Watch Ashutosh Bapat’s talk from #PosetteConf 2025 “Logical replication theory and concepts" 
#databases
2 posts1 participant0 posts today
Why normalize databases?
Yesterday, my tutoring student asked me why databases need to be normalized at all. She said: “Wouldn’t it be easier to just have one big table with all the information?”
It’s a common first question when learning about relational databases.
At first, one big table (e.g. customer name, order date, product name, price) seems easiest.
I told her:
Because that quickly leads to data redundancy, anomalies, and integrity issues when inserting, updating, or deleting records. Normalization means structuring data into separate, related tables, so that each fact is stored only once. This reduces redundancy & preserves consistency.
'This paper introduces the LEGO® Database, a large natural dataset that can be used to teach Structured Query Language (SQL) and relational database concepts.'
eric.ed.govERIC - EJ1468081 - Using LEGO® Brick Data to Teach SQL and Relational Database Concepts, Information Systems Education Journal, 2025This paper introduces the LEGO® Database, a large natural dataset that can be used to teach Structured Query Language (SQL) and relational database concepts. This dataset is well-suited for introductory and advanced database assignments and end-of-semester group projects. The data is freely available from Kaggle.com and contains eight tables with 633,250 rows of data on 11,673 LEGO® sets sold between 1950 and 2017. As a guiding example, I introduce an example group project assignment designed to provide students hands-on experience with database management and SQL queries. I also discuss tips, suggestions, and lessons learned from using the data for group projects over the past five years. While LEGO® bricks have been widely used in educational settings, including college and computer classrooms, this is the first work to discuss the use of LEGO® data in a college database course.
Oho! Here is a new in-depth p2panda blog post!
https://p2panda.org/2025/07/09/streams-transactions-crash-resilience.html
This one is about the strategies and design ideas we’re exploring to make p2p applications resilient to critical failures, for both system- and application layers.
Deterministic Simulation Testing in Rust: A Theater Of State Machines https://lobste.rs/s/rvmew5 #databases #distributed #rust #testing
https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/07/08/dst-rust
lobste.rsDeterministic Simulation Testing in Rust: A Theater Of State Machines | Lobsters
Testing MongoDB in Node With the MongoDB Memory Server, by @appsignal.com:
https://blog.appsignal.com/2025/06/18/testing-mongodb-in-node-with-the-mongodb-memory-server.html
blog.appsignal.com · Testing MongoDB in Node with the MongoDB Memory Server | AppSignal BlogIn this post, we'll test a Node-MongoDB app using MongoDB Memory Server.
Did you miss #PosetteConf 2025? Not to worry. Videos of all 42 #PostgreSQL talks are available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. 
Watch now: https://aka.ms/posette-playlist
Postgres Is Too Good (and Why That’s Actually a Problem), by (not on Mastodon or Bluesky):
https://dev.to/shayy/postgres-is-too-good-and-why-thats-actually-a-problem-4imc
DEV CommunityPostgres is Too Good (And Why That's Actually a Problem)We need to talk about something that's been bothering me for months. I've been watching indie hackers...
Field and farm-level data on agricultural land use for the European Union
Data collection Collecting IACS data is tedious due to the varying levels of data accessibility among EU member…
#Europe #agriculture #Databases #geography #HumanitiesandSocialSciences #multidisciplinary #science
https://www.europesays.com/2179344/
Handling PostgreSQL Migrations in Node.js, by @Hariboas (@bitexpert):
https://blog.bitexpert.de/blog/migrations-with-node-pg-migrate
blog.bitexpert.de · Handling PostgreSQL Migrations in Node.js | bitExpertLearn how to seamlessly manage existing databases, unlock powerful hidden features, and sidestep common migration mistakes with our expert guide to leveraging node-pg-migrate in your Node.js projects.
