Engineering internals, one blog at a time.

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Kubernetes · ObservabilityApr 2026 · 28 min read

Running 600 Spot Nodes on GKE

What changes when autoscaling, scheduling, quotas and failure handling start happening across hundreds of nodes.

Databases · PerformanceJun 2026 · 31 min read

Leaving Aurora for Self-Managed PostgreSQL

What a managed database was doing for you, what you have to measure before you move, and how to size the machine you move onto.

Systems Programming · PerformanceSep 2026 · 28 min read

How Cloudflare Freed 100 TB of Memory by Changing One Cache Entry

Cloudflare took a DNS cache entry from 953 bytes to 420. Here is where those bytes actually came from: alignment, containers, allocators and pointers.

Databases · Distributed SystemsJan 2026 · 15 min read

Building Resilient Jobs for Unreliable APIs

State machines, persistence, retries and recovery when the dependencies you call cannot be trusted.

Everything else

Kubernetes · PerformanceOct 2026 · 39 min read

How a Packet Leaves a Pod

Follow one packet from a pod on EKS, through the node and the VPC route table and out one of three doors, with what each door costs and the GKE equivalents.

KubernetesSep 2026 · 30 min read

Kubernetes User Namespaces: Root in the Container, Nobody on the Node

What hostUsers: false actually changes, why root inside a container stops meaning root on the node, and the specific list of things user namespaces do not protect you from.

Systems Programming · PerformanceSep 2026 · 6.5 hr read

Rust Guide for C#/.NET Engineers: A Deep Dive

A book-length guide to Rust for engineers who already know C#. Fifteen chapters on ownership, borrowing, lifetimes, traits, generics, errors, concurrency, async and unsafe, each one anchored on the .NET model you already carry in your head.

Kubernetes · ObservabilityJul 2026 · 18 min read

How High Cardinality Hurts Prometheus

Why Prometheus cost follows series count, starting with the head block, WAL, chunks and index rather than the usual advice about labels.

Databases · Distributed SystemsFeb 2026 · 13 min read

Choosing the Right Lock

Locking isn't one thing. It's a family of techniques. This post explains pessimistic, optimistic, distributed, and advisory locks, and when to use each.

Distributed SystemsNov 2025 · 6 min read

Implementing Circuit Breakers in Production

Practical patterns for building resilient services that handle third-party API failures gracefully.

Databases · PerformanceOct 2025 · 6 min read

PostgreSQL Query Optimization: A Practical Guide

Techniques for analyzing and improving slow PostgreSQL queries, from EXPLAIN plans to index strategies.

CommunitySep 2025 · 17 min read

Building a Developer Fellowship

Lessons from building Dev Weekends, a program that has helped 800+ engineers in Pakistan advance their careers.

Systems Programming · PerformanceAug 2025 · 6 min read

How I Structure Deep Work as a Remote Engineer

Practical systems for maintaining focus and productivity while working remotely across time zones.

Distributed SystemsJul 2025 · 6 min read

Message Queue Patterns for Reliable Delivery

Patterns for exactly-once semantics, dead letter queues, and handling failures in message-driven systems.