ptop – the talk

ptop slide1

Check out the slides from my ptop talk. I was very happy with the end result of the presentation. I had a few people talk to me about the project afterward, including the author of innotop, a perl-based monitoring tool for MySQL. I’m sure we can steal some ideas from that project!

I haven’t gotten much done with ptop since I’ve been back. I’ll have some time after LUG Radio Live!

twittering on 2008-04-04

  • about to go do some #drunkgeeking over at the pyramid brewery in industrial nw. #
  • /me looks around for a #drunkgeeking bat-sign in the sky. #
  • why is having more women in tech so controversial? http://snurl.com/23gsj seriously, i’m asking. #
  • @metafluence upgrade twirl – latest version is 0.7.5 #
  • @garethgreenaway which comments? 🙂 #
  • @br3nda they have special scholarships for male nurses in oregon 🙂 our bike tech guy is currently in school to become one. #
  • hey @skud — we’ll be meeting at OSCON if all goes as planned 🙂 #
  • @gorthx oh yes. it totally rocks. #
  • just cancelled one of five speaking engagements this month. breathing a sigh of relief. #
  • @theory: /etc/httpd, /var/log/httpd, /Library/WebServer/domainname.tldn #
  • @muckp ooh.. sounds good. more info http://tinyurl.com/5ua8ud #
  • @coatesp: way to burn your bridges, sassypants! 😉 #

twittering on 2008-04-03

  • headed home. #
  • @linuxpoet AWESOME! thank you 🙂 #
  • did gretchen layman get married? #
  • @theory xo #
  • @theory bummer!! you can’t bring anna? 🙂 #
  • @theory oh. bummer. #
  • @petdance i am not seeing any. seems rather odd, if you ask me! #
  • @petdance there’s tons of PHP – i know a few drupal people will be there. i’m hoping for a drupal hackathon in the oscamp-replacement (free) #
  • hrm. probably gonna stay home and not going to pdxwi. i’m sure drupal will not go undefended. #
  • @xolotl sorry, man! i blame the postgresql conference. #
  • @turoczy thanks for the link love 🙂 #
  • @karolcooks i think he’s going to just freestyle it this time. but he may use elements of "eas on" in the final production 🙂 #
  • @turoczy you’ve got a great idea. don’t let the haters get you down. #
  • did everyone else know about PDFLab except for me? http://www.iconus.ch/fabien/pdflab/ #
  • whew. i’ve been wanting a nice pdf-mangler/-merger for a while. PDFLab rules. #
  • @mtrichardson what was @codingparadox’s suggestion for EVDO? #
  • it’s like twirl just became blind and deaf. #
  • giggling that @TiEsQue said that he is not a feminist. #

twittering on 2008-04-02

  • liking this comment from andrew dunstan about "view from the other side of the fence" – http://snurl.com/237wn – re: pgsql/mysql blowhards #
  • @br3nda oh, i’m sure that i have. i tend to assume that most people are not techie though, and i ask questions about tech to find out. #
  • @peat chicken tractors rule! my hubbie built me one for xmas a couple years ago 🙂 #
  • @garethgreenaway i have been laughing all day at the response emails 🙂 #
  • @garethgreenaway and i have to confess, i read it *three* times before I thought – "oh right. april fools." good one! #
  • feeling good about a connection about to happen between some folks working on a project related to @mattking’s #startupalooza presentation #
  • @zrusilla 🙁 sorry to hear that. #
  • hi @joshmcadams! you haven’t moved to pdx yet 🙂 #
  • @lelonopo my score was 92 🙁 #
  • no meetings today. awesome. #
  • @stevelle i’ll be at pdxwi tonight if you wanna talk about agile as DoS 🙂 #
  • @johnmark um, that’s a big "me too" #
  • @linuxpoet welcome back! #
  • @linuxpoet what, no hello? here’s the group picture from the postgresql conference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/selenamarie/2382172535/ #
  • gonna have lunch with @samkeen. eSan NW! #
  • @zrusilla YES. i need a nap #
  • @stevelle w00t! put ’em in touch. next meeting is all about project mgmt and coworker communication. #
  • @garethgreenaway it was so awesome! great speakers, great people, tons of interest in new PUGs. the postgresql community is amazing. #

