Category: Blog

Next-generation billing architecture: transformation with a transition to Tarantool

Why would a corporation like MegaFon use Tarantool in billing? It may seem that usually a vendor comes in, brings a big box, plugs it into a socket — and that’s billing! Once upon a time, that was true, but now it’s archaic, and such dinosaurs have either gone extinct or are dying off. Originally, billing was a system for invoicing — a calculator. In modern telecom, it is a system for automating the entire lifecycle of interaction with the subscriber […]

Tarantool Cartridge: sharding a Lua backend in three lines

At Mail.ru Group, we have Tarantool — an application server on Lua that also acts as a database (or vice versa?). It's fast and great, but even the capabilities of a single server are not limitless. Vertical scaling isn't a panacea either, so Tarantool offers tools for horizontal scaling — the vshard module [1]. It allows for sharding […]

Pale Moon 28.7.0

A new significant version of Pale Moon is now available — a browser that was once an optimized build of Mozilla Firefox but has gradually evolved into a fairly independent project, now largely incompatible with the original. This update includes a partial rework of the JavaScript engine and implements several changes that may affect website functionality. These changes implement versions of specifications […]

The Fuck

Yes, you heard right. That's exactly what this console utility called the fuck is. You can find its sources on GitHub. This magical utility does one very useful job — it fixes errors in the last executed command in the console. Examples ➜ apt-get install vim E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock — open (13: Permission denied) E: […]

Release of the Pale Moon browser 28.7.0

The release of the web browser Pale Moon 28.7 has been announced. It forked from the Firefox codebase to ensure higher performance, maintain a classic interface, minimize memory consumption, and provide additional customization options. Pale Moon builds are available for Windows and Linux (x86 and x86_64). The project's code is distributed under the MPLv2 license (Mozilla Public License). The project adheres to a classic interface design, without […]

Volume plugins for storage in Kubernetes: from Flexvolume to CSI

Back when Kubernetes was still at v1.0.0, there were volume plugins. They were needed to connect storage systems to Kubernetes for persistent data from containers. Their number was small, and among the first were storage providers like GCE PD, Ceph, AWS EBS, and others. The plugins were included with Kubernetes, which […]

Creating a Kubernetes platform in Pinterest

Over the years of its existence, Pinterest's 300 million users have created more than 200 billion pins on over 4 billion boards. To serve this army of users and vast content base, the portal has developed thousands of services, ranging from microservices that can be handled by a few CPUs to gigantic monoliths running on a whole fleet of virtual machines. And then the moment came […]

A new command shell called nushell has been released.

The first release of the nushell command shell has been published, combining the capabilities of PowerShell and classic Unix shells. The code is written in Rust and is distributed under the MIT license. The project is originally developed as cross-platform and supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. To extend functionality, plugins can be used, which interact via the JSON-RPC protocol. The shell employs the familiar […]

Release of the minimalist web browser links 2.20

The release of the minimalist web browser links 2.20 has been presented, supporting operation in both console and graphical modes. In console mode, color display and mouse control are possible if supported by the terminal in use (for example, xterm). The graphical mode supports image output and font smoothing. In all modes, tables and frames are displayed. The browser supports the HTML specification […]

Microsoft has lifted the block on updates for Windows 7.

Starting August 14, Microsoft blocked the installation of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 updates signed with the SHA-2 certificate. This action was a response to issues with these patches reported by Symantec and Norton antivirus solutions. It turned out that these protective programs identified the patches as dangerous files, removing updates during installation and preventing them from running […]

Exchanging secret messages through server logs

According to the definition on Wikipedia, a dead drop is a covert tool used for exchanging information or items between people using a secret location. The idea is that people never meet — yet still exchange information, maintaining operational security. A dead drop should not attract attention. Therefore, in the offline world, inconspicuous items are often used: a free […]

An Inside Look: RFID in the Modern World. Part 1: RFID in Everyday Life

More RFID tags to the god of RFID tags! Since the publication of the article about RFID tags, nearly 7 years have passed. Over these years of traveling and staying in various countries, an enormous number of RFID tags and smart cards have accumulated in my pockets: secure cards (such as permits or bank cards), ski passes, public transport passes, which are absolutely essential in places like the Netherlands […]

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