One of the most important things to learn about Spark is that it's not magic. The framework still adheres to the rules of computer science. What I mean by this is that you can still do plenty of unoptimized workflows and see poor performance. Understanding how Spark works under the hood, from even a cursory level, can help in writing better Spark applications.
Read MoreAt the beginning of the year, I decided I wanted to speak at technical conferences and meetups. This decision was based on how much more I learn when I am tasked with explaining things to other people. It’s the same reason I like to blog and the same reason I liked to tutor when I was in college
Read MoreChoosing between Apache Kafka and Amazon Kinesis can be a difficult task. While some argue that they are inherently different systems, I think most of the differences are overstated. This post is highlights the differences I found most notable in the two platforms in aims to help those who are choosing between the two.
Read MoreFor the past year, I've had a daily goal of writing for 15 minutes. On the surface, it doesn't seem like very much. I spend far more than 15 minutes a day on Twitter, and far more than 15 minutes a day just getting recalibrated after a workout. The idea originally came to me when I was in college. I was working as a research assistant and the professor I worked for wrote something every day for 15 minutes.
Read MoreIt's a Thursday night and I'm on a plane flying from SFO to SLC, painstaking making a list of things I need to accomplish after attending a conference. In this process, I look over other lists I've created in the past month and realize I need to centralize my lists and come up with a better system to follow up and track goals I've created.
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