seconds Archives

Tech Optimizer

July 14, 2025

The performance engineer: a detective licensed to kill… bottlenecks

A SQL query initially took fifteen hours to process, but after performance engineering adjustments by Vadim Laktushin, it was reduced to two minutes. Performance engineers (PEs) work to enhance IT system efficiency by identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in application code, database management systems, configurations, and hardware. Vadim transitioned from a developer to a performance specialist at Postgres Professional after exploring benchmarks and system tuning. Performance issues often require complex solutions rather than straightforward fixes. For example, a client migrating from Oracle to PostgreSQL faced delays due to the Write-Ahead Log (WAL), which became a bottleneck during heavy write operations. PEs adhere to principles such as proactive analysis, reliance on data, and caution against quick fixes. Essential skills for PEs include programming, Linux expertise, understanding algorithms, statistical thinking, and effective communication. The future of performance engineering may involve specialization, and while AI can assist, it cannot replace human expertise in optimization tasks.

Winsage

July 14, 2025

Windows 11 update changes critical warning that’s remained unchanged for 40 years

Microsoft has announced the retirement of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) after nearly forty years, transitioning to a new error screen called the Black Screen of Death. The new screen will feature a black background, replacing the blue, and will provide clearer error messages, such as "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart." This change is part of a broader initiative to improve user experience during critical failures, including a significant reduction in reboot times to approximately two seconds. The redesign was influenced by the CrowdStrike outage and aims to enhance clarity and efficiency in troubleshooting. The rollout will begin with Windows Insiders and expand to millions of PCs globally.

Tech Optimizer

July 11, 2025

Cloud PostgreSQL uptime falls well short of expectations

A survey conducted by The Foundry revealed that 82 percent of PostgreSQL users have concerns about cloud region failures, with 21 percent having experienced such failures in the past year. Among 212 IT decision-makers, 91 percent require no more than four minutes of downtime per month, aiming for an uptime target of approximately 99.99 percent. Additionally, 24 percent seek less than 30 seconds of downtime. AWS dominates the PostgreSQL service market, with 55 percent using AWS RDS and 45 percent using AWS Aurora Global Database. Azure Cosmos DB and Google Cloud SQL are used by 29 percent and 24 percent of respondents, respectively. Unexpected downtime has disrupted business operations for 56 percent of respondents, with 40 percent reporting damage to brand trust. Strategies for ensuring PostgreSQL availability vary, with 58 percent using single-region strategies and 47 percent adopting multi-region approaches. Notably, 23 percent still rely on manual processes, and 5 percent have no high availability strategy. Furthermore, 51 percent of respondents use PostgreSQL in a hybrid database environment, while 35 percent use it as the primary database for customer-facing applications. PostgreSQL has been recognized as the most significant climber in database rankings, currently standing fourth overall.

Tech Optimizer

July 10, 2025

New Survey Reveals Strong Demand for High Availability as Businesses Increasingly Use PostgreSQL in Mission-Critical Applications and to Alleviate Cloud Outage Concerns

pgEdge, Inc. conducted a survey revealing that 91% of organizations using PostgreSQL require a maximum of 4 minutes of downtime per month, with 24% aiming for less than 30 seconds. While 21% experienced an outage in the past year, 82% are concerned about potential cloud region failures. Additionally, 79% of respondents are considering or piloting a distributed PostgreSQL solution within the next year. Over half (51%) use PostgreSQL in a hybrid database environment, and 35% use it as their primary database for customer-facing applications. Strategies for high availability include 58% relying on read replicas and automated failover, while 47% have implemented multi-master replication across multiple cloud regions. Businesses exceeding downtime thresholds face delays (56%), damage to brand trust (40%), and increased support requests (49%). Organizations using high availability PostgreSQL solutions report benefits such as increased uptime (53%) and cost savings (36%). The survey included 212 IT decision-makers, with 75% from enterprises with over 500 employees, and the top industries represented were financial services, software and computing, and manufacturing.

Tech Optimizer

July 10, 2025

New Survey Shows Strong Demand for High Availability as Businesses Increasingly Use PostgreSQL in Mission-Critical Applications and to Alleviate Cloud Outage Concerns

In a survey by pgEdge, Inc., 91% of PostgreSQL users expect no more than four minutes of downtime per month, equating to 99.99% uptime, with 24% aiming for less than 30 seconds. Despite these expectations, 21% experienced outages in the past year, and 82% are concerned about cloud region failures. Additionally, 79% of participants are evaluating or piloting distributed PostgreSQL solutions. Over half (51%) use PostgreSQL in hybrid environments, while 35% use it as the primary database for customer-facing applications. To achieve high availability, 58% rely on read replicas and automated failover, and 47% use multi-master replication across multiple cloud regions. Among those who exceeded downtime thresholds, 56% faced delays in operations, 40% reported damage to brand trust, and 49% experienced spikes in support requests. Organizations implementing high availability solutions reported increased uptime (53%) and cost savings (36%). The survey included 212 IT decision-makers from enterprises with 500 or more employees, with 75% in IT, Networking, or Security roles. The leading industries represented were financial services, software and computing, and manufacturing, comprising 69% of responses.

