PostgreSQL used fsync incorrectly for 20 years (2019) [video]
About a year ago the PostgreSQL community discovered that fsync (on Linux and some BSD systems) may not work the way we always thought it is, with possibly disastrous consequences for data durability/consistency (which is something the PostgreSQL community really values).
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
How do habits work? How do you change your habits? How do you hold yourself accountable? This complete habits guide contains everything you need to know.
We used Elixir's Observer to hunt down bottlenecks
Learn how to use Elixir's Observer to chase down bottlenecks and fix runtime issues.
Building a radio-controlled submarine with automatic depth control
In this post series I will explain the making of a radio-controlled submarine. I will go through the design, the building process, Python code, tests in water, and all the mistakes I made. Lots of …
Accounting for developers part III – building a lending marketplace
In this final part of our Accounting for Developers series, we explore the ins and outs of building a ledger to power a lending marketplace product.
The cult of Amiga and SGI, or why workstations matter
I’m considered to be a server guy. I had access to some really awesome server machines. Still, when computers come up in discussions, we are almost exclusively talk about workstations. Even if servers are an important part of my life, that’s “just” work. I loved the SGI workstations I had access to during my…
Despite crypto layoffs, Kraken continues to hire
With the recent market downturn, a lot of candidates and Krakenites have been asking, “What does this mean!?” Our response: “First time?” What it means is it’s once again time to build. It’s time to remember why we’re doing this: The Mission of bringing financial freedom and inclusion to the billions of people…
Humanity’s broken risk perception is reversing global progress
Human activity and behaviour is contributing to an increasing number of disasters across the world, putting millions of lives and every social and economic gain in danger, warns a new UN report.
Falsehoods programmers believe about undefined behavior
All kinds of reasonable-sounding beliefs about undefined behavior are wrong. Let's go through them.
Inflation is differential and restructuring (2021)
When it comes to inflation, economists get it wrong. Inflation is always and everywhere differential.
Aerodynamics of Gravel Bikes
Aerodynamics are an important factor in gravel racing and riding. Gravel racing speeds are high—the fastest riders in the 200-mile Unbound average 20 mph (32 km/h) across the Flint Hills of Kansas. And many gravel races can be extremely windy. Optimizing the aerodynamics of a…
Why hasn’t technology disrupted higher education already?
The key question about AI and school is about the past
Are blockchains decentralized?
A new Trail of Bits research report examines unintended centralities in distributed ledgers Blockchains can help push the boundaries of current technology in useful ways. However, to make good risk decisions involving exciting and innovative technologies, people need demonstrable facts that are arrived at through…
Bye, Twitter
Today I’m leaving Twitter, because I don’t like making unpaid contributions to a for-profit publisher whose proprietor is an alt-right troll. But also because it’s probably going to break down. Read on for details.
“Privacy”.com–Yeah Right
At the behest of a friend of mine, I decided to get myself a Privacy.com account. I filled it out with my personal information, activated the account, and...
What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
Why did the oracle of Delphi go into a trance state? Does it have anything to do with ethylene?
The high price we pay for social media
Sitting exams is unpleasant at the best of times, but my daughter believes she has extra cause to complain. Two of her A-level papers are scheduled for the same time, so she must take a break betwe…
Justice Clarence Thomas uncovered a seven-year-old bug in my program (2013)
Franklin Chen's personal website and blog
Mozilla’s Vision for the Evolution of the Web
Mozilla's mission is to ensure that the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. We believe in an Internet that puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe, and independent.
Go's Concurrency Examples in Java 19
There is no way for your operating system to know exactly how much stack space a thread will need so it allocates an amount on the order of around a kilobyte initially and then around a megabyte once the thread starts to be used. You only have around a bakers dozen gigabytes of RAM, so you can only have give or take…
Favor real dependencies for unit testing
Which dependencies should be present in your code base? This article suggests an answer to that question.
Let's improve PeerTube – Help us define PeerTube's future roadmap
Discover the latest PeerTube news, the YouTube decentralized alternative developed by Framasoft.
Optimizing compilers reload vector constants needlessly
Modern processors have powerful vector instructions which allow you to load several values at once, and operate (in one instruction) on all these values. Similarly, they allow you to have vector constants. Thus if you wanted to add some integer (say 10001) to all integers in a large array, you might first load a…
Futurist prediction methods and accuracy
I've been reading a lot of predictions from people who are looking to understand what problems humanity will face 10-50 years out (and sometimes longer) in order to work in areas that will be instrumental for the future and wondering how accurate these predictions of the future are. The timeframe of predictions that…
Reflections on my time in Y Combinator
A quick intro: This is the first post I’ve written in quite a while, but it’s also the first time I feel like I’ve had a chance to breathe this year. I’m on a “vacation”, although it stops feeling like that when you have a toddler