Who is everyone?

On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Bruce Momjian wrote:

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

I am 36, and live with my wife of eight years and two boys in a house
just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My boys are 5 and 2 1/2. I
am a consultant who programs custom reports and applications for law
firms around the country. My boss and other seven other employees work
in an office 10 minutes from here, but I work from my house almost all
the time. Perhaps twice a month, I go downtown to Philadelphia to work
for the day at the law firms. I have done this same work for the past
eight years. I have a BSDI Unix machine in my basement, and dumb
terminals on the first and second floors. My office is in the basement.

Can others tell us about themselves?

I am 29, and live alone in a two bedroom apartment in Wolfville, Nova
Scotia, Canada. I work as Systems Administrator at Acadia University for
the "steady paycheck", and do contract programming and web hosting for the
"real money".

I run FreeBSD sitting in front of my TV so that I don't have to miss any
of the good shows (what few are left), and have 220watt speakers hanging
off of it as my "stereo system" so that I have good sound.

Marc G. Fournier
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org

I've just joined and haven't yet done much development, but I hope to
soon! I'm 19 and I work as a programmer and system administrator at
the Speakeasy Cafe (internet cafe) in Seattle. I developed our
accounting system for keeping track of our members (we're an ISP,
essentially), which uses PostgreSQL. As an aside, I just upgraded to
6.2.1 but we had to revert to 1.09 (which has been very stable for
months) due to backend core dumping problems. I didn't report them
because 6.3 was being worked on, but at the same time, my boss doesn't
think it is a good idea to go to 6.3beta for our production system,
especially since we can't compile it on our Alpha (waste of hardware,
yada yada). This is all totally irrelevant to who I am, but I figured
you guys would appreciate knowing all the same.

And I'm a high school dropout who's been using computers since 1st
grade. I'm currently going to community college with plans of
attending a university at some point (which is where cool things like
postgresql get developed). I hope to become actively involved in the
free software community and refine my programming skills.

And, I must say, you guys rock. You've done a great amount of
wonderful work on PostgreSQL, and you deserve recognition (and a whole
lot more).

On Thu, 19 February 1998, at 22:47:20, Bruce Momjian wrote:

I have been working with many of you for over a year, and would like to
know more details about you.

I'm 40 (yuck) and live with my wife and two cats near Pasadena, California.
We have five horses; my wife does show jumping and I do some trail riding
and some polo. Used to do a lot of backpacking, cross-country skiing,
whitewater rafting and kayaking, but as we've accumulated horses we spend
most of our time on them nowadays. As you might guess, we don't have
children.

I went to school at Occidental College and Caltech, working part time at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory until out of school, and full time ever
since. My background is in astronomy, and I've worked on VLBI (radio
interferometric) systems in the distant past. More recently, I designed and
built a world-wide network of GPS ground tracking stations, collecting data
back to JPL for distribution to the international geodetic community. We
also used the network for some earth-orbiting spacecraft tracking. Just
changed jobs within JPL to work on optical interferometers, hopefully
leading toward flying one in space to look for planets around other stars.

Oh, and I spend _way_ too much time working on Postgres :)

- Tom

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

I'm 32 married with 3 children. My girl is 4 (Michelle), and my sons
(Michael-Alan and Daniel), are 3, and 1.
We live in the Netherlands.

I sell myself as a consultant usually to banks.
I have experience building a keymanagment system, internet payment system,
encrypted TCP tunnels, userauthentication systems based on smartcards
and other applications in cryptography (SSL, SET, IKP).
I run a _small_ ISP which helps me to learn new things like postgresql and
other stuff like TCP/IP networking in general..

I also works as a C/C++ trainer (since 1992 about) and I'm now completing
my first Java course with a group of about 10 poeple.

I used to be a real OS/2 / Windows fan but since I discovered Linux in 1995
I'm
all for UNIX. (I have the privilige to be able to work with 4 Unix
variants).
I now only use W95/NT when I'm there is some reason to.

My personal interest is in Chomsky phrase structure grammars, and as such
I hope to find time to find out more about the rewriting system in
postgresql.
I'm wondering if it's a grammar based term rewriting system.

My ideal system combines a distributed OO database with object interaction
defined by some formal rewriting system (I like dreaming).

Anyway I have a hole lot to learn about the postgresql system.
I like the neat coding style and the modular organisation
of the system. All we have to do now is to make it the best (and fastest)
database
in the world -:).

