Ben Schofield
@benjscho.bsky.social
Software dev at AWS, working on DSQL
Learning more about distributed systems, formal methods, living well. Trying to write software that doesn’t get me paged
Learning more about distributed systems, formal methods, living well. Trying to write software that doesn’t get me paged
Reposted by Ben Schofield
We introduce LeaseGuard: a Raft-specific lease protocol with a precise spec and fast recovery after crashes.
Paper + Implementation linked in our joint (w Jesse @emptysqua.re) blog post below.
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2025/12/leas...
Paper + Implementation linked in our joint (w Jesse @emptysqua.re) blog post below.
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2025/12/leas...
LeaseGuard: Raft Leases Done Right!
Many distributed systems have a leader-based consensus protocol at their heart. The protocol elects one server as the "leader" who receives ...
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:13 PM
We introduce LeaseGuard: a Raft-specific lease protocol with a precise spec and fast recovery after crashes.
Paper + Implementation linked in our joint (w Jesse @emptysqua.re) blog post below.
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2025/12/leas...
Paper + Implementation linked in our joint (w Jesse @emptysqua.re) blog post below.
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2025/12/leas...
The Bf-tree paper from VLDB ‘24 looks neat, it’s a shame the implementation hasn’t been released yet. Maybe a chance for someone Christmas tinkering
vldb.org/pvldb/vol17/...
vldb.org/pvldb/vol17/...
vldb.org
December 13, 2025 at 4:58 PM
The Bf-tree paper from VLDB ‘24 looks neat, it’s a shame the implementation hasn’t been released yet. Maybe a chance for someone Christmas tinkering
vldb.org/pvldb/vol17/...
vldb.org/pvldb/vol17/...
Tackling advent of code in Zig this year, my day one solution is up: github.com/Benjscho/aoc...
GitHub - Benjscho/aoc-25: Advent of code
Advent of code . Contribute to Benjscho/aoc-25 development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Tackling advent of code in Zig this year, my day one solution is up: github.com/Benjscho/aoc...
Reposted by Ben Schofield
darryl-ruggles.cloud/dsql-kabob-s...
🆕 Here is my latest blog introducing a Serverless Multi-Region E-Commerce Platform based on an Amazon Aurora DSQL database. For a database platform I have almost always used DynamoDB due to it being truly serverless and pay as you go. (1️⃣/4️⃣)
🧵
🆕 Here is my latest blog introducing a Serverless Multi-Region E-Commerce Platform based on an Amazon Aurora DSQL database. For a database platform I have almost always used DynamoDB due to it being truly serverless and pay as you go. (1️⃣/4️⃣)
🧵
Aurora DSQL: Serverless E-Commerce Platform
Discover how to build a serverless multi-region e-commerce platform using Aurora DSQL and AWS services in this comprehensive guide
darryl-ruggles.cloud
November 18, 2025 at 4:15 AM
darryl-ruggles.cloud/dsql-kabob-s...
🆕 Here is my latest blog introducing a Serverless Multi-Region E-Commerce Platform based on an Amazon Aurora DSQL database. For a database platform I have almost always used DynamoDB due to it being truly serverless and pay as you go. (1️⃣/4️⃣)
🧵
🆕 Here is my latest blog introducing a Serverless Multi-Region E-Commerce Platform based on an Amazon Aurora DSQL database. For a database platform I have almost always used DynamoDB due to it being truly serverless and pay as you go. (1️⃣/4️⃣)
🧵
My demo from the Amazon Aurora livestream is now up as a VOD on YouTube, you can catch it here: youtu.be/5iFA_7lo9aI?...
Enable AI-powered agents with Aurora DSQL using Strands Agents and MCP
YouTube video by AWS Events
youtu.be
September 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
My demo from the Amazon Aurora livestream is now up as a VOD on YouTube, you can catch it here: youtu.be/5iFA_7lo9aI?...
What are the best languages for multiprocessor programming right now? Thinking ones that provide strong, safe primitives and good performance.
I know Rust works well for this thanks to ownership & releasing of locks on drop. Are there any others that are worth trying?
I know Rust works well for this thanks to ownership & releasing of locks on drop. Are there any others that are worth trying?
September 4, 2025 at 5:37 PM
What are the best languages for multiprocessor programming right now? Thinking ones that provide strong, safe primitives and good performance.
I know Rust works well for this thanks to ownership & releasing of locks on drop. Are there any others that are worth trying?
I know Rust works well for this thanks to ownership & releasing of locks on drop. Are there any others that are worth trying?
I’ve been blowing through Octavia Butler’s Patternists series over the past few weeks. Love how each of them threads together while standing completely on its own.
September 3, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I’ve been blowing through Octavia Butler’s Patternists series over the past few weeks. Love how each of them threads together while standing completely on its own.
