@ahelwer@discuss.systems

Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 27, 2026

ok wolfram can still write a banger blog post once in a while

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/07/towards-a-theory-of-bugs-the-ruliology-of-the-unexpected/

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 20, 2026

https://theonion.com/nation-wakes-up-from-strange-dream-where-they-were-watching-soccer/

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 11, 2026

I really thought those water jetpack things would play a larger part in the future we inhabit. You know, those ones appearing in tourism sizzle reels for tropical places like twelve years ago.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 09, 2026

@elebertus@eigenmagic.net only tolerable way is to set it up to “explore” possible changes to see what their broad structure & specific API calls would look like, then implement it yourself if it turns out to be viable.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 07, 2026

It is stupid baby crow season here in Seattle. They’ve all fledged and are wandering around the city, making hilarious attempts at cawing and with generally no idea what is going on. However, they remain closely chaperoned by their parents so don’t look too long or you’ll be swooped!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jul 02, 2026

Getting an ebike really did fix all my problems

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 27, 2026

Will be giving a short lightning talk at the Software Should Work conference in Columbia, Missouri on July 16th! The topic: what sort of concurrency properties can you check using the Rust and Go language tooling these days?

#Rust #Golang

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 24, 2026

Gonna take a break from open source dev work. Back to standalone experiments & blogging for a while, I think.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 23, 2026

Dress code asked for "summery mountain vibes" but spouse accused me of serving '70s car salesman. North Carolina is pretty, anyway!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 20, 2026

This Mexican restaurant has decided to build their entire thing around AI generated portraits of Frida Kahlo

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 19, 2026

Now in the brief week near summer solstice, here in Seattle we're northerly enough to get sun coming directly through our north-facing windows in both the morning and evening. Pretty neat!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 16, 2026

Peak early 2000s memory surfacing after the song “Who Am I?” by Peace Orchestra popped up in a playlist: obsessively rewatching a DVD copy of the Animatrix given to me by my cousin (whose taste in media far outstripped mine), except skipping some scenes in The Second Renaissance pt 2 that were definitely way too traumatizing for 14yo me lol

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Jun 03, 2026

Lightning talk accepted for Software Should Work conf in Missouri in mid-July. 10-15 mins to present how powerful the Go & Rust concurrency checkers are. 1.5 months to learn that, better get started!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 31, 2026

Went to the local seattle Handmade meetup yesterday and had a lovely time! Was only planning to go for the talks but stayed afterward to hang out with others for hours. Nice event if you care about software! Last Saturday of every month.

https://handmade.network/

#Seattle

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 27, 2026

Was excited to learn my employer offers $10k/year tuition reimbursement! But then looking at UW's "adult continuing education" catalogue it is entirely composed of pre-101 rocks for jocks type fluff (although one course on the oceanography of puget sound looks genuinely interesting). Maybe I can audit a course? Actually what I should really use this for is get reimbursed for learning Mandarin.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 25, 2026

A spectacular cardinal recital! Footage courtesy of a friend in Washington DC

#birds

discuss.systems

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 25, 2026

Had a board game day with friends today and tried the Royal Game of Ur, which (subject to a big asterisk that the ruleset is only a best guess) dates back 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. And I gotta say. It was actually a ton of fun! Our ancestors were great at game design! So many tense moments and huge swings of fortune. Also a uniquely good spectator board game too, I could see a big crowd of people surrounding the players while making bets and crying in anguish or triumph. Try it if you can!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur

#BoardGames

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 22, 2026

Try to avoid running a GPU farm to answer a question like “how do I make a repeated char string of some length in C++” by typing it into a web search bar and they run a GPU farm to answer it anyway. ok

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 16, 2026

Having trouble mentoring the junior employees at work. I try to tell them that struggling and failing to do things like for example getting the build system to work is part of the learning process. But now they have a button that just fixes that for them, which solves the proximate issue but deprives them of knowing what to do the next time it happens. Idk maybe I have already become boomer and this approach is just outdated now.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 13, 2026

Little fact about me to show off my geoguessing skills, for a long time I thought the music video for the Childish Gambino song Telegraph Ave (Oakland) was shot in Oakland (in my defense the refrain does go “in Oakland, in Oakland”) and was like wow Oakland is an amazing paradise, why would anybody ever leave. Anyway it is actually shot in Kaua’i

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 12, 2026

Dark-Eyed Junco trilling proudly this morning

#birds

discuss.systems

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 12, 2026

Replying to @offby1@wandering.shop

@offby1@wandering.shop maybe still worth reaching out if you have their contact info!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 12, 2026

Replying to @offby1@wandering.shop

@offby1@wandering.shop ah, sad! Also very weird that AWS does not support SK key types.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 12, 2026

Replying to @offby1@wandering.shop

@offby1@wandering.shop hmmm? How does that work?

