Andy Randall
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ahrkrak.bsky.social
Andy Randall
@ahrkrak.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.2K following 3.5K posts
I do linux and cloud native things at microsoft (azure). 20-year silicon valley veteran now mostly in berlin and seattle.
“A delightful blend of concise tech jargon peppered with lyrical humor and unexpected punchlines.” - blueskyroast.com
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ahrkrak.bsky.social
Ich sehe, dass sie sich große Mühe gegeben haben, benutzerfreundlich zu sein, aber leider haben sie das Ziel verfehlt...
Dialog: "Anfrage freigeben. Diese Anfrage benötigt eine Interaktion von Ihnen. Nein / Ja"
November 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Hot take: containers running in Kubernetes (+ all it comes with) running on Linux with systemd etc etc. is the very definition of a kludge.

I really think @krisnova.net was onto something with Aurae (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a27...). Even if that is not The Solution, it's the right direction.
kludge [klʌdʒ, kluːdʒ] an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfil a particular purpose. improvise or put together from an ill-assorted collection of parts:
November 12, 2025 at 12:07 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
interviewer: I'd like you to code a sort algorithm
a menu of country codes, sorted by country kind of alphabetically but with some countries prioritized, and only showing the code, so the order is "+44, 353, 1, 43, 32, 359, 385, 357, 420, ..."
November 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
the millennial mind cannot comprehend
A Sinclair ZX 16K RAM pack
November 6, 2025 at 10:49 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
“Don’t make me tap the sign” meme The sign: “do NOT encourage the squillace”
October 30, 2025 at 10:00 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Watching the @github.com Universe keynote, I'm blown away by how GitHub is not just maintaining, but strengthening, its position as the home for modern software development. VS Code as the AI-native editor, embracing the universe of coding agents, all evidence this developer-centric strategy.
Kyle Daigle, Github COO, on stage in front of a slide that says "The AI-native editor" Kyle Daigle, Github COO, on stage in front of a slide that says "AgentHQ" with logos for all the most popular coding agents
October 29, 2025 at 1:12 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
#erinnerung (memory / remembrance)
Large (2m+ high) letters in rusted iron spell “ERINNERUNG”. Behind is green space with blue sky and a couple of fluffy white clouds. The greenery is starting to grow over the first “R”.
October 29, 2025 at 11:05 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
world series, visit to the pumpkin farm, halloween, and soon thanksgiving... this might be the time of year to most miss the US
child in the middle of the pumpkin patch at Ardenwood Farm, nearly 20 years ago carved pumpkins by our front door (also nearly 20 years ago)
October 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
"Most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification... People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people is a secondary consideration.” - Bertrand Russell
a picture of Russell holding a pipe
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
people acting like this is news... here's the green party manifesto from 2024. and, yes, I voted for them because of this (in combination with starmer categorically ruling out not just rejoining the EU, but even the single market, just before the election). still, "independent" won my constituency.
Britain’s future in Europe The Green Party is pro-European, and proudly so. We opposed UK withdrawal from the EU, and believe that Britain would be better off politically, socially, environmentally and economically had we maintained our EU membership. A united international response to global issues is needed now more than ever. Full membership of the EU remains the best option for the UK. Green MPs will work towards: • Re-joining the EU as soon as the domestic political situation is favourable and EU member states are willing. • Joining the Customs Union as a first step towards full EU membership, and a way of resolving many of the worst problems resulting from Brexit. • A speedy return to the free movement of people between the UK and the EU, including reciprocal rights to work for both UK and European citizens. • Rejoining the Erasmus Programme, which enables students to study for a year in another European country
October 23, 2025 at 8:59 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Are you an aging nerd who learned your trade on the beautiful Common Desktop Environment, struggling to get to grips with the latest in computer user interface design?
Rejoice, for CDE runs on Windows!
sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopen...
screenshot of a CDE desktop
October 22, 2025 at 2:55 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
A future generation (probably not so far away) will look on us placing workloads in a region like "us-east-1" the same way we look back at the days of apps being run on "ardbeg", the trusty Dell server at the top of rack 1.
