PostgreSQL 9.0 High perfomance

I've just finished G.Smith's "PostgreSQL 9.0 High performance". It's just an excellent book for any DBA. It provides detail information on PostgreSQL-related tuning (from server hardware and OS settings to query tuning and DBMS monitoring). We are going to upgrade our DBMS server next year, so I'll have an opportunity to apply this recommendations in practice. The only disadvantage is that the book is Linux-oriented, and we have FreeBSD DBMS server. However, basic settings for our OS are also covered in this book. Now I wonder: should I use ZFS for PostgreSQL on FreeBSD? I think at least I should make some benchmarks...

Paradise Lost

I've just finished reading Milton's "Paradise Lost". Mixed impression... I tried to start reading this book three times before. The book is sometimes quite boring, but it has very intersting details. Disliking the Bible and religion in general, I can appreciate Milton's interpretation of banishment from paradise. And also, author draws Lucifer image not without sympathy. A figure defying omnipotent God is worthy of respect...

Sequels and their perception

I've recently read new Verbitsky's novel "The chronicles of Zarechensk" (Хроники Зареченска). The novel was rather good, but I was disappointed that author had decided to make sequel. And this sequel is hinted in first part: some new plot lines are created and "to be continued" is written in the end with bold font.
So, I tried to remember different interesting (or even outstanding) stories and their continuations. Let's take, for example, Lukianenko's "Night Watch": great book, interesting plot, and this books looks finished. But there are sequels "Day Watch", "Twilight Watch" and others. Some of them are very good too. I like several extracts of "Day Watch" very much. But the novelty is already lost, other book are not so thrilling. Let's take Perumov's "Godsdoom". It was exciting. This book gave background description of the whole universe. And later he spoiled impression describing this universe in all details (I think in about ten books :)). In this sense, the perfect example is "The Lord of the Rings". It's really cool that author had written "Silmarillion" for himself and didn't publish it. So, the whole book has fascinating background. It is filled with songs, legends, smell of the former epochs. A lot of facts and plot lines are just mentioned and not over-emphasized. But this is a complete universe. It is described in several books and it is whole. On the other hand we have bright "Dune". It is sometimes called the best sci-fi book of 20 century. And it deserves this title. Rich fantasy of Frank Herbert created extensive world with a few traits. Mentats, Bene gesserit witches, powerful clans fighting for Spice... And most of this became quite boring, I was fed up with this when I finished his sixth or seventh book.