PostgreSQL at DEFCON 19
A while ago a gentlemen by the name of Josh (Abstrct) McDougall contacted me about a game he created and subsequent contest being held at DEFCON 19. What makes this so interesting is the majority of the game was created in PostgreSQL. This truly exposed the power of PostgreSQL and the ability to create business (or data) logic directly within the database instead of just using the database as a file system. Josh was looking for a small prize to be able to give the winner of this contest and of course Command Prompt and The PostgreSQL Conference was happy to help out.

I received (reprinted with permission) this email from him today:

Hi Josh, I am excited to say that the Schemaverse contest at DEFCON 19 went great! By the end of the tournament we had 108 registered players and over a million queries ran against the game in a four day span. Not only did the server do great as far as performance goes but the fact that it wasn't exploited during DEFCON is also an impressive stat to note.

I can also proudly tell you that your contribution was mentioned during my own two presentations, found in our How To guide, discussed at our contest booth (right by the front doors to the high traffic contest area! :D) AND was announced during the DEFCON 19 closing ceremonies during my allotted 2 minutes of speaking time.

The winner of your prize is Ian Haken (xxxx@xxxxxx.com). He kicked some butt in the competition and is certainly deserving of it. He has authorized me to send you his name and email. If you need any further details you can talk to him directly.

I likely sound like a broken record at this point but I really do need to say thanks again. Your contribution definitely helped us generate some interest in the first year of our competition and has helped us gain the respect needed to return with the contest for years to come.

Best Regards, Josh (Abstrct) McDougall http://schemaverse.com/

It was an honor to sponsor this contest. It is great little things like this that truly show the power of PostgreSQL in places you least expect.

Just a note, although the CFP is technically closed we have not closed the submission form, if you wanted to sneak in a talk or two you are welcome to.