Database School

Denis Magda, a software engineer and database expert, discusses the future of Postgres and his book, Just Use Postgres. He shares insights on modern Postgres features like JSON, full-text search, and generative AI. Denis explains when to choose Postgres versus other databases and highlights the unique benefits of its capabilities. He also touches on using Postgres as a message queue and the limitations of PGVector. With practical advice throughout, Denis aims to help developers utilize Postgres to build better systems.

Gajus Kuizinas, co-founder and CTO of Contra, shares insights on creating high-ownership engineering cultures and developing strict runtime-validated SQL through his Slonik library. He discusses the frustrations of traditional ORMs, the breakthrough of JavaScript template tags for safe SQL, and the innovative SafeQL for real-time schema checks. Gajus also introduces Loom-driven development, a tactic for speeding up reviews and improving context. Tune in to explore the evolution of developer experience and schema integrity!

Simon Eskildsen, Co-founder and CEO of TurboPuffer, shares insights from his experience as an infrastructure engineer at Shopify and the founding of TurboPuffer, a serverless vector search solution. He discusses the challenges of scaling databases during Shopify's hypergrowth and how that led to his innovative approach using object storage for efficient vector indexing. The conversation touches on TurboPuffer's impact on modern AI workloads and the challenges of existing vector databases, making a case for cost-effective solutions for emerging companies.

Ovais Tariq, co-founder and CEO of Tigris Data and former Uber engineer, shares insights from his vast experience in building hyperscale storage systems. They delve into the intricacies of creating an S3-compatible global object store, discussing Uber's custom hardware designs and the challenges faced during major outages. Ovais highlights Tigris's unique architecture, its focus on AI-driven workloads, and the advantages of its global metadata strategy. He emphasizes the need for specialized storage solutions and the importance of validating ideas before launching.

In this episode of Database School, Aaron talks with Preston Thorpe, a senior engineer at Turso who is currently incarcerated, about his incredible journey from prison to rewriting SQLite in Rust. They dive deep into concurrent writes, MVCC, and the challenges of building a new database from scratch while discussing redemption, resilience, and raw technical brilliance.Follow Preston and Turso:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/PThorpe92Preston's Blog: https://pthorpe92.devGitHub: https://github.com/PThorpe92Turso: https://turso.techFollow Aaron:Twitter/X:  https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis Database School: https://databaseschool.comDatabase School YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCT3XN4RtcFhmrWl8tf_o49g  (Subscribe today)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Intro and Preston’s story02:13 - How Preston learned programming in prison06:06 - Making his parents proud and turning life around09:01 - Getting his first job at Unlock Labs10:47 - Discovering Turso and contributing to open source12:53 - From contributor to senior engineer at Turso22:27 - What Preston works on inside Turso24:00 - Challenges of rewriting SQLite in Rust26:00 - Why concurrent writes matter27:57 - How Turso implements concurrent writes35:02 - Maintaining SQLite compatibility37:03 - MVCC explained simply43:40 - How Turso handles MVCC and logging46:03 - Open source contributions and performance work46:23 - Implementing live materialized views50:55 - The DBSP paper and incremental computation52:55 - Sync and offline capabilities in Turso56:45 - Change data capture and future possibilities1:02:01 - Implementing foreign keys and fuzz testing1:06:02 - Rebuilding SQLite’s virtual machine1:08:10 - The quirks of SQLite’s codebase1:10:47 - Preston’s upcoming release and what’s next1:14:02 - Gratitude, reflection, and closing thoughts

Joran Greef, CEO and creator of TigerBeetle, dives into the groundbreaking world of high-throughput financial databases. He explores how TigerBeetle embeds double-entry accounting to enhance correctness and fault tolerance. Joran shares insights on the shift in transaction workloads, revealing how traditional databases face performance bottlenecks. He discusses innovative client-side batching for efficiency and explains the importance of resilience in database design. With a rich history of transactions, Joran illustrates why TigerBeetle stands out in modern commerce.

Sam Lambert, CEO of PlanetScale and ex-technical leader at GitHub and Facebook, dives into the strategic shift from MySQL to Postgres. He discusses technical differences between MySQL and Postgres, emphasizing the cultural impact this change has had within PlanetScale. Sam shares insights on why developer vibes and control for startups drove the move and the challenges faced in integrating sharding with Postgres. Plus, stick around for a special surprise at the end!

Marcel Kornacker, the mastermind behind Apache Impala and co-creator of Apache Parquet, shares insights into his innovative project, Pixeltable. This multimodal AI database adeptly blends structured and unstructured data with seamless Python workflows. He discusses the evolution of SQL, the challenges in computer vision data management, and how Pixeltable tackles transformation and transactional guarantees. Listen for fascinating examples like processing video and audio, proving how this tool can revolutionize AI data handling.

Lev Kokotov, founder of PgDog and previously a database engineer at Instacart, discusses his journey from creating PgCat to developing PgDog, an innovative sharding solution for Postgres. He dives into the challenges of scaling databases without extensive rewriting or extensions. Lev shares insights about applying to Y Combinator as a solo founder and PgDog's unique architecture that enhances query handling across multiple instances. The conversation also touches on future developments and the importance of community engagement in shaping PgDog's features.

Glauber Costa, CEO of Turso and an expert in database development, dives into the bold initiative of rewriting SQLite from scratch. He discusses the technical motivations behind this project and how deterministic simulation testing enhances reliability. Glauber also reflects on the journey of transitioning to an open contribution model, the challenges of forking SQLite, and the creation of Turso Cloud. Along the way, he shares personal anecdotes about adjusting to life in Texas, making for an engaging blend of tech talk and human experience.