As a serial corporate Oracle user, I am intrigued by the cost savings that something like EnterpriseDB promises. I am not married to Oracle, but it's very good at what it does, so I'm reluctant to move from it unless there's a damn good reason. My manager hat tells me that long-term cost savings and straightforward licensing are two good reasons to start looking at EnterpriseDB. My sysadmin hat tells me it'll be fun to put their Oracle migration tools through the ringer and actually be running Postgres behind the scenes.

Heard from a friend last week:

...and I know you've got other talents, like sticking Perl in places where
it shouldn't be.

Apparently extproc_perl has only strengthened my reputation as a mad scientist. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get to work on my latest creation, a four-assed server. :)

Starting in 2007, Daylight Saving Time in the US starts a few weeks earlier and ends a few weeks later than it previously has. Are your Linux boxes ready? Instead of checking the latest patches, here's a much quicker test:

$ zdump -v EST5EDT | grep 2007
EST5EDT Sun Mar 11 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
EST5EDT Sun Mar 11 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
EST5EDT Sun Nov 4 05:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:59:59 2007 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
EST5EDT Sun Nov 4 06:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov 4 01:00:00 2007 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000


If the the transition between isdst=0 and isdst=1 doesn't happen on March 11, you need to get the latest timezone data from your distribution!

NOTE: zdump can be found in /usr/bin or /usr/sbin, depending on your distribution.

I found this in the depths of my new Panasonic plasma TV's menus.