia: Anna Karenina principle Talking Postgres podcast: Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas Discord invite: PostgreSQL Hacking server Mailing lists: PostgreSQL mailing lists Conference: PostgreSQL Conference Nepal 2025 happening May 5-6 Conference: PostgreSQL Conference Germany 2025 on May 8-9 Conference: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 on Jun 10-12 Upcoming POSETTE 2025 keynote: Databases in the AI Trenches by Bruce Momjian Conference: SouthEast | LinuxFest on Jun 13-15 in Charlotte NC Conference: Swiss PGDay 2025 happening Jun 26-27 Conference: PGDay Austria 2025 happening in Vienna on Sep 4 Conference: PGDay UK 2025 happening in London on Sep 9 Conference: PGDay Lowlands 2025 happening in Rotterdam on Sep 12 Video from PGConf.dev 2024: Making PostgreSQL Hacking More Inclusive Talking Postgres podcast: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley Wikipedia: O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep27 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed May 07 with guest Peter Farkas. The topic: “How I got started with FerretDB (& why we chose Postgres)”…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Why Python developers just use Postgres with Dawn Wages 1:00:49

16 weeks ago1:00:49

1:00:49

When I found out that Django developer and Python Software Foundation chair Dawn Wages has a chapter in her upcoming Domain-Driven Django book called “Just Use Postgres”, I knew we had to get her on the show. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , Dawn breaks down why so many Python and Django developers have such an affinity for Postgres. And we dive into the Djangonaut Space mentoring program (where contributors launch), learn why “free as in puppies” beats “free as in cake” for open source vibes, and dig into why Python is the second-best language for everything. Links mentioned in this episode: Project page: psycopg Documentation: Psycopg 3 – PostgreSQL database adapter for Python Project page: PostgreSQL open source project Git repo: code for PostgreSQL.org website Conference: PyCon US 2025, happening May 14-22 in Pittsburgh Conference: PGConf.dev 2025 Schedule , happening May 13-16 in Montreal Canada Conference: Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day 2025 (P2D2) Schedule , which took place Jan 28-29 Wikipedia page: Model-view-controller software design pattern Book: Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0, affectionately called “the four heads book” Podcast episode: Working in Public with Simon Willison & Marco Slot Blog: Simon Willison’s TILs, aka Things I’ve learned Simon Willison’s Weblog: Here’s how I use LLMs to help me write code Simon Willison’s Weblog: How I make annotated presentations Survey: Python Developers Survey 2023 Results Python Docs: What’s new in Python 3.14 Mentorship program: Djangonaut Space Mentorship program: Media & Talks about Djangonaut Space Podcast episode: Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas Slides: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres , including maps showing how global the Postgres project is Video of POSETTE 2024 talk by Paolo Melchiorre: Semantic search with Django, PostgreSQL, & pgvector Video of Citus Con 2023 talk: Maps with Django (and PostGIS), by Paolo Melchiorre Video of Citus Con 2022 talk: Django with PostgreSQL superpowers, by Paolo Melchiorre Conference: DjangoCon Africa 2025 , happening August 11-15 in Tanzania Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep26 of Talking Postgres to happen on Wed Apr 02, 2025 with guest Bruce Momjian, to talk about Open Source Leadership…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas 1:26:23

