Hacker News: jtregunna

New comment by jtregunna in "Disks Lie: Building a WAL that actually survives"

jtregunna — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 15:23:38 +0000

In what sense? The phrasing is just a generalization, production-grade anything needs consideration of the needs and goals of the project.

New comment by jtregunna in "Disks Lie: Building a WAL that actually survives"

jtregunna — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 13:37:14 +0000

Right, you do need to fsync when creating new files to ensure the directory entry is durable. However, WAL files are typically created once and then appended to for their lifetime, so the directory fsync is only needed at file creation time, not during normal operations.

Disks Lie: Building a WAL that actually survives

jtregunna — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 01:16:49 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.canoozie.net/disks-lie-building-a-wal-that-actually-survives/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239726

Points: 49

# Comments: 50

A delightfully silly database that lives in CPU cache

jtregunna — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 06:52:29 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.canoozie.net/when-your-database-lives-in-cpu-cache-because-why-not/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44753734

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by jtregunna in "Async I/O on Linux in databases"

jtregunna — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 15:51:04 +0000

Update:

I updated the post based on the conversation below, I wholly missed an important callout about performance, and wasn't super clear that you do need to wait for the completion record to be written before responding to the client. That was implicitly mentioned by writing the completion record coming before responding, but I made it clearer to avoid confusion.

Also the dual WAL approach is worse for latency, unless you can amortize the double write over multiple async writes, so the cost paid amortizes across the batch, but when batch size is closer to 1, the cost is higher.

New comment by jtregunna in "Async I/O on Linux in databases"

jtregunna — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 06:20:02 +0000

Post talks about how to use io_uring, in the context of building a "database" (a demonstration key-value cache with a write-ahead log), to maintain durability.

Async I/O on Linux in databases

jtregunna — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 06:20:02 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.canoozie.net/async-i-o-on-linux-and-durability/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44622454

Points: 205

# Comments: 94

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 16:29:52 +0000

Actually, this is exactly why Canada should be looking for other markets. The US has clearly indicated to us that we can no longer rely on them for trade. It's long overdue, but now is the time we need to act in reducing our dependence on the US, since clearly one dumbass can impact our economy in ways that one dumbass shouldn't be able to.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 14:50:15 +0000

> Secret courts are a shame. Secret directives, on the other hand, can be compatible with the rule of law and an independent judiciary, provided they're lawfully authorized and can be challenged in a court.

I presume you also forgot to add this before challenged in a court...

> ..., whistleblowers are protected, and can be ...

You see, because that's the thing with secret directives, they're redacted from the public eye. The only way we get visibility into them isn't with FOIA requests, it's with whistleblowers who feel the government is doing things wrong, and if they're not protected, they rarely come forward.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 18:52:37 +0000

Textbook nonsequiter, well done.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 18:45:35 +0000

Uh, not my intent. I'm trying to illustrate that Canada has command and control regulations regarding telecommunication providers that operate in the country, and there are requirements for Canadian control. If equipment were factored into such decisions, that could go a way into resolving this problem. Though it'd probably create others. And for completeness, it's still Canada's decision to make, the rhetoric the US has been sending our way has left many of us feeling like the once good friend and neighbour, has decided that we're a threat to their national security.

EDIT: Clicked too soon.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:22:22 +0000

Sure, doesn't hurt to listen, but at the end of the day, that's just being polite. A courtesy. The decision is still entirely Canada's, and shouldn't be influenced by US congress critters.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:19:39 +0000

Sure, just saying, Canada should review any orders it makes towards telecom companies (full disclosure, I started and ran a telecom company from 2001 until 2010) from entirely a Canadian perspective and not account for any input from the US; doubly so given how the US government (like it or not, Trump is their president and reflects their government internationally) has treated Canada over the last year and a half.

New comment by jtregunna in "US Lawmakers Urge Canada to Snub China's Huawei in Telecoms"

jtregunna — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:02:51 +0000

> As a Canadian citizen, I urge Canada to snub Huawei too.

I'm not a fan of Huawei, but I am a fan of retaining our sovereignty. If the US wants the privilege of suggesting how we should run our country, then perhaps they should work on their end to repair the bilateral relationship. Currently, my vote is to tell them "Mind your own damned business."

New comment by jtregunna in "About the ZipCPU"

jtregunna — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 16:45:09 +0000

Oh I know it can, my comment was more tongue in cheek not dismissive :)

New comment by jtregunna in "About the ZipCPU"

jtregunna — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 16:26:25 +0000

It's almost always more efficient to use an existing CPU if it fits your use case than to design your own. Even if it doesn't, it is often more efficient (time wise) to adapt your use case to the hardware you have available, or write software to resolve the feature you want in hardware but don't have. Only the especially nutty build their own CPUs (I'm especially nutty too)

New comment by jtregunna in "Dropbox is using an unsigned binary to install kernel extensions on your Mac"

jtregunna — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 17:44:17 +0000

More likely referring to the fact that Dropbox has had many an issue lately of doing things that may not have been intended to look nefarious, but look that way nonetheless. This is just the last straw for some users, whether or not the feature was used by them.

New comment by jtregunna in "Ask HN: Idea Sunday"

jtregunna — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:01:49 +0000

And where exactly would it drain to? Your toilet's output is plugged, thus causing the overflow, remember?

You can't just build an app, that's not how it works.

jtregunna — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:48:27 +0000

Article URL: http://jeremy.tregunna.ca/post/25929923241/you-cant-just-build-an-app-thats-not-how-it-works

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4162499

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by jtregunna in "Ask HN: Who is using Go language?"

jtregunna — Mon, 28 May 2012 23:56:11 +0000

Go is one of those languages I'd like to use more, but can't find a good fit for the kind of work I do (I mostly write iOS apps, and programming languages myself (weird dichotomy I know)).