A herd of cows with the caption "regions should be cattle too"
October 20, 2025 at 3:21 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
DocumentDB is the most exciting development in open source databases for a long while. And there's no chance of the license "bait and switch" as it's in the Linux Foundation. Now that's truly mind-blowing.
Check out the Community Office Hours on Discord: discord.com/invite/vH7bY...
four brains meme: 1) SQL database 2) document-based database 3) document-based database built on the most popular open source SQL database 4) All the above, with community governance in the linux foundation
October 18, 2025 at 12:19 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
October 16, 2025 at 4:54 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Love to dress up for a fancy dinner!
Me in the hall at Corpus Christi college in Oxford in a tuxedo with maroon bow tie.
October 3, 2025 at 11:38 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
omg it’s literally that meme 🥵
Screenshot with the usual cookie permissions boilerplate (in German) - but at the bottom are two buttons, labeled “Button” and “Button “
October 3, 2025 at 1:21 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
The work done by our eBPF Tools team is some of the most exciting not just at @microsoft.com, but in the industry. They're putting incredible capabilities in the hands of mere mortals (and AI agents).
Something you'd like to be part of? They're hiring (US): jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...
A hacker of indeterminate gender (at least that's what I asked Copilot to produce -- looks a bit male presenting though, tbh) sits at a laptop with eBPF, Microsoft and Linux stickers. On the wall in the background is a neon sign, "we're hiring"
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Proud Wordle moment - my guesses were identical to the Bot. (Not sharing the exact words here so as not to spoil for anyone… but they were all the same.)
Screenshot from the Wordle bot report showing I had the same guesses as the Bot.
September 26, 2025 at 10:05 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Quality graffiti in Berlin-Wannsee
“Digital macht dumm” (digital makes you dumb)
September 25, 2025 at 11:30 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
RIP Dickie Bird, 8 short of a century.
"I never married because in cricket you are never at home. I thought it would never work. It would have been wonderful to have a lad and watch him play. I missed that. But you can’t have everything. I gave myself to cricket and it has given me a real good life"
Dickie Bird wearing a sun hat on top of a flat cap, making the hand gesture indicating a player is out.
September 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Oktoberfest fun!
Me and my wife in Trachten (traditional costume) in front of the tent at the end of the evening with our group of friends, in front of the (enormous - 18 meter high) Bavaria statue inside the tent, a still from a video (so it's a bit blurry); a large crowd dances to a live band in the background
September 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
An honor today to be among a select group invited to the grand opening of the new Spencer Library at Corpus Christi College Oxford, with Lord Michael Spencer and Lord William Hague, and of course @huskyinberlin.bsky.social
Four people stand in front of a portrait of Lord Spencer after its unveiling. A woman (whose name I didn’t get, oops), the artist Jonathan Yeo, Lord Spencer and Lord (William) Hague A beautiful woman (my wife :-)) stands in the original (1517) part of the Corpus library, bringing back memories for me of studying for finals. A view out of the window of the new library. Exactly this space was my first year room so I know it well. Kathrin and I, along with friends Andy and Fiona, on the roof deck overlooking college.
September 20, 2025 at 5:46 PM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Had to giggle out loud
The Onion headline: “Mourners Unaware They Burying Knockoff Giorgio Armani”.
September 16, 2025 at 3:49 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
Not a bad view from my seat for dinner tonight!
Sunset over the Puget sound, a sailboat in the foreground
September 14, 2025 at 2:15 AM
ahrkrak.bsky.social
The Frye Art Museum is one of my fave places in Seattle (I’m a paid-up member even though it’s free). I thought I couldn’t like them more then I saw this today:
Sign saying “PARDON OUR DUST Gender-neutral restrooms coming soon! Expected completion: Fall 2025”
September 13, 2025 at 10:18 PM