21 weeks ago1:26:23

1:26:23

Nobody works on an open-source project forever—eventually, people move on. So of course today's Postgres contributors want to see more developers join the project, pick up the torch, and continue to make Postgres amazing. Hence the importance of mentorship. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , PostgreSQL major contributor and committer Robert Haas shares how he learned the ropes in Postgres by channeling “what would Tom Lane do” during patch reviews; why he launched the new PostgreSQL Hackers Mentoring program; and the intellectually stimulating care and feeding it takes to make Postgres thrive . Links mentioned in this episode: Podcast episode: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman Slide: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres , including new mentoring program Blog post: New Mentoring Program for Code Contributors in Postgres , by Robert Haas Blog post: Postgres Mentoring Program Updates , by Robert Haas Discord invite for PostgreSQL Hacker Mentoring server: https://discord.gg/bx2G9KWyrY Bio: Margo Seltzer, the PGConf.dev 2024 keynote speaker Video: PGConf.dev 2024 panel discussion about Making PostgreSQL Hacking More Inclusive with Amit Langote, Masahiko Sawada, Melanie Plageman, & Robert Haas Mailing list: PostgreSQL Hackers Upcoming Conference: PGConf.dev 2025, the annual PostgreSQL Development Conference happening in Montreal Canada on May 13-16, 2025 Blog: Postgres committer Tomas Vondra’s Blog - Look for [PATCH IDEA] Video of Talk: CMUDB Database talk about PostgreSQL Optimizer Methodology , by Robert Haas Podcast episode: How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with David Rowley Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep25 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Mar 12, 2025 with guest Dawn Wages of the Python developer community…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with Daniel Gustafsson 1:22:31

24 weeks ago1:22:31

1:22:31

March 5th 2005 at 3 PM in Copenhagen. That’s the exact time and place Daniel Gustafsson’s career took an unexpected turn, pivoting from operating systems to databases. At LinuxForum that day, Daniel had planned to meet up with the FreeBSD community, but a chance session about Postgres by Bruce Momjian completely blew his mind. By the time Daniel was on the train back to Malmö, he was already compiling Postgres. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , Postgres major contributor and committer Daniel Gustafsson of Microsoft walks us through how he got his start as a developer and in Postgres—starting with his earliest computing memories of a hulking steel box in his family’s living room in Sweden. Also part of Daniel’s story: guitar tuning software. And curl! Links mentioned in this episode: Wikipedia: ABC 80 Wikipedia: mSQL Wikipedia: PCBoard BBS (bulletin board system) application Conference back in 2010: CHAR(10) – Clustering, HA and Replication Conference Wikipedia: IRIX operating system Internet Archive Wayback Machine link: LinuxForum Conference Agenda from March 5, 2005 with Bruce Momjian’s 3:00pm talk about Postgres Podcast: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik Fearing Conference: Nordic PGDay 2025 to happen Mar 18th in Copenhagen Conference: All Things Open 2025 to happen Oct 12-14 in Raleigh NC Conference: PGConf.dev 2025 to happen May 13-16 in Montreal, Canada CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 9 2025 (it’s a virtual event) Slides from PGConfEU 2024 Talk: What’s in a Postgres major release? An analysis of contributions in v17 timeframe Video of PGConf EU 2024 Talk: Analysis of contributions in the v17 timeframe , by Claire Giordano Book recommendation: The Dragon Book , a.k.a. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools Book recommendation: The Purple Book (or, Wizard Book), a.k.a. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) Book recommendation: The Practice of Programming by Kernighan & Pike Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep24 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Feb 05, 2025 with guest Robert Haas…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Leading engineering for Postgres on Azure with Affan Dar 1:05:52

30 weeks ago1:05:52

1:05:52

What’s it like to lead Postgres engineering at a cloud giant like Microsoft Azure? In this episode of Talking Postgres, host Claire Giordano chats with Affan Dar , VP of Engineering for Postgres at Microsoft. Affan’s team is behind the Azure Database for PostgreSQL managed service and also contributes extensively to the upstream Postgres open-source project. Affan walks us through his career journey—from his first job as an embedded systems engineer, to navigating the shift between engineering and management, to leading one of the largest Postgres engineering teams in the world. He shares the strategy behind Microsoft’s investments into Postgres, explores how massive cloud fleets are influencing the future of Postgres, and shares what keeps him up at night. Links mentioned in this episode: Docs: Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server GitHub repo for Durable Task Framework , the first open source project Affan worked on GitHub repo for pgvector open source extension to Postgres Docs: Elastic cluster feature in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server , based on Citus GitHub repo for Citus open source Blog post: Postgres horizontal scaling with elastic clusters on Azure Database for PostgreSQL , by Adam Wølk GitHub repo for DiskANN open source Docs: How to enable and use the DiskANN index for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server Blog post: Think of language models like ChatGPT as a “calculator for words” by Simon Willison Blog post: What’s new with Postgres at Microsoft (updated 2x/year typically) Video of Talk at Microsoft Ignite: Improving accuracy of GenAI apps with Azure Database for PostgreSQL by Maxim Lukiyanov (Microsoft), Jay Yang (UBS), & Orhun Oezbek (UBS) CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 9 2025 Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep23 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Jan 15, 2025 with guest Daniel Gustafsson…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Helping Rails developers learn Postgres with Andrew Atkinson 1:34:26

