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{{{header(hello world, |
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Richard Westhaver, |
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ellis@rwest.io)}}} |
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#+options: toc:t |
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* Introduction |
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Hello World. |
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Today I would like to share something I've been working on for the |
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past few months, but has been on my mind for a few years. |
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** On Computers |
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First, let's talk about computers. (beep boop) |
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If you've met me in the past decade, you probably know that I am |
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extremely passionate about computers. Let me first explain why. |
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On the most basic level computers are little (or big) machines that |
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can be programmed to do things, or /compute/ if we're being |
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technical.[fn:1] |
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They host and provide access to the Internet, which is a pretty big |
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thing, but they do little things too like unlock your car door and |
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tell your microwave to beep at you. They solve problems. Big or small. |
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They're also /everywhere/ - which can be scary to think about, but |
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ultimately helps propel us into the future. |
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There's something pretty cool about that - when you look at the |
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essence of computation. There are endless quantities of these machines |
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which follow the same basic rules and can be used to solve /real/ |
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problems. |
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*** The Programmer |
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Now, let us consider the /programmer/. They have power. /real/ |
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power. They understand the language of computers, can whisper to them |
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in various dialects. It can be intimidating to witness until you |
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realize how often the programmer says the wrong thing - a bug. |
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In reality, the programmer has a symbiotic relationship with |
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computers. Good programmers understand this relationship well. |
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#+begin_annecdote |
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One day after I got my first job at a software company, I remember |
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being on an all-hands meeting due to a client service outage. We had |
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some management, our lead devs, product team, and one curious looking |
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man who happened to be our lead IT consultant who had just joined. He |
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was sitting up on a hotel bed, shirtless, vaping an e-cig, typing |
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away in what I can only imagine was a shell prompt. |
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After several minutes he took a swig from a bottle of Coke and said |
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"Node 6 is sick." then a few seconds later our services were |
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restored. For the next hour on the call he explained what happened and |
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why, but that particular phrase always stuck with me. He didn't say |
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Node 6 was down, or had an expired cert - his diagnosis was that /it/ |
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was /sick/. |
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#+end_annecdote |
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The more you work closely with computers, the more you start to think |
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of them this way. You don't start screaming when the computer does the |
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wrong thing, you figure out what's wrong and learn from it. With |
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experience, you start to understand the different behaviors of the |
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machines you work with. I like to call this /Machine Empathy/. |
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*** Programs |
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I already mentioned bugs - I write plenty of those, but usually I try |
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to write /programs/. Programs to me are like poetry. I like to think |
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they are for the computer too. |
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Just like computers, /computer programs/ come in different shapes and |
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sizes but in basic terms they are sets of instructions used to control |
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a computer. |
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You can write programs to do anything - when I first started, my |
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programs made music. The program was a means to an end. Over time, I |
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started to see the program as something much more. I saw it as the |
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music itself. |
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[fn:1] ... perform computations |
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* The Compiler Company |
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Without further ado, I'd like to announce /The Compiler Company, |
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LLC/. It is my first venture into the encorporated world but won't be |
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my last, because what I'm really building is a company incubator. The |
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purpose of /The Compiler Company/ is to /compile/ /companies/. |
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More specifically, I'm writing a software suite which specializes in |
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building, operating, and automating companies. |
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The software isn't for everyone - modules will be rewritten |
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frequently, code may be terse in places, we use specialized and highly |
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customized tools, custom compilers, and rely on advanced CPU and |
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storage hardware features. It's for a specific type of person - an |
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/operator/ if you will, who uses the library and programs for |
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rapid-development of their own programs (or companies). |
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In addition to software, I'm build a robust infrastructure to host our |
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services, support our projects, and most importantly - consume |
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information. |
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Something that is missing from many organizations big or large, is an |
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effective way to store and access information, even about their own |
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org. |
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It can be difficult problem to solve - usually there's the official |
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one, say Microsoft Sharepoint and then the list of unofficial sources |
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which becomes tribal corporate hacker knowledge. Maybe the unofficial |
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ones are more current, or are annotated nicely, but their very |
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existence breaks the system. There's no longer a single source of |
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truth. |
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My priority in this department is writing services which process and |
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store information from a variety of sources in a distributed knowledge |
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graph. The graph can later be queried to access information on-demand. |
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My idea of infrastructure is in fact to build my own Cloud. Needless |
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to say I don't have an O365 subscription, and wherever possible I'll |
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be relying on hardware I have physical access to. I'm not opposed to |
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cloud services at large but based on principle I like to think we |
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shouldn't be built on them. |
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* Next Steps |
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We have a long way to go. The important thing is to keep up the |
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momentum. Before the start of 2024 you can expect another update on |
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the projects below. |
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** [[https://compiler.company/docs/core][core]] |
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** [[https://compiler.company/docs/infra][infra]] |
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** [[https://compiler.company/docs/nas-t][nas-t]] |