Zach McCoy
@zachmccoy.bsky.social
Functional Programming, Distributed Systems, MTG
@zachmccoy@fosstodon.org
@zachmccoy@fosstodon.org
Got our tickets to Richmond DLC. ❤️
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Got our tickets to Richmond DLC. ❤️
Got second at the sealed tournament today for Lorcana. Another tournament tomorrow to end the release week.
November 9, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Got second at the sealed tournament today for Lorcana. Another tournament tomorrow to end the release week.
Driving home from Milwaukee DLC this morning on 3 hours of sleep 😪.
Went 4-3 (not 5-3 that I told @imdanielholt.bsky.social sorry 😂 and it was great to meet you!) at the main tournament with dogs 🧡 💚. Didn't make day 2 but I did better than I expected and didn't get my last loss til the end.
Went 4-3 (not 5-3 that I told @imdanielholt.bsky.social sorry 😂 and it was great to meet you!) at the main tournament with dogs 🧡 💚. Didn't make day 2 but I did better than I expected and didn't get my last loss til the end.
October 27, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Driving home from Milwaukee DLC this morning on 3 hours of sleep 😪.
Went 4-3 (not 5-3 that I told @imdanielholt.bsky.social sorry 😂 and it was great to meet you!) at the main tournament with dogs 🧡 💚. Didn't make day 2 but I did better than I expected and didn't get my last loss til the end.
Went 4-3 (not 5-3 that I told @imdanielholt.bsky.social sorry 😂 and it was great to meet you!) at the main tournament with dogs 🧡 💚. Didn't make day 2 but I did better than I expected and didn't get my last loss til the end.
Went 4-3 yesterday, but was a pretty good run with the dogs.
October 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Went 4-3 yesterday, but was a pretty good run with the dogs.
Already seen so many pro players I am giddy.
October 25, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Already seen so many pro players I am giddy.
Got offered a full set of duals from Damaged but playable to Moderate played. Having a hard time deciding if I want to pull that trigger or not.
September 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Got offered a full set of duals from Damaged but playable to Moderate played. Having a hard time deciding if I want to pull that trigger or not.
String => Sum Type
Your logs are most definitely a finite set of types that they boil down to.
They're now an attribute on the span.
Your logs are most definitely a finite set of types that they boil down to.
They're now an attribute on the span.
September 3, 2025 at 7:52 PM
String => Sum Type
Your logs are most definitely a finite set of types that they boil down to.
They're now an attribute on the span.
Your logs are most definitely a finite set of types that they boil down to.
They're now an attribute on the span.
Reposted by Zach McCoy
Good public incident write-up from UptimeLabs. Quick notes:
* A patch-level dependency update unexpectedly changed behavior.
* Failure mode: saturation
* The role of health checks (a tool to improve availability!) in enabling this incident.
uptimelabs.io/when-fast-fl...
* A patch-level dependency update unexpectedly changed behavior.
* Failure mode: saturation
* The role of health checks (a tool to improve availability!) in enabling this incident.
uptimelabs.io/when-fast-fl...
When Fast Flow Delivers A Real Blow: A PIR - Uptime Labs
An honest Post Incident Review: how fast flow and continuous delivery caused an outage, and why progress over perfection drives resilience.
uptimelabs.io
September 1, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Good public incident write-up from UptimeLabs. Quick notes:
* A patch-level dependency update unexpectedly changed behavior.
* Failure mode: saturation
* The role of health checks (a tool to improve availability!) in enabling this incident.
uptimelabs.io/when-fast-fl...
* A patch-level dependency update unexpectedly changed behavior.
* Failure mode: saturation
* The role of health checks (a tool to improve availability!) in enabling this incident.
uptimelabs.io/when-fast-fl...
Hit up over 10 local game stores while in Colorado so far in 2 days and it's an absolute joy to just go to each of these.
August 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Hit up over 10 local game stores while in Colorado so far in 2 days and it's an absolute joy to just go to each of these.
Hear me out.
This but with LLMs
This but with LLMs
July 22, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Hear me out.
This but with LLMs
This but with LLMs
Worth a read!
Admittedly I would probably say this, but I thought this article was a very insightful analysis of the problems with building AI agents, based on real experience.
(Jury currently out on the _solutions_ but at least the problems seem clearly outlined.)
utkarshkanwat.com/writing/bett...
(Jury currently out on the _solutions_ but at least the problems seem clearly outlined.)
utkarshkanwat.com/writing/bett...
Why I'm Betting Against AI Agents in 2025 (Despite Building Them)
I've built 12+ production AI agent systems across development, DevOps, and data operations. Here's why the current hype around autonomous agents is mathematically impossible and what actually works in...
utkarshkanwat.com
July 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Worth a read!
