Reactive Streams

Been meaning to talk about this for a couple of weeks now, so at least a quick note:

The serious software-architecture geeks should take a look at the new Reactive Streams manifesto. This is a project to tackle an enormously common modern architecture problem: when you have streams of data passing asynchronously as messages from layer to layer, getting transformed along the way. There are some very common issues with this sort of architecture: in particular, dealing with situations where the back end begins to get overloaded, and it becomes crucial to apply "back pressure" so that the higher levels slow down, lest you overload the buffers.

The new Reactive Streams Specification is an approach to this problem: a common JVM API that each layer can implement in order to reactively apply back-pressure up the chain as necessary. AFAIK the project has been spearheaded by Typesafe (specifically the Akka team), but there have been a bunch of companies involved -- Twitter, Red Hat, Netflix, etc.

Roland Kuhn, the lead of the Akka project, will be giving a webinar on the subject next week. I plan to attend -- it seems likely to be quite educational. I commend it to other architects...

Right -- I love biking. Why do I always forget that?

I don't bicycle during the winter, for a variety of reasons: in particular, it's a tad less safe, and I just plain don't enjoy it much when the temp falls below 50. And by the time we get around to spring, there is a very strong, "It's too much haaaassle" response -- in particular, trying to remember how to reinflate those verdammt performance tires. (I never remember the eensy-weensy little screw to open the valve, and wind up struggling with it for ten minutes until I get the clue.)

But that first good bike ride of the season -- a day like today, when it is clear and crisp, warm enough to be pleasant but not yet hot, going for a short 7-mile loop exploring a bike path I've never tried before (the one along Alewife Brook), seeing the sights and the people -- more than worth it. I really need to remember that going for a ride is a *totally* appropriate way to get my daily exercise, and I'm allowed to do it simply because it's fun.

And yay for the state getting it right: they have finally committed the funding to complete the Community Path over the next five years. This will effectively run the Minuteman Path (which runs into the Somerville Community Path) all the way to Lechmere, so there will be a more or less continuous bike path from Boston out to the suburbs...