Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano

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 seriesCMU CS Department Coke Machine historyWikipedia: Honeywell 316Wikipedia: Teletype Model 33Wikipedia: Hydra (operating system)Wikipedia: William WulfWikipedia: Jon Bentley (computer scientist)Wikipedia: Mary Shaw (computer scientist)Wikipedia: UsenetGitHub: postgres commit by tglsfdcArticle: 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 FinleyPostgreSQL Mailing List message: pg_upgrade --check fails to warn about abstimePostgreSQL: Core Teampostgresql.git: commitdiffBlog: Proton to Fastmail by Tristan PartinTalking Postgres Ep18: How I got started as a dev (& in Postgres) with David RowleyPGConf EU 2024: Conference SchedulePGConf NYC 2024: Conference ScheduleTalking Postgres Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie PlagemanPostgreSQL: CommitfestsWikipedia: Cutting room floorPostgreSQL Mailing List message: Straight-from-the-horses-mouth deptPostgreSQL Mailing List message: [PATCH] Extend ALTER OPERATOR to support adding commutator, negator, hashes, and merges

Melanie Plageman, a Postgres committer and key contributor at Microsoft, shares her journey from IT consulting to open-source development, igniting her passion for systems engineering. She emphasizes the significance of mentorship and community support in navigating the Postgres landscape. The conversation dives into the art of accepting feedback and 'killing your darlings' in programming. Melanie also highlights the Postgres community's new mentoring initiative aimed at recognizing diverse contributions, advocating for empathy and collaboration among developers.

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 ComputersPostgreSQL Mailing List Archives: David’s first email: Possible problem with EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM TIMESTAMP)Google Usenet: Larry Page’s Java question from Jan 7, 1996Blog: Speeding up sort performance in Postgres 15 by David RowleyBlog: What’s new in the Postgres 16 query planner / optimizer by David RowleyBook: The Art of PostgreSQL by Dimitri FontaineBook: The Art of SQL by Stéphane Faroult, Peter RobsonBook: The Art of Writing Efficient Programs: An advanced programmer's guide to efficient hardware utilization and compiler optimizations using C++ examples by Fedor G. PikusX: Simon Willison’s tweetBlog by Tony FinchBook: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason CurreyGitHub Issue: Coughing in my microphone causes segfaultPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: OverviewPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-generalPostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-hackersVideo: Making your patch more committable by Melanie Plageman at PGConf.EU 2023Cheese company: Seriously CheddarTalking Postgres Ep04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas MunroTalking Postgres Ep08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki LinnakangasCal invite for next Ep19 of Talking Postgres with Melanie PlagemanCal invite for next Ep 20 of Talking Postgres with Tom Lane

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 RowleyPodcast: Talking Postgres Talking Postgres Ep01: Working in public on open source with Simon Willison & Marco SlotEp02: How to get Postgres ready for the next 100 million usersEp03: Why giving talks at Postgres conferences matterswith Álvaro Herrera and Boriss MejíasVideo: Postgres Storytelling: What’s going on with Synchronous Replication | POSETTE 2024 by Boriss MejíasVideo: Postgres Storytelling: Support in the Darkest Hour | Citus Con 2023, by Boriss MejíasEp04: How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas MunroEp05: My favorite ways to learn more about PostgreSQL with Grant Fritchey & Ryan BoozVideo: Fibonacci Spirals and Ways to Contribute to Postgres—Beyond Code | Citus Con 2022, by Claire GiordanoEp06: You're probably already using Postgres with Chelsea Dole & Floor DreesWikipedia: Object–relational mappingVideo: How to work with other people | POSETTE 2024, by Floor Drees and Jimmy AngelakosEp07: Why people care about PostGIS and Postgres with Paul Ramsey & Regina ObeEp08: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Andres Freund & Heikki LinnakangasSatya Nadella’s LinkedIn post about Andres Freund’s xz backdoor discoveryEp09: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik FearingWikipedia: Advent of CodeEp10: My Journey into Postgres Monitoring with Lukas Fittl & Rob TreatEp11: My Journey into Performance Benchmarking with Jelte Fennema-Nio & Marco SlotEp12: From developer to PostgreSQL specialist with Derk van VeenEp13: Spinning up on Postgres & AI with Arda AytekinEp14: Becoming expert at using PostgreSQL with Chris EllisVideo: Electric Elephants | pgDay Paris 2024, by Chris EllisEp15: My Journey to Explaining Explain with Michael ChristofidesPodcast: Postgres FMEp16: The Making of POSETTE: An Event for Postgres with Teresa Giacomini & Aaron WislangPodcast: Scaling PostgreSQLPodcast: Postgres FM Ep99 with guest Claire Giordano: Sponsoring the communityPodcast: Hacking PostgresPlaylist: 5mins of Postgres

