[tolitius]

I agree. Setting up Cassandra is simple. It is later when you get to things like:

    mutator.setColumnOrSuperColumn( ... )
    mutationsMap = new HashMap<ByteBuffer, Map<String, List<Mutation>>>()..

    compound column..
    super compound family of super columns...

where it feels more of a senior project, rather than something simple as:

    curl POST '{"red":2, "blue":4}' http://127.0.0.1:8091/riak/laundry/shirts

Although CQL fixes some of the problems with Cassandra complexity [Thrift does not even sound good in all 3 languages I know], I still believe it will be far more "desirable" (as the real http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra was) if more forces are applied to simplicity and polish.