Oxide and Friends RIP USENIX ATC
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May 15, 2025 The podcast dives into the bittersweet end of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference, mixing humor with fond memories and critiques of its evolution. Anecdotes about awkward encounters with tech icons bring laughter, while discussions about Unix systems and the challenges of bridging theoretical research into practice provoke deeper reflections. The talk also touches on the hurdles of implementing advanced RAID systems in ZFS and critiques of academic publishing, all while celebrating the transformative journey of programming languages.
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Meeting Dennis Ritchie at ATC
- Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal attended the USENIX ATC when their DTrace paper was accepted.
- They met Dennis Ritchie there, marking a memorable moment of inspiration and reverence for their work.
Shift from Practitioner to Academic
- The USENIX ATC 2004 conference shifted from practitioner-focused to largely academic.
- Bryan and Adam were rare among mostly academic presenters working on real systems in industry.
Chasing Dennis Ritchie Demo
- Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal excitedly cornered Dennis Ritchie to show him a DTrace demo at USENIX ATC.
- Dennis, feeling overwhelmed, excused himself and dashed into the women's bathroom to escape the interaction.