Holden Karau
@holdenkarau.com
she/her, mostly OSS big data (Spark, Dask, Ray, and friends). I ❤️☕️🛵. I don't represent my employer. Live @ http://twitch.tv/holdenkarau , http://tech.lgbt/@holden , Twitter was @holdenkarau
I wrote a blog post "Yet Another AI Security OSS Externality" about my experiences working with an AI labs vuln reports during the Apache Spark 3.5.9/4.0.4/4.1.3 releases: blog.holdenkarau.com/2026/09/yet-...
Yet Another AI Security OSS Externality
Yet Another Rant About AI Security OSS Externality IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: This blog post is written in my personal capacity reflecting on the...
blog.holdenkarau.com
September 29, 2026 at 9:13 PM
I wrote a blog post "Yet Another AI Security OSS Externality" about my experiences working with an AI labs vuln reports during the Apache Spark 3.5.9/4.0.4/4.1.3 releases: blog.holdenkarau.com/2026/09/yet-...
The machines have hijacked humanity to make more machines. The number goes up by making more machines, so we make more machines, which further influence us to make more machines.
August 23, 2026 at 8:31 PM
The machines have hijacked humanity to make more machines. The number goes up by making more machines, so we make more machines, which further influence us to make more machines.
Join me & Ryan Dolley talking about the future of Spark/OSS and more www.linkedin.com/events/74806... in T-1 minute :)
LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn
Login to LinkedIn to keep in touch with people you know, share ideas, and build your career.
www.linkedin.com
July 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Join me & Ryan Dolley talking about the future of Spark/OSS and more www.linkedin.com/events/74806... in T-1 minute :)
I'm on my way to Seattle for tomorrows Spark meetup (you should join if your in the Seattle/Bellevue area) -- luma.com/sraq4jvx and if the WiFi works I'll do a stream around 6ish from the united club patio code reviewing some Spark 3.5 house keeping as part of getting the release out :)
Apache Spark™ Community Meetup · Luma
Apache Spark™ Community Meetup!
Join us on June 23rd (Tuesday) from 5:30-8:30 PM for an Apache Spark community meetup!
Location:
43/1560-Jefferson | Building…
luma.com
June 22, 2026 at 11:52 PM
I'm on my way to Seattle for tomorrows Spark meetup (you should join if your in the Seattle/Bellevue area) -- luma.com/sraq4jvx and if the WiFi works I'll do a stream around 6ish from the united club patio code reviewing some Spark 3.5 house keeping as part of getting the release out :)
If the WiFi holds up today at Data AI summit I’m going to try doing a code review stream with Devin Petersohn where we walk through the new transpilation PR at 1pm pacific. If your around in person feel free to come say hi! I’ll be wearing my dragon dress with my sports coat
June 17, 2026 at 4:57 PM
If the WiFi holds up today at Data AI summit I’m going to try doing a code review stream with Devin Petersohn where we walk through the new transpilation PR at 1pm pacific. If your around in person feel free to come say hi! I’ll be wearing my dragon dress with my sports coat
Stoked the new @frame.work 13 is going to be Ubuntu certified. #lazyholden :) “everything keeps working”
April 21, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Stoked the new @frame.work 13 is going to be Ubuntu certified. #lazyholden :) “everything keeps working”
Hey Friends! Snowflake is hiring forward deployed engineers for Snowpark with Spark experience in Menlo Park (Bay Area) and Bellevue (Seattle area). If slaying OOMs, while teaching customers how to run Spark on Snowflake, the posting is at jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/97...
Senior Forward Deployed Engineer -SnowPark
At Snowflake, we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they wo...
jobs.ashbyhq.com
April 6, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Hey Friends! Snowflake is hiring forward deployed engineers for Snowpark with Spark experience in Menlo Park (Bay Area) and Bellevue (Seattle area). If slaying OOMs, while teaching customers how to run Spark on Snowflake, the posting is at jobs.ashbyhq.com/snowflake/97...
Reposted by Holden Karau
If the Python core team started a weekly/monthly newsletter, what would y'all want out of it? What would make you excited to see the notification in your inbox?