Thanks,
Maurice

On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Bruce Momjian wrote:

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

I am 26, and still live with my parents in Madrid. I work at the
university, in a telecommunications school (the same where I have
studied). I am a systems administrator, network administrator,
programmer, consultant, and almost anything you can think of. I also work
(sometimes) doing systems administration and programming out of the
university. My home computer has Windows 95, NT and FreeBSD installed, and
I really really *HATE* Micro$oft :-). At the university, I administer a
Digital Unix machine and a Windows NT network (it sucks).

I use PostgreSQL for a database that contains all the information about
our students. Currently, I am programming an account management system to
keep accounts in sync in Digital Unix and NT. The system contains a daemon
in DU, a service in NT and a front-end written in Java, and it uses
PostgreSQL to store the account data.

My contributions to PostgreSQL have been very small (just a few patches to
get a clean compile in DU), but it's better than nothing :-) I'd like go
get more involved when time permits. Anyway, the PostgreSQL team is doing
a *great* job. We have already a great DBMS, and it is getting better day
by day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pedro José Lobo Perea Tel: +34 1 336 78 19
Centro de Cálculo Fax: +34 1 331 92 29
EUIT Telecomunicación - UPM e-mail: pjlobo@euitt.upm.es

I have been working with many of you for over a year, and would like to
know more details about you.

Well, I am 47 and have been playing with computers for years. I own
a company that does contract software as well as running an ISP.
I wrote my first program in Fortran IV in 1969 and have been published
in a book on C programming. I ride a motorcycle for fun and I play
guitar. My wife and I are foster parents for cats.

More on my web page if you are interested.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@{druid|vex}.net>   |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
+1 416 424 2871     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

I'm 33 and live with my wife and two boys aged 8 and 9 in
Hamburg, Germany. In april our house will get finished and
we'll live then in Harsefeld (small town of about 17000
people 50km from Hamburg). I like beer, scotch and any hot
and spicy meal. I'm driving Vespa and when the damn
hack/compile/regress/hack cycle never seems to end I play
some backgammon matches on FIBS.com (telnet on port 4321).

I work for 8 years now as an SAP base consultant, programmer
and administrator.

I'm using and hacking on Postgres since the good old version
4.2 days. That was the last UCB release prior to Postgres95
with the good old postquel query language where many of the
newbe-confusing terms like tuples, attributes, append and
retrieve come from. I still have such a dino running :-).

Until later, Jan

--

#======================================================================#
# It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. #
# Let's break this rule - forgive me. #
#======================================== jwieck@debis.com (Jan Wieck) #

Oh, and I spend _way_ too much time working on Postgres :)

Many of us fit into that category. Problem is, PostgreSQL is way more
interesting than my day job. Not that my day work is boring, but
PostgreSQL is very interesting for me. I am learning so much, almost
like a Comp Sci masters degree.

--
Bruce Momjian
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

Ok,

I haven't contributed to Postgres much, but here goes.

I'm 26, live with my mom and little brother in the Netherlands.
And ehm... I'm still single <grmph!>.

About 12 years ago I started programming on a TRS-80, after that
I bought me a MSX (the M from Micros*ft, little did I know...).
Then, in 1989, I did informatics and got familiar with Unix
and Internet. The next thing I did, was installing a Unix-clone
(MiNT OS + GNU software) on my Atari-ST, which I had then. I graduated
in 1995 and started working at the university hospital in Rotterdam.

After 1-2 years I managed to convince the people at my department to
go completely freeware. We run an archiving system for patient studies
(images from gamma camera's), which is built on a Linux PC that runs
Postgres. PHP/FI is used to access Postgres' data from a
WWW-browser. Apache is used as WWW-server. The browser is usually
Netscape. We also experiment with Java, using JDK from Sun and Peter Mount's
JDBC driver. Using a callback facility doctors can view images at home,
in case of an emergency/urgent call. I wrote the PHP/FI-scripts, the Java
program's and the C-program's to access the database, to update it
automatically, to convert proprierty format images to, for example, GIF,
to adjust the colors, contrast etc...

Other hobby's I have, besides computers, are electronics, making music
with MIDI, riding a bicycle, but best of all: just doing nothing (besides
listening to music) on a sunny day... It's just that I haven't much spare
time left to do so. And of course you need to have good weather...

