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Yeah good points. I'll add Nginx to the list. Jeez - that webserver software has been killing it in terms of capabilities (and market growth) for about 4 years. All thanks to a solid Russian OSS developer named Igor Sysoev.

And if you want to dig a little deeper, the GiST index system for Postgres which enables GIS, spherical projections (for astronomy) and all kinds of other amazing solutions in Postgres - thanks to two great (and amazingly smart) guys also in Russia. http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/ (note the ".su" badass domain still). :)

Time and time again, the question of Oracle-like hints for PostgreSQL pops up on the PostgreSQL mailing lists. I thought I share some links as I find the topic fairly interesting. Hopefully the DBAs out there will too.

Why PostgreSQL Doesn't Have Query Hints
Why PostgreSQL Already Has Query Hints
Plan Tuner - Ripped from the above link

And in case you don't know, this is a great place to stay current with PostgreSQL development and technology.

Auto-execute seems pretty silly now, but back at the time it wasn't totally stupid. This was back in '95

The principle of not executing something arriving off host had only been established about a decade before. Shar (shell archives and the typical distribution format) was invented shortly after Usenet source groups were invented. Unshar was invented in the mid 1980s because everyone with half a brain was terrified of executing something coming from even the venerated and moderated `comp.sources.unix'.

We made our own mistakes http://www.regatta.cs.msu.su/doc/usr/share/man/info/ru_RU/a_doc_lib/cmds/aixcmds5/uux.htm but competent administrators had learned long before 1995 to disable uux.

Now, get off my lawn!

None of them do it well compared to dedicated FTSE like Sphinx Search or Lucene, not Postgres,

We users of Tsearch2 will vehemently disagree with you.

...and you can get the data sets here. Admittedly, there's not a lot you can do with it if you're not a highly specialised astronomer and plasma physicist, but it's cool that it's available, nevertheless.

I am not suggesting that MySQL FULLTEXT is the end all, be all of indexes. I just pointed out that it existed.

Here is the missing link to tsearch2. It looks interesting.

Just so you know, you can override the > 50% stopwords. From the documentation:

Users who need to bypass the 50% limitation can use the boolean search mode;

And MySQL 5.1 has made it more flexible:

In MySQL 5.1, it is possible to write a plugin that replaces the built-in full-text parser. For details, see Section 28.2, "The MySQL Plugin Interface". For example parser plugin source code, see the plugin/fulltext directory of a MySQL source distribution.

What I should have said is that the design of Windows NT isn't vulnerable. The article seems to be implying that this is a new sort of vulnerability, but it's not for NT because its preemptable nature has always required this to be done properly to be secure. No, I haven't personally verified the source code because I don't have access to it. Still, the core kernel team that writes such code has a good reputation for writing secure, correct code. Of all the security vulnerabilities I know of on Windows, only one is due to a syscall not validating its arguments correctly (see the NtCreateAtom bug), and only a few are in the kernel. I'm confident that guideline went into the infamous NT design book and the syscalls were audited for it, being such an obvious trust boundary. Being preemptable, race condition opportunities like this are common in NT, so I would think that the core devs would be aware of and doing this already.

As for programs that intercept syscalls in order to filter them (e.g. on-access virus scanners) this behavior is inherently unsafe, and the kernel takes extra steps to disallow this in AMD64 versions. The chances of third party virus scanner ISVs getting this wrong is much higher than Microsoft's kernel devs.

To understand how this article could be published, you should be aware that for all scientific journals the editor has the last responsibility for accepting a paper, not the peer reviewers. In the case of Astrophysics and Space Science, the editorial board contains N.C. Wickramasinghe, who is one of the inventors of the panspermia theory. So, even although peer reviews might have been dodgy, it could have been an editorial decision to accept this paper.

I happen to know that Astrophysics and Space Science operates this way, as a manuscript I co-reviewed with a PhD student of mine several years ago appeared in the journal without taking any of our recommendations into account. This has not happened to me with any of the 30odd manuscripts I have refereed since and is even more astonishing since the journal decided to print the original manuscript, without even addressing the large number of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors pointed out by us (which were so bad that we, as referees, could not understand what the authors were trying to say). I have declined to referee for Astrophysics and Space Science since and consider the journal a "scientific tabloid" as opposed to a "scientific broadsheet". And you wouldn't believe the "Sun" and the "News of the World" either, right?