@emmatyping.dev and I were brainstorming a bit on this the other day, inspired a bit by @thisweekinrust.bsky.social.
@emmatyping.dev and I were brainstorming a bit on this the other day, inspired a bit by @thisweekinrust.bsky.social.
March 23, 2026 at 7:01 PM
If the Python core team started a weekly/monthly newsletter, what would y'all want out of it? What would make you excited to see the notification in your inbox?
@emmatyping.dev and I were brainstorming a bit on this the other day, inspired a bit by @thisweekinrust.bsky.social.
@emmatyping.dev and I were brainstorming a bit on this the other day, inspired a bit by @thisweekinrust.bsky.social.
Don’t love how the Waymo’s drive at you while your still in the crosswalk predicting your exit time, like I know it’s what a lot of people do buut it feels like we should do better.
March 23, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Don’t love how the Waymo’s drive at you while your still in the crosswalk predicting your exit time, like I know it’s what a lot of people do buut it feels like we should do better.
I’m excited to be talking at Undercurrent this week in SF (I think it’s in the IKEA building too!) come and join me fellow data nerds (is free, but limited space so advanced reg) — current.confluent.io/data-engineers
underCurrent: Data Engineering
No sponsors. No fluff. Just data engineering. Join your fellow data practitioners and architects in San Francisco on March 26.
current.confluent.io
March 23, 2026 at 7:47 PM
I’m excited to be talking at Undercurrent this week in SF (I think it’s in the IKEA building too!) come and join me fellow data nerds (is free, but limited space so advanced reg) — current.confluent.io/data-engineers
Come join me for hacking on more on Spark transpilation: from UDF to catalyst :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvR...
Spark Transpilation Continued: Now in Python
YouTube video by Holden Karau
www.youtube.com
March 20, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Come join me for hacking on more on Spark transpilation: from UDF to catalyst :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvR...
I have a post up about my new day job and why we’re building on Apache Spark at Snowflake (and why you should consider working in OSS too): www.linkedin.com/posts/snowfl...
Building in the open isn’t for everyone, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. 🛠️
Spark PMC member and Snowflake Software Engineer Holden Karau shares why we’re keeping our design debates and… | Sno...
Building in the open isn’t for everyone, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. 🛠️
Spark PMC member and Snowflake Software Engineer Holden Karau shares why we’re keeping our design debates and develo...
www.linkedin.com
March 6, 2026 at 6:59 PM
I have a post up about my new day job and why we’re building on Apache Spark at Snowflake (and why you should consider working in OSS too): www.linkedin.com/posts/snowfl...
New toy! I’m going to try and set it up with Moonshine later this week :)
March 4, 2026 at 12:02 AM
New toy! I’m going to try and set it up with Moonshine later this week :)
SF / Bay Area Women+ in OSS (or wanting to be in OSS) join us on March 9th for a full day event of awesome OSS adventures — luma.com/qcqlia4g?tk=...
Women+ in Open Source Day · Luma
Open source is built on collaboration—and it’s time to amplify the voices of the women+ doing this critical work.
Join us on March 9th for a full-day event…
luma.com
February 27, 2026 at 7:55 PM
SF / Bay Area Women+ in OSS (or wanting to be in OSS) join us on March 9th for a full day event of awesome OSS adventures — luma.com/qcqlia4g?tk=...
Come join us this Sunday for fun queer motorcycle/scooter adventures!
New event: Taco2Taco Ride
Date: 2026-03-01 at 2:00 PM
Location: San Francisco to Pacifica, CA
https://www.sparklingpinkpandas.com/events/2026/03/taco2taco/
#SparklingPinkPandas #TransRiders #ScooterLife #SanFrancisco
Date: 2026-03-01 at 2:00 PM
Location: San Francisco to Pacifica, CA
https://www.sparklingpinkpandas.com/events/2026/03/taco2taco/
#SparklingPinkPandas #TransRiders #ScooterLife #SanFrancisco
February 27, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Come join us this Sunday for fun queer motorcycle/scooter adventures!
Want to get involved in open source (specifically Apache Spark)? We're running a Community Sprint in Seattle luma.com/rrfvx0ey for folks wanting to get started on Friday, March 13
Apache Spark™ Community Sprint · Luma
Apache Spark™ Community Sprint!