Cheers,
Ronald

I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

...

Can others tell us about themselves?

Great idea, Bruce. Best thread in the last two weeks.

I'm 29, single, and live in Bel Air, Maryland (only a touch over an hour
from you Bruce...we have to do lunch someday. :) Have a math degree from
Illinois, working on a masters from Johns Hopkins. Weekdays, I work at
Insight Distribution Systems as a programmer writing software for beverage
distributors. Hobbies include traveling to professional dart tournaments
and riding my motorcycle at twice the legal speed limit. To relax, I
collect baseball cards, fold origami, work out at the local Gold's Gym,
and play any musical instrument I can find...

Somewhere in there I try to keep the aix port alive and kicking.

Darren King

I have been working with many of you for over a year, and would like to
know more details about you.

I am currently 27, to be honest 28 tomorrow. I studied Business Informatics
at the TU Wien,
after a technically oriented high school. I work for an IT Company for
banks, actually "the" IT in Austria
soon called IT Austria (we are supposed to be proud to be one of the biggest
in Europe).
I am the System Expert for Informix and recently also Oracle on UNIX and NT
Platforms here.
We run ~1 Terra byte of Informix DB's here for SAP, Datawarehousing, Image
Scanning with OCR and the like.
I (well actually my wife Maria) am expecting my first child in September,
and looking forward to it.
We live 1/2 h south of Vienna, Austria. I also lived in New Canaan,
Connecticut for 2 years when I was 14.
I am writing a diploma paper on "Integration of Neural Nets into the
PostgreSQL Database System".
Actually the program "quelnns" can already learn from a select statement,
and then give answers
to input that is not in the training select. My biggest problem now is to
return the answer as a tuple from
a C function, right now I return text. The software uses postgresql, pvm3
and SNNS.
I like skiing, hiking, horses, swimming and travelling around the world
(or should I already say I liked the recent?).

Yours sincerely
Andreas

Hi:

I'm D. Jay Newman (the "D." is silent) :).

I'm 40, I earn money as a Research Programmer for Penn State, and
thow money away by running Sprucegrove Internet Marketing, Inc.
(a general web/net consulting firm).

My wife and I live in State College, PA, USA, with two dogs (Chaos and
Amber), and a parrot (Random).

I use PostgreSQL for as much of my Penn State work as possible (I'm
working on a communications package <http://projects.cac.psu.edu/ct/&gt; called
CourseTalk; this package uses PostgreSQL to store all of the information,
which makes my life easier.

I'm also working on a (very different) communications package for
Sprucegrove, which is designed for interactive fiction/gaming.

I'm also trying to be an author of technical books. We'll see how that
goes.
--
D. Jay Newman ! For the pleasure and the profit it derives
jay@sprucegrove.com ! I arrange things, like furniture, and
http://www.sprucegrove.com/~jay/ ! daffodils, and ...lives. -- Hello Dolly

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I have been working with many of you for over a hear, and would like to
know more details about you.

Well, unlike most of the others who have responded, I haven't
done a blessed thing for the project. At least, not yet. I'm
hoping that will change, hence my introduction now.

I'm currently a programmer/SysAdmin/webmaster/release
engineer/etc/etc/etc "on consignment" on Ford Motor Company, just
outside of Detroit, Michigan. Our project involves "webifying"
some of Ford's CAE tools, specifically the simulation of the
stamping of body parts. I do some of the programming, and most
of the admin work on our IBM RS/6000's and Sun Ultra 30's

My use of PostgreSQL has been limited to a couple of small "in
house" projects at the company who actually employs me, MIKA
Systems, plus a project or two I'm doing on my own, on DEC Alpha
and Ultrix boxes, and a PC running Linux.

On the personal side, I'm 37, married, with one child, a
daughter, who's 8 years old. In my free time, I work at training
my dogs (collies) for obedience competitions. (We're just
starting out, so we haven't earned any titles yet.) Also, from
my .sig, you may be able to deduce that I'm a fan of Monty
Python.

