Network

Debunking zswap and zram myths

Posted by Links

https://jmason.ie/2026/03/25/100103a.html

Debunking zswap and zram myths

This is pretty compelling. I like this example:
We have some concrete numbers to show this in practice. On Instagram, which runs on Django and is largely memory bound, we ran a test where we moved from their existing setup (with swap entirely disabled) to a setup with disk swap and zswap tiering. Django workers accumulate significant cold heap state over their lifetime, like forked processes with duplicated memory, growing request caches, Python object overhead, you get the idea. The results were twofold:
- We achieved roughly 5:1 compression. That's a huge benefit for such a memory bound workload, and also enables us to consider further stacking workloads.
- Enabling zswap reduced disk writes by up to 25% compared to having no swap at all(!).
As you can imagine, as a result of this test, Instagram has been using zswap for many years now.
Tags: kernel compression memory linux ops performance swap zswap zram

https://jmason.ie/2026/03/25/100103a.html

I'm curious about whether young people have even seen a western

I wonder at what birth year over half of people have never seen a western.

Obviously very young people won't - but if we look at people age 25-40, who have had a chance to watch a bunch of movies, I wonder if outside of classic movie afficionados you'll have seen many people see any. The last minor resurgence would have been Tarantino's Hateful Eight and Django Unchained, and I don't think either of those were that massive. Before that you're probably back to Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven, which is now around 35 years ago.

Which would mean that the main cultural touchstone for young people would be Red Dead Redemption 2, released in 2018 and the 4th best-selling game of all time.

(Curiosity triggered because in the most recent University Challenge nobody recognised John Wayne.)

(no subject)

We had a general election yesterday.

So what's the next government going to look like? WHO KNOWS!

We have around 10-12 different parties represented in parliament in this country. Coalition government is the norm here. Usually though, parties have been aligned to either the left (red block) or right (blue block). In recent years, however, we've had a party sitting right in the middle, refusing to outright ally with one block or the other. They can go either way and they become kingmaker when neither block can form a clear majority without them.

Which is the situation we have now. We don't even really have a particularly clear idea of who's likely to leading the negotiations for the formation of a government.

I foresee these negotiations are probably going to go on for about a decade...

Current Mood: impressed

Entry tags:

books,
read26

2026/042: The Keeper — Tana French

2026/042: The Keeper — Tana French

Ardnakelty has no time for Guards. The townland will run its own investigation, spreading unseen beneath the official enquiry like ancient trailways underlie the brash modern roads; it'll reach its own conclusions, and deal out its own justice. [loc. 1069]

Third in the trilogy that began with The Searcher and continued with The Hunter. Cal Hooper's life in the small village of Ardnakelty seems settled: he's more or less engaged to Lena, and Trey is finding friends and possibly even romance. Then a young woman -- Rachel, fiancee of local big-shot Tommy Moynihan's son Eugene -- is found dead in the river. ( Read more... )

Demystifying performance of eBPF network applications

Posted by Farbod Shahinfar

https://blog.apnic.net/2026/03/25/demystifying-performance-of-ebpf-network-applications/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=97744

Guest Post: eBPF has been widely leveraged to improve network function performance. Can similar benefits be achieved for web servers and microservices?

https://blog.apnic.net/2026/03/25/demystifying-performance-of-ebpf-network-applications/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=97744

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

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<a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html">https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html</a><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html"><img src="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_260325.jpg" align="left" alt="In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched" border="0" /></a> In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched <a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html">https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html</a>

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260324.html

Is gravity the same over the surface of the Earth?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260324.html

After we got to the end of Starfleet Academy we let the TV autoselect what's next

(E: It's like watching TV in the olden days!)

and ended up with Young Sherlock.

Let me make my position on Young Sherlock absolutely clear: If Sherlock and Moriarty do not kiss and/or fuck by the end of this series, I will not be responsible for my actions.

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( Read more... )

Entry tags:

Where Wolves Don't Die, by Anton Treuer

Ezra, an Ojibwe teenager, has to flee Minneapolis when the home of the racist teenager who bullied him burns down, and he becomes the prime suspect. He goes to Canada to run traplines with his grandfather.

Where Wolves Don't Die is mostly a coming of age story; the thriller/mystery element is present but minor. It was recommended to me "Like an Ojibwe Hatchet," which definitely captures a lot of the vibe though it's about learning in community and family rather than isolation. Ezra goes from boy to man while he learns the old ways with his grandfather, who he loves. It's engrossing and moving. I liked that Ezra actively wants to stay with and learn from his grandfather rather than resisting it and having to come around.

Content notes: Hunting and trapping is central to the story.

Finished Starfleet Academy

The moral of the last two episodes can be summed up as "never air live when you can air on a delay instead". Though I did find those chyrons for the show trial pretty amusing!

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Valentine's Day

I always make my own cards for valentine's day, because commercial cards just do not hit that sweet spot. This year - nice picture of a prehistoric armoured lump of a crab with "Our Love is like a Horseshoe Crab" (Totally not original - plagiarised from Valentine's Day for Naturalists by Bird & Moon comics)

The card is still on the mantelpiece because Himself really likes it. Last week I had the chimney swept. The sweep was too polite to comment directly, but he was giving it some serious side-eye inbetween chatting about chimney copings.

Letters Pray – DORK TOWER 23.03.26

Posted by John Kovalic

https://www.dorktower.com/2026/03/23/letter/

https://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=19969

Most DORK TOWER strips are now available as signed, high-quality prints, from just $25! CLICK HERE to find out more!

