I tried to import a shapefile to a PostgreSQL database using SPIT in QGIS, but kept getting an error because the gid column already existed in the .dbf. So I used the command line instead:

shp2pgsql Downloads/Archive/data_dev.shp > data.sql

then ran the resulting data.sql in PGAdmin.

Trying to execute
SELECT ST_Intersects(ST_GeomFromText('MULTIPOLYGON(((-170.82 -14.40,-170.82 -14.29,-170.62 -14.29,-170.62 -14.40,-170.82 -14.40)))',4326), the_geom)
as uni_data FROM data_dev
threw
ERROR: Operation on two geometries with different SRIDs

I had to set the SRID on the table using
ALTER TABLE data_dev DROP CONSTRAINT "enforce_srid_the_geom" RESTRICT;
UPDATE data_dev SET the_geom = SETSRID (the_geom, 4326);
ALTER TABLE data_dev ADD CONSTRAINT "enforce_srid_the_geom" CHECK (SRID(the_geom)=4326);
(As discussed here.)