AppWizard

July 9, 2025

TapTrap Android Exploit Allows Malicious Apps to Bypass Permissions

A new Android vulnerability named TapTrap allows malicious applications to bypass the operating system's permission system without requiring special permissions. It exploits activity transition animations to mislead users into granting sensitive permissions or executing harmful actions. Researchers from TU Wien analyzed 99,705 applications on the Google Play Store and found that 76.3% are susceptible to this attack. TapTrap uses low-opacity animations (approximately 0.01 alpha) to make sensitive permission dialogs nearly invisible while still registering touch events. The attack can last up to six seconds and can lead to unauthorized access to critical functionalities like the camera and microphone, and even device administrator privileges. TapTrap bypasses existing defenses against tapjacking in Android, affecting popular web browsers as well. A user study showed that all participants failed to detect at least one variant of the attack. As of June 2025, Android 15 remains vulnerable, with no timeline for a comprehensive fix. The vulnerability has been assigned two CVEs, and researchers disclosed their findings to Google in October 2024. They propose solutions to mitigate the risks, including blocking touch events during low-opacity animations and setting an opacity threshold of 0.2.

Winsage

July 9, 2025

Windows Restrictions Fixer 2.0 restores disabled features with ease

Windows Restrictions Fixer is a lightweight tool designed to help users re-enable disabled features in Windows operating systems. It simplifies the process of identifying and fixing restrictions caused by administrative policies or third-party applications, requiring no technical expertise. The application features a minimalist interface with a single "Scan" button that detects active restrictions and provides a list with registry keys and descriptions. Users can select issues to resolve and click the "Fix Restrictions" button for automatic adjustments. Some changes may require a system restart to take effect. The latest version, 2.0, offers a redesigned interface, improved organization, and broader detection of restrictions. The app is available for free download from Softpedia.

Tech Optimizer

July 8, 2025

How TimescaleDB helped us scale analytics and reporting

At Cloudflare, PostgreSQL and ClickHouse are used as primary databases for transactional and analytical workloads. PostgreSQL is preferred for product development due to its speed, versatility, and reliability, with hundreds of instances running in various configurations. ClickHouse, introduced in 2017, allows ingestion of tens of millions of rows per second with millisecond-level query performance but comes with trade-offs. The Digital Experience Monitoring (DEX) product was developed with a focus on simplicity and rapid shipping, utilizing a team of three engineers and collaboration with other teams. DEX's initial launch included fleet status logs uploaded every two minutes and synthetic tests with usage caps, leading to a successful MVP launch ahead of schedule. The architecture included an HTTP API, PostgreSQL for storing configurations, and a React UI in the Cloudflare Dashboard. PostgreSQL was chosen for analytics due to its ability to handle structured logs, with a table created for device state logs lacking a primary key but optimized with unique and standard indexes for common queries. The UPSERT query was used for data insertion, and the order of columns in multicolumn indexes was optimized for performance. After launching DEX, the system scaled to 1,000 inserts per second, leading to performance degradation. Precomputed aggregates were implemented to improve query performance, resulting in up to a 1000x improvement. Table partitioning was considered but ultimately not pursued due to its manual management requirements. TimescaleDB was explored as an alternative to enhance query performance, offering features like automatic partition management, continuous aggregates, and compression. A side-by-side comparison with PostgreSQL showed significant performance improvements, particularly for longer time windows. TimescaleDB's integration allowed for efficient data retention and aggregation, simplifying the infrastructure. Following the success of DEX, other teams at Cloudflare began using TimescaleDB for analytics and reporting, consolidating data from various sources and managing high ingestion rates effectively by optimizing data handling techniques such as switching to COPY for bulk inserts and adjusting replication settings.

AppWizard

July 8, 2025

I Tried Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, and This Is the One I’d Recommend

Telegram retains data necessary for its operations, including metadata like IP addresses. In 2024, the company updated its privacy policy to clarify that it can disclose IP addresses and phone numbers of rule violators to law enforcement upon valid legal requests. This resulted in Telegram fulfilling 900 information requests from U.S. authorities in 2024, affecting 2,253 individuals. Telegram has experienced data breaches, including a 2020 incident where 42 million Iranian users had their data compromised and a 2019 vulnerability exploited by Chinese agencies affecting protestor identities in Hong Kong. The platform allows users to create public channels for sharing content, but these channels are not end-to-end encrypted. Telegram offers secret chats that are end-to-end encrypted, but they are limited to the device of origin. The app allows for automatic message deletion, with a minimum interval of one day, and features a self-destruct option for accounts after a period of inactivity. Telegram's client applications are open-source, while its server-side code is closed-source. The company operates on a freemium model, offering a paid tier for enhanced features. Telegram is available for free download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Winsage

July 8, 2025

Microsoft Edge Can Now Load Websites Faster After Migration to WebUI 2.0

Microsoft Edge has improved its web browser's loading speed, achieving a global First Contentful Paint (FCP) time of under 300 milliseconds, down from previous times that negatively impacted user satisfaction. Since February 2025, load times have been reduced by an average of 40 percent, with significant enhancements in features such as Settings, Read Aloud, and Split Screen. The migration to WebUI 2.0 has contributed to this improvement, reducing the Settings page load time from 0.394 seconds to 0.034 seconds. Microsoft plans to continue enhancing performance in features like Extensions and Print Preview in the coming months.