Convert a PostgreSQL database from LATIN1 to UTF-8

When we initially launched the Hub in private beta, we made the mistake of not specifying UTF-8 encoding in the database cluster, which had the unfortunate side effect of raising an exception every time a user would submit non-ascii characters in an input field.

Converting a virtual disk image: VDI or VMDK to an ISO you can distribute

Why would anyone in their right mind want to convert a VM into an ISO?

Good question, the answer for Conor Fox (who was the inspiration for this post - thanks Conor!) was to distribute his customized TurnKey PostgreSQL image so others could use it.

Distributing an ISO as opposed to a VM image allows it to be installed on any virtualization platform, as well as on bare metal, with the added bonus of running live.

I suppose that's a good enough reason, so lets get to it.

Converting a virtual disk image: VDI to VMDK to a raw loopback file you can mount

By default, VirtualBox creates virtual disk images in a special format called VDI, which is unique to VirtualBox. Disk images are stored in $HOME/.VirtualBox/HardDisks.

You'll need to convert VDI into another format if you want to run a VirtualBox VM on another virtualization platform, such as VMWare or KVM.