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I wonder if this is a bug:

   -- If no locks are found, return the maximum possible bigint value
    if max_seq is null then
        return 9223372036854775807;
    end if;
Would be a race here by returning a big number to the caller, then more data is written in between? Should instead check the current max sequence number before checking the locks?

This details an approach to working with commit-ordered event IDs which is a very powerful primitive to, e.g., do pub/sub event processing within a SQL database without having to deal with outbox patterns, event brokers and so on.

People throw Kafka or Event Hub at everything, but really, if you do not need to offload your DB for storage/access of massive amounts of events, you may not need them...

I have a lot of experience with this approach on MS SQL (https://github.com/vippsas/mssql-changefeed), interesting to see the same thing on postgres.

Hope databases gets these things built in (i.e., supported more directly) in the future.


Well also in the real world, if you look at history, people DID exploit the neighbouring tribe with impunity if they could not defend themselves ("what idiots don't have a guard during night"), or built stone fortresses with 3 metre stone walls.

When living under those conditions, people probably did put the responsibility to be safe on the victim..

We have been able to remove this waste due to the introduction of the national state, laws, "monopoly on violence", police...

It is THOSE things that allows the factory in your analogy to not spend resources on a 3 metre stone wall and armed guards 24/7.

Now on the internet the police, at least relatively to the physical world, almost completely lack the ability to either investigate or enforce anything. They may use what tools they can, but it does not give them much in the digital world compared to the physical.

If we want internet to be like the real world in this respect, we would have to develop ways to let the police see a lot more and enforce a lot more. Like they can in the physical world.


> If we want internet to be like the real world in this respect, we would have to develop ways to let the police see a lot more and enforce a lot more. Like they can in the physical world.

I agree and it's exactly this that's often so violently opposed by the technical community who are routinely frothing at the mouth at the suggestion that law enforcement needs access to be able to function while that community, and often especially that community with their fancy, expensive lives, enjoys widespread, comfortable physical and legal protection afforded by that very same law enforcement which is only made possible by this agency having far-reaching legal and lethal powers.

It can be abused and it will be abused, but I guess it comes down to do we want comfortable lives or do we want to be free?

IMO it's a matter of time before some nation-state level actor will unleash a digital shit-storm of astronomic proportions which will necessitate swift political decisions and it's my guess we better have an open, realistic discussion about it now instead of then.


As a metric user: This is about your lack of familiarity.

E.g. can picture lumber expressed in cm or mm very easily. E.g., if you work with beams that are 48mm / 5 cm or 98mm / 10cm a lot then those sizes becomes second nature. Just as easy to picture as 2 inch, 4 inch, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch etc that is in use in US.

And saying that something is 200m away is exactly as intuitive as however many feet that is. A large meter has a usecase.

I feel square metres for houses is very natural unit and square feet sounds awkward (each patch of house area is so small you can do nothing with it, a square metre gets you somewhere..).

Making yet another system of units sounds like massive pain and as someone who are used to metric I see no advantages.


As a user of both Imperial and Standard International units, I agree with you.

As a kid, one of my science educators spoke about the many benefits people gain from becoming familiar with basic units. I bought in and did so during the big metric push that happened around that time.

I ended up more familiar with Imperial units.

Then, later in life, I entered a young industry, with strong users of metric, Standard International units.

So I did the work to build familiarity just as I did long ago. Took half a year and today I enjoy the benefits.

And those are:

Ease of understanding unit values meaning in my daily life.

Ease of expression of same to others.

Greater accuracy estimating.

Easier computation and unit checks.

And so on...


Ah but are 48x98s nowhere near 48mm and 98mms like our 2x4s?


48x98 is exactly that dimension (i..e after planing of the lumber). Well, +/- 1 mm of tolerance/shrinkage due to drying.

It goes by the name "two four" here as well informally due to long tradition (and yes, I once did wonder why 2-by-4 is smaller than 2 by 4 inches and looked it up), but you will not see it written anywhere, in writing it is always in mm after planing.

The oral words for lumber dimensions before planing is the only context as an adult I have met inches except in US.


I am not sure if this is satire or not...


IMO, replace "More than a Cache. Smarter than a Database." with an actual description.

The saying is cute but does not really convey information the reader is after. And that spot is where you want people to immediately understand what it is.


I changed that :) now the value proposition is right at the top.


Still not clear to me what it is. Only the features it has, without knowing what it is.

Like, imagine a page that only said "SuperTransport -- 0 to 100 in 5 seconds", but it is not clear for the reader if it is a car or a horse or a plane or a parcel service...

... and the reader has to go and guess "hmm, guess due to the acceleration it is probably a car or a motorbike -- wonder of it is for sale or for rent?".

Just put "fast on premise key/value database" in the big font that was there -- if that is what it is. That is purely a guess from me, no idea if that is what it is.


The committee selecting the winner is formed of Norwegians. Norwegians "average worldview" and sources of information therefore affects who gets the prize.


As a Norwegian ... the odds of a committee formed in Norway to select Trump for the peace prize is just zero.


And a Norwegian cafe renamed one of their dishes [edit: American pancakes] to "Canadian pancakes"!

Reminds me of "Freedom Fries"...


Were they American pancakes before?

Serious question, I just call pancakes, pancakes….


Ah right, I guess that name for them is Norwegian/European.

Around here, "American pancakes" are about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick and the size of a hand. Contains baking soda

"Pancakes" are larger, the size of a plate, and much thinner (a couple of mm). No baking soda. Like the French crepe but smaller diameter.

They taste quite differently.


Being canadian, you just described different styles of pancakes that we just call all pancakes.

Thin, thick, size of a plate, sand dollar size, size of your hands... just all called simply pancakes.

I find the thick ones not good.

Theres a chain of big pancakes size of plate restaurants called dedutch pannekoek house, or just dedutch.


But if you go to a cafe and order pancakes how do you know what you'll get!

A simply unacceptable gamble in my mind! Imagine looking forward to a normal pancake and getting a rubbery American one popped infront of you.


Do Canadians not call the Scandinavian crepe style Swedish pancakes? That’s the common term in the US regardless of size and fold.


I have heard of it maybe at a distinct place, but not common.

Alot of things also passed off as crepe but not...

Not alot of standards lop


This is not a common term in the US.


Yes it is. You’ll find it on breakfast menus in every part of the country, if they make them. There are variations though. What do you call them?


Well I'm 40 and lived all over the country and I've never heard it a single time. You sure you don't live in an alternate timeline? Also just to make sure I'm not crazy I looked at iHop's online menu and it's... just pancakes. Never heard anyone call a pancake anything other than a pancake.


Ah, yeah you're thinking of regular pancakes. In this thread, we're talking about crepes made in one of the Scandinavian styles. I haven't heard of IHOP selling those unless it's a special menu item.

Edit: I googled IHOP Swedish pancakes and they apparently had them for awhile and discontinued them a couple years ago.


never heard anyone call a crepe anything other than a crepe either.


Bizarre. :) From one well-traveled ~40-year-old to another, eat more breakfast.


FWIW you can get pancakes 1cm thick in both the size of a hand and the size of a plate in the US. When they're the size of a plate you usually get a couple just stacked on top of each other. Source: I am American.


Those large pancakes sound like Belgian crepes.


Thank you, this is new to me.


WHAT... this is the first time in my life I have been able to see 3D with one eye!

Closing one eye and I still see the depth effect.

Main brain works very differently than I assumed...

With this effect I guess one could make even people who are blind on one eye see in 3D


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