Redshift Observatory

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2023-11-04

Weather Report

I tried to run the benchmarks on the 1st, but ran into problems in us-east-1; it was not possible to create ra3.xlplus clusters. I bailed on the benchmarks, as it was very late, I’d had a long and intense week, and the benchmarks couldn’t run properly anyway.

They were run the next day.

Still being busy, publication has only happened now, two more days later.

Region	Node	Comments
ap-northeast-2	dc2.large	Network running at half speed for second benchmark in a row, 8 seconds plus. This node type in this region for the network benchmarks switches between ~4 seconds and ~8 seconds.
ap-south-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after four weeks of being slow.
ca-central-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after six weeks of being slow.
eu-central-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after eight weeks of being slow.
eu-south-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after six weeks of being slow.
eu-west-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after six weeks of being slow.
us-east-2	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after ten weeks of being slow.
us-west-1	ra3.xlplus	Disk-read-write benchmark returned to normal after ten weeks of being slow.

2023-11-10

System Table Tracker Bugfix

Fixed a bug in the system table tracker, where functions with no arguments had no page generated.

(Each function, table and view has its own page, describing itself.)

Next I want to finally make a single-page diff between Redshift versions.

2023-11-12

System Table Tracker One Page Diff

I have finally created a single-page diff between system tables of Redshift versions.

It’s crude, I need to sit down a make a nice UI, but it’s one day of work and it’s information available nowhere else.

https://www.redshift-observatory.ch/system_table_tracker/index.html

https://www.redshift-observatory.ch/system_table_tracker/1.0.59117_to_1.0.59596/one_page_diff.html

2023-11-19

`ra3` Nodes Unavailable in `us-east-1` and -`us-west-2`

I ran the benchmarks as usual on the 15th, and couldn’t get ra3 nodes in us-east-1 and us-west-2. I tried then the next day, same. Tried again today, 19th, same problem, so now publishing benchmarks as they are.

2023-11-25

Slovakia and Putin’s Influence in Western Elections

Recently there was an election in Slovakia.

It was apparent that Russia/Putin were applying as much money as possible to the election in order to favour candidates and parties who would cut off air to Ukraine.

There’s an independent newspaper in Slovakia, Dennik N, and from and related to them two particular examples, the first being a Russian military attache bribing a journalist, here, and the second being more recent, where a deepfake audio was released in a 48 hour period of no media coverage immediately before the recent election, to discredit a leading mainsteam and pro-Ukrainian figure, here.

This is entirely in line with the pre-invasion influencing of Western elections and instutitions, the Austrian example in particular coming here to mind, as covered by the Economist, here;

In 2019 a leaked video showed the then vice-chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, chilling in Ibiza with what he thought was the niece of a pro-Kremlin businessman. In it, Mr Strache, then also the leader of the migrant-bashing Freedom Party, suggested that his new chums should take over Austria’s most popular tabloid and turn it into a hard-right mouthpiece; in return, they would be granted juicy government contracts. As if to prove his own point, Mr Strache added: “We have decadence in the West.”

Then of course we have Orban, in Hungary. Long before the war, there was a point where Ukraine was dependent on Russian gas and was working to obtain alternative supplies. A new route was developed through Hungary. Orban then forbad the use of that route to ship gas to Ukraine. I am absolutely certian there is as vast an amount of Russian money doing everything possible to support and sustain Orban, whether or not Orban wants it and directly accepts it, because his conduct is so favourable to Putin.

These countries are being corrupted and undermined in eaxctly the way Ukraine was, prior to the Euro-Maiden revolution. The theme is the growth of corruption in general, combined specifically with corruption of journalists and media, and the rise of an anti-Ukraine, anti-EU party.

Putin’s offensive is not just against Ukraine; it is against all who support Ukraine, and against all whom Russia could in the future invade.

If Ukraine falls, then Putin continues with whatever target is next, with the program of undermining Western elections continuing; this program is as much as part of the Russian war effort as the war itself.

In any election, you will see parties and leaders espoucing any view you care to name, and so this will including cutting off support to Ukraine and so allowing Putin to conquror Ukraine, subjecting the entire nation of 40 million people to torture, death, and oppression, and then directing their economic output to his own ends, which sooner or later will mean more invasions.

Some will genuinely believe, others will be opportunists, others will actually support Russia. The fact what they propose is hideous is by-the-by; there will always be some who support it, and with Putin applying as much money as possible to their partities, they will have more influence and success than they otherwise would.

So now in Slovakia, we find a PM elected who either genuinely believes, or is an opportunist, or who knows what - but now today he says “Ukraine is a frozen conflict and so we should all stop supplying weapons”.

If the West stops supplying weapons, Russia will conquror Ukraine. This is not a frozen conflict. This is a conflict which will be lost without support; Russia is simply too much bigger than Ukraine for Ukraine to prevail on its own. The consequences of Ukraine’s loss are too terrible to imagine, and also wholly against the national interest of Slovakia, unless national interest is defined as being a friendly nation to Putin’s Russia; what’s being espoused is in the Slovak PM’s interests, to maintain Putin’s support, at a terrible cost to his own country and to everyone else.

2023-11-28

System Table Tracker

The System Table Tracker UI has been improved.

The diffs are now single page, with two iframes, side-by-side.

The left iframe contains an index, of changed functions/tables/views, the right iframe contains all the details of the changes for each function/table/view.

Clicking on a row in the index make the detail iframe jump to the details for that entity.

Finally possible to easily and rapidly browse changes.