DevOps
fromArmin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
19 hours agoAbsurd In Production
Absurd is a durable execution system built on Postgres, providing efficient task management and checkpointing without needing separate services.
Under the ABS challenge system, a team begins each game with two challenges. If a player gets an umpire's call overturned, their team retains the challenge. In effect, this means a team has unlimited challenges until they get two wrong.
The final show I review below got me looks that made me feel like a fish in a bowl. First, the private security at the door had two Valiant rent-a-cops who scowling at me-and only me-with that same 'Give me an excuse!' glare I've gotten from real cops all my life.
When a stranger smiles at you, you smile back. That is why, when Sir Ian McKellen ( The Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Amadeus) walked on the stage in front of me, looked me straight in the eye, and smiled at me, I smiled back. It was the polite thing to do. It was also completely unnecessary, because McKellen was not actually on the stage in front of me. He smiled at me through a pair of special glasses.
I spent years interviewing people for my articles, and one pattern kept emerging: The most likeable people weren't always the kindest. After ending a friendship with someone who constantly competed with me while maintaining a perfect public persona, I started paying attention to the subtle behaviors that reveal someone's true character. These aren't obvious red flags like cruelty or dishonesty. They're the small, easily overlooked actions that slowly poison relationships and environments.
You know that feeling when you're talking to someone and something just feels... off? They're smiling, nodding, saying all the right things, but there's this invisible wall between you. I used to dismiss this gut instinct until I started paying closer attention during my interviews with hundreds of people over the years. The patterns became impossible to ignore. We've all been there, either giving or receiving these subtle signals.