PDXPUG's next meeting is this Thursday!

Topic: PostGIS and Census Data
Speaker: Webb Sprague
Location: FreeGeek, 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland, OR
Date/time: 7/16/09, 7pm

Webb Sprague will be speaking about PostGIS and the Census Data at the next PDXPUG meeting at FreeGeek (at 7:00pm - 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland, OR).

Looking forward to seeing everyone there....and of course, drinks at the Lucky Lab (http://www.luckylab.com/) at 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd. afterward.

From Webb:
If anyone is wondering about specifics, I will describe how I recently created a "crosswalk" table that correlates census tracts in 1980 with census tracts in 2000 in the Portland region (well, Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas counties), so that we could see poverty trends over the last 25 years.

I used PostGIS, Census naming conventions ("FIPS codes"), and lots of outer joins. So if you like that sort of thing, I would love to hear your comments tomorrow!

I've set up a brief (less than 5 minute) survey for anyone who is interested in the TorontoPUG group. I'd like to know what everyone is looking for to ensure that we are doing things people want to attend. I would appreciate the feedback, and would be happy to share the results after I close the survey.

Event: TorontoPUG meeting
Date: September 22nd, 2008, 7:30 PM
Location: The Rhino (www.therhino.ca), 1249 Queen St. West, Toronto
RSVP: Send a brief message to Ian: torontopug.september2008@hardcircle.net

It's time for the monthly meeting of TorontoPUG! Please RSVP by sending a quick message to torontopug.september2008@hardcircle.net, and feel free to bring someone along!

To get updates about future events, meet people between events, and suggest ideas for future events, please join our mailing list, accessible here: http://archives.postgresql.org/torontopug/. We are always looking for speakers interested in presenting to our group!

Topic: Visual Planner
Presenter: Tom Raney, PSU
Where: FreeGeek, 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland, OR
When: 7pm, September 18, 2008

Tom Raney will be presenting the Visual Planner, a GUI tool written in Java that enables the user to peek inside the PostgreSQL planner's decision making process. The tool shows all plans that were evaluated including the plan that was picked for execution. Tom worked on this during Google Summer of Code, and credits Dr. Len Shapiro, a professor at Portland State University and PDXPUG regular, as a great help.

Tom showed off his tool during OSCON and has gotten some feedback from community members on it. He's working up a test example that should appeal to DBAs, and I'll link directly to the source code once he's got it ready.

This work also involves a patch to PostgreSQL, which should be available soon!

After the meeting, retire to the Lucky Lab for refreshments!

Event: TorontoPUG meeting
Date: August 25th, 2008, 7:30 PM
Location: The Rhino (www.therhino.ca), 1249 Queen St. West, Toronto
RSVP: Send a brief message to Ian: torontopug.august2008@hardcircle.net

It's time for the third monthly meeting of TorontoPUG!

For our first meeting, we will going back to a social setting at the Rhino. This will be an opportunity to meet others using PostgreSQL in the area, to learn how others are using PostgreSQL in different ways, or to learn basics about the PostgreSQL project. Please RSVP by sending a quick message to torontopug.august2008@hardcircle.net, and feel free to bring someone along!

To get updates about future events, meet people between events, and suggest ideas for future events, please join our mailing list, accessible here: http://archives.postgresql.org/torontopug/. We are always looking for speakers interested in presenting to our group!

For those of you who could not make it, or who would like to find out more, here are the slides for the presentations at the July TorontoPUG. Thanks to all who came out!

Our next meeting will be a social event on the evening of Monday, August 25th. The venue will be announced shortly.

Event: TorontoPUG meeting
Date: July 28th, 2008, 7:30 PM
Location: Nulogy Office, 183 Bathurst St., Suite 400, Toronto
RSVP: Send a brief message to Ian: torontopug.july2008@hardcircle.net

It's time for the second meeting of the Toronto area PostgreSQL User Group, aka TorontoPUG.

Our next meeting is on July 28th, at 7:30 PM, at the Nulogy office (http://www.nulogy.com) . This will be an opportunity to meet others using PostgreSQL in the area, to learn how others are using PostgreSQL in different ways, or to learn basics about the PostgreSQL project. Bring your friends and anyone you know, everyone is welcome!

This month, we will be featuring two presentations:

• Steve Singer will be giving a presentation on various replication options for PostgreSQL
• Ian Bailey (that's me) will be giving a presentation on the configuration options available in PostgreSQL

Refreshments will be available, so please RSVP by sending a quick message to torontopug.july2008@hardcircle.net to ensure there is enough for everyone. If you would like to present at this night or at a future one, please let me know so we can schedule you in the future.

To get updates about future events, meet people between events, and suggest ideas for future events, please join our mailing list, accessible here: http://archives.postgresql.org/torontopug/.

For the next TorontoPUG (to be held on July 28th, 2008), we will be moving to an office area, where we want to hold a few quick (15-20 min) presentations on a few different topics.

This is an open call to the community asking if anyone would be interested in presenting a topic on PostgreSQL. Some topics our members would be interested in learning about include (but feel free to suggest your own topic):

• A brief overview of replication options
• PostGIS
• An overview of tweaking PostgreSQL databases
• Differences and gotchas moving from MySQL to PostgreSQL

If you are interested in presenting, please send an email to torontopug.july2008@hardcircle.net and/or to our mailing list.

Event: TorontoPUG meeting
Date: June 23rd, 2008, 7:30 PM
Location: The Rhino (www.therhino.ca), 1249 Queen St. West, Toronto
RSVP: Send a brief message to Ian: torontopug.june2008@hardcircle.net

I'm pleased to announce the first meeting of the Toronto area PostgreSQL User Group, TorontoPUG!

Our first meeting will be on June 23rd, at 7:30 PM, at the Rhino. This will be an opportunity to meet others using PostgreSQL in the area, to learn how others are using PostgreSQL in different ways, or to learn basics about the PostgreSQL project. Please RSVP by sending a quick message to torontopug.june2008@hardcircle.net so we can ensure there is enough space.

To get updates about future events, meet people between events, and suggest ideas for future events, please join our mailing list, accessible here: http://archives.postgresql.org/torontopug/.

Topic: The Relational Model
Who: Jeff Davis
Date: 6/19/08, 7pm
Where: FreeGeek, 1731 SE 10th Ave, Portland, OR

Come to our next PostgreSQL Users Group meeting where Jeff Davis will
discuss the finer points of the Relational Model, otherwise known as
the model upon which all major SQL databases systems like Oracle,
MySQL and PostgreSQL are based.

He's fresh off giving a talk about this at PgCon, where it was very
well received!

Here's his abstract from that talk:

"This talk focuses on two common data management tasks, and how the
relational model can help. First, how to answer complex questions
about your data, and provide an answer that can be understood by
non-IT people unambiguously. Second, how to effectively extract
meaning from disorganized (or under-documented) data sets for
effective data migration or reporting.

The relational model, on which all SQL DBMSs are based, is founded on
both logic and sets. Relational operators like JOIN and UNION have a
direct logical meaning, and you can use those operators to answer
complex questions from your data unambiguously. Not only can you
provide unambiguous answers, but you can translate SQL queries into
the language of logic, which can be understood by people outside of
IT.

Equally important is the utility of logic working backwards to help
find meaning in disorganized (or perhaps undocumented) data sets.
Nearly every inherited data set is less than perfectly documented, and
often inconsistent. Changes to (or replacement of) the application
require this data to be migrated. By iteratively making assertions and
then testing them using the rules of logic and the convenience of
sets, you can find exceptions and contradictions that help you refine
the meaning of data, and possibly correct inconsistencies."