Technology Commentary

A post by Zach Leatherman (zachleat)

Pipes are ubiquitous in Unix --- but how fast can they go on Linux? In this post we'll iteratively improve a simple pipe-writing benchmark from 3.5GiB/s to 65GiB/s, guided by Linux `perf`.

Hire the CEO, hire the team, send the CEO back, take a seat on the board — Microsoft will do just about anything to keep OpenAI afloat.

The Cassette tape was great in so many ways, but let’s be honest, they never really sounded great.  But because the cassette was so much cheaper and easier to use and portable, a lot of people didn’t care so much about the audio quality. They just wanted to be able to use something that they

Recently, I am thinking quite a bit about engineering strategy, and as part of that have started re-reading previous resources on the topic, and looking for new things to read while I refine my point of view on what makes for good engineering strategy. The best introduction to my current theory of engineering strategy is Solving the Engineering Strategy Crisis, which has both written and video versions. You can also reading my other strategy writing via the strategy tag.

The “reply guy,” the internet-native take on Florida Man, has started to cause problems in the fediverse, and it comes down to ideology.

The recent security drama caused by an iMessage workaround on Android shouldn’t minimize a simple fact: This is Apple’s fault.

Read an exclusive with some of the researchers of the State of DevOps Report 2023 to talk about what really matters for DORA metrics and how your biz should read them.

Automate common incident remediation tasks to enable faster response, fewer errors, and greater productivity across your organization.

A fancy way of saying unimpeded network connectivity.

Why did your smart garage door opener stop working? A contract expired.

Technology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewitt is a methods-based approach to engineering strategy, with a particular focus on the methods wielded by McKinsey consultants, software engineering mainstays like Thoughtworks, and philosophy. A valuable read for anyone looking to build their own theory of engineering strategy. In June, 2019, I bought a copy of Technology Strategy Patterns by Eben Hewiit. A the time, I was trying to argue against a large, proposed migration to Java at Stripe, collecting thoughts that became Reclaim unreasonable software.

Understanding the deeper dynamics of predatory capitalism

ThousandEyes, which tracks internet and cloud traffic, provides Network World with weekly updates on the performance of ISPs, cloud service providers, and UCaaS providers.

We’re no closer to knowing what a photo is.

Learn how, when, and where to use OAuth scopes for authorization. Get a clear understanding of OAuth scopes definition and their proper usage.

Old technologies never die. Rarely does anyone want to produce diagrams with ASCII art, but sometimes it's the easiest way to work.

Attempts to use the same language for an interactive shell and for writing large programs have not been that successful.

Using the best tool for a job may slow things down. It may be "best" in a sense you don't need. The actual best tool might be relatively crude.

AI Use Disclaimer: I wrote this post and then GPT-4 fixed my grammer and spelling

Make boring text matching a core part of the Python data stack

A novel approach to the data lakehouse combines all the advantages of lakehouse analytics with the high performance of a data warehouse.

“Every day, people badge in, buzz in, swipe in, scan in, sign in, or otherwise just walk into […]

A look at what cross-cutting concerns are, why they need to exist and how to address them in the least painful way possible.

The Software Engineer’s Guidebook by Gergely Orosz is a broad reference book for software engineers that will be particularly valuable for new software engineers and those who’ve worked most of their career in a small number of companies. It doesn’t go deep everywhere, but leaves a breadcrumb on most topics you’ll encounter as a software engineer, along with enough detail to guide deeper exploration in other, narrower books. Gergely Orosz is the author of The Pragmatic Engineer, and almost certainly the current title holder of “widest-reaching writer on software engineering” with ~500,000 subscribers.