Gabriele Bartolini

Back from Codemotion

2011-03-06T16:11:32Z

Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak at the first edition of Codemotion in Rome. The event is the evolution of the “Java Day” in Italy, which now embraces different technologies as well. The idea behind this event - and I believe it is something we have to learn as well as PostgreSQL community members - is to go beyond our preferred technology and organise a joint conference with other user groups. Save money, save energies, save time (spare time).

]]> The outcome has been brilliant. Very well organised, with a big presence (I think about a thousand people were there).
The conference simply targets ICT new technologies, no language in particular, no discrimination between closed or open source. Several parallel sessions and even a round table for user groups (where ITPUG had the chance to present their activities and get to know other communities).
My talk, originally submitted by ITPUG founder and vice president Luca Ferrari, was about PostgreSQL 9. Speaking in front of a general audience I had prepared a generic talk covering two main parts: the PostgreSQL project (focused on the history, the community, the license and the development cycle) and PostgreSQL 9, more technical.
Even though I was speaking at 4PM (on a Saturday), my room was almost packed and about ~100 people have been listening for 40 minutes, coming up with very interesting questions. About 20% of them were already using PostgreSQL, the remaining were interested in it for their next projects, in particular Oracle (about 30% of them) and MySQL (the rest, more worried about the future of it).
By analysing the reaction of the audience, some of the most appreciated features were:

Hot Standby and streaming replication
High availability
Transparent text compression (no CLOBs! for developers)
XML data type and Unicode support (for developers)
Asynchronous commit

When I spoke about PostgreSQL 9.1, I had the pleasure to introduce some of the new features that are already in the core, such as extensions packaging, writable common table expressions, trigger views, etc.
But when I said that we were about to introduce synchronous replication (with transaction control), you can imagine the reaction. :)
I thank once again Luca for submitting a talk to such a conference. I backed him up because he could not be there, but I believe that this sort of activity is what a community member should do.
Finally, a mention to the “Macaroni Bros”, the authors of the spot for the conference about “Apple’s new product released at Codemotion”. I had the pleasure to meet them and have a chat with them (one of them, Bob Trust in the video, actually used PostgreSQL for his PhD).

OSDC in Melbourne, day 1

2010-11-24T06:55:18Z

Today the Open Source Developers’ Conference has started in Melbourne, in the beautiful scenario offered by the Abbotsford Convent. Great weather, about 30 degrees celsius, spectacular gardens and trees.

]]> The day started with the keynote session by Ingy dot Net. Then after the break it was David Fetter’s turn (picture) with his talk on “Tree tricks” (too bad it lasted only 30 minutes).

I am very impressed however by the high standard organisation of the conference and the high level of the participants (about 200).

In the afternoon, I decided to give a lightning talk on PostgreSQL 9. I was so surprised to see so many hands up when I asked “Who’s using PostgreSQL in a production environment?”

Now I am ready to quit with my daily activity and join the rest of the crew for dinner.

I am really happy that 2ndQuadrant is sponsoring such an event.

Looking for a screw for the bridge saddle of my Guild SF-IV

2010-01-11T07:43:21Z

Last year, while I was setting up my Guild Starfire IV guitar, one of the screws of the bridge saddle broke. Since then, I have not been able to play it again, as I can't find this screw.

I really miss the sound of this 80s semi-acustic guitar.

Anyone who could help me on this would be much appreciated!

]]>

Below are some pictures:

Picture of the broken screw
Picture of the bridge
Picture of the bridge
Serial number

European PostgreSQL Day 2009: Merci beaucoup Paris!

2009-11-11T18:02:19Z

I have come back to Italy after the terrific experience of the European PostgreSQL Day 2009, which has been held in Paris last weekend.
Having organised the previous two editions, I must say that I am really proud of what the European community of PostgreSQL has become in the last two years, since its official birth.

]]> As I said to the members of PostgreSQLFr, which had most of the logistics stuff in charge, they picked all the things we did wrong in the last editions, they accepted most of our advices and the results was awesome. Knowledge sharing, experience and hard work produced the best edition of the PGDay.EU event so far.
The great thing is that every year we have improved.
Location was awesome and very practical (the only problem I have to note is the wireless connection which I did not have on Saturday).
We had great speakers and great talks. Fortunately this year I could attend the talks (my first visitor PGDay). Unfortunately I could not follow them all due to the physical impossibility to attend two simultaneously. I was lucky enough and very proud to present a very challenging talk about Data warehousing with PostgreSQL, which I hope could open new opportunities to PostgreSQL and attract companies and users from commercial RDBMS products.
So, merci beaucoup mes amis! Ah ... and see you next year in Holland!

Another misleading "PostgreSQL vs MySQL review"!!!

