rr Repository Moved To Independent Organisation

For a long time, rr has not been a Mozilla project in practice, so we have worked with Mozilla to move it to an independent Github organization. The repository is now at https://github.com/rr-debugger/rr. Update your git remotes!

This gives us a bit more operational flexibility for the future because we don't need Mozilla to assist in making certain kinds of Github changes.

There have been no changes in intellectual property ownership. rr contributions made by Mozilla employees and contractors remain copyrighted by Mozilla. I will always be extremely grateful for the investment Mozilla made to create rr!

For now, the owners of the rr-debugger organisation will be me (Robert O'Callahan), Kyle Huey, and Keno Fischer (of Julia fame, who has been a prolific contributor to rr).

Pernosco Now Available For Individual Developers

We're pleased to announce that Pernosco is now available to individual developers!

Each Github account gets five free submissions. After that you can subscribe for 20 USD per month for 5 submissions per month or 30 USD for 5 "carry-over" submissions that don't expire. Workflow: make a recording with rr, then submit the recording to Pernosco with the pernosco-submit tool and credentials obtained from the Pernosco account page.

Pernosco supports x86-64 ELF binaries with DWARF debuginfo — e.g. C/C++/Rust — and V8 JS (in some configurations, e.g. Node, Chromium).

Experience how much better debugging can be, and contact us with any questions!

Update We've added a new "volume subscription plan" for individual users: 50 submissions per month for $50. This should make it easier to not think about rationing.

Auckland Half Marathon 2020

I did the Auckland Half Marathon again this year. There were 4600 runners in the Half Marathon this year, a little down on the 5200 last year, but not bad given the COVID pandemic happening elsewhere and our borders being closed.

I did around 1:48. I pushed myself pretty hard this year and unlike some previous years I don't think I could realistically have pushed harder, but still didn't hit my personal best — and I'm a bit more sore than in previous years too. Some of that is no doubt just me getting older, but it may be partly due to residual tiredness having done the Pouakai Circuit last weekend. Also, it might be overall faster for me to walk rather than run up the Harbour Bridge, though it feels more satisfying to have run the whole way.

Anyway, despite my sore legs and feet, I am pleased I did my best.

Pouakai Circuit 2020

Last year's Pouakai Circuit tramp was good but I wanted to try again, hoping for better weather, and a friend had a day off and wanted to go on a short trip near Auckland, so I organised a group to walk the Pouakai Circuit again, Octobert 23-25 (Friday-Sunday).

Pouakai Hut is only 16 bunks and very popular, so I was worried it might be very full on Friday night (the day before Labour Weekend), so I decided to spend Friday night at Matekawa Hut, then walk around the mountain to Holly Hut for Saturday night, then either finish the circuit on Sunday or take the shorter track directly out to the visitor's centre. In the end we did finish the circuit, so we actually did "Pouakai Circuit plus Matekawa Hut".

On Friday we drove down from Auckland and had only a short walk to Matekawa Hut. The weather was a little bit drizzly but we had good views over the plains to the north and east of Mt Taranaki — including faint views of Mt Tongariro, Ngarahoe and Ruapehu —. Later in the evening the cloud over the mountain cleared and we got a good view of Mt Taranaki itself. We were the only people in the hut apart from one guy who walked up in the dark and arrived after we all were in bed!

On Saturday we got started reasonably early, leaving the hut around 8:20am even after cooking a decent breakfast. We walked up to Tahurangi Lodge, up "The Puffer", then west around the flank of the mountain to Holly Hut. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great, cloudy and drizzly and a bit windy too. Nevertheless the walk around the mountain was interesting, with some good views of waterfalls, lava cliffs and canyons in the mist. We got to Holly Hut in time for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon watching people file in. As expected Holly Hut got pretty full; I think just about all the 32 bunks were taken, and there were several tents in the adjacent clearing. The weather improved a bit in the afternoon and we went out to the side track to Bell Falls, which is rather nice.

