Faster isn't better
Faster network paths reduced packet latency but worsened OpenNTPD's steady-state jitter; userspace UDP produced 10.8 times the 10 GbE baseline in this run.
Field notes
Systems software, measured.
Data layouts, benchmarks, SIMD, market infrastructure, and what the machine was actually doing while everyone was looking at the API.
Writing
Latest posts
The GPU Helps Before the Queue Gets Long
An AMD Vulkan path cuts progressive JPEGli latency and energy while an on-demand server has headroom; the advantage fades as the machine fills.
Faster JPEGli Decode with Lower Attributed Energy on M4 Max
For baseline images at or above 1 MP, direct Metal ending in a GPU-resident texture was 12.5% faster than TurboJPEG and used 53.2% less process-attributed energy; combined CPU+GPU rail energy was 3.9% lower.
The Bootstrap Listener That Ruined My Tail Latency
A harmless-looking nonblocking accept() loop turned a low-microsecond libfabric path into millisecond-scale tail stalls.
What a Noisy Benchmark Machine Almost Cost Me
A negative compiler result looked conclusive until quieter machines exposed what benchmark noise had hidden.
AI Is Random, Not Wrong
Why nondeterministic AI output is not itself evidence of error, and how seeded randomness already powers trusted systems from hash tables to Ethernet.
Two Poops and a Lollipop
Learning to market serious open-source systems software by telling the human stories between the benchmark wins.
The COW Goes MOO
How Goblin Core keeps copy-on-write memory growth during BGSAVE from becoming an out-of-memory failure.
Why We Should Learn to Love the Robot
Why AI-assisted software is still authored by the person making the architectural decisions and checking what must be true.