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.comLinks mentioned in this episode: Blog post: What’s in a name? About the naming of POSETTE: An Event for PostgresFOSDEM: the conference whose name inspired the POSETTE namePlaylist of all 42 talks from POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024Playlist of the 4 unique livestreams from POSETTE 2024 CFP is open: PGDay Lowlands 2024 Call for Papers will close July 9, 2024Virtual conference that POSETTE organizers were inspired by: P99 ConfDiscord: Microsoft Open Source Discord, Home for virtual hallway track for #posetteconfAdam Wølk’s speaker page for POSETTESpeaker interview with Polina Bungina at POSETTEBlog post: About Talk Selection for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024, by Claire GiordanoBlog post: Building the PGConf.dev Programme, by Paul RamseypgDay Paris 2024 note about talk selection processKeynote: All The Postgres Things at Microsoft, POSETTE edition, by Charles FeddersenKeynote: The Open Source Geospatial Community, PostGIS, & Postgres, by Regina ObeKeynote: Why I love open source development & what I learned from K8s, by Sarah NovotnyKeynote: A Walking Tour of PostgreSQL, by Thomas MunroLyrics from The Perfect Space by The Avett BrothersVideo: Lessons Learned benchmarking & profiling distributed PostgreSQL, by Lotte FeliusVideo: 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 MejíasVideo: Vindicating ZFS with PostgreSQL: Unleashing the Power of Scalability, includes a bit of jazz music by Federico CampoliBlog post: Ultimate Guide to POSETTE: An Event for Postgres, 2024 editionSocial post: Tweet by Kelsey Hightower with advice to conference organizersVideo from PGConfEU 2023: So you want a PGDay in your city, by Henrietta Dombrovskaya & Teresa GiacominiBlog post: The Story Behind the Activity Book for Postgres, by Teresa Giacomini

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.comLinks mentioned in this episode:Schedule for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2024Michael Christofides' company, pgMustardBlog: Where our name came from by Michael ChristofidesWiki: Using EXPLAIN X: Nikolay SamokhvalovVideo: Lightning Talks at pgDay Paris 2024Blog: What’s new with Postgres at Microsoft (August 2023) by Claire GiordanoBlog: Faster PostgreSQL Counting by Joe NelsonGitHub: pg_docs_bot (browser extension)GitHub Docs: About GitHub Copilot ChatDocumentation: Using EXPLAINGlossary: EXPLAIN Glossary by Michael ChristofidesVideo: EXPLAIN Explained by Josh BerkusBlog: Reading a Postgres EXPLAIN ANALYZE Query Plan by Caleb HearthBlog: Explaining the unexplainable by DepeszPostgreSQL execution plan visualizer, explain.dalibo.comBlog: Planet PostgreSQLNews: Postgres WeeklyPlaylist: 5mins of PostgresPodcast: Postgres FM podcastCal invite for next Ep16 of Path To Citus Con podcast with Aaron Wislang & Teresa Giacomini

Chris Ellis, Head of Engineering at Next Team, shares his 18 years of PostgreSQL expertise and his unconventional learning style that flourished in coffee shops instead of libraries. He reflects on his journey from early programming with QBASIC to becoming a respected conference speaker and organizer. The conversation emphasizes the importance of community involvement, practical experiences over formal education, and the transformative nature of effective database design. The hosts also discuss the thrill of upcoming events and the value of creativity in presentations.

Everywhere you look, people are talking about AI. From Copilot to ChatGPT to Postgres’s powerful AI capabilities (think: pgvector), AI is everywhere. In this episode of Path To Citus Con*, for developers who love Postgres, Arda Aytekin joined Claire and Pino to chat about spinning up on Postgres and AI. Arda shared his origin story in mechanical engineering and data science before walking us through vector databases, pgvector, and azure_ai. Arda is one of the creators of the azure_ai extension, so the conversation delves into the azure_ai integration between Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure AI Services. Also discussed (of course) was—Responsible AI.*[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.comLinks mentioned in this episode:pgvector on GitHub: https://github.com/pgvector/pgvectorAndrew Kane: https://github.com/ankaneSimon Willison’s Blog: https://simonwillison.net/Demo of Azure AI & pgvector with Azure Database for PostgreSQL by Claire Giordano: https://youtu.be/em0PKDGzzlQ?si=TrOQHXO5gqIuGsU0Blog: Introducing the azure_ai extension to Azure Database for PostgreSQL by Denzil Ribeiro: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/introducing-the-azure-ai-extension-to-azure-database-for/ba-p/3980291Documentation: Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server Azure AI Extension: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/postgresql/flexible-server/generative-ai-azure-overviewBlog: Vectors are the new JSON in PostgreSQL by Jonathan Katz: https://jkatz05.com/post/postgres/vectors-json-postgresql/Responsible AI at Microsoft: https://aka.ms/raiAndreessen's Corollary: Ethical Dilemmas in Software Engineering by Bryan Cantrill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wtvQZijPzgBlog: Phi-2: The surprising power of small language models by Mojan Javaheripi & Sébastien Bubeck: https://www.microsoft.com/research/blog/phi-2-the-surprising-power-of-small-language-models/pg_vectorize: https://github.com/tembo-io/pg_vectorizeOpenAI API documentation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/introductionMicrosoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Generative AI - Training: https://learn.microsoft.com/training/paths/introduction-generative-ai/ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers: https://www.deeplearning.ai/short-courses/chatgpt-prompt-engineering-for-developers/Andrej Karpathy's keynote @ Microsoft Build 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZQun8Y4L2AStanford University CS231n: Deep Learning for Computer Vision: http://cs231n.stanford.edu/LangChain: https://www.langchain.com/Towards Data Science: https://towardsdatascience.com/Generative AI for Beginners on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/generative-ai-for-beginners/Zero-shot learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-shot_learningAndrej Karpathy thread on LLMs: https://www.threads.net/@karpathy/post/C3lBSlov1QJ/Podcast: Path to Citus Con Ep01: Working in public on open source with Simon Willison & Marco Slot: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/working-in-public-on-open-sourceThe Art of PostgreSQL by Dimitri Fontaine, get 15% OFF with CLAIRE15: https://theartofpostgresql.com/Podcast: Path to Citus Con Ep08: Solving every data problem in SQL w/Dimitri Fontaine & Vik Fearing: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/solving-every-data-problem-in-sql-w-dimitri-fontaine-vik-fearing)Arda Aytekin’s scheduled talk at PGDay Chicago 2024 on April 26: https://postgresql.us/events/pgdaychicago2024/schedule/session/1542-learnings-from-extension-development-in-rust-pgrx/ CFP for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres (free & virtual event) open until April 7th 2024: https://aka.ms/posette-cfp-2024