So, to conclude, "peer refereed" does not always mean what you might think it does, and although I am not a microbiology specialist, as long as a report on the "red rain" is not accepted by a mainstream journal, would doubt any claims made in the article.

Full text searching has existed for a number of years and is actively used by a few Russian search engines on large volumes of content (millions of text documents), among other places.

Take a peak in the contrib directory of the source tree for tsearch.

Documentation for TSearch

I would say that with certain extensions, you're completely wrong. PostgreSQL comes with an extension that you can install which implements a vector-based full text search.

Tsearch2 Homepage

Quick and dirty HOWTO

I just love stupid trolls that can't even use Google.

Tsearch2 - full text extension for PostgreSQL
DevX: Implementing Full Text Indexing with PostgreSQL - about Tsearch2.

Tsearch2 is included in the postgresql-contrib package of at least Debian and Novell/SuSE. Is that "out of the box" enough for a clueless MySQL user?

Well, you could always try it in PostgreSQL with some of the more exotic indexed data types that are available... ;)

License:
Stable version, included into PostgreSQL distribution, is released under BSD license. Development version, available from this site, is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (June 1991).

The documentation describes the differences between tsearch2 and openfts like this:

OpenFTS is a middleware between application and database, so it uses tsearch2 as a storage, while database engine is used as a query executor (searching). Everything else (parsing of documents, query processing, linguistics) carry outs on client side. That's why OpenFTS has its own configuration table (fts_conf) and works with its own set of dictionaries. OpenFTS is more flexible, because it could be used in multi-server architecture with separated machines for repository of documents (documents could be stored in file system), database and query engine.

• user defined types, including the ability to create customized indicies for them. So there's a type specifically to handle encrypted authentication passwords, for example, so you don't need to mess with crypt() all of the time.
• Inheritance for tables, so you can agregate different types of data without needing to explicitly set all kinds of primary keys.
• Full ACID support, like a real database
• MVCC instead of row or table locking.
• BSD license

If a 2 channel audio frequency scope is all you need, then Oscilloscope 2.5 for Windows might do the trick. It uses the inputs on a standard sound card to grab 2 channels at up to 20 kHz. Disclaimer: I've not used it and a bit of Googling may find better alternatives.

Its slow, but is free (assuming you have the sound card).

Sorry, couldn't format it because of Slashdot's fucking filters.
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/applications/gimp/ ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/gimp/gimp/ http://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/gimp/gimp/ ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gimp/ http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gimp/ ftp://gimp.zeta.org.au/gimp/gimp/ ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/graphics/gimp/gimp/ ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/graphics/packages/gimp/ ftp://ftp.minet.net/pub/gimp/ http://ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr/pub/gimp/ ftp://ftp.fh-heilbronn.de/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/gim p/ ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/grafik/gimp/ http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/grafik/gimp/ ftp://sunsite.ics.forth.gr/sunsite/pub/gimp/ ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/ http://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/ ftp://SunSITE.sut.ac.jp/pub/archives/packages/gimp / ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/pub/graphics/tools/gimp/ http://www.ring.gr.jp/pub/graphics/gimp/ ftp://ftp.ring.gr.jp/pub/graphics/gimp/ http://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/gimp/ ftp://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/gimp/ ftp://ftp.kreonet.re.kr/pub/tools/X11/ftp.gimp.org / http://gnu.kookel.org/ftp/gimp/ ftp://gnu.kookel.org/pub/gimp/ ftp://sunsite.uio.no/pub/gimp/ ftp://ftp.tuniv.szczecin.pl/pub/Linux/gimp/ ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/graphics/gimp/ ftp://ftp.kappa.ro/pub/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/ ftp://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/ http://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/ ftp://ftp.sai.msu.su/pub/unix/graphics/gimp/mirror / http://gimp.tsuren.net/mirror/gimp/ ftp://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gimp/ ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/gnu/gimp/ http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/gnu/gimp/ ftp://ftp.hun.edu.tr/pub/linux/gimp/ ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/pub/gi mp/ ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/X/gimp/gimp/

