My name is Benjamin (often 'bdunahu'), and this is my personal site!

I am currently attending my final semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I am studying computer science. I am part of the umass webring. Try it and pretend the majority of the internet doesn't exist!

Some programming, of course; I like experimenting with and building tools for existing software.

I recently did some independent work at the UMass Plasma lab related to a specialized python asyncio profiler. Asyncio allows developers to run code non-sequentially on a single python thread. It's entirely in control of the developer when concurrent tasks are allowed to yield to other tasks, so bad code (synchronous blocking calls, like a file read) are capable of slowing the throughput of the event loop or task scheduler. My profiler conducted timing experiments similar to the Coz profiler to insert slowdowns into asynchronous tasks during execution, which when done intentionally simulates the effect of speeding up a targeted section of synchronous code. This worked okay to detect task latency slowdowns (blocking), but was limited in usefulness since it required a constant workload across the experiments to have actionable results. It was still a great learning experience!

I previously worked on my own C compiler after working on a from-scratch compiler in coursework. I used this second compiler to learn the basics of guile scheme. This website is written in scheme; and my computing environments are similarly configured using GuixSD. I recently started contributing patches and packages. I have a little experience with Arch (Parabola) and Debian in maintaining this server. Someday, I may host my web, mail, IRC bouncer, etc. with scheme and Guix too, but that requires downtime and a lot of work on top of the work already put in.

I write, sometimes technical papers for research and classwork, but am also enjoy creative writing. I do poetry occasionally. Though I prefer plot and character design (likely cultivated from many hours playing dungeons and dragons), and am currently focused on a series of short stories featuring a timeline in which the goddess Freya is spiteful in the aftermath of the Aesir-Vanir war. It's been suggested she's the same seer who was mistreated (if that's how you should call burned to death three times) by the Aesir due to envy. Since she is essentially traded as a hostage to the Aesir in the aftermath of the war, why shouldn't she be using her seer magic venomously behind their backs? It's currently set in Midgard, Jotunheim, and the passages inbetween, following her shamelessly unhelpful servants.

I also read a lot of Sword and Sorcery. My favorite series is the Morlock Ambrosis series by James Enge, followed by Sam Syke's Bring Down Heaven. I give an honorable mention to Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson; which played a role in the naming of this site (though of course I prefer the site operation-al). While the protagonists in these stories are capable enough of saving the world, what makes it interesting is the lack of heroism and the reality that they are their own worst enemy, (if not the secondary antagonist).