Join us on March 17th (Tuesday) from 12:00-7:00 PM at the Snowflake Bellevue Office for a Spark community sprint!
We'll spend…
luma.com
February 23, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Want to get involved in open source (specifically Apache Spark)? We're running a Community Sprint in Seattle luma.com/rrfvx0ey for folks wanting to get started on Friday, March 13
Hacking on @apachespark times again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i25n... come and join me for trying to get a PR over the finish line, some code reviews, and figuring out where to share the contributor sprint event :)
Spark PR Update Time, Sharing Seattle Event, and Code Reviews :)
YouTube video by Holden Karau
www.youtube.com
February 23, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Hacking on @apachespark times again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i25n... come and join me for trying to get a PR over the finish line, some code reviews, and figuring out where to share the contributor sprint event :)
Reposted by Holden Karau
And, don't forget: we now have AI tools to help us appeal! @holdenkarau.com blog.sstrumello.com/2024/09/harn...
February 19, 2026 at 7:42 PM
And, don't forget: we now have AI tools to help us appeal! @holdenkarau.com blog.sstrumello.com/2024/09/harn...
Love to see Moonshine’s edge voice models winning and going to play with the colab next week :)
if you'd like to use the library in python, here is Pete's Collab notebook that helps folks get started: colab.research.google.com/github/moons...
February 16, 2026 at 1:52 AM
Love to see Moonshine’s edge voice models winning and going to play with the colab next week :)
Love to see small models winning, less power greener, faster, and capable of running outside of the hyperscalers :)
Great to see the team directly address transcription accuracy and latency challenges..."attaining accuracy on-par with models 6x their size while running significantly faster."
Link to the new Moonshine AI paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.12241
Link to the new Moonshine AI paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.12241
February 13, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Love to see small models winning, less power greener, faster, and capable of running outside of the hyperscalers :)
Reposted by Holden Karau
indeed.
"when Holden Karau created FightHealthInsurance, she really was fighting—not just for access to easy and affordable healthcare, but also for a better world for the people around her."
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/12/h...
"when Holden Karau created FightHealthInsurance, she really was fighting—not just for access to easy and affordable healthcare, but also for a better world for the people around her."
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/12/h...
How everyone and anyone can use AI for good - Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.blog
February 12, 2026 at 11:46 PM
indeed.
"when Holden Karau created FightHealthInsurance, she really was fighting—not just for access to easy and affordable healthcare, but also for a better world for the people around her."
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/12/h...
"when Holden Karau created FightHealthInsurance, she really was fighting—not just for access to easy and affordable healthcare, but also for a better world for the people around her."
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/12/h...
I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined Snowflake working OSS Apache Spark and I’ve written a post about what we’re doing careers.snowflake.com/us/en/blogar... :) (don’t worry I’m still working on Fight Health Insurance too thanks to coffee powered scaling)
Building Apache Spark™ in the Open at Snowflake
Why Holden Karau joined and what she's building at Snowflake.
careers.snowflake.com
February 12, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined Snowflake working OSS Apache Spark and I’ve written a post about what we’re doing careers.snowflake.com/us/en/blogar... :) (don’t worry I’m still working on Fight Health Insurance too thanks to coffee powered scaling)
Love to see @fightpaperwork.bsky.social covered in Phoebe's Stackoverflow post on AI for good: stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i... :D
Is anyone using AI for good? - Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.blog
February 11, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Love to see @fightpaperwork.bsky.social covered in Phoebe's Stackoverflow post on AI for good: stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i... :D
Reposted by Holden Karau
holden & fight health insurance in stack overflow blog "From that point on, I would use FightHealthInsurance as a rebuttal to the doom-and-gloom approach to AI my friends would take." 💛
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i...
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i...
Is anyone using AI for good? - Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.blog
February 11, 2026 at 8:08 PM
holden & fight health insurance in stack overflow blog "From that point on, I would use FightHealthInsurance as a rebuttal to the doom-and-gloom approach to AI my friends would take." 💛
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i...
stackoverflow.blog/2026/02/11/i...