Tag: general

Availability in Distributed Systems

By Mina 12 Nov, 2023 Leave a comment

In a typical distributed software environment, besides latency, a key metric that correlates well with the health of the business is what is known as “availability”. 

Availability is usually measured by the percentage of time the software is not down (i.e.: available). Availability is vital to modern software organizations. ‘High availability’, or HA for short, is a term commonly used by software professionals. It refers to a software system that enjoys a very low down time.

black and silver round analog clock
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Let’s go back to our hypothetical social network from the previous article, in which you are a senior … Read more

Never underestimate the power of art

By Mina 23 Dec, 2014 1 Comment

According to wikipedia, art is an outlet for human expression, a vessel for our creativity. A very attractive definition indeed. But what value does art provide? Why do we care about outlets for human expression? How does it apply to our day to day lives?

Way back when, in my college days, I was deeply puzzled about the usefulness of any study that doesn’t yield immediate measurable value. Let’s say you studied medicine, shortly after you graduate you are treating patients, helping people get better, making families happier while making money in the process. How about engineering? You finish school … Read more

Life is not fair!!

By Mina 15 Jul, 2014 1 Comment

Do you think good always wins over evil?? Do bad people who do nasty things end up getting punished in life?? How about people who go through life crises? Are they all guilty of something? did they cause the agony of other human beings and hence they are suffering in return? In short, do you think life is fair??

life is not fair

As a kid, I enjoyed fairy tales, stories of how the good always prevails and how evil always loses. I had my own theory that any person who commits an act of evil will always lose, it’s just a matter of … Read more

I was bored!!

By Mina 27 Apr, 2014 3 Comments

I was really bored a couple of years ago, why? Ummm, let me think, was it because of the lack of something to do? don’t think so, I had tons of things that I could have done!! Was it for the lack of someone to talk to? Absolutely not, I had and still have amazing people in my life. Was it because of the lack of travel? Nope, I travelled quite a bit!! Come to think about it, I felt like there was the whole world to conquer out there, places yet to visit, lives yet to live, awesome people … Read more