PostgreSQL link round-up

First, in case you somehow missed it, PostgreSQL 9.5 Beta 2 is now out.  Time for another round of testing!  There's fewer and fewer bugs found, so we're not far from a final release.  I don't know about anyone else, but we're going into production on Beta 2 in a couple places.  Can't wait any longer for Upsert and RLS.

Second, pgConfSV has announced its keynotes, from CitusData, Pivotal, and -- as a bit of a surprise -- from streaming data thing Kafka (before you ask, I didn't pick the keynotes). I believe registration is still open, so you can still go to the conference next week if you act quickly.

Thirdly, I have a roundup of some cool blogs covering PostgreSQL which aren't on Planet and you may have missed:

Compose.io did a terrific two-part article on why PostgreSQL is the best open source database.  Read it here: Part I  Part II. 

They also covered using JSON in Postgres with Python.

In stranger news, there's an amazingly strange story about Soylent, PostgreSQL, and auto-responding to poisoning accusations.  Yes, Soylent Inc. uses PostgreSQL, why not?  Read the whole weird tale here on Zapier's blog.

That's it for my round up ... if you have some good links, post them in the comments.

Ready to be an Accidental DBA at pgConfSV?

My AccidentalDBA tutorial materials have been updated for pgConfSV next week.  If you are planning to take this tutorial, please read and follow the setup instructions before you get to the conference.

I created this tutorial in 2009 because of the number of people these days who find themselves in charge of a PostgreSQL server ... or many servers ... without any DBA background, training, or desire to be ops.  The tutorial is intended to teach you the minimum you need to keep your PostgreSQL server from falling over so you can get back to whatever your main job is.

You can take it self-paced if you can't make it to pgConfSV.  The tutorial includes all materials and notes.  In this version, I've added the option of a Docker container (preferred), pg_stat_statements, and a restore-to-point-in-time exercise.

If you are going to attend this tutorial, note that it requires advance setup which will be harder to perform once you get to your hotel, and near-impossible if you wait until 10 minutes before it starts.  So read up and install now.

And ... I believe there's still a few registrations left for the tutorial day, so consider signing up.  You have nothing to lose but your fear of database admin!

Most of the talks chosen for pgConfSV

Since we're still working on the schedule, I wanted to give folks a preview of the talks we've picked for pgConfSV.  We still have a few more talks to pick and the tutorials to finalize.  Regardless, it's looking like a really exciting lineup! 
We'll have folks from Heap, Wanelo, TreasureData, Rackspace, Turnitin.com, EMC, Joyent, Square, and more.   The sad part will be missing three talks in each timeslot.

Note that this set of talks is not final; we're still swapping a couple of things, and some speakers have not confirmed.

pgConfSV is November 17th and 18th in South San Francisco.  If you're going to AnsibleCon, that's the day after, so you can do both!