33 weeks ago1:34:26

1:34:26

Have you ever achieved something remarkable because someone planted an idea in your mind? In this episode of Talking Postgres, host Claire Giordano talks with Andrew Atkinson —a Rails developer and Postgres user whose journey to becoming a published author began with a simple seed of inspiration. Andrew’s story started with an internal presentation on how to tackle tricky scalability challenges in Rails, grew into a Postgres conference talk at PGConf NYC—and ultimately evolved into his book, High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails. Also in this episode: what does cheese have to do with Postgres? Is writing a good way to think? What’s the connection between Postgres and swimming to Antarctica? And which chapter of his book does Andrew love the most? Links mentioned in this episode: Book: High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails by Andrew Atkinson E-book Discount: Use discount code TalkingPostgres to get 35% off discount of Andrew’s book Blog post: Readers get their copies of High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails by Andrew Atkinson Book: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer by Lynne Cox Talk Abstract: PGConf NYC 2021 talk by Andrew Atkinson Slides: PGConf NYC 2021 talk on How We Made PG Fitter, Happier, More Productive by Andrew Atkinson Video: POSETTE 2024 talk about SaaS on Rails on PostgreSQL by Andrew Atkinson Ruby User Groups: List of upcoming Ruby user groups Blog post: Writing is Thinking, an annotated twitter thread by Steve Sinofsky Talking Postgres podcast Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman Talking Postgres podcast Ep20: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley CFP: Prague PostgreSQL Developer Day 2025 (P2D2) CFP open until Nov 23, 2024 CFP: FOSDEM PGDay 2025 CFP open until Nov 29, 2024 CFP: Nordic PGDay 2025 CFP open until Dec 31, 2024 CFP: pgDay Paris 2025 CFP open until Dec 31, 2024 CFP: PGConf.dev 2025 CFP open until Jan 01, 2025 CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 09, 2025 Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep22 of Talking Postgres podcast…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Tom Lane 1:39:18

38 weeks ago1:39:18

1:39:18

It was not Tom Lane’s plan to become a computer person. Tom’s plan was to be a pinball machine designer. And yet for the last 26 years Tom has been one of the most prolific engineering contributors to Postgres. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano , PostgreSQL luminary Tom Lane walks us through how he got his start as a developer and in Postgres—including his time working on desktop calculators at HP. And how he has code running on Mars (and most of us don’t.) During Tom’s PhD studies at Carnegie Mellon, nobody told him databases were so interesting! It wasn’t until Tom needed a database to store stock trading information that he first got to work with Postgres. And that’s when Tom’s 26-year-long (and counting) Postgres story began. Links mentioned in this episode: Wikipedia: Tom Lane (computer scientist) Wikipedia: HP 9800 series CMU CS Department Coke Machine history Wikipedia: Honeywell 316 Wikipedia: Teletype Model 33 Wikipedia: Hydra (operating system) Wikipedia: William Wulf Wikipedia: Jon Bentley (computer scientist) Wikipedia: Mary Shaw (computer scientist) Wikipedia: Usenet GitHub: postgres commit by tglsfdc Article: The Mars 2020 Engineering Cameras and Microphone on the Perseverance Rover: A Next-Generation Imaging System for Mars Exploration by J.N. Maki et al. Blog: Open Source on Mars: Community powers NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter by Klint Finley PostgreSQL Mailing List message: pg_upgrade --check fails to warn about abstime PostgreSQL: Core Team postgresql.git: commitdiff Blog: Proton to Fastmail by Tristan Partin Talking Postgres Ep18: How I got started as a dev (& in Postgres) with David Rowley PGConf EU 2024: Conference Schedule PGConf NYC 2024: Conference Schedule Talking Postgres Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman PostgreSQL: Commitfests Wikipedia: Cutting room floor PostgreSQL Mailing List message: Straight-from-the-horses-mouth dept PostgreSQL Mailing List message: [PATCH] Extend ALTER OPERATOR to support adding commutator, negator, hashes, and merges…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman 1:22:38

