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Finding a show that suits everyone in our family has always been a challenge. Intense action/stress is too much for our youngest daughter, and we prefer to keep things PG-13. We’ve finally found a great solution: Korean-dramas. We’ve been watching them back to back recently, and they’ve been a hit across all ages. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha  (2021)  This was our gateway into K-dramas. Since it’s dubbed in English, it was easy to start. Set in a small seaside town, it’s a wholesome, family-friendly show with both comedic moments and touching scenes. It also gave us a glimpse into everyday Korean life. It's a solid feel-good watch. Queen of Tears  (2024)  We picked this next because it was also dubbed. This one was a commitment (16 episodes, each 1.5 hours long) but it was worth it. It had more romance, more drama, better cinematography, and a stellar cast. The intense drama in some scenes made our youngest bawling. We got so hooked that we ended up binge-watching the l...

This paper (NSDI'25) applies lightweight formal methods (hence the pun "smart casual" in contrast to formal attire) to the Confidential Consortium Framework (CCF). CCF is an open-source platform for trustworthy cloud applications, used in Microsoft's Azure Confidential Ledger service. The authors combine formal specification, model checking, and automated testing to validate CCF's distributed protocols, specifically its custom consensus protocol. Background CCF uses trusted execution environments (TEEs) and state machine replication. Its consensus protocol is based on Raft but has major modifications: signature transactions (Merkle tree root over the whole log  signed by the leader), optimistic acknowledgments, and partition leader step-down. CCF also avoids RPCs, using a uni-directional messaging layer. These changes add complexity, requiring formal verification. At the time of writing, CCF's implementation spans 63 kLoC in C++. The authors define five requi...

Entrepreneurs think and act differently from managers and strategists. This 2008 paper argues that entrepreneurs use effectual reasoning, the polar opposite of causal reasoning taught in business schools. Causal reasoning starts with a goal and finds the best way to achieve it. Effectual reasoning starts with available resources and lets goals emerge along the way. Entrepreneurs are explorers, not generals. Instead of following fixed plans, they experiment and adapt to seize whatever opportunities the world throws at them. Consider this example from the paper. A causal thinker starts an Indian restaurant by following a fixed plan: researching the market, choosing a prime location, targeting the right customers, securing funding, and executing a well-designed strategy. The effectual entrepreneur doesn’t start with a set goal. She starts with what she has (her skills, knowledge, and network), and she experiments. She might begin by selling homemade lunches to friends’ coworkers. If that...

Twenty years ago, in 2004-2005, I spent a year at MIT’s Computer Science department as a postdoc working with Professor Nancy Lynch. It was an extraordinary experience. Life at MIT felt like paradise, and leaving felt like being cast out. MIT Culture MIT’s Stata Center was the best CS building in the world at the time. Designed by Frank Gehry, it was a striking abstract architecture masterpiece ( although like all abstractions it was a bit leaky ). Furniture from Herman Miller complemented this design. I remember seeing price tags of $400 on simple yellow chairs. The building buzzed with activity.  Every two weeks, postdocs were invited to the faculty lunch on Thursdays, and alternating weeks we had group lunches. Free food seemed to materialize somewhere in the building almost daily, and the food trucks outside were also good. MIT thrived on constant research discussions, collaborations, and talks. Research talks were advertised on posters at the urinals, as a practical touch of M...

I have been reviewing papers for USENIX ATC and handling work stuff at MongoDB Research. I cannot blog about either yet. So, instead of a paper review or technical blog, I share some random observations and my current mood. Bear with me as I vent here. You may disagree with some of my takes. Use the comments to share your thoughts. Damn, Buffalo. Your winter is brutal and depressing. ( Others on r/Buffalo also suffer ; many suggest video games, drugs, or drinking.) After 20 years of Buffalo winters, I am fed up with the snow and cold. When I taught distributed systems course in fall semesters, I would ask the new batch of Indian students how many had never seen snow, and all hands would shoot up. I would warn them by winter's end they would despise that magic fairy dust. Ugh, sidewalks are already piled high with snow that freezes, muddies, and decays into holes. Forgive the gloomy start. I had a bad flu ten days ago. Just as I began to recover, another milder bout struck. My joint...