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Simon Riggs has died
- wendyshu 3y agoHe was a "major contributor" according to https://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/ https://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/
- filleduchaos 3y agoThere's also a statement here: https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/remembering-simon-riggs-2830/ https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/remembering-simon-rigg...
- YetAnotherNick 3y agoHis contributions include: > Point in Time Recovery, Table Partitioning, Hot Standby, Sync Replication, focuses on enterprise issues, security, performance and scalability, business intelligence and replication/high availability.
- rmbyrro 3y agoThose are hell of big contributions. It'd be worth billions if Postgres was a greed-driven enterprise (like Redis, Elastic, Mongo). And this value is now available and enjoyed by everyone on Earth.
- politelemon 3y ago> and the British, as a rule, don't do to-go portions from a restaurant. This isn't true at all.
- arghwhat 3y agoIf it's anything like Denmark, it's just that nobody local ever does it, and so we never learn that it is an option. Then we suddenly see a foreigner do it and wonder what other options we've missed and start to wish life came with a manual.
- mock-possum 3y agoOne of the somewhat delightful things I’ve learned as an adult is - you can just ask people for anything, and they’ll do it, much more often than you might think.
- renegade-otter 3y agoShamelessness is a superpower :)
- swexbe 3y agoPeople will even start to like you more for it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect
- hooo 3y agoI had never heard of this- thanks for linking!
- sneak 3y agoI remember the time I was at the Ocha on Embarcadero in downtown SF and I saw some older VC type guy order his shrimp pad thai with no tails. My mind was blown and my life changed forever. Now I order french onion soup without the onions (high end steakhouses are happy to strain it), shrimp tempura rolls with no tails, whatever. I order my salmon nigiri with no skin. I’ll order sides of sauces from other menu items I didn’t get. It’s rare they don’t accommodate me. (Before you ask, I always tip super well and don’t ever mind an upcharge for a special side sauce or whatever.)
- pests 3y agoYou are paying them! I still struggle with customizations and usually like to try things as envisioned by the chef, but some food textures I just can't do. Unless it's a place with a certain vision/theme/morals or artsy food, they just want to make you happy.
- deleted 3y ago
- IanCal 3y agoI've only ever seen this done once here.
- robin_reala 3y agoI’ve only ever seen it done in pizza places that already have takeaway boxes available.
- Symbiote 3y agoPizza places are also one of the few places in Europe where the portion is often too large. Otherwise I think the rare occasion where someone requests it is when a younger child has hardly touched their meal.
- diggan 3y ago> I’ve only ever seen it done in pizza places that already have takeaway boxes available. Most, if not all, restaurants have something they can drop leftovers into if you ask for it. As someone who lives in Spain but is Swedish, I've never had any restaurant tell me "we don't have takeaway boxes" or "no, we won't do that" when asking to take my leftovers with me, neither in Spain or Sweden or any other country I've visited.
- IshKebab 3y agoIt is completely true. People do it very occasionally, but not like in America.
- egeozcan 3y agoIn Germany, particularly in Hesse from what I've experienced, restaurant staff might take offense if you eat less than half of your meal and refuse to have the leftovers packed up. Just last week, a restaurant in Gießen went above and beyond by including an extra bowl of fruit salad alongside the remainder of our meal. That, I will remember a long time, especially after my wife's startling reaction to discovering a kiwi in the package – she's terrified of the fruit for some reason :)
- Archelaos 3y agoI can confirm that. The cultural attitude in Germany is that food should not be wasted. One of my favourite café bars in Heidelberg, when it closes, gives away the unsold pastries to the people who are still there -- sometimes a whole bag full.
- MandieD 3y agoThere are still a lot of Germans around who remember not having enough to eat as children in the late 40s. Yes, their parents had done, or at least allowed, terrible things, but they were children. Meat was especially in short supply, and my 85 year old aunt-in-law is pretty sure they had rat a few times. So my elderly German in-laws would be horrified with how casually my Texan ones will buy and grill large, expensive slabs of beef, and end up throwing out a good deal of it because it was way more than the bunch could eat. I am, anyway, but have learned to bite my tongue.
- gregors 3y agoCan confirm, my parents grew up starving in the ashes of WW2. My mother hid canned food under her bed, in her closets, everywhere for all of her life. It always annoyed me and when I'd ask her about it she always answered the same, "I hope you never know what it's like to starve".
- alex_duf 3y agoIn the UK, I never have seen it done or done it myself especially compared to when I lived in North America where it was standard.