Africa ftp://ftp.is.co.za/applications/gimp/ Australia ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/gimp/gimp/
http://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/gimp/gimp/
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gimp/
http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gimp/
ftp://gimp.zeta.org.au/gimp/gimp/ Austria ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/graphics/gimp/gimp/ Finland ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/graphics/packages/gimp/ France ftp://ftp.minet.net/pub/gimp/
http://ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr/pub/gimp/ Germany ftp://ftp.fh-heilbronn.de/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/gim p/
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/grafik/gimp/
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/grafik/gimp/ Greece ftp://sunsite.ics.forth.gr/sunsite/pub/gimp/ Ireland ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/
http://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/ Japan ftp://SunSITE.sut.ac.jp/pub/archives/packages/gimp /
ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/pub/graphics/tools/gimp/
http://www.ring.gr.jp/pub/graphics/gimp/
ftp://ftp.ring.gr.jp/pub/graphics/gimp/
http://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/gimp/
ftp://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/gimp/ Korea ftp://ftp.kreonet.re.kr/pub/tools/X11/ftp.gimp.org / Netherlands http://gnu.kookel.org/ftp/gimp/
ftp://gnu.kookel.org/pub/gimp/ Norway ftp://sunsite.uio.no/pub/gimp/ Poland ftp://ftp.tuniv.szczecin.pl/pub/Linux/gimp/
ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/graphics/gimp/ Romania ftp://ftp.kappa.ro/pub/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/
ftp://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/
http://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/mirrors/ftp.gimp.org/ Russia ftp://ftp.sai.msu.su/pub/unix/graphics/gimp/mirror /
http://gimp.tsuren.net/mirror/gimp/

Does it work as well as Tsearch2?

Tsearch rocked, and Tsearch2 looks to be another giant step beyond.

By adulthood, Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements is firmly planted in a typical mind either as a tool for study or proof of mystical forces at work in nature. There are alternative structures: some clever and others using alternate media, extensions to the table providing nuclear structure, fermi surfaces, and line spectra.

Still others are extraordinarily cross-thematic, merging chemistry with comic books, poetry or haiku. But only the grouping-nature of the columns is retained in rejected elements, condiments and beer. Eventually the elements and the periodic qualities have been lost entirely, reducing the periodic table to a design template for topical lists of funk and rock music, comedy and TV shows, famous mathematicians and presidents, even SGI products. Soon a complete breakdown of the scientific aspect yields no similarity to the original, becoming a glorified table, a marketing tool, or hype itself. There is mounting evidence of a conspiracy.

I used it to impress my girlfriend by showing her my parrot can accurately reproduce 2600MHz sinewaves.

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Universiteit Leiden has a somewhat similar organization, but I'd consider MSU a much better candidate.

Note that St. Petersburg State University has a similar organization of having a Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty. It probably used to be called Leningrad State University back before "glasnost."

I could go with either MSU or St. Petersburg as being "the ones." St. Petersburg has been doing very well in the ACM contests, which suggests that they are likely rather good.

Whether that's from student selection ("nature") or quality of teaching ("nurture"), or some combination of both, is another question...

Nick

• http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/ apod/astropix.html, UK,(London)
• http://www.phy.mtu.edu/apod/astropix.html , US (Midwest)
• http://mirrors.inside.net/apod/, Switzerland
• http://www.sai.msu.su/apod/: Russia
• http://phyhp.phy. ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod/astropix.html Taiwan (Chinese)
• http://phyhp.ph y.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/astropix.ht ml: Taiwan (English)
• http://apod.aguianet.com.br/: Brazil
• http://www.astro.cz/apod/

These all point to the picture of the day (which is of Earth, though it doesn't look like it!), of course: you'll have to head to the archives to find the eclipse picture. They've been carrying loads of eclipse pictures recently, and they're beautiful.