Author Archives: Jeremy Zawodny

About Jeremy Zawodny

I'm a software engineer and pilot. I work at craigslist by day, hacking on various bits of back-end software and data systems. As a pilot, I fly Glastar N97BM, Just AirCraft SuperSTOL N119AM, Bonanza N200TE, and high performance gliders in the northern California and Nevada area. I'm also the original author of "High Performance MySQL" published by O'Reilly Media. I still speak at conferences and user groups on occasion.

Left Handed Flying (finally)

Posted on June 14, 2017

A weird thing happened recently in my flying: I got comfortable flying left-handed. I started flying gliders as a teenager back in Michigan and have always had the stick in my right hand and used my left hand for things … Continue reading →

Posted in flying, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Chrome and Firefox Ad Blocking and Privacy Addons

Posted on November 19, 2016

For a while I’ve been using AdBlock Plus and Ghostery in both Chrome and Firefox to reduce the amount of shitty ads I see and also reduce the number of “trackers” that I’m exposed to on various web sites. But … Continue reading →

Posted in misc, other, tech | 7 Comments

GNU Parallel and Block Size(s)

Posted on November 17, 2016

I’ve been a fan of GNU Parallel for a while but until recently have only used it occasionally. That’s a shame, because it’s often the simplest solution for quickly solving embarrassingly parallel problems. My recent usage of it has centered … Continue reading →

Posted in craigslist, mysql, programming, tech | 7 Comments

I’m blogging again…

Posted on November 16, 2016

All the post Trump election crap in my Facebook “news” feed finally motivated me to spend less time there (just long enough to post links to my blog and look in the 2-3 groups I care about) and start writing … Continue reading →

Posted in misc, other | 8 Comments

Today’s lame sales pitch…

Posted on February 1, 2016

I’m going to paste the full text of an email message that recently landed in my inbox and unfortunately wasn’t tagged as spam. But I won’t paste it in one blob, I’ll do it piece by piece so it is … Continue reading →

Posted in craigslist, misc, Uncategorized, wtf | 1 Comment

Screw HotWire.com and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas

Posted on July 26, 2015

Let’s say you go online to Hotwire to make a last minute reservation for a room in Las Vegas so that your wife can meet up with cousin. And let’s say that you didn’t realize that the Nazi’s at the … Continue reading →

Posted in misc, travel | Tagged , | 5 Comments

How to write a good used car ad…

Posted on December 29, 2014

For the last few weeks I’ve been shopping on-line for a new (to us) used car. And in the process of doing so, I’ve looked at hundreds of ads for cars within a 2-3 hour driving distance of our home … Continue reading →

Posted in craigslist | Leave a comment

My First Helicopter Lesson

Posted on November 23, 2014

Back on November 16th (last Sunday), we headed up to Auburn airport so that I could use the gift certificate for a 1 hour helicopter lesson that Kathleen got me for my birthday earlier this year. The plan was to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Cast Iron Cooking

Posted on October 29, 2014

Last night I made our favorite black bean & green chili chicken soup for the first time in about a year. It’s the one recipe that always makes me pull out the cast iron pot instead of a cheap lightweight … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Heading to Africa: Victoria Falls, Zambia, Namibia

Posted on April 8, 2014

As I mentioned earlier, we’re getting ready for a trip. Six years ago Kathleen and I went to Kenya and Tanzania for a 2 week African Safari and ended the trip with a 3 day stay on the island of … Continue reading →

Posted in travel | 5 Comments