I'm back on my bullshit of wondering if I can convince and gather a bunch of you to join me here for a conference across spectrums of interest.
July 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I'm back on my bullshit of wondering if I can convince and gather a bunch of you to join me here for a conference across spectrums of interest.
Probably a lukewarm take, but I think many of us in the space around systems, especially those socio-technical systems and observability have quite a good outlook with how much "less than great" things look to be coming our way.
July 12, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Probably a lukewarm take, but I think many of us in the space around systems, especially those socio-technical systems and observability have quite a good outlook with how much "less than great" things look to be coming our way.
Reposted by Zach McCoy
New post up, with a bunch of thoughts on what drives me personally, and my own 40-year career (h/t @lethain.com).
I have a pretty unusual life story. But one of the reasons I love the tech industry so much is how common unusual stories like mine have historically been.
charity.wtf/2025/07/09/t...
I have a pretty unusual life story. But one of the reasons I love the tech industry so much is how common unusual stories like mine have historically been.
charity.wtf/2025/07/09/t...
Thoughts on Motivation and My 40-Year Career
I’ve never published an essay quite like this. I’ve written about my life before, reams of stuff actually, because that’s how I process what I think, but never for public consumption. I’ve been pus…
charity.wtf
July 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
New post up, with a bunch of thoughts on what drives me personally, and my own 40-year career (h/t @lethain.com).
I have a pretty unusual life story. But one of the reasons I love the tech industry so much is how common unusual stories like mine have historically been.
charity.wtf/2025/07/09/t...
I have a pretty unusual life story. But one of the reasons I love the tech industry so much is how common unusual stories like mine have historically been.
charity.wtf/2025/07/09/t...
Vibe Reliability Engineer
July 10, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Vibe Reliability Engineer
Best friend got bit by two mosquitoes last night and the allergic reaction is real strong still. 😭
July 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Best friend got bit by two mosquitoes last night and the allergic reaction is real strong still. 😭
Draft night with friends tonight
June 27, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Draft night with friends tonight
Reposted by Zach McCoy
~How to run a million-board chess MMO in a single process~
An essay and video about how One Million Chessboards works:
essay: eieio.games/blog/a-milli...
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF1E...
An essay and video about how One Million Chessboards works:
essay: eieio.games/blog/a-milli...
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF1E...
Running a million-board chess MMO in a single process · eieio.games
How one million chessboards works
eieio.games
June 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
~How to run a million-board chess MMO in a single process~
An essay and video about how One Million Chessboards works:
essay: eieio.games/blog/a-milli...
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF1E...
An essay and video about how One Million Chessboards works:
essay: eieio.games/blog/a-milli...
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF1E...
Reposted by Zach McCoy
If you’ve ever felt like asking for help would cost too much, this one’s for you.
Ashley Willis
Don't Come Inside Until the Streetlights Are On I grew up in the '80s, where parenting often sounded like, "Don't come home until the sun goes down," or "Go dri...
ashley.dev
June 23, 2025 at 7:18 PM
If you’ve ever felt like asking for help would cost too much, this one’s for you.
Reposted by Zach McCoy
Here's the launch blog: www.honeycomb.io/blog/introdu...
Observability Without Tradeoffs: Introducing Powerful New Honeycomb Telemetry Pipeline Features
With this update to Honeycomb Telemetry Pipeline, easily build & reconfigure telemetry pipelines & sample with the ability to pull data when you need it.
www.honeycomb.io
June 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Here's the launch blog: www.honeycomb.io/blog/introdu...
Out at the distillery a few hours away today. Beautiful outside at the ridge.
June 19, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Out at the distillery a few hours away today. Beautiful outside at the ridge.
Adoption anniversary day for this dude
June 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Adoption anniversary day for this dude
I'm off for the next month and have no clue what I should be doing which is exactly why I'm taking the time off.
June 11, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I'm off for the next month and have no clue what I should be doing which is exactly why I'm taking the time off.
Absolute blast of a night
June 9, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Absolute blast of a night
Reposted by Zach McCoy
This is a fantastic read, I didn’t know _any_ of this existed.
Declan Chidlow takes us on a really interesting tour of the often, under-reported world of print stylesheets, how to use them and also how to debug them.
piccalil.li/blog/printin...
piccalil.li/blog/printin...
Printing the web: making webpages look good on paper
Declan Chidlow takes us on a really interesting tour of the often, under-reported world of print stylesheets, how to use them and also how to debug them.
piccalil.li
June 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
This is a fantastic read, I didn’t know _any_ of this existed.