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.comLinks mentioned in this episode:Explaining the PostgreSQL concurrency control mechanisms by Derk van Veen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkxwaN46K88Podcast: 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-mattersBlog: A Deep Dive into Table Partitioning part 3 by Derk van Veen & Cosmin Octavian Pene: https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/maintenance-under-pressureBook: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: https://stephenking.com/works/nonfiction/on-writing-a-memoir-of-the-craft.htmlPechaKucha, 20 slides for 20 seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKuchapgChess: PostgreSQL 9.1+ extension for the game of Chess on GitHub: https://github.com/gciolli/pgChessFOSDEM 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-updatesFOSDEM 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.pdfX post with picture about Derk and Boriss’ talk on FOSDEM PGDay 2024 by Devrim Gündüz: https://twitter.com/DevrimGunduz/status/1753348159026130959?s=20Blitz Chess game: https://www.chess.com/terms/blitz-chessCFP for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres (free & virtual event) open until April 7th 2024: https://aka.ms/posette-cfp-2024 

No one likes benchmarking. But it can be one of the highest impact things you do. Jelte Fennema-Nio and Marco Slot joined Claire Giordano and Pino de Candia on this episode of Path To Citus Con* podcast for developers who love Postgres—to discuss their journeys into performance benchmarking. And how it can change the course of your career. Do you need to find bottlenecks in your Postgres? Do you want to build skills with database benchmarks? There are many lovely benchmarking tools in the Postgres world: HammerDB, pgbench, YCSB, BenchBase, perf, & more. And in addition to running benchmarks themselves—asking the right questions, introspection, and profiling matter just as much. *[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.comLinks mentioned in this episode:Podcast: Path To Citus Con Ep01: Working in public on open source with Simon Willison & Marco Slot: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/working-in-public-on-open-sourceStreetlight effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effectBenchBase: https://db.cs.cmu.edu/projects/benchbase/HammerDB: https://www.hammerdb.com/Slides: Intro to benchmarking with pgbench at PGConf NYC 2023 by Melanie Plageman: https://speakerdeck.com/melanieplageman/intro-to-benchmarking-with-pgbenchLocust: https://locust.io/Blog post: How to benchmark performance of Citus and Postgres with HammerDB on Azure by Jelte Fennema-Nio: https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2022/03/12/how-to-benchmark-performance-of-citus-and-postgres-with-hammerdb/Profiling with perf: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Profiling_with_perfFlame Graphs: https://www.brendangregg.com/flamegraphs.htmlBrendan Gregg’s Website, a super-valuable resource for performance engineering: https://www.brendangregg.com/overview.htmlVideo: Analyzing Postgres performance problems using perf and eBPF by Andres Freund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HghP4D72NocVideo: Explanatory talk about compiler optimization and memory & caches by Matt Godbolt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_smHyqgDTU&t=52sCompiler Explorer is fantastic, especially if you want to know how different compilers will optimize your code: https://godbolt.org/Mark Callaghan Twitter account @MarkCallaghanDB: https://twitter.com/MarkCallaghanDBPGConf.dev CFP is open until Mon Jan 15 2024 at 11:59pm PST: https://2024.pgconf.dev/cfp/3rd party performance benchmark in 2023 by GigaOM on Transaction Processing & Price-Performance Testing of Distributed SQL Databases:  https://gigaom.com/report/transaction-processing-price-performance-testing/Blog post: "Query from any node" feature for Citus, by Marco Slot: https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2022/06/17/citus-11-goes-fully-open-source/