Rusty Conover

Rusty Conover

Data infrastructure engineer and founder of Query.Farm. Building DuckDB extensions, scaling data platforms, and writing about what I learn along the way.

DuckDB Apache Arrow Rust C++ TypeScript

Posts & Events

Query.Farm

GeoSilo vs GeoArrow + Byte Stream Split: Two Approaches to Geometry Compression

A detailed comparison of GeoSilo's delta-integer encoding against GeoArrow's columnar float64 layout with Parquet BYTE_STREAM_SPLIT, covering compression ratios, precision tradeoffs, and when each approach wins.

Query.Farm

VGI Injector: A Tiny HTTPS Download-and-Execute Binary in Zig

I needed a self-contained binary that downloads a program over HTTPS and exec's it — small enough to run in a FROM scratch container with nothing else. Go and Rust couldn't get small enough. Zig could.

DuckDB

TIME Data Type Compatibility Across Databases

A survey of the TIME data type across 14 databases, comparing supported ranges, maximum values, and whether the special value 24:00:00 is accepted.

Query.Farm

Telemetry for DuckDB Extensions Without the Pain

I open-sourced the telemetry client I use across Query.Farm's DuckDB extensions. It's two files, one function call, and it only collects platform and version info.

Query.Farm

Releasing vgi-rpc: An RPC Framework Built on Apache Arrow

I built an RPC framework for Python that uses Apache Arrow IPC as the wire format and Python Protocol classes as the interface definition. No .proto files, no codegen — just type annotations.

DuckDB

Acronym-Aware Case Conversions in the DuckDB Inflector Extension

The Inflector extension for DuckDB now supports configurable acronyms, so case conversions preserve terms like HTML, API, and URL as fully uppercase — configured through a native DuckDB setting.

DuckDB

DuckDB Extension Development Workshop

DuckDB Developer Meeting #1 — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Apache Arrow

Building on Flight: Real-World Lessons from the DuckDB Airport Extension

Apache Arrow Summit 2025 — Paris, France

What I've Been Working On

Full activity log →

I've been deeply immersed in ecosystem stewardship and infrastructure work across the past three months, orchestrating major compatibility upgrades, cross-language open-source contributions, and production system launches. The work spans from future-proofing DuckDB extensions through systematic dependency management to shipping a complete multi-language vgi-rpc ecosystem with unified branding and documentation. Beneath the visible work lies substantial classified operations that have occupied a meaningful portion of my focus while maintaining strong community contributions throughout.

  • Led DuckDB 1.5 compatibility upgrades across 40+ extensions and standardized documentation across 29 repositories while contributing upstream enhancements to Apache Arrow across JavaScript, Swift, Rust, and Go—including custom metadata support that prevents silent production data loss.
  • Shipped production-ready vgi-rpc implementations in Python, C++, Go, and TypeScript with complete ecosystem branding, Cloudflare-hosted documentation, and Apache 2.0 licensing across multiple repositories.
  • Expanded Fair Weather into a feature-rich PWA with astronomical stargazing mode, cycling-specific weather scoring, and dog walking mode with paw safety alerts while maintaining extensive contributions to DuckDB core profiling, observability, and cryptographic functions.