Learnings from home solar power, year 1


As of two days ago, I've owned a residential solar power system for one year. To help others make decisions about solar power for their home, and to reward the four people who follow this blog, I'm going to report on how it did in the first year. To recap... You can find all my … Continue reading Learnings from home solar power, year 1 →

Adding an HD/IR camera to a nesting box


A nesting box. For chickadees only, but some birds don't read I did a fun small project today. We have four nesting boxes in our backyard. We see birds flying in and out, and it's fun to see them carrying twigs and fluff into the boxes. But being there when the babies leave is a … Continue reading Adding an HD/IR camera to a nesting box →

Confusions about a Goldfish lyrics


I wrote about this John Kongos song 14 years ago. I searched for its lyrics online and failed to find them. The song was etched in my memory and that's all I had. Well! Recently, whilst doing random web searching, I came upon used record sales of the album containing this song, which was also … Continue reading Confusions about a Goldfish lyrics →

PGCon 2023, day 3


This is the last time PGCon will be held in Ottawa! Next year it'll be in another city. My first time at PGCon is the end of an era! From yesterday: Automating index selection using Constraint Programming: One of the speakers was Lukas Fittl of PGAnalyze. He's as good a speaker in person as he … Continue reading PGCon 2023, day 3 →

PGCon 2023, day 2


I learned there are 151 attendees here. I've seen only five women in the entirety. From yesterday: PostgreSQL 16 and beyond: Postgres 16 will be a beast. So many improvements and features, I have to get the slide deck and circulate it at work. The release notes are one thing, hearing a core developer talk … Continue reading PGCon 2023, day 2 →

PGCon 2023, day 1


Today's day 1 of the conference. I'm looking forward to: PostgreSQL 16 and beyond Patroni 3.0: What's New and Future Plans Logical Replication - handling of large transactions Visualizing Postgres I/O Performance for Development All the networking opportunities. Which are already starting as I type this, nursing my coffee after breakfast. The U. Ottawa campus … Continue reading PGCon 2023, day 1 →

Snap judgements about Canada


Vancouver International Airport: Excellent. Ottawa International Airport: Excellent. Air Canada: Great. Ottawa: Wonderful. University of Ottawa campus: Seems nice. French -- Why do French phases always have more words than their English equivalent? There's a Quora answer for that.

PGCon 2023 tutorial day


Today will be two half-day tutorials. The first one is a filler. The original speaker had to withdraw, so it's billed as a mini-unconference where the attendees determine the topics. The second one is a detailed dive into postgresql.conf. I haven't looked at one since 2014! The talk's description got me thinking about leaky abstractions … Continue reading PGCon 2023 tutorial day →

Traveling to PGCon 2023


Tomorrow I fly to Ottawa, which a friend tells me is "the Ibiza of the north," to attend PGCon 2023. This is my first PostgreSQL conference and I'm looking forward to absorbing as much information as I can and networking as much as I can. My simple (simplistic?) understanding of the Postgres conference universe is … Continue reading Traveling to PGCon 2023 →