jeffbr13

I tend to go by Binary Large OBject (BLOB) storage to discern between this kind of object storage and “object” as in OOP. BLOB is also what databases call files stored in columns.

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

Forgot about that GPU cluster you spun up last month and built up an astronomical AWS bill? Don’t worry, you won’t have to sell a kidney, stay at Amazon Workhouse Services until you've cleared your debt!

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

I’m not sure I have much sympathy for the problem. Copilot is going to force everyone to move up the abstraction stack.

I absolutely disagree with how Copilot has been trained on the intellectual property of others, and I think Microsoft/GitHub should be taken to court over it (and I say that as an IP cynic, but if you play that game, you should stick by the rules), but this technological cat is out of the bag.

Students (and everyone else) should be thinking much harder about how they test and verify the behaviour of any given piece of code and how they design systems to stick together. This class of technology is going to automate away many of the jobs where you just pump out code. This is fine. It’s no different to someone inventing a burger-flipping machine, and I’m sure many here would agree it’s better if humans didn’t have to flip burgers for a living (modulo solving employment being necessary for a decent/tolerable existence). It may turn out that the next step in software productivity is not a new generation of cool and highly-abstract declarative programming languages (4GL) but simply automating away the drudgery of writing code in the extant kinda advanced languages (3GL) which are ‘good enough’.

Arguably Copilot doesn’t change much about the software development process. You can already get software developed pretty cheap if you farm it out to low-quality contractors or a lot of juniors straight out of school. There’s a whole branch of the industry that will hire anyone straight out of university to manage and front development teams in South Asia. But as we say, quantity has a quality all of its own. And the only way to manage software (not code) quality with this method is to verify and test that the deliverables actually meet your criteria and expectations.

It’s currently a great time to focus on TDD/BDD and code specification because our time spent on the D is about to get a lot shorter. There is still a place for artisanal hand-crafted code. But the mechanical loom has arrived.

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

I very much enjoyed the [Vortex Race 3] which is 75% with all the F-keys and the home/delete/pg key cluster in a line down the right. It works really well and lets you switch between Mac/Windows button order for the CMD/Windows/ctrl buttons in the bottom left through a keyboard shortcut if I remember correctly. It comes with both colourful _and_ grey keys for the clusters! A really handsome and well thought-out keyboard if you want something nice without getting sucked into the keyboard modding rabbit-hole.

Unfortunately a friend spilled coffee on mine, and it's hard to justify buying another one at >£100. And it's often out of stock whenever I do manage to justify it to myself!

[Vortex Race 3]: https://spotonpccases.co.uk/product/vortex-race-3-mechanical...

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

I found it helps to set boundaries and in one instance make it clear that I do not appreciate being called out of the blue. I feel almost everyone understands that a texting before a call is polite these days. Clarification was only required once for a colleague who tried dialling me into a meeting I wasn’t party to, just to ask me some questions that could have been an IM. They were actually a little younger, and so I think it was more a case of realising your impact on other people (who may be in or trying to achieve flow) if you interrupt them because it seems urgent to you. Like the article notes, the open plan office engendered interruptions too easily because it was convenient rather than urgent.

As a millennial I suppose I fall in between the two camps. When I was younger, social anxiety about taking up people’s valuable time with my silly questions made a phone call seem like a terrible burden to subject someone to, but with age and (remote work) experience, I’ve realised that conversations are indeed much higher bandwidth and often appreciated more than a letter or thread of back-and-forth clarifications. If I _had_ to stereotype by generation (sorry GP) I could say voice and video seem easier than reading and writing for boomers and Gen-Zs, but even that doesn’t sound right. It’s probably just a communication style thing. There’s a reason many of us struggle to read a book when we can watch some TV instead. As humans we communicate with our voice, face, and body. The main benefit of text is asynchronicity. The challenge is how to thread the needle of asynchronicity in an increasingly post-literate world.

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

The BOFH[1] is prior art in this space, pointing to its previous use referring to sysadmins.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

I tracked down a good condition 2009-2010 vintage A1242 aluminium ten-keyless Apple Keyboard[1] on ebay for £54 last year for exactly that feeling. Supposedly they came with iMacs for just a year or so before they were discontinued. My first-gen Magic Trackpad fits perfectly where the numpad would be. My only complaint is I can't position the trackpad below the spacebar like on a MacBook so have to move my hands from the home row, but that's because the keyboard and trackpad both have a slant to them.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_keyboards#Aluminum_w/o_N...)

jeffbr13

4년 전discuss

The lede is buried in section "5. Reader Memberships with a 50% Author Revenue Share":

> A Leanpub Reader membership ($19/year) or a monthly Standard or Pro plan is now required for (almost) all free purchases of books, bundles, courses and tracks.

> 50% of the revenue from every Leanpub Reader membership goes to authors of the books, bundles, courses and tracks which were purchased for free using the Reader membership. This way, authors can earn money from free purchases.

> Paid purchases of books, bundles, courses and tracks do not require a Leanpub Reader membership and still pay 80% royalties.

