David Tippett
@taidesu.bsky.social
Open Source enthusiast and builder of search systems. Currently building search at GitHub. Former DA for open-source OpenSearch @AWS. Opinions are my own.
Dang. My Compute blade project is literally pandoras box. I initially got a bunch of the Uptime Compute blades to run an OpenSearch cluster.
After months of waiting I get the blades in, go to start up OpenSearch and BOOM. Craps out because the Amazon Linux containers can't run on ARMv7.
🧵
After months of waiting I get the blades in, go to start up OpenSearch and BOOM. Craps out because the Amazon Linux containers can't run on ARMv7.
🧵
February 13, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Dang. My Compute blade project is literally pandoras box. I initially got a bunch of the Uptime Compute blades to run an OpenSearch cluster.
After months of waiting I get the blades in, go to start up OpenSearch and BOOM. Craps out because the Amazon Linux containers can't run on ARMv7.
🧵
After months of waiting I get the blades in, go to start up OpenSearch and BOOM. Craps out because the Amazon Linux containers can't run on ARMv7.
🧵
New favorite move. Introduce drama for no reason. Example:
I got my wife ice cream. Before handing it to her I assured her no blood was spilled getting her ice cream.
The concern that followed was priceless.
I got my wife ice cream. Before handing it to her I assured her no blood was spilled getting her ice cream.
The concern that followed was priceless.
February 11, 2026 at 2:54 AM
New favorite move. Introduce drama for no reason. Example:
I got my wife ice cream. Before handing it to her I assured her no blood was spilled getting her ice cream.
The concern that followed was priceless.
I got my wife ice cream. Before handing it to her I assured her no blood was spilled getting her ice cream.
The concern that followed was priceless.
Me ships a really cool update that makes issues and prs pages faster.
GitHub:
GitHub:
February 9, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Me ships a really cool update that makes issues and prs pages faster.
GitHub:
GitHub:
I just realized my understanding of the Elasticsearch/OpenSearch refresh + translog operations was INCORRECT.
I'd always had the mental model that refresh or translog flush would write segments. That's partially true...
I'd always had the mental model that refresh or translog flush would write segments. That's partially true...
February 6, 2026 at 3:31 PM
I just realized my understanding of the Elasticsearch/OpenSearch refresh + translog operations was INCORRECT.
I'd always had the mental model that refresh or translog flush would write segments. That's partially true...
I'd always had the mental model that refresh or translog flush would write segments. That's partially true...
Now with copilot instead of writing just a few hundred lines of bad code a week I can scale to TENS OF THOUSANDS of lines of bad code a week.
January 26, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Now with copilot instead of writing just a few hundred lines of bad code a week I can scale to TENS OF THOUSANDS of lines of bad code a week.
The amount of logistical things needed to build a startup is so frustrating. I don’t want to build a company I want to ship code that helps people.
Today I:
- created a bank account
- migrated emails
- mailed so compliance documents
Today I:
- created a bank account
- migrated emails
- mailed so compliance documents
January 22, 2026 at 6:46 PM
The amount of logistical things needed to build a startup is so frustrating. I don’t want to build a company I want to ship code that helps people.
Today I:
- created a bank account
- migrated emails
- mailed so compliance documents
Today I:
- created a bank account
- migrated emails
- mailed so compliance documents
Okay, so not only did I do a thing with Tanki I am actually starting a serious company:
relevan.dev
We're building the future of relevancy based search. We're pre-launch (despite me launching this technically here). But we want to talk to small e-commerce businesses about their search problems.
relevan.dev
We're building the future of relevancy based search. We're pre-launch (despite me launching this technically here). But we want to talk to small e-commerce businesses about their search problems.
Relevan · Yet Another Search Site
Relevan — Relevancy as a Service
relevan.dev
January 19, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Okay, so not only did I do a thing with Tanki I am actually starting a serious company:
relevan.dev
We're building the future of relevancy based search. We're pre-launch (despite me launching this technically here). But we want to talk to small e-commerce businesses about their search problems.
relevan.dev
We're building the future of relevancy based search. We're pre-launch (despite me launching this technically here). But we want to talk to small e-commerce businesses about their search problems.
