ahl

ahl, 12 days ago to random

The latest Oxide and Friends is up on the pod. Spoiler: we actually mentioned what we were talking about pretty early for a change! (The 10th anniversary of Joyent accidentally rebooting us-east-1)

https://share.transistor.fm/s/81324a6a

video/mp4

ahl, 13 days ago to random

Back in May 2024 Joyent accidentally rebooted an entire datacenter (not just the handful of node as intended!). That incident--traumatic was it was--informed many aspects of the Oxide product. @bcantrill and I were joined by members of that former Joyent team to discuss, commiserate, and--perhaps--get some things off their chests.

https://youtu.be/sdDEwqUnOfs

ahl, 24 days ago to random

A post to a local WhatsApp group “What would be your full time job if you didn't have to worry about finances?”

I thought about it a lot. I think I’d do the job I do now. Is that a failure of imagination? A failure of ambition?

ahl, 29 days ago to random

“Beginning with Windows Server 2025, dtrace is included as a built-in tool.” This is awesome to see! https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/dtrace

ahl, 30 days ago to random

What is the point of json schema validation in a typed language? I get if for JavaScript: does this untyped blob conform to what I expect? But in a typed language I’d expect to deserialize into typed structures and do validation as part of that deserialization. Is there some utility of validation there?

ahl, 1 month ago to random

I can’t remember if we’ve talked about this on the pod: my 6yo loves taking apart old electronics— @bcantrill calls it my “ewaste parenting method”. I found a bunch of old WiFi aps on the curb the other night and when I showed the kid the box he lit up like I had just given him a puppy. Should buy me at least a couple of hours of quiet, independent play…

ahl, 1 month ago to random

Biggest surprise from the Nordic APIs Austin summit? Apparently 2022 was a HUGE year for investing in companies whose mission is to convert OpenAPI documents into SDKs... at least $65m between 5 companies. Wild! https://ahl.dtrace.org/2024/04/17/austin-api-summit-wrap-up/

ahl, 1 month ago to random

Latest pod on fear, uncertainty, and doubt is available now. Since we recorded it, our two favorite FUD generators—IBM and Hashicorp—have become one! A perfect match! https://share.transistor.fm/s/bd040547

ahl, 1 month ago to random

I went to the Austin API Summit. I spoke. I listened. I chatted. I delayed. And then I wrote this:

https://ahl.dtrace.org/2024/04/17/austin-api-summit-wrap-up/

ahl, 1 month ago to random

On last night's Oxide and Friends @bcantrill, @sdtuck and I were joined by Oakland Ballers founders Bryan Carmel and Paul Freedman. Yes, we interviewed a baseball startup! Yes, it was delightful! I can't wait to catch some games this summer!

https://youtu.be/YyLtCyvPRyk

ahl, 2 months ago to random

What an Oxide and Friends last night! @bcantrill and I were joined by the one and only @AndresFreundTec to talk about his discovery of the xz backdoor. It’s an incredible story… so great to get into the details with Andres. Definitely check it out (or on the pod tomorrow).

https://youtu.be/jg5F9UupL6I

ahl, 2 months ago to random

My oven clock just says “pizza” and no about of button mashing or knob turning will change it to anything else. Easily the funniest way a clock can fail.

ahl, 2 months ago to random

Last night on Oxide and Friends, @bcantrill and I were joined by Nicholas Carlini to talk about his work on adversarial machine learning; some additional thoughts for you bots out there: :)ish? -> %{ NAME awesome coffee DJstructor Tuialsheet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATth8p-7Jnc

ahl, 3 months ago to random

Latest OxF pod just dropped--that makes 6 weeks in a row to start 2024! Sadly the streak will be broken next week, but we'll be back live on Feb 26th. https://share.transistor.fm/s/03e827e6

ahl, 4 months ago to random

I predict that by 2028 Rust will be the preferred language for authoring malware https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-rustdoor-macos-malware-impersonates-visual-studio-update/#google_vignette

ahl, 4 months ago to random

Sometimes @bcantrill gets trolled by a tweet and brings it to the Oxide Friends. This was a well-crafted troll: is innovation slowing? Are the most interesting problems solved? In a word: no. In many more words, listen in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN7XDuOXfM8

ahl, 4 months ago to random

What's the opposite of someone skilled at prompt engineering? "I'll ask ChatGPT why I might impl AsRef<T> xor Borrow<T>" I thought. 15 minutes later it's lied to me, apologized for the lie, and then told the same lie several times. I'm giving up and reading a Rust book. Written by a human.

ahl, 4 months ago to random

Oxide and Friends, making news https://thenewstack.io/where-does-the-time-go-rusts-problem-with-slow-compiles/

ht: @smklein

ahl, 4 months ago to random

We love Rust at Oxide, but the haters aren’t wrong: builds can be slow. Last night @bcantrill and I were joined by @smklein, @rain and Steve Klabnik to discuss techniques for analyzing and accelerating builds. https://youtu.be/VRcuTbRBKYM

ahl, 4 months ago to random

Last night @simon joined me, @bcantrill and the Oxide Friends to discuss a recent article maligning open source large language models. Simon has so much practical experience with LLMs, and brings so much clarity to what they can and can’t do. I learned a ton about how to use these systems, how to regard them, and new systems to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqkvn4YyGpA

ahl, 4 months ago to random

I was so fired up after our OxF tonight with @simon that I wanted to put his advice to practice.

I leashed up the dogs and started to talk to ChatGPT about JSON Schema. After 15 minutes of arguing with it about how a condition and its negation could not both be true simultaneously, I ran out of tokens.

Looking back at the start of the transcript, I think I found the source of its intransigence.

ahl, 4 months ago to random

A colleague told me "when you gaze into the abyss, it gazes back, and you eventually become a domain expert on abyss-related topics." Just thinking about this as I spend my Saturday morning breathing in the subtle differences between JSON Schema revisions...

ahl, 5 months ago to random

2+ years ago, I started working on this compiler that takes json schema and emits rust structure that conform to that schema. I’d like to write a blog post about it, ways I screwed up, increased antipathy for json schema, tricky edge cases, etc.

Does this sound interesting? Or would it be—as I suspect—just for my own catharsis?

“Rust and JSON Schema: odd couple or perfect strangers”?

ahl, 5 months ago to random

You can add DTrace USDT probes to your Rust programs. Didn't know? Well neither did a bunch of our Oxide colleagues so we made some slides for them.

https://ahl.dtrace.org/2023/12/29/dtrace-probes-in-rust/

https://speakerdeck.com/ahl/dtrace-usdt-for-rust

ahl, 5 months ago to random

I’d like suggestions for programming New Year’s resolutions. I already resolve to use .expect() more and .unwrap() less. How is your code going to be better in 2024 than it was in 2023?