Span or Attribute? in OpenTelemetry custom instrumentation
Instead of emitting a log, add attributes to the current span. OpenTelemetry makes this easy, and Honeycomb makes it free. This gets you more data correlation.
jessitron
Communication is hard, but sometimes I can fix it.
When coding with an agent gets tricky, use the agent to make it less tricky.
Adding Correctness Conditions to Code Changes
Today I looked at the first PR on our new project repo. It added a new run script, but the README didn’t mention it. The proposed change was incomplete, because the documentation was out of sync. Did I comment on the PR? heck no. I want to fix this problem for all PRs, not just … Read moreAdding Correctness Conditions to Code Changes
Working with AI: Do Things Right
Today, a quick example of introducing determinism when an AI struggles. I give it a simple instruction, it screws it up, I tell it to write a program to do things right.
Speak So They Can Hear You
“My manager needs to put an ROI on everything,” an SRE leader told me at KubeCon this week. Yeah, I feel that. We know the value of SRE, smoothing all other work so that production can produce. Putting that into dollars though? It’s hard to count the cut costs of incidents that didn’t happen. Yet … Read moreSpeak So They Can Hear You
What is special about MCP?
three things MCP can do, and an infinite number of things it can’t do (all of which make it great) AI agents can interact with the world using tools. Those tools can be generic or specific. Generic Run a bash command Operate a web browser Execute a SQL query Specific See my Google Calendar events … Read moreWhat is special about MCP?
Ritual & its Consequences: book summary
I like how they make the title sound like ritual is a problem. Our culture believes that, I liked to believe it, and so the book is more appealing. (book on amazon, pdf excerpt) The book is not about rituals, but rather the attitude that ritual engenders. It’s an attitude of “If we do things … Read moreRitual & its Consequences: book summary
When efficiency isn’t wasteful
Efficiency means doing the same thing with fewer resources. In software, efficient code is faster, because that uses less compute. If some other software is waiting on yours to return, then your speed is saving upstream compute. Efficient data uses less space, which means less network bandwidth to move it around. All this is very … Read moreWhen efficiency isn’t wasteful
Fixing Without Understanding
A while back, I washed a book in a load of laundry. It got all the way through the dryer before I realized what all this white stuff was. Ooops! I’ve been feeling bad for all the fuzz left in the dryer. Poor dryer. Maybe I can take its front off and scoop all that … Read moreFixing Without Understanding