- jayceedenton 3y agoYes it is. Asking your waiter to wrap up the rest of your food to go almost never happens in the UK. Maybe this is creeping in due to seeing Americans doing this in movies. You start to realise how people cope with those huge portions sizes in the US. Many people don't eat everything in one sitting. It's hard to explain why we don't do it in the UK. We generally assume that packaging is not free so therefore wouldn't expect someone to give free takeaway boxes. Also, like almost everything cultural in the UK, I expect it is rooted in class snobbery. If you need to take away, maybe this indicates that you're poor and need to make a meal last. These aren't conscious prejudices, they're relics of the past and subconscious.
- lnxg33k1 3y agoAs italian, this kills me, what if there’s leftover? The restaurant just throws it away? Food? For class snobbery? Like the restaurant can’t reuse it, no? So it’s just thrown away?
- CogitoCogito 3y agoI assume people would just adapt to the culture by generally not ordering more than they will eat.
- Dalewyn 3y agoThat's kind of tedious to do when a single menu item here in America is usually, to describe it aptly, infamously yuuuuuge.
- CogitoCogito 3y agoWe're not talking about America, we're talking about the UK.
- Dalewyn 3y agoApologies, the original story was about Simon getting overwhelmed by American servings so that context stuck.
- KingOfCoders 3y agoIn Germany it is also not common, but some people do it (like my mother)
- ergonaught 3y agoDude dies and y’all are talking about to-go portions.
- jll29 3y agoSo now we have covered PostgreSQL and food waste, how about the topic of avoiding small aircraft for transportation (because they are so much more risky compared to larger commercial aircraft)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_from_aviation_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_from_aviati...
- whelp_24 3y agoHe was the sole occupant, and he was doing touch and gos (ie practice) not transportation.
- politelemon 3y agoThe original posted thread is talking about it, and making a sweeping generalization, I am commenting on that generalization.
- robertlagrant 3y ago> This isn't true at all. It is. Go somewhere like South Africa where you expect with most meals to have a takeaway box, as there's so much food. We might do it, especially if we have kids with us, but it's not something after basically every meal.
- sgt 3y agoThen we put it in the fridge, never to be eaten.
- robertlagrant 3y agoTrue :) That's why South Africans have US-style double fridges. To store uneaten restaurant food.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- gwd 3y agoA few years ago my family went to a pub / Thai restaurant, and the portions were larger than we were expecting. I asked the owner if he could put the leftover food in a box for me to take away; he said, "Sorry, I can't do that -- what if you took it home and then got sick?" I knew that they also did take-away; so I countered, "Could you give me a box and then forget about it?" He smiled and got me some take-away boxes, then left so he wouldn't see what I did with them. So, it was sufficiently unusual that I had to be creative to make it happen.
- kitd 3y agoAs a rule ... it decidedly is. Yes, it can be done, but the overwhelming majority of time, it isn't,
- jnsie 3y agoI was surprised he'd never been to a chain restaurant. They're not exactly lacking in the UK or Western Europe in general...
- west0n 3y agoPostgreSQL is a very unique community compared to other database community(MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, ClickHouse et.c). It is INDEED decentralized, which means NO single company control it. This is related to the style of PostgreSQL's primary maintainers and leaders, who have ensured that the project's decisions and direction are determined collectively by the community members, rather than being controlled by a single company. Hopefully, their departure will not change this aspect.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y agoDesign by committee has downsides. Let’s not put Postgres’ development practices on a pedestal.
- jeltz 3y agoDesign by committee is not really common in the PostgreSQL community. Instead people just work on whatever they or their employer wants to. Makes having a roadmap or cohesive plan impossible but the issues of design by committee rarely show up.
- ngrilly 3y agoPostgreSQL's development never looked like design by committee.
- acdha 3y agoPostgres is one of the top open source projects of all time. That doesn’t mean everything is perfect with no room for improvement but almost anyone could learn from what’s worked there.
- ergonaught 3y agoWow
- fieldcny 3y agoThis is how ALL open source used to be! Like literally ALL, this is the norm not this bullshit VC funded fremium restricted/tiered fuck the customer trap nonsense. People built things because they loved it and wanted to help others , not to get rich. Now everyone just wants to get rich, and fast.
- deepersprout 3y agoI remember the discusson between Simon and Robert about RLS in Postgres, a feature I was eagerly awaiting at the time: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CA%2BU5nM%2BADSzcSs_2dsVd_afuRrgCxhBaAt_rNZXbrcL1_%3Dh8wg%40mail.gmail.com https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CA%2BU5nM%2BADSzcSs_2d... Simon always replied in a professional and objective tone, while making his point. I liked him.
- londons_explore 3y ago[flagged]
- egeozcan 3y agoThat is tasteless IMHO as well, but please, let's just stop and keep it about him here.
- sanswork 3y agoIt's a pretty obvious troll.
- kitd 3y agoHe's been trolling regularly for a week or so.
