Chris Ellis @intrbiz@bergamot.social

Did you hear about the inaugural #PostgreSQL #Meetup ( @PostgresEDI ) in #Edinburgh, #Scotland?

Reserve your seat now! Two well-known speakers are on the agenda.

Date is Dec 11th, next week Thu. There will be 🍕.

https://luma.com/b9kv5fds

The median family income in the U.S. has gone from $10K in 1971 to $106k today, an increase of 10x.

However, the median cost of a house has gone from $25K to $445k, an increase of 17x.

And the median cost of a car has gone from $3.6K to $50k, an increase of 14x.

The median cost of college has gone from $2.9k a year to $45k, an increase of 16x.

And the average cost of healthcare per person has gone from $350 to $14.6k, an increase of 42x.

The average person is worse off today than in 1971.

🇺🇸🇪🇺👀 Landau: I knew many of these countries had tied their energy fortunes to Russia, but I had no idea of the extent of it, or how (collectively) it dwarfed their aid to Ukraine.

The money sent to Russia is in blue; the money sent to Ukraine is in orange

@ChrisMayLA6

ICYMI

The capitalist pyramid…

Plenty of people is blaming "AI" in the abstract for the recent RAM price spikes, but I haven't seen anybody around here point to the actual and direct culprit of it all: Sam Altman secretly bought 40% of silicon wafers (not even produced RAM, just the silicon wafers) from two of the biggest RAM manufacturers, at the same time. Not even with specific plans for what kind of RAM do with them. This is just to mess up with competitors.

Seriously, you can't hate OpenAI enough.

https://www.mooreslawisdead.com/post/sam-altman-s-dirty-dram-deal

Are you excited for the first PostgreSQL Edinburgh meetup in a week's time? Do you know the Postgres community is not just DBAs, but developers, data professionals, architects, students, and open source enthusiasts?
Thurs 11 Dec, 6pm, University of Edinburgh Old College!

RSVP here ▶️ https://luma.com/b9kv5fds

#postgresql #edinburgh #community #meetups #techmeetups #postgres #dev #developer #rag #ai #pgvector #openSource #database

In case you missed it, I put on my safety googles, hazmat suit and a novelty Xmas condom to test-drive the brand-new Microsoft-stewarded Web Install API. TL;DR, Credit where credit’s due: Well done, Edge team!

https://brucelawson.co.uk/2025/a-first-look-at-the-web-install-api/

RE: https://toot.cafe/@nolan/115622706069488954

Those of you who are not web devs (good choice) may not quite appreciate what this means.
You know how websites are loads slower now, and don't work without JavaScript? Well, one of the big (dubious) arguments made in favour of this transition was that you download a bunch more code first, but then it'll make everything faster once you're there. It's front loading.
What @slightlyoff has shown is that this is not relevant, because people don't stay on the sites long enough to get the benefit.

tbh it's right to change this ridiculous situation in the UK where there's a 2 year (!!!) delay before you can claim unfair dismissal.

It allows employers to absolutely abuse you if they want or get rid of you for no good reason.

I think day 1 right to that is correct, UK employment law is SO skewed to the employers.

But surprise surprise there's objections... if you want to hire people and not give them rights, how about fuck you?

I don't agree with much of what the govt does but that was a good idea.

And also get rid of the ability for employers to give bad references and destroy careers with barely any consequences, or being able to sue for spurious 'breach of contract' claims.

Sadly most people in the UK believe this isn't possible and have zero idea how much power a malicious employer has over them.

None of this has happened to me thankfully but people have ZERO idea how much risk they run.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2d7j350q1o

<screams>

🎁 Secret Santa mode on: we want a shiny @fosdempgday schedule under the Christmas tree, and to make it truly awesome we need awesome speakers and attendees ☃️✨

📣 #FOSDEM #PGDay 2026 is on January 30th, 2026 in Brussels 🖤💛❤️
CFP opens very soon and will be short 😱 So if you have a PostgreSQL story, deep dive, case study, or delightfully niche idea, start polishing now 🤯

Brace yourself, CFP is coming ⚔️
🔗 https://2026.fosdempgday.org/

#PostgreSQL #OpenSource #Database #Brussels #TechEvents

Trump has now set a deadline for Thursday next week, where he demands Ukraine signs an agreement to meet Putin’s demands:

— No NATO membership
— A reduction of its military to just 600,000 troops
— Accepting the loss of Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, and most of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia
— Forcing Ukrainian elections within 100 days

While Russia will
— Reenter the G8
— Have all sanctions lifted

This is not a peace agreement. This is capitulation.

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@evacide/115589063882241351

Look, see, there’s research, UK government. Nobody wants age verification, except you because the first response you have to anything that seems bad is to find some way of criminalising people who do it, and big tech companies who laugh all the way to the bank while selling you tech solutions to social problems and shutting down their customer helpline.

New Blog Post: Announcing the inaugural PostgreSQL Edinburgh meetup

https://vyruss.org/blog/inaugural-postgresql-edinburgh-meetup.html

@PostgresEDI #postgresql #edinburgh #community #meetups #developer #rag #ai #pgvector #techmeetups