Aside from re-skinning the place, I’ve been pretty quite here lately. I’m busy working on my type system experiment (HBASE-8089) and simplifying interoperability between HBase and Pig (PIG-2786, PIG-3285), Hive (HIVE-2055, HIVE-2379), and HCatalog (HCAT-621). I’m also preparing for some talks for later next month. The first one will be here in Seattle (Bellevue, really) and the second in Minneapolis. If you’re able to make either one, do step up and introduce yourself.

You use git and have a Dropbox account, right? Here’s a little trick I use from time to time for archiving Git repositories. Create a bare repository in your Dropbox account and push a mirror. Now you can delete your local sandbox, but you’ll still have the full history available if you need it later. Sure, you could set up private repos on Github, but that’ll become expensive fast, while Dropbox is free, at least from the beginning.

Yesterday I spoke at this month’s Seattle Scalability Meetup. My topic didn’t deviate too far from what was originally posted. Here are the slides. If you were able to join us yesterday, please take a moment to leave some feedback.

With Posterous shutting their doors, I’m finally motivated to reexamine the web space I don’t really maintain. The whole point of choosing posterous was to have a minimal barrier to posting. To that extent, the string of short-text-plus-images posts proves the format effective. In search of a replacement, I’m not excited about anything I’ve found. However, since finishing the book, I have a number of ideas and half-writings to share. So, it’s time to make something work.

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HBasecon2012, the first of it’s kind, happened on Wednesday. I had the honor of presenting a lightning talk at the end of one of the Applications tracks. I shared a little of what I’ve learned over the last couple months in the new-to-me domain of GIS. I think the talk went well, despite my nerves, because I had many good questions from the audience. I look forward to continuing the work and providing more details the next time around.

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Seattle Log
The 18th day of January on this year of our Lord, two-thousand and twelve.

I have navigated the frozen tundra, traversed the barren hinterlands, and arrived upon our still green base camp. I find it deserted, desolate. I fear I am the only one of our meager number to survive Mother Nature’s fury. Not even the locals have stirred from their dwellings and I suspect I will find neither warmth around their fires nor coffee at their stoves. Those too slow to find cover have fallen where they stood, leaving only ghastly, frozen monuments to their efforts. May God have mercy on their souls and may he guide me through this dark hour. I pray only to once again feel the sweet kiss of sunlight upon my face.

It just happens I took a photo of yesterday's blue sky. Today is quite the contrast.

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If a window is smashed in the night and no one is awake to hear it, does it make a sound?

80$ of window and 2 hours of frustration for 2$ in nickels :(

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I just returned from a couple weeks of work in San Francisco. On the way down, I snapped some shots as we were departing SEA. Through the magic of white-balance correction I've managed to pull out a few of the nicer ones; I'm pleased with the results. Enjoy.

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