Yesterday we got going a bit earlier, around 8am. We crossed Ahukawakawa swamp and scooted up to Pouakai Hut in good time, taking only about 1.5 hours instead of the signposted 2.5 hours. The weather in the Pouakai tops was similar to the previous day — foggy, drizzly and a bit windy — so unfortunately we again didn't see much. Trampers at Pouakai Hut told us the hut had been incredibly full on Saturday night, more than 30 people in the 16 bunk hut, with people sleeping on floors, under bunks, etc. We pushed on to complete the circuit, walking over Henry Peak then down into the bush and out at the North Egmont road, with only a brief stop at Kaiauai Shelter for lunch, exiting around 2:30pm. The weather was overall significantly wetter than last year and the bush track yesterday afternoon was quite wet and muddy.

Overall the trip was a good workout and a lot of fun. We played Bang a fair bit, ate some good food and everyone said they enjoyed it despite the weather and the mud. I'm more determined than ever to go again when we can finally get some good weather and the great views that are possible!

The Parable Of The Two Bus Drivers

Two bus drivers were driving along a dangerous mountain road. The first bus driver drove very fast in a hurry to get to town. Many times their bus scraped the guardrails and nearly plunged off the road, but the driver was lucky and each time managed to get the bus under control.

The second bus driver also wanted to get to town quickly, but was more afraid of plunging off the road, so drove a little slower. Their bus scraped the guardrails only a few times.

The second bus reached the town a few minutes after the first bus. Many passengers on the second bus complained: "if only you had driven faster, we could have arrived in town at the same time as the first bus. Next time we will choose the first bus driver."

New Zealand's Long Term COVID19 Strategy

People in traditional and social media regularly describe New Zealand's "elimination" strategy as "unrealistic" or "unsustainable", for example Greg Foran today. It's usually not clear what they mean or what specifically they think the New Zealand government should do differently, so it's hard to support their views, but I do think Jacinda Ardern (or Judith Collins if she leads the government after election) needs to articulate one or two of the most likely paths she expects New Zealand to take through 2021. Understandably they don't want to promise something they might not be able to deliver, but I would like to see them fill the vacuum of uncertainty with at least a tentative proposal.

Skimming media and various expert opinions, it seems very probable that at least one safe and reasonably effective vaccine will be available to us some time in 2021 — probable enough that we should bet on it. It seems reasonable to expect to vaccinate everyone in New Zealand who's willing — not an especially onerous step up from our annual flu vaccination campaign — by late 2021. After that we could return to pre-COVID border controls — even if we still expected COVID19 to arrive, some people to catch it, and some to die, the cost of reopening the border then would be much lower then than it is today. If we make that our tentative plan, I think there's a pretty strong argument for keeping NZ COVID19-eliminated as much of the time as possible until then.

On the other hand if that plan is unreasonable or unrealistic, I would like to hear expert views on what a better plan looks like! I mean an actual actionable plan, not something hopelessly vague like "we need to learn to live with the virus".

Surprising Words In Luke 1:16-17

This is another interesting, perhaps slightly weird, verse that is often read and glossed over. Luke writes of a prophecy delivered to Zechariah about his yet-to-be born son, John the Baptist:

"And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."

Turn people back to God, return the disobedient to wisdom, prepare people to receive the Messiah ... these are unsurprising prophetic priorities. But turn the hearts of fathers to their children? Why was that a priority for God in that era?

Understanding this depends on knowing that it's actually a quote from Malachi 4:6:

"He [returning Elijah] will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction."

Quoting that here makes sense because John the Baptist is later identified as acting in the spirit of Elijah, fulfilling this prophecy. Thus John will not just turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but also those of children to their fathers, i.e. strengthen familial love in general. Still, it's very interesting that while Biblical teaching often emphasizes the duty of children to honor their parents (e.g. the fifth Commandment), Luke has instead chosen to emphasize the duty of parents to love their children.

I think it's also interesting that Luke highlights familial love here when the rest of the Gospels often seem to give it short shrift. Jesus sometimes leaves his family waiting, he tells his followers they are his mother and brothers, and his disciples leave their families to follow him. Luke's choice here helps keep those events in perspective.