I enjoy reviewing classic industry papers periodically. The DynamoDB paper is fascinating, approachable, and deepens insights on almost every read. Finally, its a good reminder that good programs accomodate different concerns to optimize for others. DynamoDB was built for handling amazon.com’s shared shopping cart problem. Most Amazon customers have a single household account, and any household member should be able to add items to a shared shopping cart at different times on their devices....

If everything behaved like freshly scented flowers, life would be much simpler. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most of the things we store in our homes. Moving supplies, exotic lamps, pens, printouts, camping gear, old art, jewelry, fancy kitchen gadgets, clothes, sandals, shoes, and many other items have limited utility, yet we continue to carry them from one home to another. The accumulation of these items is due to several factors....

Moving to a new house can be surprisingly disruptive and challenging, even if you spend more than a month preparing for the move. In our case, it took us four days to complete the end-to-end move, despite all the preparations. We finally moved in on Saturday and spent the whole day setting up the new kitchen. Vanya cooked our first supper in our new home, which was Tacos with a delicious dessert....

Building and operating large-scale software is a relatively young field, and many industry practitioners, including software engineers, often overlook the necessary considerations for doing it well. While “Hello World” examples of software development may serve as good tutorials, they can also give the impression that solving software problems is a trivial task, which fails to acknowledge the significant amount of work and dedication required to achieve quality results. When developing a typical service solution at a big tech company, the following factors must be taken into account:...

Tech is changing - more people are using cloud services for computing and storage. Big companies provide the infrastructure and rent it out to customers through network interfaces. The benefits of using cloud services are that customers have easy access to lots of computing power and storage. The company takes care of software updates, so customers can focus on using their software. But what if a customer already has their own data center and running workloads is cheaper there than on the big cloud vendors?...

I use self help books to guide my meditation practice. Most recently, I finished Sam Harris’s Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Another interesting book I am still reading is Mark W. Muesse’s Four Wise Men: The Lives and Teachings of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammad. In my fledgling practice, I am noticing the following patterns: on rare days on which I skip meditation, I am more anxious and tend to be less even tempered if I am anxious, meditation is harder to do meditation makes me aware of my inner narrative, and reminds me that I am not critically analyzing it meditation increases my self determination better meditation helps me to hear what others tell me better meditation helps me vocalize my opinion more However, it is almost a catch 22 situation....

GPT-4 is a new disruptive technology. For the first time, machines start to understand the nuance and tone of our asks. Through the chat bot, we can carry out interesting conversations. Machines can take and succeed at our standardized tests (SAT, AP, GRE, GMAT). Through the use of plugins, the bot can find precise and accurate information, much like humans can. This new technology promises to be disruptive to many existing and established processes....

Rearranging old furniture in new space is a thorny issue. We’ve had arguments, suggestions, and advice meted out at us by well meaning friends and designers. None of it is as controversial as the argument over TV placement though. We have a 65" Samsung TV (58"Lx~32"H). Today, we have it placed around 30" high from the floor, mounted on a custom wooden cabinet, which makes it at perfect eye level viewing from the couch....

Unexpected events Its been an interesting time. The events that have transpired weren’t something I could ever predict. I bought a house, with all payment made upfront, and am performing a general redo of the decor In my job, I manage 5 teams, out of which 4 have been completely laid off, and are on a 6 month retainer to help transition work to an offshore location My mom had a mild brain stroke, and was very sick for a while, and still has not recovered My daughter was laid off after only 7 months in her very first job, despite her manager, and her manager’s manager being advocates of her performance From any standard its been a trying time....

Buying a preowned house is getting a fun project. The bones are what you like and buy, and the meat is what you need to hunt and procure. Our new home is ~20 miles from our current abode. It is around two and a half decades old, and the style is dated. The flooring is a mix of carpet and tiles. The cabinets in the bathrooms and staircase are in yellow oak finish....