This is a post about Datalevin, an open-source database system that I have been building since 2020. Although JOB here is really an acronym for Join Order Benchmark, a benchmark for complex database queries, I intend to build up Datalevin to compete for the same kind of jobs usually held …

Here is the story. I am adding full-text search capability to Datalevin, a Datalog database that we open sourced last year. For this task, I have decided to write a search engine from scratch instead of using an existing search library. Here are some rationales for this decision. Today I …

I challenge myself to read or listen to 52 books in 2020. I'm listing them here with a short descriptions about them to keep track of what I've read and key ideas learned.

1. The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life As a minimalist at heart …

As part of our house modernization process, we bought an Ecobee3 Wifi enabled smart thermostat. We hope that this small device will help reduce the size of our utility bill.  The product looks very simple, but it comes with three additional sensors that can be placed in different rooms, and …

The list of items contained in our diaper bag for air travel, annotated with how essential each item was based on our experience as follows:

*** Must have

**   Nice to have

*     Not needed

For travel gear that may not fit in your diaper bag, please visit this page.

• Portable changing pad …

We traveled with Boyan, our 13-month son last month to Japan (for those who are wondering, yep, he is the main reason why this blog has been so quiet in the past couple of years. :-)) and spent a unforgettable 10 days there. Before I went there, I searched over the …

What makes Mayor Stubbs special?

Check out the personality (or shall I say, catality) profile for Mayor Stubbs constructed by Juji based on Mayor Stubbs' tweets.

Have you meet Mayor Stubbs? Does this sound like him?

What really makes me smile is the summary of the profile. Mayor Stubbs is …

After a long drive, the last stop of the second day of our trip is National Museum of Boyana Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a very small church, originally built in the lat 10th or early 11th century, with the addition of the central wing in the …

The second day of our trip began with a long drive from Sofia to Rila Monastery, the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria.  It is the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bulgaria we visited in our trip.

This beautiful monastery is situated in the southwestern Rila …

We were quite amazed by the National Archaeological Museum, especially the Thracian treasures. 

The museum is located in the largest and oldest former Ottoman Mosque in Sofia.

Thracian treasures. Can you believe that they were made before the Roman Empire?

Gold jewery

Gold wreath

Gold mask and ring from Thracian …

(1) Sign of Sofia --- City of Lion.

Speaker: Tom

Dear fellow kitties, I am going to show you how to get a kitty manicure and pedicure.

First of all, let me show you my beautiful finger nails. My mom polishes each and every one of them on a weekly basis. Such weekly pampering is essential for a …

Planning:

Following my usual strategy for travel planning, I first got some rough ideas on the highlights of the country by referring to the "Best of Bulgaria in 12 Days Tour" by Steve Rick. Based on Huahai and my own schedule, I then decided that we could spend at most …

Today I have encountered dirty diaper for the very first time in my life and it is not pretty.  While doing routine cleaning of our guest bathroom, I was shocked to discover a stack of dirty diaper deposited in the trash can in our guest bathroom.  I am still struggling …

As a new home owner, we have been going through a lot of home remodeling and repair projects. I found myself often search online for the same set of forms again and again. This post is to record all the forms that I often use and sometimes difficult to found …

As a busy computer scientist, I don't really get to exercise my inner Martha too much. But I did somehow manage to make my first ever attempt on sewing projects --- baby cloth shoes (as gift for my niece).

Here is the result --- I added the handmade pompom for extra cuteness …

When Tom (唐唐）was adopted from the animal shelter, his papers listed him as an "American Domestic Long Hair". As new cat parents, we were eager to find out his true breed. We searched and searched online, and identified him as a Chartreux, based on his fur color and …

Updated on 09/10/2013: It's now only 295 USD, with 100 USD discount!

As a cat and modern design lover, I am always looking for cat items pleasant for both the cats and my aesthetic standard. I had my eye on the canine scratcher for a while, but its …

I recently stayed in Manhattan for a few days during a business trip. My colleague and I were looking for places to buy some special chocolate to bring back home. We asked a few locals New Yorker as well as consulted the web for recommendations. Here are the list of …

Huahai and I have just returned from our first trip together to Italy. The trip itself was wonderful and unforgeable. However, it usually took a lot of planning for such an extensive trip, unless you hire someone else to do it for you or join a tour group.

We usually …