My homelab got it's final touches. I finally removed #Nextcloud and switched completely to #Stalwart, i added automatic #database backups using #cronjobs for all my #databases, i've set up most of my publicly exposed services to run behind the #cloudflare #proxy, improved the directory structure for my #docker #containers, and finally set up pihole as the #dns server on my router. This feels so good.
Do you know #PosetteConf speaker Philippe Noël's favorite icebreaker at #Postgres events? Spoiler--he doesn't have one! 
But he shares more fun facts at: https://posetteconf.com/speakers/philippe-noel/#interview
POSETTESpeaker: Philippe Noël | POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025Philippe Noël, Co-founder, CEO @ ParadeDB, is a speaker for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025. Philippe’s talk is titled “Elasticsearch-Quality Full-Text Search in Postgres via Tantivy”.
Been using Airtable for a long time now, so I thought I'd finally make it official (again): I'm Airtable certified.
I love working with relational databases. For some reason, they've always "clicked" in my brain. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bring me some Airtable projects and let's make your database/app/interface come to life 
Database Internals Explained: The Invisible Engine Behind Every App You Use, by @rakiabensassi:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (#NOAA) has laid down its "snow and ice data products [#datasets, #databases] from the Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics Science Division (#COGS)."
https://nsidc.org/data/user-resources/data-announcements/user-notice-level-service-update-data-products
nsidc.orgUser notice: Level of Service Update for Data Products | National Snow and Ice Data CenterEffective May 5, 2025, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) will decommission its snow and ice data products from the Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics Science Division (COGS).
"Several volunteers and partners of the Data Rescue Project (DRP) have been working tirelessly for the last few weeks to back up the ERIC catalog and full-text PDFs."
#libraries #databases #research
https://www.datarescueproject.org/erica-to-the-rescue/
Data Rescue Project · ERICA to the Rescue!ERIC, the research repository of the Department of Education, was defunded this week. The ERIC catalog lists over 2 million education-related publications. More than 500,000 of these publications are directly hosted by ERIC as full-text PDFs. If the ERIC website goes offline, most of these 500,000 Open Access
What's new with Postgres at Microsoft? The 2025 edition of our annual blog post is now live.
Over the past year, the team at Microsoft who work on Postgres has contributed across multiple fronts:
New features in Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server
Code contributions to Postgres 18 (including async I/O!)
Open source work on the Citus extension
Contributions to the Postgres open source community—things like @posetteconf, helping make @pgconfdev happen, the Talking Postgres #podcast, and sponsoring #PostgreSQL conferences around the globe
This year's blog post includes a hand-made infographic that maps out the major workstreams—plus highlights, explanations, links, and shout-outs to some of the many people behind the work.
If you care about PostgreSQL—as a user, contributor, or fan—I hope you'll give it a read.
Read the full blog post on Microsoft Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/adforpostgresql/whats-new-with-postgres-at-microsoft-2025-edition/4410710
Continued thread
Other govt #databases contain secret #whistleblower data. At the Dept of #Veterans Affairs, you’ll find granular #MentalHealth info on fmr service members, including notes from #therapy sessions, details about #medication, & accounts of substance abuse. Govt agencies including the #IRS, #FBI, #DHS, & Dept of #Defense have all purchased #cellphone-#location data, & possibly collected them, via secretive groups such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Continued thread
The federal govt is a veritable cosmos of #information, made up of constellations of #databases: The #IRS gathers comprehensive #financial & #employment info from every taxpayer; the Dept of Labor maintains the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) system, which collects the #personal info of many workers; #DHS amasses #data about the movements of every person who travels by air commercially or crosses the nation’s borders; the #DEA tracks license plates scanned on American roads.
Data security isn't sexy, I'll give you that. But in this climate, knowing how to do a backup of your database and storing it somewhere safe might be crucial to make sure what you know about your collection is preserved for future generations.
Start of a new series on #RegistrarTrek: Let's talk about Data Security
https://world.museumsprojekte.de/lets-talk-about-data-security-backups/
world.museumsprojekte.deLet’s Talk About Data Security – Backups | Registrar Trek: The Next Generation