Ben Pfaff
@benpfaff.bsky.social
Co-founder and developer at feldera.com. GNU and former Debian developer. RenFaire enthusiast. He/him.
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
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December 2, 2025 at 9:18 PM
users with similar passwords also liked:
I reluctantly started using OpenSSL via the #rust crate for it and, wow, I don't hate it. Based on my experiences with OpenSSL in C, I expected that it would be a whole new kind of pain.
(This is for generating keys and certificates. I am not using it for SSL/TLS protocol.)
#rustlang
(This is for generating keys and certificates. I am not using it for SSL/TLS protocol.)
#rustlang
December 2, 2025 at 8:31 PM
I'm reading a book set in 1982. It has early microcomputers in it, which use cassette tapes for storage. And then the book fast forwards about 15 years... and because it was written in 1982, all the computers in it still use cassette tapes for all their storage 😂
November 29, 2025 at 10:21 PM
I'm reading a book set in 1982. It has early microcomputers in it, which use cassette tapes for storage. And then the book fast forwards about 15 years... and because it was written in 1982, all the computers in it still use cassette tapes for all their storage 😂
Major plot hole in Zootopia 2: patent records are available from the patent office, you don't have to break into a snowed in cabin to get them.
November 28, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Major plot hole in Zootopia 2: patent records are available from the patent office, you don't have to break into a snowed in cabin to get them.
My local authority sent out a mailer saying compostable plastics are now banned from compost bins, because they don't break down well. Wild.
November 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
My local authority sent out a mailer saying compostable plastics are now banned from compost bins, because they don't break down well. Wild.
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
Repeat after me: Rust is a machine that turns security incidents into downtime incidents
November 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Repeat after me: Rust is a machine that turns security incidents into downtime incidents
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
A package hasn't "shipped" if you've only "created the label"
November 25, 2025 at 3:02 PM
A package hasn't "shipped" if you've only "created the label"
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
Cheese it, it's the carps
November 23, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Cheese it, it's the carps
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
Cryptocurrencies have lasted longer than I would have expected them to
November 21, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Cryptocurrencies have lasted longer than I would have expected them to
TIL that LLVM has a special optimization that transforms 1+...+n into n*(n+1)/2: users.rust-lang.org/t/why-does-i...
Why does Iterator::fold sometimes optimize to a closed-form formula, but a plain for-loop doesn't?
I am not good at English. Sorry if there are any funny expressions. I've been experimenting with Rust optimizations and noticed an interesting behavior: The fold version is optimized into the closed...
users.rust-lang.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:15 PM
TIL that LLVM has a special optimization that transforms 1+...+n into n*(n+1)/2: users.rust-lang.org/t/why-does-i...
"The insurance business is completely screwy now. You know they've reintroduced the death penalty for insurance company directors?"
"Really?" said Arthur. "No, I didn't. For what offence?"
Trillian frowned.
"What do you mean, offence?"
"I see."
--Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless"
"Really?" said Arthur. "No, I didn't. For what offence?"
Trillian frowned.
"What do you mean, offence?"
"I see."
--Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless"
November 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
"The insurance business is completely screwy now. You know they've reintroduced the death penalty for insurance company directors?"
"Really?" said Arthur. "No, I didn't. For what offence?"
Trillian frowned.
"What do you mean, offence?"
"I see."
--Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless"
"Really?" said Arthur. "No, I didn't. For what offence?"
Trillian frowned.
"What do you mean, offence?"
"I see."
--Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless"
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
I am playing D&D with five friends via Zoom and we’re all in our fifties and my young teen self knowing this would be happening would be so happy and satisfied.
November 21, 2025 at 4:54 AM
I am playing D&D with five friends via Zoom and we’re all in our fifties and my young teen self knowing this would be happening would be so happy and satisfied.
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
fuck the ISO honestly. closed standards for software have no place in our open-source driven world.
this is especially an issue now, where high-quality secondary sources are becoming nearly impossible to find.
this is especially an issue now, where high-quality secondary sources are becoming nearly impossible to find.
November 20, 2025 at 11:36 PM
fuck the ISO honestly. closed standards for software have no place in our open-source driven world.
this is especially an issue now, where high-quality secondary sources are becoming nearly impossible to find.
this is especially an issue now, where high-quality secondary sources are becoming nearly impossible to find.
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
one thing I really like about Rust for high performance code is the way you can make clean abstractions for hacky optimization that would otherwise be super fragile in other languages.
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November 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
one thing I really like about Rust for high performance code is the way you can make clean abstractions for hacky optimization that would otherwise be super fragile in other languages.
...
...
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
I keep getting into conversations with engineers where I talk about how desperately I want my database to support materialized views with incremental updates and too often I get a blank stare in response.
so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...
so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...
Materialized views are obviously useful
sophiebits.com
August 23, 2025 at 1:36 AM
I keep getting into conversations with engineers where I talk about how desperately I want my database to support materialized views with incremental updates and too often I get a blank stare in response.
so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...
so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...
I'm happy to announce that I've accepted an invitation to co-chair NSDI 2028, along with Aurojit Panda.
November 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
I'm happy to announce that I've accepted an invitation to co-chair NSDI 2028, along with Aurojit Panda.
People are still doing research on #openvswitch and this impresses me so much.
November 19, 2025 at 11:28 PM
People are still doing research on #openvswitch and this impresses me so much.
This is a useful shell function but oh boy does it look like line noise:
retry() { "$@" || "$@"; }
retry() { "$@" || "$@"; }
November 18, 2025 at 12:08 AM
This is a useful shell function but oh boy does it look like line noise:
retry() { "$@" || "$@"; }
retry() { "$@" || "$@"; }
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
For people who promised to fix things on "Day 1," the Trumpers spend a lot of time blaming a guy who hasn't been president for 10 months.
November 16, 2025 at 5:31 PM
For people who promised to fix things on "Day 1," the Trumpers spend a lot of time blaming a guy who hasn't been president for 10 months.
My dental office is once again asking me to review them on Google+.
November 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
My dental office is once again asking me to review them on Google+.
I'm at a Scots ball tonight, wearing a kilt. Going up to my room in the hotel, someone not from the ball said to me, "You look like you had a good time," and I replied, "That's what you think. I drank so much that when I woke up someone had dressed me up in this skirt."
November 16, 2025 at 8:30 AM
I'm at a Scots ball tonight, wearing a kilt. Going up to my room in the hotel, someone not from the ball said to me, "You look like you had a good time," and I replied, "That's what you think. I drank so much that when I woke up someone had dressed me up in this skirt."
Reposted by Ben Pfaff
May you live in less interesting times.
November 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
May you live in less interesting times.