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 09, 2026

Replying to @lightspeed@mstdn.social

@lightspeed@mstdn.social I think services are skipping security-key authentication and going right to passkeys, which isn't so bad.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 09, 2026

Replying to @ahelwer@discuss.systems

Credit to @arianvp@functional.cafe for the instructions on how to do this! Still waiting for someone to tell me that posting all my private keys was a bad idea lol

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 09, 2026

I've long used yubikeys for SSH authentication and git commit signing, but recently realized that laptops all have security tokens built in these days! So I spent some time setting it up so I just use my macbook's secure element to do all that. Here's a post I wrote about it.

https://ahelwer.ca/post/2026-05-08-builtin-u2f/

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · May 04, 2026

Lamport's new (and final) book A Science of Concurrent Programs is now officially published! The final draft PDF has long been available for free on Lamport's website, but now you can buy a hardcover from Cabridge press. Discussion on the TLA+ mailing list: https://discuss.tlapl.us/msg06762.html

#TLAPlus

discuss.tlapl.us

[tlaplus] A Science of Concurrent Programs is now published!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Apr 03, 2026

plugging my nice sennheiser headphones into a random $5 USB-to-headphone-jack DAC found on amazon

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 28, 2026

EAST SIDE LIGHT RAIL DAY

#Seattle

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 27, 2026

Has this made its way up to Seattle yet or is it mostly a SF thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLEszJs7hc

YouTube

Why fun tech jobs went extinct

Good Work

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 22, 2026

Replying to @triploidtree@mastodon.ie

@triploidtree@mastodon.ie perhaps Autoprogettazione? https://archiyou.com/articles/enzo-mari-s-autoprogettazione-how-design-became-empowering

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 22, 2026

Poppin off on the UW campus

#Seattle

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 21, 2026

@lcamtuf@infosec.exchange literally a SMBC bit https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/teleportation

infosec.exchange

lcamtuf :verified: :verified: :verified: (@lcamtuf@infosec.exchange) - Infosec Exchange

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 19, 2026

Heard a big bang and then the power went out? That can’t be good.

#Seattle

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 18, 2026

One day I will find an American (old) restaurant. And presumably will eat unholy quantities of aspic or similar

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 18, 2026

At long last - beat the corrupted heart with the Watcher after minting an Expunger that did 400 damage per play (Master Reality for upgrade + Chemical X + miracles from Collect for energy + strength from Shuriken & Wish). Only on A0 because I am a scrub. But that’s finally all the characters for me on A0! I even kind of started enjoying playing with the Watcher. Hard character to love.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 15, 2026

Got email spam to a randomized single-purpose email address I used at Buck Mason (clothing company). No data breach announcement from them yet, though!

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 13, 2026

I will be attending the Software Should Work conference on July 16-17th in Columbia, Missouri! If you'd like to meet me IRL, consider attending as well!

https://softwareshould.work/

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 13, 2026

Actually reading a formal job offer letter before signing it for the first time in my life and the "you have more rights if you live in these states (primarily California)" notes are interesting! In Washington (but not California) you have to pay back your starting bonus if you leave within a year of it being given. In Washington (but not California) they can stick a non-solicitation clause on you for one year after the termination of your employment. Thankfully no non-competes here.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 06, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE9W9Ghe4Jk

YouTube

Shipping a button in 2026…

Kai Lentit

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 06, 2026

wtf man, peptides?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ltbBby9FU

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 06, 2026

A Steller's Jay admiring the cherry blossoms. Had to scramble to assemble my camera but it stayed placidly perched for several minutes taking in the view!

#Birds

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 23, 2025

Replying to @carbonatedcaffeine@fosstodon.org

@carbonatedcaffeine@fosstodon.org Wow! Unbelievable. Looks like I'll be flashing mine again soon.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Mar 02, 2025

Remarkable quote from Leslie Lamport about the history of Paxos on page 136 of his new book, A Science of Concurrent Programs:

>The Paxos algorithm was invented (at least) twice, first by Barbara Liskov and Brian Oki [43] and then by me. Its consensus algorithm had been invented by Cynthia Dwork, Nancy Lynch, and Larry Stockmeyer [12].

The references resolve to "Viewstamped replication" (1988) by Oki & Liskov then "Consensus in the presence of partial synchrony" (1988) by Dwork, Lynch, and Stockmeyer. Lamport's paper introducing Paxos called "The part-time parliament" was published in 1998.

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Oct 31, 2024

Leslie Lamport's new book "A Science of Concurrent Programs" has been sent to the publisher and the final draft is available for free as a PDF!

https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/science-book.html

#tlaplus

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Andrew Helwer @ahelwer@discuss.systems · Oct 14, 2024

Replying to @report_press@mastodon.social

@jpaskaruk@growers.social @report_press@mastodon.social ??? did you mean to reply to somebody else

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Andrew Helwer

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[tlaplus] A Science of Concurrent Programs is now published!

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Why fun tech jobs went extinct

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Shipping a button in 2026…

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