HEY! Want to help keep DORK TOWER going? Then consider joining the DORK TOWER Patreon and ENLIST IN THE ARMY OF DORKNESS TODAY! (We have COOKIES!) (And SWAG!) (And GRATITUDE!)

https://www.dorktower.com/2026/03/23/letter/

https://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=19969

Entry tags:

micropost

Life with two kids: School Days Revisited

The kids are watching an episode of SpongeBob where he's failing to write an essay. It is, frankly, stressing me the fuck out.

(no subject)

Dear Pay Dirt,
My husband and I are fortunate enough to be homeowners with pretty good credit. We get credit card and loan offers in the mail all the time. I’ve been trying to declutter our house, and junk mail is a big issue. Everything goes on the entry way table and its always overflowing. I set up a recycle bin in the entry way for just such physical spam, but my husband won’t use it because he says we have to SHRED all those offers, and our shredder is not big enough to deal with all the constant clutter! Also, the shredder is in his office, and he only gets to it every other month or so, so the workflow doesn’t keep up.

I know that’s the best, most secure way to deal with junk. But really, our recycle bin is kept in the garage until the night before the garbage is collected., then we roll it out to the curb. We always put other recycling on top of the mail.

Is it really that dangerous to just toss those mailers as is? Maybe tear them up by hand first? Please help!
—Drowning in Junk Mail

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Current Music: Charlotte Sands, "Satellite"

I'm yours in the day and the dead of night

My poem "ἀγκυλοθάλασσος" has been accepted by Strange Horizons. I am indebted to

radiantfracture for his Twine prompt generator designed to produce scientific-sounding compound adjectives and nouns, in this case the irresistible "ankylothalassic" from ἀγκύλος "crooked, bent" and θάλασσα "the sea." I rendered it back into classical Greek and José Esteban Muñoz and Twelfth Night got in there along the way. It was written on New Year's Eve.

While I was out of ambit of the internet for almost all of yesterday, Reckoning: It Was Paradise hit the digital shelves. It is the special issue of the journal of environmental justice on war and conflict and contains a poem of mine which will go live on the internet in a month, or you could pick it up now with the rest of the shatteringly topical e-book if you don't feel like preordering it in print. I wrote it last summer after the—first—U.S. strikes on Iran. I taught myself a small amount of Elamite cuneiform for it. It should not have come around to such relevance again.

The designer of the Paleontological Research Institute's long-running pre-saurian Paleozoic Pals has just branched out into Pleistocene mammals with a Kickstarter for Cenozoic Snuggles. I have put in for a Glyptodon.

I may have slept nine hours. I just heard Rabbitology's "The Bog Bodies" (2026).

My Sister’s Husband Is Agreeing to Things No Straight Man Would. It’s a Sign.

Dear How to Do It,
I’m an 18-year-old guy, and I’ve recently had to move in with my older sister and her husband. My brother-in-law, “Kenneth,” is honestly the most amazing guy I’ve ever met. He’s kind, funny, and built like a Greek god. He’s also super traditional and religious, which is part of why I’m so confused.
Lately, I feel like there’s this insane sexual tension between us. He walks around the house in just sweatpants with no underwear, and the bulge is so obvious. I feel like he has to know what he’s doing. Today, he was working out shirtless, and I asked if I could just sit and watch. He said yes, no questions asked, and worked out for a full hour. He was lifting weights and flexing right in front of me.

To me, this is a clear sign. A straight guy wouldn’t let another guy just watch him work out, would he? He has to be into it. But he’s also my sister’s husband, and he’s super religious, so it’s all so complicated. I’m starting to think about ways to make a move, to show him I’m interested. I’m convinced he wants it too. My question is: Am I right? Is he giving me signals, or am I imagining this?
—Confused and Craving

( Read more... )

Entry tags:

real life

Another one?

I found out yesterday that my friend Rich just discovered that he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer -- incurable but therapy can prolong life and improve quality for a bit. I play in a concert band with his wife (he occasionally played in it, too) and she had informed the band, which is how I found out, but I've known him (well, worked with him) since the 1990s.

I actually got to work closely with him on a project back in 2012 or so and got to know him pretty well. At one point, we had to go up to Seattle to work in-house with the dev team, so we spent two weeks hanging out. I think the big things about Rich is that he's nice, optimistic, and fun. Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but he is always compared to his brother, who is a mean, conniving sociopath. Everyone loves Rich. No one likes his brother.

Honestly, Rich is awesome. One of the most respected game designers in this game-dev town. My favorite memory is going to this excellent sushi restaurant in Bellevue and sampling everything on the conveyor belt with him. (Ah, the things you do when the company is paying for your meals!) His wife says he still mentions that restaurant. But he's always happy to see you and eager to have fun. Oh, also, he and his kids are Doctor Who fans, so that one time we played Doctor Who: Through Time and Space and I snuck in my Thirteen cosplay under my uniform because the conductor said I couldn't but the president said I absolutely should, Rich wore my Dalek lights headband and his son wore one of my other accoutrements (don't remember what it was).

But the thing that's really getting me down today is that yet another of my friends is being taken by cancer when they're so young. Rich is a couple of years younger than me, and fours years ago, I posted about another friend who didn't even reach fifty.

I'm the last person in my generation on both sides of my family, with uncles and aunts that were 40-50 years older than me and cousins that are thirty years older than me, so for the past twenty years or so, any news from home meant someone had died. I'm used to that. But I'm not old enough yet that any news from my friends should mean the same thing. It's not fair, why Rich, why anyone at all, yadda yadda...

Fuck cancer.