PostgreSQL 8.1 Shows Database Progress
By Jon Jensen
November 14, 2005
At End Point we recommend PostgreSQL for most of our database-backed software development due to its powerful features, reliability, speed, and liberal license. On November 8, 2005, PostgreSQL 8.1 was released, and it offers a number of useful new features, including:
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Two-phase commit (transactions across distant servers).
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Numerous new SQL features (regexp_replace function; indexed MIN and MAX aggregates; SQL-standard quoting; non-blocking SELECT FOR UPDATE, better time zone handling; cross-table DELETE and TRUNCATE).
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More powerful in-database functions with mutable function parameters and improved PL/Perl language support (return_next and spi_fetchrow; use strict; return arrays).
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Convenient interactive error retry in psql client (coded by End Point’s own Greg Sabino Mullane).
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Integrated encryption (pgcrypto module for PGP, SHA, AES, and DES encryption functions).
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Improved performance (better multiprocessor support; shared row locking; bitmap scan of indexes; ability to use multi-column indexes on single columns in any order).
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Easier database administration (autovacuum integration; ROLE replaces USER and GROUP; functions to determine on-disk storage space). …
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End Point Celebrates 10 Years of Service!
By
Brian Dunn
August 10, 2005
On August 5th, End Point Corporation celebrated the tenth anniversary of the company’s inception.
End Point was established in 1995 by Rick Peltzman and Ben Goldstein with the aim of providing effective, innovative solutions and services to the nascent internet industry. The company took on increasingly challenging projects for its growing list of clients, from brochureware to user interface construction to database design to full implementations of complex ecommerce applications.
Today, End Point employs more Interchange developers than any other services firm. Our company’s skills in database design and data management have helped clients achieve staggering growth and helped facilitate the generation of millions of dollars of new revenue. Our team of consultants has skills in such wide-ranging matters as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Perl, C/C++, PHP, Java, network programming, systems architecture, security and encryption, and many other facets of Internet development.
Plus, over the last year, we’ve expanded our service set to include content management system design, keyword marketing, search engine optimization, and systems integration, consolidation, and …
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Ethan Rowe Promotes Good Data, VPNs
By
Brian Dunn
August 10, 2005
End Point’s Ethan Rowe is a staunch believer that good data management is good business and serves as the company’s foremost expert in VPN development.
Since joining End Point last summer, Ethan has worked extensively using Interchange and in database development. His database skills are greatly enhanced by his understanding of business logic and how effective databases can make a positive impact on business results. Says Ethan, “If the data is structured correctly, resulting from a detailed analysis of the types of information you need, what you want to do with that information, etc., then the data will serve you properly over the long term.”
Because businesses need to be able to adapt to various market pressures and growth opportunities, the way they use their data often changes. For instance, in inventory control, a database with an effective logic regime can be used by many different applications in many different functional departments and always have reliable inventory numbers to work with. The key is to create the logic within the database once, and then it doesn’t need to be re-created with every application running on top of it.
Beyond …
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Death, Taxes — and Spam‽
By
Brian Dunn
June 12, 2005
End Point has been hard at work keeping spam from reaching our clients’ email boxes.
In December 2004, End Point installed new email filters, powered by two state-of-the-art packages: amavisd-new and SpamAssassin.
By filtering out the most egregious junk emails at the server level, far fewer undesirable emails reach our clients’ inboxes. Real mail downloads to their inboxes faster, and the painful morning routine of going through the pile of junk mail delivered overnight is gone. That time savings multiplied for each employee really adds up.
We’re gratified to hear about the positive, immediate difference this change has made for our current email services clients. If you’re not currently using End Point’s email service, please contact us. We’d be happy to discuss your requirements and explain how we can help meet your email needs.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 3 Released
By Jon Jensen
October 4, 2004
In early September 2004, Red Hat released Update 3 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This includes all package updates since Update 2 and many more. Aside from important security fixes are improvements in Unicode handling and drivers for newer hardware. There are also some nice new features such as the LAuS auditing subsystem and the ExecShield kernel security feature. Full release notes are available. As always, updates and ISO CD images are available via Red Hat Network.
In our experience so far, this update has been completely compatible and has installed flawlessly, including the reboot to load the new kernel. We generally recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our clients’ production servers and are pleased with the ongoing improvements and very long support lifespan. Havoc Pennington explained in detail the work that goes on behind the scenes to make Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a recent blog entry.
We don’t want to detract in any way from other excellent operating systems we use, such as OpenBSD, Debian GNU/Linux, and Fedora. But for managing a large number of multi-purpose production servers, we’ve found Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be a good fit.
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