twittering on 2008-04-02

  • liking this comment from andrew dunstan about "view from the other side of the fence" – http://snurl.com/237wn – re: pgsql/mysql blowhards #
  • @br3nda oh, i’m sure that i have. i tend to assume that most people are not techie though, and i ask questions about tech to find out. #
  • @peat chicken tractors rule! my hubbie built me one for xmas a couple years ago 🙂 #
  • @garethgreenaway i have been laughing all day at the response emails 🙂 #
  • @garethgreenaway and i have to confess, i read it *three* times before I thought – "oh right. april fools." good one! #
  • feeling good about a connection about to happen between some folks working on a project related to @mattking’s #startupalooza presentation #
  • @zrusilla 🙁 sorry to hear that. #
  • hi @joshmcadams! you haven’t moved to pdx yet 🙂 #
  • @lelonopo my score was 92 🙁 #
  • no meetings today. awesome. #
  • @stevelle i’ll be at pdxwi tonight if you wanna talk about agile as DoS 🙂 #
  • @johnmark um, that’s a big "me too" #
  • @linuxpoet welcome back! #
  • @linuxpoet what, no hello? here’s the group picture from the postgresql conference: http://www.flickr.com/photos/selenamarie/2382172535/ #
  • gonna have lunch with @samkeen. eSan NW! #
  • @zrusilla YES. i need a nap #
  • @stevelle w00t! put ’em in touch. next meeting is all about project mgmt and coworker communication. #
  • @garethgreenaway it was so awesome! great speakers, great people, tons of interest in new PUGs. the postgresql community is amazing. #

Women Who Code – where are they?

[ I was working on a blog post about the Women In Open Source roundtable I ran, and then Brenda Wallace tweeted: “it seems reasonably easy 2 get women involved in opensource documentation, ui design, and even management. Why is it hard 2 get women coding?” Here’s my longer response, mostly with ideas I got from the roundtable. ]

I ran a panel discussion about Women in Open Source at the PostgreSQL Conference East (last weekend). I talked about all the conference events that I’d seen in the last 1-2 years specific to women, and a pair of researchers talked about communication patterns among women on the KDE women’s list. Then we had a 2 hour discussion with the 10 people in attendance.

Three issues that stuck with me from the discussion were:

Continue reading

twittering on 2008-04-01

  • Back in pdx. #
  • @samkeen wow. USB pregnancy test kit? http://snurl.com/235rl #
  • @radiogretchen and @karolcooks i have a present for you two from obama! #
  • @samkeen but only $29.99! #
  • @radiogretchen i made a little flip book of photos. we must arrange a dropoff! #
  • i met the coolest science teacher on the plane back to pdx yesterday. http://www.mrmikescience.com anyone know of a K-8 science opening? #
  • @andeezy he’s moving to Oregon from Florida-wants to ride his bike more. i don’t think he’ll have a problem, but doesn’t hurt to ask around #
  • postgresql community needs to be more disruptive! woo, thanks, theo. http://snurl.com/2366t #
  • synapses firing on overdrive. i <3 postgresql conferences. #
  • @sharong thank you!! #
  • @thesethings tons of PC laptops. i think the ubuntu laptops won wrt proper interfacing to the projectors 🙂 #
  • my response to Theo’s "disruptive postgresql community" comment – http://snurl.com/236ul #
  • @br3nda i think we need more mentors and community that specifically recruits women. #
  • @jchris using linux as your host? #
  • @br3nda and we need to provide incentives that work for the mentors — should be men and women mentoring because all the women i know are… #
  • @br3nda …WAY over-subscribed. #

PostgreSQL Conference – Keynote commentary

Theo Schlossnagle wrote a great blog post about Joshua Drake’s keynote. I wanted to respond to some of his comments here.

I totally agree with Theo that we need to be disruptive! One criticism I have had in the past of the PostgreSQL community is that it has been too centralized, and not willing to experiment with social networking, wikis and other non-hierarchical tools that will get more *end* *users* actively contributing.

I think all of that is changing with the creation of the PostgreSQL-EU and USPgA groups, and the fast uptake in PostgreSQL User Groups in the last few months.

Also, I also respectfully disagree with some comments that were made in other sessions about “us not wanting” the type of users that choose MySQL. *I* want those users to come to my user group meetings. There’s tons we can learn from each other.

We will make PostgreSQL better if we hear and respond directly to criticism from users of the most popular open source database. I’m not saying that Tom Lane and Bruce Momjian need to do that. PUGs should be doing this, filtering out the good/important stuff and communicating information back to -hackers and -core. That’s a great service the user groups can provide to postgresql.org.

Finally, I am so excited about a Baltimore/Washington PUG!! I had several people approach me about a group. I think even the MySQL guy will be interested. 🙂