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Lindsey
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@lindsey

Lindsey

@lindsey
Joined October 2006
341 Following
8,384 Followers
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  • @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Nov 4, 2022
    I recently learned that lenses are just getter/setter pairs. That's all they are. What else are y'all not telling me?
    10
  • @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Nov 4, 2022
    Twitter has its problems -- @alexrudnick calls reading Twitter "pressing the pain button" -- but it's been my memex for ten years, and once I got a good chunk of research funding largely because someone appreciated a joke I made on here. It's a bummer to see it go down the tubes.
    4
  • @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Nov 4, 2022
    Sylvia disapproves of the term "bus shelter" because "it doesn't even shelter the bus"
    4
  • @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Nov 3, 2022
    and to be clear, I genuinely *love* this bit from the timely dataflow book, but I was still incapable of stopping myself from making this and then sharing it with you
    A comic riffing on the one by @jrecursive at http://howfuckedismydatabase.com/nosql/fault-tolerance.png.

Title: "Dataflow processing"

Panel 1:
"So, how do I read the memory?"
"It's not memory, it's an independent component that will eventually return with the associated cache line!"

Panel 2:
"Ok, it's not memory. How do I read it?"
"You introduce a read request into the memory controller!"

Panel 3:
"Did you just tell me to go fuck myself?"
"I believe I did, Bob."
    @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Oct 13, 2022
    Under the covers, your computer (the one on which you are reading this text) is a dataflow processor. When your computer reads memory it doesn't actually wander off to find the memory, it introduces a read request into your memory controller, an independent component that will eventually return with the associated cache line. Your computer then gets back to work on whatever it was doing, hoping the responses from the controller return in a timely fashion.

Academically, I treat "my computer can do this, but timely dataflow cannot" as a bug. There are degrees, of course, and timely dataflow isn't on par with the processor's custom hardware designed to handle low level requests efficiently, but algorithmically, the goal is that anything you can do efficiently with a computer you should be able to express in timely dataflow.
    started reading the timely dataflow book 💗
    1
  • @lindsey
    Lindsey
    @lindsey
    Nov 1, 2022
    YES. I've been waiting for this dude to rebloom since 2018! Check out that lil flower spike!
    A somewhat bedraggled-looking orchid sending up a flower spike. It's seen better days, but it's finally gonna bloom again, dammit
    Close-up of the flower spike. You can tell it's a flower spike and not another aerial root by how the tip is shaped.
    1