I just tested the same on a test machine. It only has one processor 1GB
memory, and one SATA disk. The same "select count(*)" was 58 seconds. I
started the same UPDATE with EXPLAIN ANALYZE. It is running since 1000
seconds. I'm now 100% sure that the problem is with the database,
because this machine has nothing but a postgresql server running on it.
I'll post the output of explain analyze later.
