5 ms·

Proof that services written in Erlang CAN go down! (Though it's probably DNS...)

by mikece 3y ago

lxgr 3y ago
Yes: They are software running on hardware, after all.
haolez 3y ago
Is it still written in Erlang?
- phyrex 3y ago
  Erlang and Rust!
  - ActorNightly 3y ago
    Count the number of unsafes in a Rust code base to see how secure the code is.
mikece 3y ago
Serious question: is making a joke frowned upon on HN?
- fullstop 3y ago
  Generally, yes, although if the joke is nerdy enough it is sometimes liked. It's a fine line to walk, and you're probably better off not doing it.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    But the thrill of having walked it and lived (in terms of karma)... Nothing like it!
- josefresco 3y ago
  Not against the guidelines(1) but generally speaking yes. Jokes without an accompanying insightful or useful comment are downvoted. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- abdullahkhalids 3y ago
  I like to think of HN conversations as taking place in a third or fourth year university elective course. You are here because you want to learn something. Hence, all comments should be substantive and contribute to the learning of the class. In this scenario, jokes should be occasional, and should be embedded in a larger constructive comment, much as they would be in actual university class.
  - clessg 3y ago
    I was about to say something nearly identical to this, but couldn't have put it better than you did! In this specific scenario, I think the joke was in good taste and might even spawn some serious discussion and questioning (as seems to be the case already). In fact, I came to this thread wondering if such a comment (about Erlang) would be made, and I was not disappointed. I am an Elixir (/Erlang/Gleam/BEAM/OTP) fanboy and WhatsApp is basically the canonical example of OTP's strengths, so perhaps I should be outraged! But I am not, and that says a lot about the quality of the joke (it's not a "Reddit-style" joke - it actually makes one think). It's fun and enlightening to consider the ways in which Erlang's reliability guarantees can be hamstrung by (presumably) external factors such as DNS/hardware/BGP, and a good reminder that things are messier than just which language or platform one chooses. Anyway, yes. I would distinguish between enlightening jokes that arouse curiosity, and Reddit-style low-quality "humor" and trolling.
- Retr0id 3y ago
  Yes, which only makes it more fun to make jokes that get upvoted despite the frowning.
toast0 3y ago
FWIW, WhatsApp shouldn't go down because of DNS. At least, it didn't while I was working there. There are (were?) IPs baked into the app packages so that when you're on a network with bad DNS, the app still works. This also protects against authoritative DNS outages. That said, the haiku readily transforms to BGP: It’s not BGP There’s no way it’s BGP It was BGP If the sibling comments are accurate and Instagram and FB are also having trouble, then it's most likely shared infra that's problematic. Load balancers, BGP/routing in general, abuse detection, container management, some of the databases (although when I was there, the fb infra databases that WA used seemed pretty individualized and robust --- I don't remember any failures, certainly not coordinated failures)

Proof that services written in Erlang CAN go down! (Though it's probably DNS...)

by mikece 3y ago

Proof that services written in Erlang CAN go down! (Though it's probably DNS...)

lxgr 3y ago

Yes: They are software running on hardware, after all.

haolez 3y ago

Is it still written in Erlang?

phyrex 3y ago
Erlang and Rust!
- ActorNightly 3y ago
  Count the number of unsafes in a Rust code base to see how secure the code is.

mikece 3y ago

Serious question: is making a joke frowned upon on HN?

fullstop 3y ago
Generally, yes, although if the joke is nerdy enough it is sometimes liked. It's a fine line to walk, and you're probably better off not doing it.
- lxgr 3y ago
  But the thrill of having walked it and lived (in terms of karma)... Nothing like it!
josefresco 3y ago
Not against the guidelines(1) but generally speaking yes. Jokes without an accompanying insightful or useful comment are downvoted. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
abdullahkhalids 3y ago
I like to think of HN conversations as taking place in a third or fourth year university elective course. You are here because you want to learn something. Hence, all comments should be substantive and contribute to the learning of the class. In this scenario, jokes should be occasional, and should be embedded in a larger constructive comment, much as they would be in actual university class.
- clessg 3y ago
  I was about to say something nearly identical to this, but couldn't have put it better than you did! In this specific scenario, I think the joke was in good taste and might even spawn some serious discussion and questioning (as seems to be the case already). In fact, I came to this thread wondering if such a comment (about Erlang) would be made, and I was not disappointed. I am an Elixir (/Erlang/Gleam/BEAM/OTP) fanboy and WhatsApp is basically the canonical example of OTP's strengths, so perhaps I should be outraged! But I am not, and that says a lot about the quality of the joke (it's not a "Reddit-style" joke - it actually makes one think). It's fun and enlightening to consider the ways in which Erlang's reliability guarantees can be hamstrung by (presumably) external factors such as DNS/hardware/BGP, and a good reminder that things are messier than just which language or platform one chooses. Anyway, yes. I would distinguish between enlightening jokes that arouse curiosity, and Reddit-style low-quality "humor" and trolling.
Retr0id 3y ago
Yes, which only makes it more fun to make jokes that get upvoted despite the frowning.

toast0 3y ago

FWIW, WhatsApp shouldn't go down because of DNS. At least, it didn't while I was working there. There are (were?) IPs baked into the app packages so that when you're on a network with bad DNS, the app still works. This also protects against authoritative DNS outages. That said, the haiku readily transforms to BGP: It’s not BGP There’s no way it’s BGP It was BGP If the sibling comments are accurate and Instagram and FB are also having trouble, then it's most likely shared infra that's problematic. Load balancers, BGP/routing in general, abuse detection, container management, some of the databases (although when I was there, the fb infra databases that WA used seemed pretty individualized and robust --- I don't remember any failures, certainly not coordinated failures)