• I've got half a dozen retired PC boxes stacked in a corner under my desk on which I'm installing a Ubuntu / Hadoop cluster. My intention is to prove whether or my skunkworks cluster can complete 3 concurrent aggregate queries on a TB of data in less time than the production SQL Server Enterprise instance that we currently use for a staging environment. This type of "project" would normally never get approved, which is just as well, because I've had to put it on the back burner for weeks at time while I focus on my real work.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho