thoughts on distributed systems, networking, and self-hosting
Logical replication in PostgreSQL is powerful but has subtle gotchas. After running it across a six-node cluster for eight months, here are the things I wish I knew on day one.
The biggest surprise was how REPLICA IDENTITY interacts with update and delete operations on tables without primary keys. If you haven't set it correctly, updates silently fail on the subscriber side.
eBPF has revolutionized how we observe kernel-level network behavior without modifying kernel source. Tools like bpftrace and tcptop give visibility that was previously only possible with custom kernel modules.
With Gmail and ProtonMail offering excellent free tiers, is self-hosting email still viable? The answer is nuanced — it depends on your threat model, technical patience, and how much you value data sovereignty.