About OTC CatchUp
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OTC CatchUps are weekly informal sessions involving project showcases and technical discussions. They are held every Saturday from 10:30 PM IST. Join in!. For all summaries, please visit catchup.ourtech.community/summary. |
OTC CatchUp #310
Authors: Darshan Rander · Ankush Kapoor
Date: 17-10-2026
Duration: 2 hrs 30 mins
Topics Discussed
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Urmil shared that she is exploring cybersecurity, starting with defensive work and networking.
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The group suggested exploring the wider field instead of choosing a specific role too early.
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We talked about learning computer systems from the lower levels up, including filesystems, PCIe, interrupts, and how hardware handles data.
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Harsh recommended trying hands-on exercises such as building a gate, Git or Redis with CodeCrafters, and writing an HTTP server in C.
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Resources shared included Hussain Nasser’s YouTube channel and his backend course, plus Arpit Bhayani’s Redis from scratch video and the TsodingDaily, Computerphile, Core Dumped, and Arjay the Dev channels.
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The group discussed how interrupt controllers signal the CPU, how interrupt handlers return to the interrupted process, and how this differs from polling.
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Pranav explained flip-flop and combinational circuits using a pipe analogy.
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Harsh shared his compilation examples and recommended Godbolt (Compiler Explorer) and talks by its creator, Matt Godbolt.
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Other resources shared included a video on hardware, Darshan’s post on building a database, and Bhavesh’s posts on Python lists and Python dictionaries.
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Bhavesh and Harsh also shared articles on virtual memory and how Unix spell ran in 64 KB of RAM.
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Darshan described an idea for a Docker MCP server that would connect to the Docker daemon rather than just wrap Docker CLI commands.
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He also explained how Linux control groups (cgroups) limit a process’s CPU and memory use. The group discussed CPU pinning and its possible performance trade-offs.
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Bhavesh mentioned writing about how Firefox’s
Ctrl+Fworks and exploring howprintfworks. Harsh encouraged him to give a short talk about the topic. -
Bhavesh said he wanted to build a useful product but was unsure what to make.
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Darshan suggested building a tool that helps people understand lower-level computer science concepts, inspired by CPU.land.
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Darshan also shared an idea to read the HashiCorp Vault source code and record an explanation of it.
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Meet Screenshot
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For all summaries, please visit catchup.ourtech.community/summary. |
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