Hanging in there

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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 joints hurt, and I still feel miserable. OK Murat... Breathe... And keep writing and create. Only 90 more days until spring. Well, at least Buffalo doesn't have any wildfire risk.


My ADHD flares up again. I missed two weeks at the gym due to the flu. Winter and politics do not help either. I now use my old iPad to read and write longhand to get some focus and calm. I am eyeing the Remarkable Paper Pro. We need more calm technology.


I guess I will have to practice Feynman's active social irresponsibility for sometime to keep my sanity, and do better for my company, work, and family. I no longer follow news and politics. I would have a lot more to say about this, but maybe for another time.


Ok, some tech and research trends. I wrote a series about the use of time in distributed systems. Watch this space. RDMA and hardware acceleration remain strong. Formal methods techniques/applications are surging to augment, synergize, and safeguard AI. Why can't we see more work on the usability area? Especially, for higher-level abstractions for programming distributed sytems. With AI, can this topic finally see some boost?


DeepSeek is nice, but half the time it is unavailable. This made me go back to ChatGPT, which seems to be improving every week. I also think Gemini is underrated. I like Google's AI overview for search: it keeps getting better and insightful, and it's blazing fast.


I am quite optimistic about AI. I hope this doesn't come across as bragging, but "asking questions" is my superpower, which I've cultivated throughout my life. So I don't feel threatened by AI. If anything, I feel empowered.


College applications and decisions in the US are broken. I think universities came up with this "holistic review/admission" thing just because they won't get sued for rejecting a much more qualified candidate over a less qualified one. I am not sure they can do a thorough job of evaluating applicants when there are more than 90 thousand applications to go through in less than two months. Why isn't there a matching system like National Resident Matching Program in place already? Colleges are antiquated. They must improve, especially with AI breathing down their necks for disruption.


I submitted a HYTRADBOI talk. What a funny and clever name. Hyderabad Boi? Jamie does a great job organizing this singlehandedly. He makes it seem easy, which I am sure it is not. I hope Jamie publishes his runbook, so others can copy this model, and thousand more flowers bloom.


Any new, banger sci-fi books or series? Kindly suggest some fresh reads. I need quality sci-fi to survive the winter. With AI, there should be a new genre of sci-fi books coming up, no?


These smart glasses looked cool, with AI and all. (I keep adding "with AI" to everything. The age of AI --not AGI yet-- truly arrived.) But I changed my mind. I want technology that helps me focus and get calmer, rather than distract me further. I already get enough distractions. 


I drafted this post with iPad. I should schedule more time away from my laptop and thinking/writing on paper.


There... I have shared my complaints and vented. I feel better. Thanks for commiserating. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
I do agree that indeed we need more calm technology. And I also relate to the fact that writing with our hands has a calming effect. Maybe it is the slower speed of output. Not everything has to be instantaneous. Feel better, Murat
February 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Anonymous said…
I recently enjoyed "Service Model" by Adrian Tchaikovsky -- interesting mix of Kafka (The Castle) with Murderbot vibes (at least in the first part of the story). Cheer up -- Jaric
February 7, 2025 at 3:04 PM
John Evdemon said…
Check out The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey (the same guys behind The Expanse books). This is the start of a new series and is a fun, quick read. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
February 10, 2025 at 5:29 PM
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