[Courses] [Postgresql] Assignment Week 1, Introductions

[maiki]

I am maiki. I design and develop web sites and applications for lots of 
folks, but my favorite projects are for non-profit organizations and 
friends. I am concerned about technology education, copyright, privacy, 
and culture, all of which make it into nearly everything I do. I also 
study child development, because everything starts there.

I am using this opportunity to learn more about databases in general. I 
use MySQL frequently, but I have thus far been able to dodge actually 
learning much about it. I want to understand the tech underneath, and I 
think Postgres is pretty nifty.

My main weakness is never turning off my brain, so I can think of 
projects covering all kinds of things, but I don't have anything in mind 
coming into this. I figure I would latch on to someone else's project =) 
. I am currently setting up a couple of large sites for fun (and one to 
make ends meet). If I were to think about it, I think I would like to a 
database-driven webapp to compare hardware profiles. My thinking is that 
one could create a standardized XML document type to hold hardware and 
software information, and then they could upload it to a central place 
to compare compatibility between components with everyone else. So, if 
you wanted to buy a new harddrive or something, you upload your 
computer's stats and it searches for problems. Also, this could be used 
in support cases, where one could link to their computer's profile in a 
manufacturer's support forums, for instance.

I think PG would be good for this because the data gets more interesting 
and useful the more there is, and we get some very old hardware, so it 
would have to last, and I have heard that is something it is good at, 
very large datasets.

I have no idea what that means. ^_^

I have used Moodle before, and have created a course on blogging for 
beginners, so please feel free to ask any questions about either of 
those things. I am very grateful that this is being offered, since it is 
exactly what I wanted to know about, and I look forward to discussing 
stuff with ya'll.

maiki
http://interi.org