Robert Blumen

Project update! My application tracking extension is now doing fuzzier matching and injecting new information into LinkedIn (and other sites) to keep me from doubling up on applications. Next up: local storage and bulk import/export operations...

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In late 2023 we reported that MySQL and MariaDB’s REPEATABLE READ did not, in fact, provide repeatable reads. The MariaDB team has been hard at work this past year. They’ve added a new flag, --innodb-snapshot-isolation=true, which causes REPEATABLE READ to prevent Lost Update, Non-repeatable Read, and violations of Monotonic Atomic View. Jepsen has not yet tested this, but it looks like MariaDB might, with the new flag enabled, offer Snapshot Isolation at REPEATABLE READ. https://lnkd.in/dw_SFhjh https://lnkd.in/dc_9-P26

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– I was basically the Leonardo da Vinci of system design… if Leonardo had been really into Kubernetes and had a concerning addiction to coffee. Trying to build the perfect system that anticipates every future need is often worse than creating one designed to change quickly. I shared some of these experiences on the Pulumi blog today – check it out: 👉 https://lnkd.in/dAh_k_D5 #SoftwareEngineering #Architecture #Engineering #PlatformEngineering #SoftwareDevelopment #Pulumi

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Great SRE Interview Questions 

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These are the boring, yet impactful aspects of API operations I am here for--low-tech, economy impacting, real-world stuff like the API deprecation notice from the Department of Labor.

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Looking to get started with in-database machine learning with MySQL HeatWave? This guide will help get you on the right path. https://lnkd.in/gPjuJU9g

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AWS re:Invent is less than two weeks away. Want to accelerate your AI initiatives? Let's connect in Vegas and discuss how Meibel enables your engineering team to build Explainable AI into your products and experiences.

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Anthropic released another paper on their ongoing work towards interpretability of large foundational models like their Claude 3 family, built on previous work by many. Their work continues to be enlightening and inspiring. The findings in this work are generally similar to previous findings on smaller models but scaled up to Claude 3 Sonnet: 💡 they find large numbers of "features" corresponding to combinations of neuron activations and these features map to concepts that we recognize/understand: for example, features for transit infrastructure, particular people, concepts (like bias and "objects lacking sentience"). This might sound familiar from classical machine learning, but the interesting thing is that there is no single thing/neuron encoding each of these concepts, it's a particular combination of neuron activations that embeds these concepts in "superposition" in the network. 💡they observe a sort of "distance" of these feature activations that arrange themselves "near" semantically similar features. When they use their sparse autoencoder approach to learn more and more features they observe that the level of abstraction in the detected features becomes more granular, in ways that are interpretable and meaningful. 💡when they artificially fire these activation patterns during inference, it affects the output in ways that relate to the "feature". For example, asking Claude "what's the most interesting science" normally it responds Physics, but if you clamp the feature activations for the feature "Brain Science" to 10x their max values then Claude responds: Neuroscience. Ways to interpret _and_ influence the model. Great readable work [1] along with an interactive explorer of some of the "features" themselves [2] 🎂 There's an easter egg too: if you scroll in the feature explorer tool and try and select one of the "Randomly selected features from 1M" you get a message "if you want to see the rest of the features, we're hiring!" with a link to their recruiting page :) [1] https://lnkd.in/gZbparwp [2] https://lnkd.in/gC9eus53

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Hey folks! Garrett Milster and I have only posted about Sacramento Labs once, so we figured it's time for an update 😊 **What is Sacramento Labs?** We’re a small team focused on launching software products that solve real-world problems. Think of us as a startup lab—constantly testing ideas, learning from feedback, and building tools that matter, and having an impact while doing it. **How do we decide what to build?** We like to build products that: -         Solve real-world problems in mostly ignored industries -         Are small, highly maintainable, and scalable codebases -         Make the world a better place directly, or by donating a percentage of profits to a relevant charity in that space You can learn more about our philosophy at sacramentolabs.com **What you can expect from us** We’ll be posting product ideas that are in various stages of our pipeline: Early Concept, Customer Development, In Progress, Launched, Scaling. We’d love to hear your feedback! **Our latest concept: Self-Hosted Security** Here’s the problem: - Businesses often use third-party URL shorteners to share internal tools, resources, or campaigns, but these services introduce serious risks. Enterprise companies like Google, Microsoft, and Stripe have built their own internal URL shorteners for this reason – but most businesses don’t have the resources to do that. - Phishing attacks are rampant, and links from external services can be spoofed or abused. - Branding and security controls are limited, leaving sensitive information exposed. - You can’t track link activity—who’s clicking what, when, or why. - When employees leave, their shared links still work, leaving potential vulnerabilities. Our proposed solution: Self-Hosted Security. It’s a plug-and-play solution for businesses to host their own branded URL shorteners with: - SSO for secure access tied to your company’s directory. - Link expirations to ensure old links don’t stay active indefinitely. - Audit logs to track activity and improve visibility into link usage. 📢 We need your input! Would this solve a problem for you? What features would make this indispensable? Check out the landing page and share your thoughts: selfhostedsecurity.com Want to chat? Email me at [email protected] 😊 💡 And here’s something we’re passionate about: a percentage of profits from Self-Hosted Security will go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Your feedback not only helps us create better solutions, but also contributes to making a positive impact. Thanks for being part of the journey!

