Founder @ RillData.com, building GenBI. Lover of fast, flexible, beautiful data tools. Lapsed computational biologist.https://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lq6ncujhs22rDuckLake is a simpler, SQL-friendlier alternative to Iceberg. “There are no Avro or JSON files. There is no additional catalog server or additional API to integrate with. It’s all just SQL.“ That said, choose your catalog database — a single-point of failure — *very carefully*. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 May 2025 21:33 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lq6ncujhs22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lmvb2r4ne22eYo SF Bay Area #databs crew, want to talk lakehouses at a real Lake House? :) Next week after Data Council, join the founders of @clickhouse.com, @motherduck.com, @startreedata.bsky.social, and @tobikodata.com to talk real-time databases and next-generation ETL. https://www.rilldata.com/events/data-talks-on-the-rocks-live-from-data-council15 Apr 2025 23:44 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmvb2r4ne22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lmkxxwbj4s2y"Shifting left" is the new trend among in data stacks -- but what does it mean and what does it matter?11 Apr 2025 21:35 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmkxxwbj4s2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3llzcaxdlhc2qApache Pinot is one of the world’s fastest and most scalable real-time analytical databases, relied on by LinkedIn, Uber, and Stripe. It was awesome diving into the secrets behind its unique architecture with creator and @startreedata.bsky.social founder Kishore Gopalakrishna. [contains quote post or other embedded content]04 Apr 2025 20:51 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3llzcaxdlhc2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lkes3wgzuc2eLike others, I jumped on the bandwagon to ridicule the DOGE analyst who "overheated her hard drive" by analyzing just 60k rows of data. I was wrong. The truth is even dumber. 🧵14 Mar 2025 23:44 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkes3wgzuc2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lhdeeyn2gk2vWhy Pivot Tables Never Die A brief history of software’s longest-lived and most-loved data tool, from Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel to QlikView and PowerBI, by @ssp.sh https://www.rilldata.com/blog/why-pivot-tables-never-die04 Feb 2025 05:50 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhdeeyn2gk2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lh2a5ydr722pDuckCon #6 is now live from Amsterdam (link below!) In about 20 minutes I'll be sharing some work we've been doing at @rilldata.com on metrics-layer-powered dashboards. And speculating in my last slide, because why not, about what you would name an AI agent that runs on DuckDB... 🦆 [contains quote post or other embedded content]31 Jan 2025 14:40 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lh2a5ydr722phttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lgupfyntts23“Pivot tables are just a shorter, fatter GROUP BY”. ❤️ this by @gregat.es [contains quote post or other embedded content]29 Jan 2025 09:57 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgupfyntts23https://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lgepelv6z22h#databs welcomes the creator of Pandas, founder of Datapad & Voltron, and all around nice guy Wes McKinney @wesmckinney.com to BlueSky. [contains quote post or other embedded content]23 Jan 2025 01:14 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgepelv6z22hhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lfv2m64fvk2nI'm collaborating with @ssp.sh on a brief history of pivot tables. We'll be tracing their lineage and evolution across Visicalc, Lotus, Excel, PowerPivot, Qlik, and PowerBI. Any sites, videos, products (dead or alive) that you would recommend we should mention or dig into?16 Jan 2025 19:53 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfv2m64fvk2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lfuwyoazb22nReal-time user experiences make applications magical. Google, WhatsApp, and ChatGPT would all fail if you added just 10 seconds to every search, message, or prompt interaction. We are surrounded by fast user experiences and yet most of us tolerate business dashboards that take minutes to load. [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Jan 2025 18:48 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfuwyoazb22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lcvl65ytys2cI’ve often said working in data engineering is like working in the post office. Queues get backed up, deliveries are lost, yet the stream never stops. It’s a thankless, mostly invisible job until something goes wrong, & then it’s complaints. I hoped the analogies stopped there, but sadly maybe not.09 Dec 2024 20:33 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcvl65ytys2chttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lcm5eoafas2fSnowflake’s pricing is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. [contains quote post or other embedded content]06 Dec 2024 02:32 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcm5eoafas2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lclhrz3l4s2yNice review of the latest CSV parsing & querying capabilities of @duckdb.org. Parquet is obviously better than CSV because of its stronger types, efficient compression, and support for predicate pushdown. But given CSV is *everywhere*, these improvements are welcome. https://duckdb.org/2024/12/05/csv-files-dethroning-parquet-or-not05 Dec 2024 20:06 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lclhrz3l4s2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lclggndkic2p@sfchronicle.com maybe you could find it in your heart to remove the paywall on the TSUNAMI EVACUATION MAP? https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Downtown-S-F-North-Beach-included-in-new-Bay-16299591.php05 Dec 2024 19:42 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lclggndkic2phttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lclfh6zxcs2gOK if this stochastic parrot's answer is to be trusted, I'll be bracing for the tsunami's impact around 12:15-12:30pm.05 Dec 2024 19:24 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lclfh6zxcs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lciwcidznk2kAmazon S3 continues to unleash waves of disruption for data infrastructure. S3 Tables, their managed Iceberg offering, is the latest. What began as commoditization of storage now moves up the stack to swallow cloud warehouses whole. With S3 Tables, what sane person would do ELT in Snowflake?04 Dec 2024 19:48 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lciwcidznk2khttps://bsky.app/profile/medriscoll.com/post/3lcityk7mts2kIn 2003, Jeff Bezos banned Powerpoint from Amazon meetings, insisting managers craft memos, not fancy bullet points. Today, too many dashboards are Powerpoint decks but for data: overly styled visuals better conveyed by a table of metrics. (Ironically, QuickSight dashboards are among the worst).04 Dec 2024 19:07 +0000at://did:plc:axls7t3irob6eckafv3vnevn/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcityk7mts2k