2009-08-31T16:52:05Z

Don't let the title of this article mislead you. This is not a review of the two RDBMS, rather a comment on the article "PostgreSQL vs MySQL - Comparative Review" which has been forwarded to the PostgreSQL advocacy list.
I believe that, when doing this kind of reviews, we all must be careful. The most important thing is that enough information on both systems must be gathered in advance, in order to come up with an objective review.
Once I read the article, I have tried to post a comment, but I never saw my post displayed. This is why I decided to write something on my personal blog.
]]> The PostgreSQL 6.x series and those released before it suffered from stability issue. Random disconnects, core dumps and memory leaks were common with these series. However, the PostgreSQL 7.x series showed significant improvement in terms of stability."
It is worth saying that current PostgreSQL's version is 8.4. Latest PostgreSQL 6.x is version 6.5.3, which was released in October 1999. Ten years ago. PostgreSQL 7.x is currently unsupported. PostgreSQL 7.0 started in 2000. PostgreSQL 7.1 in 2001, versions 7.2 and 7.3 in 2002 and 7.4 in 2003. PostgreSQL 8.0 came out in 2005, almost 5 years ago!
Once you have taken into account these notes, it is exciting to read the conclusion: "However, the advent of version PostgreSQL 8.x shows that it's going though a process of continuous improvement."
My question is: Why in 2009 would you write a technical review of a product by totally ignoring the last 5 years of evolution of a product? By using a similar approach, I could write a comparison review of PostgreSQL by considering MySQL 3.23 (which I loved, by the way!).
Anyway, about the "SQL standard" compliance, I personally do not understand why it is important to point out that MySQL runs on almost any platform.
In the "Platforms" section, what does exactly mean that "MySQL runs better on Windows than PostgreSQL"? Also, have you considered PostgreSQL 8.x or PostgreSQL 6 or 7 with Cygwin?
I skip the rest sections, even though they are quite "attractive".
However, IMHO, the best part though is the large objects support, which totally ignores the fact that in most cases PostgreSQL users do not normally need large objects, thanks to the TEXT type and the BYTEA type. Those types, AFAIK, can be dumped very well by pg_dump.
Anyway, that's enough. I just wanted to show my disappointment in seeing this kind of articles on the web, especially if no way or means of debate are given to users.
I encourage people that want to get to know more about PostgreSQL to surf around the manual or subscribe one of the mailing lists for community support.
That's definitely the best way to get information on a community project such as PostgreSQL.
Another way is to participate to one of the community events organised by the volunteers.
In any case, my advice is to stay out from these inaccurate and outdated reviews.

Italian translations of the PostgreSQL project

2009-07-14T08:57:23Z

Following Peter Eisentraut's report about the lack of translations on PostgreSQL and looking at the Babel Project, within the Italian PostgreSQL Users Group people have started to ask: "Why do we really suck like that?".
]]> The good thing is that we have rapidly organised a working group, made up of 9 volunteers, all members of the Italian PostgreSQL Users Group.
Thanks to the help of Alvaro Herrera, we have now started the translation of the smaller projects, hoping to tackle the most complex ones (postgres and psql) farther down the road.
The objective is to have 100% translated within a year.
Here is the list of the initial members of the group:

Cosimo D'Arcangelo
Diego Cinelli
Emanuele Zamprogno
Flavio Spada
Gabriele Bartolini
Gianni Ciolli
Maurizio Totti
Marco Nenciarini
Salvatore Nicolosi
Vincenzo Romano

Let's hope this is not another failing attempt of translating PostgreSQL into Italian. I extremely rely on these guys support and contribution! Only time will tell, I guess. :)

Pistoia blues 2009

2009-07-04T21:42:01Z

Oggi sono stato alla seconda giornata del Pistoia Blues 2009, e devo dire che purtroppo non sono uscito molto soddisfatto.

]]> L'unica eccezione è stata data dall'esibizione di Nick Becattini e della sua band. Un grande artista, accompagnato da bravissimi musicisti che hanno saputo calarsi meglio di tutti nella giornata in un evento come il Pistoia blues.

A seguire, Derek Trucks. Tecnicamente, un chitarrista impressionante. Però un po' noioso. Il resto, non mi ha entusiasmato (Joss Stone in testa).

Ad ogni modo, secondo me, 35 euro per il Pistoia Blues sono troppi (42 euro con la prevendita). E infatti, la piazza era vuota. Credo che se i prezzi li avesseri tenuti intorno ai 15 euro, avrebbero avuto almeno 3/4 volte il pubblico presente.

E poi, non si può dare la licenza per vendere cibo all'interno a dei veri ladri che per 5 euro vendevano panini con la porchetta di almeno due giorni prima. Vergogna, da NAS!

Comunque, bravo Nick e tutta la sua band! Ecco il video che ho ripreso e messo su Youtube.

Free PostgreSQL support for the students of the University of L'Aquila

2009-06-17T16:01:29Z

We all know about the terrible events following the earthquake that shook the city of L'Aquila and the entire Abruzzo region last April.
In assisting the university to reinstate its teaching program, the company I work for (2ndQuadrant Italia) will offer students a free and preferential consulting service on PostgreSQL.]]> Università degli Studi dell'Aquila".
I was supposed to visit their University in May, together with my colleague Gianni Ciolli. The aim of the visit was to personally get to know Prof. Di Felice and the students of his database systems class, and to introduce them to PostgreSQL.
Unfortunately, we all know what happened afterwards.
Our initiative aims to help students gain practical skills and knowledge in installation procedures, configuration and the usage of PostgreSQL.
This embraces also Italian PostgreSQL Users Group's objective for the introduction of PostgreSQL in the Italian schools and universities.
The joint agreement will take effect from 1 October 2009 and has a duration of 15 months. More information are in the Italian press announcement.
Finally, I am also happy to restart my PlanetPostgreSQL.org activity with such great news for the whole PostgreSQL community!

