http://simonwillison.net/2024-07-22T18:33:00+00:00Simon Willison2024-07-22T18:33:00+00:002024-07-22T18:33:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/22/no-more-blue-fridays/#atom-tag

<p><strong><a href="https://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2024-07-22/no-more-blue-fridays.html">No More Blue Fridays</a></strong></p> Brendan Gregg: "In the future, computers will not crash due to bad software updates, even those updates that involve kernel code. In the future, these updates will push eBPF code."</p> <p>New-to-me things I picked up from this:</p> <ol> <li>eBPF - a technology I had thought was unique to the a Linux kernel - is coming Windows!</li> <li>A useful mental model to have for eBPF is that it provides a WebAssembly-style sandbox for kernel code.</li> <li>eBPF doesn't stand for "extended Berkeley Packet Filter" any more - that name greatly understates its capabilities and has been retired. More on that <a href="https://ebpf.io/what-is-ebpf/#what-do-ebpf-and-bpf-stand-for">in the eBPF FAQ</a>.</li> <li>From <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41034079">this Hacker News thread</a> eBPF programs can be analyzed before running despite the halting problem because eBPF only allows verifiably-halting programs to run.</li> </ol> <p><small></small>Via <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41033579">Hacker News</a></small></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/linux">linux</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/security">security</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/windows">windows</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/webassembly">webassembly</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/brendan-gregg">brendan-gregg</a></p>

2021-06-08T19:33:16+00:002021-06-08T19:33:16+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2021/Jun/8/observability/#atom-tag

<blockquote cite="http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2021-05-23/what-is-observability.html"><p>When I was a performance consultant I'd show up to random companies who wanted me to fix their computer performance issues. If they trusted me with a login to their production servers, I could help them a lot quicker. To get that trust I knew which tools looked but didn't touch: Which were observability tools and which were experimental tools. "I'll start with observability tools only" is something I'd say at the start of every engagement.</p></blockquote> <p class="cite">&mdash; <a href="http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2021-05-23/what-is-observability.html">Brendan Gregg</a></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/performance">performance</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/observability">observability</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/brendan-gregg">brendan-gregg</a></p>