Got bored… made an app this weekend to help me track my aquarium
tanki.dev
In case anyone else with a #reeftank wants a free place to track parameters over time 👀
tanki.dev
In case anyone else with a #reeftank wants a free place to track parameters over time 👀
Tanki
tanki.dev
January 12, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Not going to lie so much engineering work is getting replaced by AI.
It’s shocking but l’m starting to see a world where engineers write less code and do a lot more product + architecture work.
You very much still need someone with expertise at the wheel.
It’s shocking but l’m starting to see a world where engineers write less code and do a lot more product + architecture work.
You very much still need someone with expertise at the wheel.
January 9, 2026 at 4:02 AM
Not going to lie so much engineering work is getting replaced by AI.
It’s shocking but l’m starting to see a world where engineers write less code and do a lot more product + architecture work.
You very much still need someone with expertise at the wheel.
It’s shocking but l’m starting to see a world where engineers write less code and do a lot more product + architecture work.
You very much still need someone with expertise at the wheel.
three things people mean when they say they’re working on a startup:
- side project that you’re “working on” and “has potential”
- you’ve spent all your time building the perfect c-corp, landing page, and name…
- and then there’s actually building a startup
- side project that you’re “working on” and “has potential”
- you’ve spent all your time building the perfect c-corp, landing page, and name…
- and then there’s actually building a startup
January 5, 2026 at 12:40 PM
three things people mean when they say they’re working on a startup:
- side project that you’re “working on” and “has potential”
- you’ve spent all your time building the perfect c-corp, landing page, and name…
- and then there’s actually building a startup
- side project that you’re “working on” and “has potential”
- you’ve spent all your time building the perfect c-corp, landing page, and name…
- and then there’s actually building a startup
I just had ChatGPT respond to my question with an OpenSearch diagram that I was the author of.. Is this what it means to be full circle?
December 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
I just had ChatGPT respond to my question with an OpenSearch diagram that I was the author of.. Is this what it means to be full circle?
Finally, wrapping up a big PR. Everything's working time to refactor a few bits and bobs anddddd... broken... why broken 😞
December 19, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Finally, wrapping up a big PR. Everything's working time to refactor a few bits and bobs anddddd... broken... why broken 😞
Nothing like provisioning a whole ~100 node cluster just to realized the attached disks aren't large enough 😮💨
This is what I get for not checking my SKU's more closely 😭
This is what I get for not checking my SKU's more closely 😭
December 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Nothing like provisioning a whole ~100 node cluster just to realized the attached disks aren't large enough 😮💨
This is what I get for not checking my SKU's more closely 😭
This is what I get for not checking my SKU's more closely 😭
I visited X-Mans site and immediately had to leave. 😭
Someone was trying to work out why lower income people would spend more money on lower quality food than he has 😐
It’s not like the want to but they don’t have the time to:
- plan meals
- shop for healthy food
- cook
- clean afterwards
Someone was trying to work out why lower income people would spend more money on lower quality food than he has 😐
It’s not like the want to but they don’t have the time to:
- plan meals
- shop for healthy food
- cook
- clean afterwards
December 2, 2025 at 3:55 PM
I visited X-Mans site and immediately had to leave. 😭
Someone was trying to work out why lower income people would spend more money on lower quality food than he has 😐
It’s not like the want to but they don’t have the time to:
- plan meals
- shop for healthy food
- cook
- clean afterwards
Someone was trying to work out why lower income people would spend more money on lower quality food than he has 😐
It’s not like the want to but they don’t have the time to:
- plan meals
- shop for healthy food
- cook
- clean afterwards
Has anyone in my feed done tuning with vLLM caches? I’ve just used the same prompt with two very different intents and there was a lot of carry over between the two.
Just wondering if there are some knobs for tuning here
Just wondering if there are some knobs for tuning here
December 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Has anyone in my feed done tuning with vLLM caches? I’ve just used the same prompt with two very different intents and there was a lot of carry over between the two.
Just wondering if there are some knobs for tuning here
Just wondering if there are some knobs for tuning here
My six year old to my wife:
Mommy… I can’t sleep and I don’t think square breathing is going to help…..
🤣 I mean I can’t say that I haven’t taught her well
Mommy… I can’t sleep and I don’t think square breathing is going to help…..
