Blog
Notes from the field — Kafka, Kubernetes, Go, and the systems around them.
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Series · Kubernetes Through Control Theory Glasses · Part 1
Kubernetes Steering WheelExploring Kubernetes HPA through control theory: dead time, windup, offset — and why HPA's math is smarter than it looks.
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Series · Ordered Retries in Kafka · Part 3 of 3
Why You Probably Shouldn't Build ThisThe operational cost of maintaining message ordering in Kafka with distributed locks — and when simpler alternatives are the better choice.
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Series · Ordered Retries in Kafka · Part 2 of 3
The Bugs You'll Find in ProductionImplementation gaps in Kafka's ordered retry pattern: the per-key locking edge cases and production bugs the whiteboard diagrams don't show.
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Series · Ordered Retries in Kafka · Part 1 of 3
When the Retry Topic Breaks OrderingRetry topics keep throughput high but break ordering. Learn why Kafka retries fail for stateful systems and how to maintain message order.
- The Ghost in the Database
A production debugging story: how an empty MySQL table took 20 seconds to query, and what InnoDB's history list taught me about MVCC and purge operations.
- When ctx.Done() Isn't Enough
Master graceful shutdown in Go beyond ctx.Done(). Two-phase shutdown pattern for message queues (SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ), transactions, and batch jobs.
- Kafka Consumer Health Checks: Dead or Alive?
Stop getting false alerts from Kafka consumers. This guide shows you how to measure progress instead of lag, with a production-ready Go library.
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Series · API Testing with Simulations · Part 2 of 2
When Record-and-Replay BreaksReal-world API simulation challenges beyond the basics: dynamic data, stateful interactions, and the edge cases that break naive record-and-replay setups.
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Series · API Testing with Simulations · Part 1 of 2
Record and ReplayWhy mock when you can simulate? Discover how to capture real API behavior and replay it in your tests to save costs, reduce latency, and improve reliability.