PostgreSQL a ConfSL 2009

2009-06-13T13:49:29Z

Oggi ho partecipato come speaker per conto di Italian PostgreSQL Users Group alla edizione 2009 della conferenza nazionale sul software libero (ConfSL), tenutasi a Bologna.

]]> Ho poi brevemente parlato delle novità della versione 8.4 di PostgreSQL.
Le slide degli interventi sono scaricabili nella sezione eventi del sito di ITPUG. Gli atti della conferenza sono disponibili sul sito di ConfSL 2009.
Ho infine promosso l'evento del 26 giugno di Prato "Conoscere per fare Conoscenza": partecipate numerosi!

Qualità e accessibilità dei siti web nella PA

2009-05-13T09:41:08Z

Oggi ho il piacere di essere al Barcamp InnovatoriPA presso il Forum PA che si sta tenendo a Roma. Nel barcamp mi occuperò di esporre le idee promosse da Devise.IT per il monitoraggio automatico della qualità e dell'accessibilità dei siti web istituzionali nella PA tramite la tecnologia Gamera Web Evaluation Tool.
Ho preparato alcune slide per guidarmi nella presentazione iniziale, la quale sarà seguita da commenti/opinioni/idee e possibilità di collaborazione (spero).
]]> slide della presentazione, la cui scaletta è - pressapoco - la seguente:

Qualità e accessibilità dei siti web delle PA
Contesto normativo di riferimento: legge Stanca
Verifiche automatiche e manuali
Monitoraggio dell'accessibilità nei siti della PA
Tecnologia Gamera Web Evaluation Tool
Proposta: analisi di un campione di siti

Onde evitare flame inutili, tengo a precisare - sempre - che la verifica automatica non potrà mai sostituire la verifica manuale. Tuttavia, se i siti delle PA rispettassero almeno i controlli verificabili automaticamente, il web sarebbe sicuramente una realtà migliore. Per tutti.

Condividere per fare cultura

2009-04-30T22:52:36Z

Flavia Marzano e Simone Martelli stanno organizzando un barcamp molto interessante riguardante la condivisione del sapere e della conoscenza, dal titolo "Condividere X (fare) Cultura".
]]> Dopo il PostgreSQL Day Italiano 2007 e il PostgreSQL Day Europeo 2008, Prato si ripropone nel contesto italiano come una città attiva sul lato community di software libero e open-source.
Nei prossimi giorni avremo sicuramente maggiori informazioni.

Nasce Gamera, finalmente!

2009-02-22T21:21:22Z

E' con estremo piacere che rendo noto che la mia ultima creatura è nata. E' stato uno sforzo di gruppo con tutto il mio team di Devise.IT, ma alla fine ce l'abbiamo fatta. E' nato Gamera, uno strumento professionale per il controllo e il monitoraggio di siti Internet.

]]>

Si chiama Gamera Web Evaluation Tool (WET) ed è uno strumento che - nelle nostre speranze - aiuterà a migliorare il web in Italia e, soprattutto, a promuovere la cultura di un web per tutti agli addetti ai lavori e i committenti di siti web.Il motto di Gamera è infatti "Everybody's Internet", ovvero la "Internet di tutti".

Inizialmente Gamera nasce come strumento automatico per la valutazione dell'accessibilità dei siti web (legge Stanca per la Pubblica amministrazione, linee guida del W3C per l'accessibilità dei contenuti, ecc.), anche se è in grado di scoprire informazioni interessantissime anche in termini di qualità e di SEO.

Come può essere utile? Gamera può aiutare sia sul lato tecnico - è in grado di individuare problemi sui documenti HTML appartenenti ai siti analizzati - che sul lato manageriale di una azienda o di una pubblica amministrazione che utilizza il web come veicolo principale di informazioni e servizi.

Come mai è nato? Innanzitutto la nostra esperienza nella gestione di siti web di grandi dimensioni ci ha portato alla conclusione che uno strumento che aiutasse nel controllo e nel monitoring dei siti web fosse necessario. Spesso infatti assistiamo a dei veri e propri scempi sui siti web di aziende, organizzazione e/o enti - anche di primo livello. Non solo in fase di progettazione e di primo rilascio di un sito o di un CMS, ma anche in fasi successive (un CMS infatti non rimuove totalmente i problemi di qualità e accessibilità di un sito web). Con Gamera, ogni piccolo problema viene portato all'attenzione di chi di dovere.

Una curiosità: il nome deriva da Gamera, la tartaruga gigante che era solita difendere la terra da mostri come Godzilla & co.