CSE138 Distributed Systems Lectures
Course Topics
- Consensus Algorithms: Raft, Paxos, and other consensus mechanisms
- Consistency Models: CAP theorem, eventual consistency, strong consistency
- Fault Tolerance: Handling failures in distributed environments
- Scalability: Techniques for building systems that scale
- Real-world Systems: Case studies of production distributed systems
Fundamental Concepts
Fallacies of Distributed Computing
The Eight Fallacies
- The network is reliable - Networks fail, packets get lost
- Latency is zero - Network calls have significant latency
- Bandwidth is infinite - Network capacity is limited
- The network is secure - Security cannot be assumed
- Topology doesn’t change - Network topology is dynamic
- There is one administrator - Multiple parties manage different parts
- Transport cost is zero - Network operations have costs
- The network is homogeneous - Networks consist of diverse components
Web Archiving and Self-Hosting
22120 - Self-Hosted Internet Archive
- GitHub - i5ik/22120
- NodeJS product for self-hosting internet archives offline
- Similar to ArchiveBox, SingleFile, and WebMemex but with unique features
- Allows creating personal, offline copies of web content
Archive Features
- Offline Browsing: Access archived content without internet
- Personal Control: Own your data and browsing history
- Full Pages: Capture complete web pages including dynamic content
- Search Capability: Find content within your personal archive
- Privacy: Keep browsing and research private
Key Takeaways
- Education Access: High-quality computer science education is increasingly
available online
- System Design: Understanding distributed systems fallacies prevents common
mistakes
- Data Ownership: Tools for personal data archiving become more important as
web content changes
- Learning Resources: Combining theoretical knowledge with practical tools
improves understanding
These resources span from fundamental computer science theory to practical tools
for data preservation, showing the breadth of considerations in modern
distributed systems and web technologies.