- --
Dwayne Bailey + WHAT is your name? Sir Galahad
MIKA Systems, Bingham Farms, MI + WHAT is your quest? I Seek the Holy Grail
dwayne@mika.com + What is your favorite color?
http://www.mika.com/~dwayne + Blue ... no, Yelloooooooooooooooooow
finger dwayne@mika20.mika.com for PGP Public Key

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On the personal side, I'm 37, married, with one child, a
daughter, who's 8 years old. In my free time, I work at training
my dogs (collies) for obedience competitions. (We're just
starting out, so we haven't earned any titles yet.) Also, from
my .sig, you may be able to deduce that I'm a fan of Monty
Python.

I am noticing a lot of animal lovers in the group.

--
Bruce Momjian
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us

On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Bruce Momjian wrote:

On the personal side, I'm 37, married, with one child, a
daughter, who's 8 years old. In my free time, I work at training
my dogs (collies) for obedience competitions. (We're just
starting out, so we haven't earned any titles yet.) Also, from
my .sig, you may be able to deduce that I'm a fan of Monty
Python.

I am noticing a lot of animal lovers in the group.

We have to get our affections somewhere, since SO's don't handle
our long hours very well? :)

Hi, Although I do not contribute to code writting, im there in spirte.
I am a jack of all trades. I have done Unix Admin and DBA consulting before
I joined my current employer. I currently am working for a company that
does work for the NFL. So my interests in postgres are for a fanasty football
database, amongst other things. I have been working on/in/with Linux since
Dec 93, and Postgress for about a year and a half now. Keep up the good work
guys. I am currently trying to start a DBA consulting company, based on
my Oracle, DB2, Postgres, and Msql expertise. Oh ya, Im married and I have
one son(Andrew 2yrs old) and a little girl is on the way. My son, also likes
linux( especially xfishtank)!!!

j.heil
--
Joseph A. Heil, Jr.

SuperStat, Inc. email: heilja@superstat.com
7500 Market Place Drive voice: 612-943-8400
Eden Prairie, MN 55344 fax: 612-943-8300

Key fingerprint = 95 FC 3A F4 8A 10 05 85 3F 53 01 86 AD DB DB 51

Bruce Momjian wrote:

I am noticing a lot of animal lovers in the group.

Yes, and I suppose I'm another one.

I'm 46 with a dog, three cats, a wife and five children, and we live
here on the Isle of Wight (Britain) and have done since 1996. The
children range from 20 down to 13, and only three are now at home all
the time. My prime leisure activity (apart from computers...) is singing,
mainly in church.

I started my working life as an accountant, but then, as the ad says,
I discovered computers. For a number of years I worked with the PICK
database and one of its Unix copies, UniVerse. Now I'm doing sufficient
consultancy to keep all the menagerie fed and housed, and doing my best
to promote Open Source software (note the new advertisement-speak for
free software!).

I maintain the PostgreSQL package for Debian GNU/Linux, but haven't
really found my way into the real meat of the source code yet. I am
just starting the design of a system for a pharmaceutical supplies
manufacturer, to replace his existing UniVerse-based one.

--
Oliver Elphick Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver

PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1

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Then Bruce Momjian wrote:

I am noticing a lot of animal lovers in the group.

I guess I'm sorta one, too (I'm just too allergic to actually keep
them at my own house).

I'm a 31 year old father of two (a third is due 29Mar). I recently
finished my BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie
Mellon University, located in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. As it happens,
I've been a full-time employee here for the last five years, doing
system administration. Currently, I'm riding herd on a coupld of
HP9000s, a Sequent, two DG AViiONs, a VAXcluster, and an SP/2. My
only real project in PostgreSQL was actually written against 4.2 in
QUEL (a helpdesk app that is still listed on the PostgreSQL home page
in spite of the fact that it hasn't been updated to keep it even
functional. NOTE TO MYSELF: do something about that!). I ride horse,
and watch fish. Since the allergies started, I've had to stop playing
with the dogs and cats.

- --

=====================================================================
| "If you're all through trying to burn the field down, will you |
| kindly get up and tell me why you're sitting in a fruit field, |
| stark naked, frying peaches?" |
=====================================================================
| Finger geek@andrew.cmu.edu for my public key. |
=====================================================================

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I wasn't going to join this thread, until Bruce wrote:

I am noticing a lot of animal lovers in the group.

I've noticed that as well, with pleasure. My wife and I have six cats
living with us (and a seventh sort of living in our yard, being an old
homeless stray). Might a fondness for animals be another trait shared
by computer oriented people?

-tih
--
Popularity is the hallmark of mediocrity. --Niles Crane, "Frasier"