I hope later posts in this series explore Linux perf_events or flame graphs, which is the origin of the (unattributed) background image (http://www.brendangregg.com/FlameGraphs/cpuflamegraphs.html). :)
Sorry about the attribution. I'm trying to find who controls the blog as we speak so I can have them add it. (I work at Localytics, but I'm not the author.)
We've gingerly explored flame graphs to understand Vertica behavior under load, and we still have a lot that we want to try and use it for. I'm not sure if it will make an appearance in a further post, but we've definitely used your perf_event/ftrace-based tooling. :)