Reposted by Ben Schofield
People always ask me “so is AWS using Rust?” Happy to be part of this article shining some light on how Rust is changing the way services are built in AWS.
In a new guest post from #AWS Sr. Principal Engineers @nikomatsakis.com and Mark Bowes take us inside Aurora DSQL's development from scaling write operations without two-phase commit, to overcoming garbage collection hurdles, and embracing Rust. www.allthingsdistributed.com/2025/05/just...
Just make it scale: An Aurora DSQL story
AWS Senior Principal Engineers, Niko Matsakis and Marc Bowes, take us inside Aurora DSQL's development: scaling write operations without two-phase commit, overcoming garbage collection hurdles, and em...
www.allthingsdistributed.com
May 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM
People always ask me “so is AWS using Rust?” Happy to be part of this article shining some light on how Rust is changing the way services are built in AWS.
Reposted by Ben Schofield
In a new guest post from #AWS Sr. Principal Engineers @nikomatsakis.com and Mark Bowes take us inside Aurora DSQL's development from scaling write operations without two-phase commit, to overcoming garbage collection hurdles, and embracing Rust. www.allthingsdistributed.com/2025/05/just...
Just make it scale: An Aurora DSQL story
AWS Senior Principal Engineers, Niko Matsakis and Marc Bowes, take us inside Aurora DSQL's development: scaling write operations without two-phase commit, overcoming garbage collection hurdles, and em...
www.allthingsdistributed.com
May 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
In a new guest post from #AWS Sr. Principal Engineers @nikomatsakis.com and Mark Bowes take us inside Aurora DSQL's development from scaling write operations without two-phase commit, to overcoming garbage collection hurdles, and embracing Rust. www.allthingsdistributed.com/2025/05/just...
Very glad Steve didn’t follow this advice and that the Rust book exists, it’s an incredible resource
Writing about something you don’t know is often the best way to _start knowing_
Writing about something you don’t know is often the best way to _start knowing_
> I completely agree. It’s pointless to write about something you don’t know much about.
Hey, just so you know, if I believed this, the Rust book wouldn't exist
Hey, just so you know, if I believed this, the Rust book wouldn't exist
February 4, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Very glad Steve didn’t follow this advice and that the Rust book exists, it’s an incredible resource
Writing about something you don’t know is often the best way to _start knowing_
Writing about something you don’t know is often the best way to _start knowing_
I love this paper! It’s a clear way to communicate that both application and infra developers are responsible for how to make things scalable, while splitting those responsibilities neatly
Read the "BIG DEAL" CIDR'24 paper by Pat Helland. A Snapshot Isolation semantic contract between the database and applications is the BIG DEAL for making OLTP scalable. I really like the core idea of co-optimizing the database and applications.
🔗 www.cidrdb.org/cidr2024/pap...
🔗 www.cidrdb.org/cidr2024/pap...
January 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I love this paper! It’s a clear way to communicate that both application and infra developers are responsible for how to make things scalable, while splitting those responsibilities neatly
Wrote a short bit about Rust being a “Safe for X” language: blog.benjscho.dev/technical/20...
I’ve basically had this article from lwn in my head for a while and it’s a major reason why I love working in Rust, especially on a big project with a lot of other engineers
I’ve basically had this article from lwn in my head for a while and it’s a major reason why I love working in Rust, especially on a big project with a lot of other engineers
Rust is Safe for X
I love this article from lwn and this conclusion especially: this ability to take a property that the language does not know about and “teach” it to Rust, so that now it is enforced at compile time, i...
blog.benjscho.dev
January 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Wrote a short bit about Rust being a “Safe for X” language: blog.benjscho.dev/technical/20...
I’ve basically had this article from lwn in my head for a while and it’s a major reason why I love working in Rust, especially on a big project with a lot of other engineers
I’ve basically had this article from lwn in my head for a while and it’s a major reason why I love working in Rust, especially on a big project with a lot of other engineers
Reposted by Ben Schofield
January 9, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Ben Schofield
why Rust is the greatest programming language of all time, in one screenshot
![error: avoid using labels containing only the digits `0` and `1` in inline assembly
--> hal-x86_64/src/segment.rs:243:14
|
243 | "1:",
| ^ use a different label that doesn't start with `0` or `1`
|
= help: start numbering with `2` instead
= note: an LLVM bug makes these labels ambiguous with a binary literal number on x86
= note: see <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/99547> for more information
= note: `#[deny(binary_asm_labels)]` on by default](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3zasjiae4xk64hyek5u6jtcx/bafkreiguxn6nenwv5xzygqfd5rsjqfx6kvqjtlwhhxsy3qodeltyshgtpe@jpeg)
January 3, 2025 at 7:28 PM
why Rust is the greatest programming language of all time, in one screenshot
I’ve been messing around with using Neorg for notes instead of markdown with Obsidian, so I wrote a small converter for all of my existing notes: github.com/Benjscho/md2...
