FOSDEM 2023 - Don't Do this

Last Sunday, I gave a talk at FOSDEM 2023 in Brussels in the packed PostgreSQL Devroom. It was great to be back at ULB after 2 years! Community conferences have just got this amazing DIY ethic and laid-back attitude, yet somehow end up being as good as or even better than industry conferences, with a very high level of talks and professionalism.

The talk, titled "Don't Do This" was based on the legendary "Don't Do This" PostgreSQL wiki page. We explored some of the common pitfalls and misconceptions that Postgres users can face - and showed possible ways to undo them or workarounds.

Some of the things discussed:

  • Bad SQL habits
  • Correct types for data storage
  • (Sub-)Partitioning (and how to get it wrong)
  • Table inheritance (and how to undo it)
  • Connections (number of, and properly handling)
  • Security issues (unsafe configurations and usage)

Video on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=vxuPW4Ottrk

Link to talk slides: vyruss.org/computing/slides/fosdem2023_dont_do_this.pdf

Many thanks to Boriss Mejías (tchorix) for his awesome hosting, and Karen Jex (karenhjex) for immediately jumping in to help when my laptop battery hilariously died near the end!

On stage at the PostgreSQL Devroom Awesome pic by Claire Giordano