[Courses] [Postgresql] What is PostgreSQL?

[Claudine Chionh]

On Nov 20, 2007 1:26 PM, Michelle M <michelle at murrain.net> wrote:
> - Give us a brief intro to yourself, and why you are taking this course

Claudine from Melbourne, Australia. I've been a member of Linuxchix
for a few years but have recently started drinking the Mac Kool-Aid
again. However, Postgres is cross-platform so that shouldn't be a
problem here.

I work for an epidemiology/biostatistics research unit, helping
medical researchers manage their data. Most of this is done with
proprietary Windows-based database and statistical software. I think I
have a very basic grasp of general SQL concepts, but I don't have much
opportunity to use it at work. I also know a little Perl.

> - If you haven't already, think of a concrete project you'd like to use
> PG with.

Books! :-) I have accounts on the following web services:
- Librarything, a "social" catalogue of some of the books I own
- Bookmooch, a book-swapping system
- Bookcrossing, a random book releasing and tracking system

I'd like to develop a generic book-tracking database that includes
books that I own (and either have or have not read), books that I want
to read (and/or own), books that I've borrowed, lent, given away or
released in the wild, and I'm sure there are other possibilities. So
there will be a few different tables in the database, one for books,
perhaps one for authors, and other tables for ownership status,
read/unread status, and maybe links to the online services. (So I
could say, e.g., I read this book last year and left a copy on a park
bench in Melbourne. This part could be too ambitious, though.)

-- 
Claudine Chionh
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia