A Simple and Efficient Implementation for Small Databases is an old paper that I've wanted to implement for a long time. It describes a simple application that embodies a lot of "systems" knowledge at the same time: Using the filesystem as a persistence and synchronization mechanism.Using a write-ahead log as a source of truth.Creating crash tolerant (or crash-only) systems.While ideally you'd want to write this in C or C++, mucking around with strings and files isn't a very pleasant experience unless you are willing to pull in some third party libraries.…

Note: Image titles can be viewed by hovering over the image. My interest in Banner Peak and Mt. Ritter began when I encountered them while hiking the John Muir Trail in August 2014. Immortalized by Ansel Adams, the 2 mountains framed by Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake are well known and frequently climbed. I snagged permits for Ediza Lake several months ago, with an intention to climb both Ritter and Banner via their scrambling routes from the Ritter/Banner saddle.…

I recently upgraded to Plasma 5.2 based upon this glowing review. While the transition was smooth for the most part (apart from minor KWin issues), Vidyo started to segfault. The Plasma system tray no longer supports older system tray protocols. I'm not aware of the details, but VidyoDesktop would complain about not being able to set a system tray icon and segfault. The fix is to install the sni-qt package from the extra repository.…

(I will be on vacation July 27 to August 18 and unable to reply to any comments. Please see the end of the post for other ways to ask questions and raise issues.) It’s been over 2 months since my last post, so here is an update. But first, a link to a latest build (and this time it won’t expire!). For instructions on enabling all the APIs, see the earlier post.…

ServiceWorkers are a new web platform feature that allows sites to use JavaScript to provide a better offline experience, and eventually various other 'background service' capabilities. Jake Archibald has a good article on his blog explaining them further. I've been working on the Gecko implementation for a while now, helped by several other Mozillians and some of the first patches are now beginning to land on Nightly. Interest in trying out a build has been high within both Mozilla and outside.…

Lacking in pictures because even in 2014, embedding images from alternate sources in a blog post is ridiculous UX fail! In March (19-25), Raj, Michaela, Roxana and I went on a 6 day trip to Utah. The itinerary was to fly into Salt Lake City, drive to Moab, do a 4 day backpacking and packrafting trip in Canyonlands NP, spend a day in Arches NP and head back. It was one of the best trips I’ve done and a splendid (and early!…

(This is NOT an official Mozilla project and does not in any way reflect the views of my employer.) Mozilla Persona is a way for users to use their e-mail ID as their identity on the web. While cool, it will only really take off when existing services that people use become Identity Providers. XMPP (Jabber) is a widely deployed IM protocol whose IDs look like e-mail and it is a secure, federated system in alignment with Persona’s goals.…

I’m excited to announce a new WebAPI that Mozilla has been working on for the past few months – Push Notifications for Web applications. Push Notifications let web applications be notified that something has changed on the server and that the application should refresh its data. For example, a calendar application can use Push Notifications such that whenever a new event is added on the server, the calendar application gets started in the background.…

(This is a long overdue post). I remember when I used to have homework, then for a few years in college I had no work. Last month, after a 4 month vacation, I began ‘grown-up life’. Unlike other giant leaps, mine didn’t start with a small step. It started with a 13000km trip to Silicon Valley. I am very happy to have started a new (and first!) job at Mozilla.…

I use Notational Velocity on my Mac all the time. It holds all my notes, lists and any other snippet of text. I love the interface and simplicity, and most of all I love the simple use of text files in Dropbox as a store. This way I can access my notes anywhere, without needing NV to be installed. I also love the global key binding feature so that I can quickly raise it with Cmd+Shift+N.…