- coldtea 3y agoThe person writing that, at the day someone died no less, should be expelled from any sane project. Ah, they're writing it ironically, and on Mastodon. Then they should just be expelled from society.
- fragmede 3y agoI thought Mastodon was supposed to be a better Twitter because of all of the federation and everything.
- littlestymaar 3y agoThere's nothing preventing someone to run a white supremacist instance of mastodon (it's also what Truth.social is). But the good thing is that other instances can de-federate so their junk remain confined there.
- zilti 3y agoIf you think de-federating and filterbubbling up is a good thing, you're part of the problem.
- throwaway81523 3y agoOuch, RIP. I didn't know anything about this guy, but now I feel like I should attempt some kind of code contribution to Postgres in his memory.
- indyjonas 3y agoI met Simon in the 2000s when he was invited to give a Postgres training at the company I was working for at the time. My teammates and I invited him for a glimpse of Bavarian beer garden culture. Not only was Simon a world-class, no-nonsense database software engineer and entrepreneur, he was also a really nice fellow to hang out with. I’ll miss him.
- jpgvm 3y agoMan this is really sad. :( Having interacted with Simon on both a community and commercial basis through 2ndQ he was always polite, professional and happy to spend time explaining things to mere mortals. RIP Simon. You will be missed.
- uhoh-itsmaciek 3y agoThat's sad to hear. I only met Simon briefly at a conference a decade ago, but I've worked at companies based around Postgres for almost twenty years now. Given his work both on Postgres directly and in founding 2nd Quadrant, I don't think it's a stretch to say I owe him my career.
- chasingthewind 3y agoSome discussion and a really upsetting video on Reddit that I’m assuming is this incident https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1boxor4/cirrus_sr22t_crash_iwm_duxford/ https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1boxor4/cirrus_sr...
- arrowsmith 3y agoWow, I had seen the headlines about a fatal plane crash at Duxford but I hadn't made the connection that this was the same incident. What an awful tragedy. RIP Mr Biggs.
- garyclarke27 3y agoSo Sad, that video link is private, this one works. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/372326 https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/372326
- ranguna 3y agohttps://youtube.com/shorts/kSRcmjLllHY?si=-_yAfyExAq79veRn https://youtube.com/shorts/kSRcmjLllHY?si=-_yAfyExAq79veRn
- lsh123 3y agoBotched go around killed many pilots. May be trimmed too much up for landing with flaps and didn’t push nose down hard enough. In general, touch and goes in a high performance planes is not a good idea (no time for checklists, runway length, and actually wrong muscle memory for real takeoffs / landings). RIP.
- SoftTalker 3y agoAs the old quotation goes, Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous, But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
- sokoloff 3y agoThere’s a balance of risks in T&G vs full-stop taxi-backs. On the day of the individual flight, taxi backs are surely safer. But if they let you get in less than half of the circuits (as would be common at busy GA airports) or if they cause your proficiency training to become twice as expensive, the overall system safety difference isn’t clear. I come down on the side of being willing to do touch and goes in any aircraft (and have shared circuits with heavy jets doing touch and goes, so it’s done at all levels). From the video, this does look like a botched climb from either an intended T&G or bounced landing after a series of T&Gs, so I’ve got to agree with your point about the “that day” safety here.
- yc-kraln 3y ago[flagged]
- tnvmadhav 3y agoRIP :( Thankful for all the work.
- germandiago 3y agoRIP. :(
- worddepress 3y agoThis happened at Duxford, a very famous airfield in the UK build during WWI. I think they have regular air shows there. Happens to be near Cambridge, UK, which is the high-tech (in many fields) area.
- odiroot 3y agoThe museum there is really worth visiting.
- KineticLensman 3y agoDuxford houses the Imperial War Museum Duxford, the American Air Museum, the Fighter Collection and the Historic Aircraft Collection [0]. Went their once years ago and was very impressed with the size of the collections. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duxford_Aerodrome#IWM,_American_Air_Museum_and_other_employments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duxford_Aerodrome#IWM,_America...
- ioltas 3y agoI’ve met Simon for the first time in Tokyo in 2009 for a birthday related to JPUG (Japan PostgreSQL User Group) when hot standby was getting integrated into the upstream project. I saw him last time in Prague three months ago, and we have joked about a few things while discussing about life and how things were going on as I did not go to the Postgres Europe conference for 6~7 years. The community has lost a member, and many people have lost a friend. That’s so sudden. My thoughts go to his family and people who knew him. I’m so sad. RIP, Simon.
- alpaccount 3y agoMay he rest in peace, humanity surely lost a great mind today.
