About

John Ashmead has been working with relational databases since the 1980's, building & enhancing databases in SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, Ingres, and PostgreSQL.

For the last five years he has been the DBA & database developer at a leading manufacturer of Optical Switches. John is in charge of the care & feeding of the manufacturing database (Javascript/Ruby-On-Rails/PostgreSQL). For the last six months he has been porting the manufacturing database to a factory in Zhuhai, China.

John gives frequent talks at database & other programming users groups. He is working on a book Zen and the Art of Debugging, about one of the most under-appreciated but important aspects of software.

He has also given physics related talks at physics conferences, science fiction conventions, and NASA. His most recent physics paper is “Time dispersion in quantum mechanics”.


John Ashmead has presented the following presentations

    John Ashmead How to build a PostgreSQL-backed website quickly at 2021 Postgres Conference Webinars

    presented by John Ashmead


    video

    We will use Ruby-on-Rails to build a PostgreSQL backed website. We'll use some of the excellent tutorials to build a small site with users and micro-content. We’ll talk about what to watch out for, which tasks to leave to the web framework, what to do on the database side. We'll show the various stages of development and we will leave the final product up on the web, for your use. To add a b...

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    Wed 13 2021 Dev
    John Ashmead Debugging with PostgreSQL at Postgres Webinar Series
    A Strategic Approach

    presented by John Ashmead


    video

    Depending on the project, debugging can take 50 to 90% of development time. But it usually gets less than 10% of the press. PostgreSQL has great tools for debugging, but they are most effective when deployed as part of an overall strategy.

    We will look at strategies for debugging PostgreSQL: how to find bugs, how to fix them, and how to keep them from happening in the first place.

    We’ll l...

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    Wed 29 2020 Dev
    John Ashmead Debugging with PostgreSQL at Postgres Conference 2020
    A Strategic Approach

    presented by John Ashmead

    Depending on the project, debugging can take 50 to 90% of development time. But it usually gets less than 10% of the press. PostgreSQL has great tools for debugging, but they are most effective when deployed as part of an overall strategy.

    We will look at strategies for debugging PostgreSQL: how to find bugs, how to fix them, and how to keep them from happening in the first place....

    more

    Development
    John Ashmead Debugging with Postgres at Philly 2019
    A Strategic Approach

    presented by John Ashmead

    Depending on the project, debugging can take 50 to 90% of development time. But it usually gets less than 10% of the press. PostgreSQL has great tools for debugging, but they are most effective when deployed as part of an overall strategy.

    We will look at strategies for debugging PostgreSQL: how to find bugs, how to fix them, and how to keep them from happening in the first place....

    more

    Fri 19 2019 Dev