41 weeks ago1:22:38

1:22:38

If you could work on anything, would you quit your job to pursue it? Postgres committer and major contributor Melanie Plageman joined Claire Giordano on this episode of the Talking Postgres podcast (formerly Path To Citus Con) to share her story about becoming a Postgres committer. Melanie pivoted from IT consulting to open-source development, driven by her fascination with systems engineering and Postgres open source. What’s the secret to getting your patch committed? Feedback is a gift, but how willing are you to embrace it? How important is mentorship—and how important is it to ask for help? Even though crafting clear, concise emails to a technical community might not be easy, Melanie shows how empathy for other Postgres developers can help your work to stand out. Links discussed in this episode Pgsql-hackers mailing list: Announcement about new Postgres committers Conference: PGConf.dev 2025 Blog: Talk, then code by Dave Cheny Blog posts about mentoring by Robert Haas Blog: Mentoring Program Updates by Robert Haas X: Brendan Burn’s tweet about the Kubernetes Chop Wood and Carry Water award Award: Chop Wood Carry Water Blog: Who Contributed to PostgreSQL Development in 2023? by Robert Haas Abstract: What's in a Postgres major release? An analysis of contributions in the v17 timeframe for PGConfEU 2024 by Claire Giordano Talking Postgres Ep18: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley Wikipedia: PostgreSQL Contributor Gifts Cal invite for next Ep 20 of Talking Postgres with Tom Lane to be recorded LIVE on Wed Oct 9, 2024 Podcasts & conference videos that Melanie listens to when running that she recommends to Postgres developers: Podcast: Oxide and Friends Podcast: postgres.fm Podcast: Software Engineering Radio Podcast: Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano Podcast: Two’s Complement SE Radio: Ep 432: Brian D Foy on Perl 7 Video: Memory & Caches by Matt Godbolt Videos: POSETTE 2024 playlist Video: RailsConf 2014 - All the Little Things by Sandi Metz YouTube: Brandon Foltz YouTube: CMU Database Group YouTube: Kernel Recipes YouTube: Linux Plumbers Conference YouTube: Matt Godbolt YouTube: Onur Mutlu Lectures YouTube: pganalyze YouTube: PostgreSQL Development Conference YouTube: SNIAVideo YouTube: Strange Loop Conference YouTube: The Linux Foundation…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with David Rowley 1:29:08

47 weeks ago1:29:08

1:29:08

Ever wonder how driving a forklift at a cheese factory could lead to a career in databases? Postgres committer David Rowley joined Claire Giordano on this episode of the Talking Postgres podcast (formerly Path To Citus Con) to share his story about how he got started as a developer and in Postgres. Could an unexpected job lead to your dream career? Does speeding things up give you a buzz? How could an idea from a hike become a Postgres patch? And what is the importance of doing the research before you submit a proposal to the Postgres mailing list? Also discussed: resources available to start your Postgres journey such as books, blogs, videos, and the pgsql-hackers mailing list. Links mentioned in this episode: Wikipedia: Acorn Computers PostgreSQL Mailing List Archives: David’s first email: Possible problem with EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM TIMESTAMP) Google Usenet: Larry Page’s Java question from Jan 7, 1996 Blog: Speeding up sort performance in Postgres 15 by David Rowley Blog: What’s new in the Postgres 16 query planner / optimizer by David Rowley Book: The Art of PostgreSQL by Dimitri Fontaine Book: The Art of SQL by Stéphane Faroult, Peter Robson Book: The Art of Writing Efficient Programs: An advanced programmer's guide to efficient hardware utilization and compiler optimizations using C++ examples by Fedor G. Pikus X: Simon Willison’s tweet Blog by Tony Finch Book: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey GitHub Issue: Coughing in my microphone causes segfault PostgreSQL Mailing Lists: Overview PostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-general PostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-hackers Video: Making your patch more committable by Melanie Plageman at PGConf.EU 2023 Cheese company: Seriously Cheddar Talking Postgres Ep04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas Munro Talking Postgres Ep08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki Linnakangas Cal invite for next Ep19 of Talking Postgres with Melanie Plageman Cal invite for next Ep 20 of Talking Postgres with Tom Lane…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Podcasting about Postgres with Pino de Candia 1:24:09

