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Critical Sectionby Ted Koomen
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Notes on software, systems, and tradeoffs.

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5 entries / newest first
005

SPSC vs MPSC Queues: Who Owns the Next Slot?

Compare SPSC fan-in and MPSC queues in C++20 with runnable examples, acquire/release ordering, bounded capacity, and measured throughput tradeoffs.

2026.11.0216 min read
004

Threads, Mutexes, and Atomics: Start With What Can Go Wrong

How threads share memory, what a mutex actually does on Linux, and why replacing locks with atomics is not automatically an optimization.

2026.10.3018 min read
003

Optimizing the Wrong Thing, Faster

AI makes it easier than ever to build impressive-looking systems that are architecturally defeated before they start.

2026.06.2917 min read
002

AI and the Illusion of Optimization

AI can accelerate engineering, but it can also create false confidence in bad solutions.

2026.06.244 min read
001

Why I'm Building a Server Framework in Zig

F1 telemetry, low-latency trading, and choosing Zig over C++ and Rust

2026.03.067 min read
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