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Antithesis, Buf, and Jepsen are running a joint webinar on December 5th. We'll discuss a Kafka protocol safety issue, talk about the challenges of distributed systems testing, and show how Jepsen and Antithesis helped identify critical safety errors in Bufstream. Come watch Antithesis pause, rewind, and explore a running cluster in an interactive debugging shell! https://lnkd.in/eRBiQKAk

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All the small web shops should look into this as a funnel for new biz and all the small and medium size businesses should really consider where your best ROI is at. Fix it and be accessible!

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Want a preview of what I'm going to be talking about in my keynote for RubyConf? You can catch a glimpse of it here!

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Santana Row shopping center in San Jose has implemented a ticketless parking system that eliminates the need for drivers to take a ticket upon entry and pay at a pay station upon exit. Instead, drivers can simply scan a QR code (see photo) posted throughout the garage using their phones, enter their license plate number and credit card information on the website that pops up, and a camera will read their license plate and open the gate as they exit. While this system may seem convenient and efficient, I think there is a significant security concern! There is a risk that perpetrators could replace the posted QR code with their own, which would redirect drivers to a fake website where they would unknowingly enter their credit card information. This could lead to unauthorized charges and potential identity theft. It is crucial for the shopping center to address this security concern by taking appropriate measures to protect drivers' personal and financial information. They must ensure that the QR codes posted are authentic and that there are no vulnerabilities that could allow perpetrators to manipulate the system. As an alternative solution, pay stations could be installed for shoppers to use instead of relying on their own phones.

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It’s time to shift from orchestrating infrastructure to focusing on production-ready workloads. I published an article with The New Stack, discussing the future of developer experience and platform building on Kubernetes. This approach isn’t about adding more layers of complexity but about empowering engineering teams to ship without brain damage. We need better abstractions for infrastructure operations that preserve flexibility and control. These abstractions should serve the developer, too: "You build it, you run it." If you’re navigating Kubernetes and exploring new ways to streamline development, give it a read! I'll also be in Salt Lake City for Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)'s KubeCon NA with Northflank - come say hi. https://lnkd.in/e4hq-9Qv

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Excited to share that I was interviewed by FSR magazine to talk about Fishbowl GRM and how we’re helping restaurants better understand their guests and connect all their data in one place! 🎉 In today’s competitive landscape, knowing your guests and creating personalized experiences is more important than ever. Fishbowl GRM empowers restaurants to not only gather insights but also turn them into meaningful actions that drive loyalty and revenue. Huge thanks to FSR Magazine for the opportunity to share how we’re making this happen. Check out the article to learn more about how Fishbowl is transforming guest engagement for restaurants! #RestaurantTech #GuestEngagement #DataDrivenDecisions #RestaurantMarketing #HospitalityInnovation #GuestLoyalty #RestaurantSuccess #PersonalizedMarketing #FishbowlGRM

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I was taking a look at AWS EC2 costs today and noticed something that seemed odd to me. It may be that I'm missing some details. Cost of storing 1TiB data in EBS: $80/month (https://lnkd.in/gn36ua-G) ---- Cost of transferring data out from EC2 to internet : $90/TiB (https://lnkd.in/gq-RP3J7) ---- Cost of transferring data in from internet to EC2: Free (https://lnkd.in/gq-RP3J7) Can anyone help me understand why outbound data transfers from "EC2 to Internet" are so expensive? Is there a technical reason I'm missing. Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba and IBM have similar pricing numbers for outbound n/w transfers to the internet ($80+/TiB) However, if you consider cloud vendors like DigitalOcean (https://lnkd.in/g-TT3WiS) their outbound network costs are much more reasonable: $10/TB.

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Easy as Pie: Stateful Services at CloudKitchens https://lnkd.in/eDDTfs5e

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