🤣 I mean I can’t say that I haven’t taught her well
December 2, 2025 at 1:29 AM
My six year old to my wife:
Mommy… I can’t sleep and I don’t think square breathing is going to help…..
🤣 I mean I can’t say that I haven’t taught her well
Mommy… I can’t sleep and I don’t think square breathing is going to help…..
🤣 I mean I can’t say that I haven’t taught her well
Jokes on Corey, I fetch a tarball of my passwords using a public endpoint I have running outta my house.
A lot of automated systems will block you committing passwords in your code, so you’re gonna want to base64 encode them to get around that.
You’re a developer; you’ve got to move quickly. We don’t call it a sprint so you can sit around waiting for approvals.
You’re a developer; you’ve got to move quickly. We don’t call it a sprint so you can sit around waiting for approvals.
November 30, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Jokes on Corey, I fetch a tarball of my passwords using a public endpoint I have running outta my house.
Reposted by David Tippett
Hello world! I'm putting together a series of talks and team trainings on Nix and NixOS. (Two is a series, right?)
There's a lot to narrow down. So I would love to know: if you're Nix-curious, what questions do you have, or frustrations have you experienced?
There's a lot to narrow down. So I would love to know: if you're Nix-curious, what questions do you have, or frustrations have you experienced?
November 7, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Hello world! I'm putting together a series of talks and team trainings on Nix and NixOS. (Two is a series, right?)
There's a lot to narrow down. So I would love to know: if you're Nix-curious, what questions do you have, or frustrations have you experienced?
There's a lot to narrow down. So I would love to know: if you're Nix-curious, what questions do you have, or frustrations have you experienced?
I'm hoping to reach the million miler club this year... that is with Lines of Code removed from GitHub. So many places where we've got just orphaned code.
November 5, 2025 at 9:15 PM
I'm hoping to reach the million miler club this year... that is with Lines of Code removed from GitHub. So many places where we've got just orphaned code.
Things you may not realize. It can take a literal month or more to ship a blog in a company like AWS or GitHub. It's easily weeks of editorial reviews. If you're announcing something or talking about best practices it can easily go into the several months range.
November 5, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Things you may not realize. It can take a literal month or more to ship a blog in a company like AWS or GitHub. It's easily weeks of editorial reviews. If you're announcing something or talking about best practices it can easily go into the several months range.
Going to make a “we’re migrating to azure” variant.
Too soon?
Too soon?
October 31, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Going to make a “we’re migrating to azure” variant.
Too soon?
Too soon?
Don't give in this Halloween, fix the root cause. It will take longer but you'll thank you later.
Lol I am sending this to all those who're pressuring me to "just ship the fix" rather than fixing the root of the issue.
Lol I am sending this to all those who're pressuring me to "just ship the fix" rather than fixing the root of the issue.
October 31, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Don't give in this Halloween, fix the root cause. It will take longer but you'll thank you later.
Lol I am sending this to all those who're pressuring me to "just ship the fix" rather than fixing the root of the issue.
Lol I am sending this to all those who're pressuring me to "just ship the fix" rather than fixing the root of the issue.
My wife is so cute. She asked me to “ChatGPT” something for her 😆
October 31, 2025 at 1:58 PM
My wife is so cute. She asked me to “ChatGPT” something for her 😆
I am currently building a DAG to track the order I need things to release in, for my changes to get to prod.
MySQL key changes to build containers ->
Build container to new Elasticsearch version ->
Update client libraries
Ship BBQ to KNN indexes
Roll out query understanding
MySQL key changes to build containers ->
Build container to new Elasticsearch version ->
Update client libraries
Ship BBQ to KNN indexes
Roll out query understanding
October 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM
I am currently building a DAG to track the order I need things to release in, for my changes to get to prod.
MySQL key changes to build containers ->
Build container to new Elasticsearch version ->
Update client libraries
Ship BBQ to KNN indexes
Roll out query understanding
MySQL key changes to build containers ->
Build container to new Elasticsearch version ->
Update client libraries
Ship BBQ to KNN indexes
Roll out query understanding
I am about to interview for my job. Lets see if I am qualified to get hired 🤞
October 30, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I am about to interview for my job. Lets see if I am qualified to get hired 🤞