- ngrilly 3y agoHaving been following PostgreSQL's development and casually reading pgsql-hackers for years, Simon Riggs is a name I immediately associate to PostgreSQL. It's clear he will be missed. Rest in peace.
- harha_ 3y ago;__;7 I find news like this very sad. People who do massive amounts of good just suddenly die.
- tlocke 3y agoI met Simon once ages ago when I was due to speak at a PostgreSQL conference. It was my first time speaking at a conference and he was a nice bloke and gave me a bit of advice afterwards. He said not to worry about having to be entertaining, it's enough just to get the points across, that's what people were there for. I found that very reassuring!
- susanthenerd 3y agoI think he deserves the black banner to be put
- LinuxBender 3y agoemailed dang asking for this
- sgt 3y agoArticle in daily mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13245363/Father-killed-plane-crash-Imperial-War-Museum-Duxford.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13245363/Father-kil... I don't normally like the Daily Mail but they do often include a lot of photos. For those of us who didn't know Simon, but knew of him through Postgres, it's nice to see a face and get a more human connection through these photos. Looks like a guy who lived life to the fullest.
- aidos 3y agoReally sad to hear this news. Personal anecdote from when friends went through a family tragedy - the daily mail were incredibly invasive and insensitive. They trawled Facebook to pull photos (like they’ve done here) but also figured out close friends and camped out on their doorsteps to try to get them divulge more information.
- galina700 3y ago[dead]
- keeptrying 3y agoWow, incredible achievement to build Postgres replication. Something so many people use. Inspiring. (Note to self: never mention genitals in an obit!) I hope I build something that’s used at this scale. RIP Simon.
- pfdietz 3y agoVery sad. I will not fly in a small plane, just as I wouldn't ride a motorcycle (both have similar death/time rates.) Your preferences may differ. This doesn't mean riding in a car is risk free. Many well known computer figures have died that way too. A friend of mine who went on to become fairly well known in the early internet died that way, a head-on accident on I-95.
- gorlilla 3y agoI'm sorry to hear that. My best friend, since we were 2 years old, died at 29 in a motorcycle accident the same year he took over the family business. He got clipped by a car that swerved into his lane to avoid another car and that was all it took to take him away from us.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jetrink 3y agoI wonder if small planes aren't actually far more dangerous than motorcycles. A significant minority of motorcycles are operated by thrill-seeking people who routinely drive recklessly and avoid wearing safety equipment. They tend to be young, inexperienced, and unconcerned with risk. Pilots, on the other hand, tend to be serious, careful people. They use checklists. They have to undergo extensive, supervised training. Pilots have a culture of understanding and mitigating risk. For all those differences, the mortality rates are almost the same.
- pfdietz 3y agoThe average death rate for motorcycles and general aviation is around 1 death per 100,000 hours. Just an average, as you observe. BTW, flying a small plane costs maybe $40/hour in fuel, but if your life is worth $12.5M (the statistical value of a human life these days) then the cost of the risk is $125/hour, three times as much. This tells me it's likely a good idea to include an emergency whole-plane parachute system on general aviation aircraft, even at the cost of fuel efficiency.
- juggli 3y agoRIP Simon.
- steve-chavez 3y agoSimon Riggs's 2ndQuadrant was one of the first patreons for PostgREST. I'll forever be grateful, their support came in a hard time. Rest in peace Simon.
- segmondy 3y agoSo side, Simon was a very brilliant dude. He was flying the cirrus sr22 which has parachute system, I wonder what happened.
- pbj1968 3y agoThe parachute dutifully deployed after the plane crashed.
- LorenzoGood 3y agoHere is the incident report: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/372326 https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/372326
- jeff-davis 3y agoSimon was one of the first people I met in the Postgres community, perhaps in 2007 at the first PGCon that I attended. We've attended many of the same conferences in places around the world, and I've occasionally had the chance to explore those places with him. He was always kind to me and helped me immensely. I was proud to have the chance to co-author a major feature with him. The last time I saw him was this past December. Very sad.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoThe daily rate of notable deaths in the CS/hacker space will exceed the front page space of hacker news. Aging sucks.
- percivalPep 3y agoI worked for him at a 7 person consulting company in the 90's before his work on PostgreSQL. Back then he was a very focused and driven individual. We didn't stay in touch, but I bumped into him a few times at conferences and it was always good to catch up. RIP Simon and much love to friends and family at this difficult time.
- karlzt 3y agoThis reminds me of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37199495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37199495 Kris Nóva has died (865 points | 7 months ago | 130 comments) Interesting deaths. R.I.P.
- goldfix 3y agoI had the honor and pleasure of working with Simon. I am truly sad!
- goldfix 3y agoI had the honor and pleasure to work and collaborate with Simon. I am truly sad!