GitHub - Benjscho/md2norg: markdown to neorg quick converter
markdown to neorg quick converter. Contribute to Benjscho/md2norg development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
December 23, 2024 at 3:48 PM
I’ve been messing around with using Neorg for notes instead of markdown with Obsidian, so I wrote a small converter for all of my existing notes: github.com/Benjscho/md2...
In goals for 2025 I’ve got:
- write a public blog post every month
- learn Lean
- write a public blog post every month
- learn Lean
December 20, 2024 at 2:53 PM
In goals for 2025 I’ve got:
- write a public blog post every month
- learn Lean
- write a public blog post every month
- learn Lean
This is a very neat paper, it’s interesting to think about the interfaces for languages needing to be adapted to make machine interaction easier
Pantograph, a #lean4 tool designed for training and evaluating neural theorem provers, has been released. It supports incremental tactic execution and proof drafting: arxiv.org/abs/2410.16429
Pantograph: A Machine-to-Machine Interaction Interface for Advanced Theorem Proving, High Level Reasoning, and Data Extraction in Lean 4
Machine-assisted theorem proving refers to the process of conducting structured reasoning to automatically generate proofs for mathematical theorems. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in us...
arxiv.org
December 15, 2024 at 4:47 AM
This is a very neat paper, it’s interesting to think about the interfaces for languages needing to be adapted to make machine interaction easier
One thing that’s a little frustrating with OCaml after Rust is the lack of easy debug printing.
I’m using ppx_derive to pretty print custom types but it is frustrating to not have a nice standard `Debug` that absolutely everything implements
I’m using ppx_derive to pretty print custom types but it is frustrating to not have a nice standard `Debug` that absolutely everything implements
December 6, 2024 at 10:56 PM
One thing that’s a little frustrating with OCaml after Rust is the lack of easy debug printing.
I’m using ppx_derive to pretty print custom types but it is frustrating to not have a nice standard `Debug` that absolutely everything implements
I’m using ppx_derive to pretty print custom types but it is frustrating to not have a nice standard `Debug` that absolutely everything implements
Getting to write Rust for my work has been a lot of fun, and it’s saved us a huge amount of time.
December 5, 2024 at 3:44 PM
Getting to write Rust for my work has been a lot of fun, and it’s saved us a huge amount of time.
It’s crazy how prompting for code can just feel like a conversation where you have to be super specific with another person about what you want, but then they’re incredibly fast
December 5, 2024 at 6:03 AM
It’s crazy how prompting for code can just feel like a conversation where you have to be super specific with another person about what you want, but then they’re incredibly fast
Reposted by Ben Schofield
My second blog post on Aurora DSQL, with a deep dive on how reads work: brooker.co.za/blog/2024/12...
DSQL Vignette: Reads and Compute - Marc's Blog
brooker.co.za
December 4, 2024 at 5:11 PM
My second blog post on Aurora DSQL, with a deep dive on how reads work: brooker.co.za/blog/2024/12...
Reposted by Ben Schofield
The first step in my career was learning how to do things, but it took understanding why I was doing them for my career to take off. I went from completing tasks to asking why, then understanding the impact of my work, and eventually gained the ability to find the most impactful things to work on.
December 3, 2024 at 8:14 PM
The first step in my career was learning how to do things, but it took understanding why I was doing them for my career to take off. I went from completing tasks to asking why, then understanding the impact of my work, and eventually gained the ability to find the most impactful things to work on.
Reposted by Ben Schofield
New blog post, with my personal take on our launch of Amazon Aurora DSQL: brooker.co.za/blog/2024/12...
DSQL Vignette: Aurora DSQL, and A Personal Story - Marc's Blog
brooker.co.za
December 3, 2024 at 5:44 PM
New blog post, with my personal take on our launch of Amazon Aurora DSQL: brooker.co.za/blog/2024/12...
Super excited that Amazon Aurora DSQL has been announced now! I’ve been working with this team for the past year, they’ve been so incredible to work with and learn from.
More info about it here: aws.amazon.com/blogs/databa...
More info about it here: aws.amazon.com/blogs/databa...
Introducing Amazon Aurora DSQL | Amazon Web Services
Today, we introduce Amazon Aurora DSQL, the fastest serverless distributed SQL database for always available applications. It offers virtually unlimited scale, highest availability, and zero infrastru...
aws.amazon.com
December 3, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Super excited that Amazon Aurora DSQL has been announced now! I’ve been working with this team for the past year, they’ve been so incredible to work with and learn from.
More info about it here: aws.amazon.com/blogs/databa...
More info about it here: aws.amazon.com/blogs/databa...
Announcement in reinvent on automated reasoning for Bedrock is super neat
December 3, 2024 at 5:27 PM
Announcement in reinvent on automated reasoning for Bedrock is super neat