Future Studies
New Year’s, winter break, and staying home all day tend to make me reflect. I decided to reflect on what I want to study for the upcoming year.
For some context on where I’m at, I am currently in my 3rd year of college and have run through the gauntlet of theory, algorithms, and systems. There aren’t any of the foundational courses left to go through. I have left the so-called “tutorial hell”[^1]. The only courses left for me to take are electives.
Thinking back on my semester, I took classes on compilers and cybersecurity. I realize my interest in computer science has shifted toward systems programming. I enjoy writing Node.js more than using Node.js. It feels more fruitful to gain a deeper understanding of the ladder than the former. I’d rather try to understand what makes a framework rather than keep up with the greatest, latest and newest JS framework.
Operating Systems/Kernel Modules
What does it mean for UNIX to treat everything as “files” or use file descriptors? This question and many more motivated me to understand what underlies OS abstractions.
Reasonably enough, any sane person doesn’t need to go beyond the abstractions they are given, but I’m not sane. I want to know the underlying wizardry and black magic of operating systems. It’s simply interesting how you have this special program dubbed the kernel, which runs the show.
Distributed Systems
How do multiple computers talk to each other across distances and stay in sync? How do you make a self-repairing, gracefully degradable, and scalable system? These are the core questions at the backbone of the entire internet.
One piece1 of this is understanding the networking stack and OSI layers. The next part is about understanding consensus algorithms and setting up the infrastructure. These concept coalesces into managing and monitoring production systems.
I don’t want to be surface-level about it. I want to learn past the usage of tools of the trade and how to build the tools of the trade. The goal here is to do this bottom-up for the insight and fun of it.
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The one-piece is real. ↩