Category: Uncategorized

Research Paper: “AsterixDB: A Scalable, Open Source BDMS”

(AsterixDB was one of the systems mentioned in the “Red Book” that piqued my interest)

AsterixDB: A Scalable, Open Source BDMS gives the reader an overview of the AsterixDB system. AsterixDB is an impressive “big data management system” (BDMS) with several interesting features including a flexible data model, a powerful query language, data ingestion capabilities and distributed query execution. Two features that stood out to me were the ability to describe custom index types (B+-tree, R-tree, etc.) on your data, and the ability to query data that “lives” outside the system.

A majority of the paper is on the data definition and manipulation layer. The authors use an example of a social networking website to illustrate the power of AsterixDB’s data model and query language. Most of this section consists of code snippets (to define, load, and query the data) followed by an explanation of what exactly that snippet of code does, and what happens under the hood when that snippet is run. These code snippets make this section of the paper very easy to read and understand.

The data storage, indexing, and query execution components are described in the System Architecture section of the paper. These subsystems have separate papers ([1] and [2]) devoted to them; in this paper we are just given a brief overview of how they function and what their key features are. One piece of information that stood out to me in this section was the software layer described that grants any index data structure LSM update semantics. I thought this was a very novel idea to help speed up data ingestion and index building, while at the same time having the benefit of diverse index data structures based on the type of data being stored and indexed. The secondary index design is also interesting.

I really enjoyed reading this paper. I’ve added [1] and [2] to my “research papers to read next” list, and hope to get to it very soon.

[1] S. Alsubaiee, A. Behm, V. Borkar, Z. Heilbron, Y.-S. Kim, M. Carey, M. Dressler, and C. Li. Storage Management in AsterixDB. Proc. VLDB Endow., 7(10), June 2014.

[2] V. Borkar, M. Carey, R. Grover, N. Onose, and R. Vernica. Hyracks: A Flexible and Extensible Foundation for Data-intensive Computing. ICDE, 0:1151–1162, 2011.

Album

Here are my favorite albums of 2015, in no particular order:

  • Polaris by TesseracT
  • Currents by Tame Impala
  • New Bermuda by Deafheaven
  • What Went Down by Foals
  • Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
  • Choose Your Weapon by Haitus Kaiyote
  • The Direction of Last Things by Intronaut
  • Coma Ecliptic by Between the Buried and Me
  • Node by Northlane
  • VII: Sturm und Drang by Lamb of God
  • The Book of Souls by Iron Maiden

If I had to pick one album as “Karan’s album of the year” (I need a more creative name for this award) for 2015 I would have to say that would be Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens.

Carrie and Lowell was my first introduction to the musical genius of Sufjan Stevens. I was blown away by his ability to take something sad from his life and turn it into a beautiful (yet immensely sad) body of music. Each song on this album is breathtaking; the (simple yet complex) music, his wonderful voice, and the powerful lyrics all work together to create something magical.

Not seeing Sufjan Stevens live at Fox Theater, Oakland is one of my disappointments of 2015.

Red

(The worst part about jet lag is jet lag. The best part about jet lag is that it makes be very productive for some reason. Last year I read a book and a few research papers. This year I finished reading the “Red Book” while not being able to sleep according to the time zone I’m in)

As I’ve mentioned before, databases hold a special place in my heart. I think they’re incredibly interesting pieces of software. State of the art database systems that exist today are result of decades of research and systems engineering. The “Red Book” does a superb job in explaining how we got here, and where we might be going next.

The book is organized into chapters that deal with different components and related areas of database systems. The authors pick a few research papers that are significant in the chapter under discussion and then offer their commentary on them, as well as explain the content of the paper and talk about other related systems/papers/techniques/algorithms. The authors (Peter Bailis, Joseph M. Hellerstein, and Michael Stonebraker) have a lot of technical expertise in database systems which makes this book an absolute delight to read. I particularly enjoyed the personal anecdotes and commentaries that sprinkled throughout the book. My favorite chapters in the book were the ones on weak isolation and distribution and query optimization.

While reading this book I made note of all research papers that are referenced in this book that I would like to read next. I will be working on that list over the duration of my vacation.

DB

I recently started using Pocket (why had I not used this awesome service before) and discovered a fantastic post on databases under its “Recommended” tab.

Databases are fascinating and complex pieces of software. Ben’s post does an excellent job of explaining database architectures, starting from the pieces that compose the core storage and indexing mechanisms, all the way to horizontally scaling out these systems. Ben does a great job of explaining complex system engineering concepts in a simple fashion, and the beautiful diagrams help a lot.

Highly recommended read for anyone interested in understanding how their favorite database system works!

Thanks

(I meant to write this post for Thanksgiving but in between tasting wines at Napa and failing to ski at Tahoe I never got the time)

Here’s what I am thankful for in 2015:

  • Having a ridiculously awesome group of family and friends. Thank you for always being there for me. Seriously, you’re the best. It’s hard to imagine life without you. Thanks for everything.
  • All the great people I met over the course of the year. You’ve all enriched my life in some form or the other. Thank you.
  • My wonderful house in San Francisco. My roommates are pretty awesome too.
  • New experiences (Coachella, Portland, rock climbing, etc.) that my friends introduced me to.
  • All the concerts I went to. I still can’t believe that I got to see some of my favorite bands (AC/DC, Between the Buried and Me, 

    Deafheaven, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Skyharbor, Tame Impala, TesseracT, The Contortionist, and Trivium) live this year.

Knowledge

You know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you learn something new? That feeling you get when you learn something that blows your mind, or makes you more aware of the intricacies and complexity of the world around you? That’s the feeling I get each time I read an article on Nautilus.

Nautilus is an excellent publication. The writing is top notch, the topics are diverse and interesting, the website design is wonderful, and the art and illustrations are breathtaking.

I noticed that they had a Nautilus Prime Membership sale for December and immediately purchased a subscription for myself (and for two of my friends). I’m sure it will enhance my (already awesome) Nautilus reading experience.

I wish I had discovered Nautilus earlier.