51 weeks ago1:24:09

1:24:09

Have you ever eavesdropped on other people’s conversations? Former co-host Pino de Candia joins Claire Giordano on this episode of Talking Postgres (formerly Path To Citus Con) to share their experience on podcasting about Postgres. Is listening to a podcast the next best thing to being in the hallway track at a conference? Does it bring the community together? How beneficial has it been to have a parallel chat while recording live? What is the “sweet spot” for the number of guests to have per episode? Is structure important for a podcast? Also discussed: this podcast’s rename, a walk down memory lane reflecting on the past 16 episodes, and shout-outs to other podcasts about Postgres. Links mentioned in this episode: Cal invite for next Ep18 of Talking Postgres with David Rowley Podcast: Talking Postgres Talking Postgres Ep01: Working in public on open source with Simon Willison & Marco Slot Ep02: How to get Postgres ready for the next 100 million users Ep03: Why giving talks at Postgres conferences matters with Álvaro Herrera and Boriss Mejías Video: Postgres Storytelling: What’s going on with Synchronous Replication | POSETTE 2024 by Boriss Mejías Video: Postgres Storytelling: Support in the Darkest Hour | Citus Con 2023, by Boriss Mejías Ep04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas Munro Ep05: My favorite ways to learn more about PostgreSQL with Grant Fritchey & Ryan Booz Video: Fibonacci Spirals and Ways to Contribute to Postgres —Beyond Code | Citus Con 2022, by Claire Giordano Ep06: You're probably already using Postgres with Chelsea Dole & Floor Drees Wikipedia: Object–relational mapping Video: How to work with other people | POSETTE 2024, by Floor Drees and Jimmy Angelakos Ep07: Why people care about PostGIS and Postgres with Paul Ramsey & Regina Obe Ep08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki Linnakangas Satya Nadella’s LinkedIn post about Andres Freund’s xz backdoor discovery Ep09: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik Fearing Wikipedia: Advent of Code Ep10: My Journey into Postgres Monitoring with Lukas Fittl & Rob Treat Ep11: My Journey into Performance Benchmarking with Jelte Fennema-Nio & Marco Slot Ep12: From developer to PostgreSQL specialist with Derk van Veen Ep13: Spinning up on Postgres & AI with Arda Aytekin Ep14: Becoming expert at using PostgreSQL with Chris Ellis Video: Electric Elephants | pgDay Paris 2024, by Chris Ellis Ep15: My Journey to Explaining Explain with Michael Christofides Podcast: Postgres FM Ep16: The Making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres with Teresa Giacomini & Aaron Wislang Podcast: Scaling PostgreSQL Podcast: Postgres FM Ep99 with guest Claire Giordano: Sponsoring the community Podcast: Hacking Postgres Playlist: 5mins of Postgres…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
The Making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres with Teresa Giacomini & Aaron Wislang 1:35:04

