So you want to create a universe

Thu 11 March 2021 by Moshe Zadka

A story about looking for a universe, and finding a pi(e)

This is fine. You need not feel shame. Many want to create a universe. But it is good you are being careful. A universe with sentient beings is a big moral responsibility.

It is good to start with …

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Virtual Buffet Line

Thu 18 February 2021 by Moshe Zadka

Many people have written about the logistical challenges of food in a conference. You trade off not just, as Chris points out, expensive food versus terrible food, but also the challenges of serving the food to everyone at once.

One natural method of crowd control is the buffet line. People …

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DRY is a Trade-Off

Fri 11 December 2020 by Moshe Zadka

DRY, or Don't Repeat Yourself is frequently touted as a principle of software development. "Copy-pasta" is the derisive term applied to a violation of it, tying together the concept of copying code and pasta as description of software development bad practices (see also spaghetti code).

It is so uniformly reviled …

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Fifty Shades of Ver

Sat 19 September 2020 by Moshe Zadka

Computers work on binary code. If statements take one path: true, or false. For computers, bright lines and clear borders make sense.

Humans are more complicated. What's an adult? When are you happy? How mature are you? Humans have fuzzy feelings with no clear delination.

I was more responsible as …

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Universal Binary

Thu 20 August 2020 by Moshe Zadka

I have written before about my Inbox Zero methodology. This is still what I practice, but there is a lot more that helps me.

The concept behind "Universal Binary" is that the only numbers that make sense asymptotically are zero, one, and infinity. Therefore, in order to prevent things from …

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The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever (In Python)

Fri 24 July 2020 by Moshe Zadka

The Labyrinth is a children’s movie. The main character is 16 years old, and solving a logic puzzle that will literally decide if she lives or dies. In fiction, characters are faced with realistic challenges: ones they can solve, even if they have to make an effort.

So, it …

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Hey, Back Off!

Sun 12 July 2020 by Moshe Zadka

The choice in parameters for back-off configuration is important. It can be the difference between a barely noticable blip in service quality and an hours-long site outage. In order to explore the consequences of the choice, I wrote a little fictional ditty about a fictional website.

I hope you enjoy …

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A Labyrinth of Lies

Fri 03 July 2020 by Moshe Zadka

In the 1986 movie Labyrinth, a young girl (played by Jennifer Connelly) is faced with a dilemma. The adorable Jim Henson puppets explain to her that one guard always lies, and one guard always tells the truth. She needs to figure out which door leads to the castle at the …

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Conditionally Logging Expensive Tasks

Sat 13 June 2020 by Moshe Zadka

(I have shown this technique in my mailing list. If this kind of thing seems interesting, why not subscribe?)

Imagine you want to log something that is, potentially, expensive to calculate. For example, in DEBUG mode, you would like to count the classes of the objects in gc.get_objects() and …

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My Little Pony -- DevOps is Magic

Sun 26 April 2020 by Moshe Zadka

(This article is based on the one I originally published on OpenSource.com.)

In 2010, the My Little Pony franchise was rebooted with the animated show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The combination of accessibility to children with the sophisticated themes the show tackled garnered a following that cut …

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