1 year ago1:35:04

1:35:04

It’s not a conference unless you can confer, right? POSETTE organizers Teresa Giacomini and Aaron Wislang join Claire Giordano on the Path To Citus Con* podcast to share backstage perspectives on the making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres. How do you feel about captions: love or hate? Should livestream talks be pre-recorded or presented live? Why rename from Citus Con to POSETTE? Where did the inspiration for POSETTE come from? And can the hallway track at a conference actually be fun—if it is virtual? Also discussed: Avett Brothers lyrics, the surprising number of POSETTE speakers with chickens, and the existential question of whether the work in organizing a conference is worth it. *[Update: July 2024] Path To Citus Con has been renamed to Talking Postgres. All of the past podcast episodes from Path To Citus Con—now called Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano—can be found here: https://talkingpostgres.com Links mentioned in this episode: Blog post: What’s in a name? About the naming of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres FOSDEM : the conference whose name inspired the POSETTE name Playlist of all 42 talks from POSETTE : An Event for Postgres 2024 Playlist of the 4 unique livestreams from POSETTE 2024 CFP is open: PGDay Lowlands 2024 Call for Papers will close July 9, 2024 Virtual conference that POSETTE organizers were inspired by: P99 Conf Discord: Microsoft Open Source Discord , Home for virtual hallway track for #posetteconf Adam Wølk’s speaker page for POSETTE Speaker interview with Polina Bungina at POSETTE Blog post: About Talk Selection for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024 , by Claire Giordano Blog post: Building the PGConf.dev Programme , by Paul Ramsey pgDay Paris 2024 note about talk selection process Keynote: All The Postgres Things at Microsoft, POSETTE edition , by Charles Feddersen Keynote: The Open Source Geospatial Community, PostGIS, & Postgres , by Regina Obe Keynote: Why I love open source development & what I learned from K8s , by Sarah Novotny Keynote: A Walking Tour of PostgreSQL , by Thomas Munro Lyrics from The Perfect Space by The Avett Brothers Video: Lessons Learned benchmarking & profiling distributed PostgreSQL , by Lotte Felius Video: Postgres Storytelling: Support in the Darkest Hour | Citus Con 2023 , by Boriss Mejías Video: Postgres Storytelling: What's going on with Synchronous Replication? , by Boriss Mejías Video: Vindicating ZFS with PostgreSQL: Unleashing the Power of Scalability , includes a bit of jazz music by Federico Campoli Blog post: Ultimate Guide to POSETTE: An Event for Postgres, 2024 edition Social post: Tweet by Kelsey Hightower with advice to conference organizers Video from PGConfEU 2023: So you want a PGDay in your city , by Henrietta Dombrovskaya & Teresa Giacomini Blog post: The Story Behind the Activity Book for Postgres , by Teresa Giacomini…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
My Journey to Explaining Explain with Michael Christofides 1:25:43

1 year ago1:25:43

1:25:43

Did you know that sometimes the fastest way of doing something is not having to do it at all? In this episode of Path To Citus Con*, the podcast for developers who love Postgres, Michael Christofides joins Claire Giordano to chat about his journey to explaining explain (or should we say EXPLAIN!?) Michael shared his origin story as a mathematician and his first experience with Postgres before walking us through co-founding a Postgres company and now co-hosting a podcast. Like many in the Postgres community, he is opinionated in the best way possible! We even learned about his passion for BUFFERS and why he believes everyone should use them. This session also dives into Michael’s belief in the importance of Postgres documentation. Because great documentation can be worth its weight in Gold, especially when the going gets tough. *[Update: July 2024] Path To Citus Con has been renamed to Talking Postgres. All of the past podcast episodes from Path To Citus Con—now called Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano—can be found here: https://talkingpostgres.com Links mentioned in this episode: Schedule for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024 Michael Christofides' company, pgMustard Blog: Where our name came from by Michael Christofides Wiki: Using EXPLAIN X: Nikolay Samokhvalov Video: Lightning Talks at pgDay Paris 2024 Blog: What’s new with Postgres at Microsoft (August 2023) by Claire Giordano Blog: Faster PostgreSQL Counting by Joe Nelson GitHub: pg_docs_bot (browser extension) GitHub Docs: About GitHub Copilot Chat Documentation: Using EXPLAIN Glossary: EXPLAIN Glossary by Michael Christofides Video: EXPLAIN Explained by Josh Berkus Blog: Reading a Postgres EXPLAIN ANALYZE Query Plan by Caleb Hearth Blog: Explaining the unexplainable by Depesz PostgreSQL execution plan visualizer, explain.dalibo.com Blog: Planet PostgreSQL News: Postgres Weekly Playlist: 5mins of Postgres Podcast: Postgres FM podcast Cal invite for next Ep16 of Path To Citus Con podcast with Aaron Wislang & Teresa Giacomini…

Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

1
Becoming expert at using PostgreSQL with Chris Ellis 1:09:46

1 year ago1:09:46