Leanpub has essentially added a paywall for works that were previously free to download, and will split reader membership revenues with the authors. While this seems equitable, it's also a big change in the product direction.

I'd be interested to hear from authors who have self-published using Leanpub intending to maximise readership rather than revenue, and what this might mean for them.

e.g. Try adding a free ebook to your cart, for example this one[1] (no relation, just the one I tried to download). Your cart will now contain 2 items: the ebook and a "One Year Reader Membership - $19.00" with no way to remove it.

[1]: https://leanpub.com/clean-architectures-in-python

jeffbr13

5년 전discuss

This maybe takes “identifying as an Apple user” a bridge too far!

And really, who’s going to know (how) to do that, especially in an emergency? It also relies on either your phone or watch surviving an accident intact. It’s your life, but it’s just going to frustrate identification attempts when it’s important.

A wallet doesn’t have to be bulky a to hold a couple of cards or a few slips of paper. I have a cardholder which is much more minimal and compact than a standard wallet, and even Apple makes cardholders that attach to the back of MagSafe phones now.

jeffbr13

7년 전discuss

I agree! In a way...

I’ll see a “Hi!“ in a notification or followed by _x is typing_ then safely know that I can start slow context-switching out of whatever mode I’m in, start reviewing that block of work for check-in or noting the key takeaways to come back to, and start pre-loading whatever I was talking about with that person last, without the fear of “here’s a big block of text, please respond to it in kind (all right away)”. And more than that, I can also interrupt any incorrect lines of thought or rambling if it’s more rubber-ducking than a request, or turn it into more of a conversation than a message which can read “please do this” and a reply which says “um... let me get back to you”.

I don’t know about you, but a large technical question or “hey can you... X Y Z” generates much more uncertainty than a chat between colleagues, even if the format is only different. Hell, modes of communication are a thing, we’d be as well use each one for its strengths.

jeffbr13

7년 전discuss

That seems to be based on the same idea as the Linnstrument[0], which is fairly widely available now, and sends MIDI data in the standard way over USB or DIN ports without requiring a client application. Its creators Roger Linn and Geert Bevin (programmer) were some of the original drivers of the Midi Polyphonic Expression standard alongside Roli. It's quite funny, but it seems that Geert is also behind a lot of other MPE-compatible software now, including Moog's iOS apps. His YouTube channel is a treasure trove of current and near-future music tech[1].

I have one, and it's great for learning how to play music, because the silicone pads light up according to the configured musical scale. Really well thought out as an instrument, and I believe it's also open source if you want to hack around with the Arduino microcontroller inside.

[0]: http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyEknT0SnyUr4wdvmObWHQ

jeffbr13

7년 전discuss

Check out “The Last Ringbearer”[1] for an alternate take on the LotR mythology where the orcs aren’t monsters but instead citizens of the renaissance state of Mordor.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer

jeffbr13

8년 전discuss

Docker Hub[1] is also blatantly in breach of the GDPR. Wording on the pop-up:

> We and our advertising partners use cookies on this site and around the web to improve your website experience and provide you with personalised advertising from this site and other advertisers in AdRoll's network. By clicking "allow" or navigating this site, you accept the placement and use of these cookies for these purposes.

It’s not a modal, but supposedly ignoring it opts you into the tracking, with the only choices being “Allow” or “Learn More” and the [x] button also being labelled “Allow”.

IANAL, but it’s not informed individualised consent if there’s literally no opt-out, and there’s not a lawful basis unless advertising-cookies are suddenly the enabling technology behind downloadable containers.

I’d report them to the Information Commissioner‘s Office myself if I didn’t think they were about to fold anyway, after their piss-poor sunsetting of Docker Cloud and painting a target on their own back for a few adbucks.

[1]: https://hub.docker.com/

jeffbr13

8년 전discuss

I believe it’s used by Docker’s (Moby’s?) DataKit product inside Docker for Mac/Windows: https://github.com/moby/datakit/blob/master/README.md

jeffbr13

9년 전discuss

This article should be catnip to all interested programmers.

Particularly interesting is the final tenth or so, drawing attention to the explosion noun-compound constructions in the body of scientific writing, even when compared to the peak of contemporary publications (i.e. Nature-published articles).

I also enjoyed the deliberately stupidified translations which invite refactoring into better English, and draw attention to the actual mechanisms of the underlying language.

jeffbr13

9년 전discuss

Not been on Tinder in a while, but a year ago there was definitely the option to add a 'favourite track' to your profile, as an extra bit of information on top of your Facebook likes.

jeffbr13

9년 전discuss

IP's the more specific case here. The company both owns and is responsible for anything an employee does during the course of their employment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_employment

jeffbr13

9년 전discuss

Do you have any links? I'd love to read more.

How did they suggest dealing with changes over time, as members join and leave or shift roles as the organisation changes?

jeffbr13

9년 전discuss

Please correct me if my layperson's interpretation is wrong, but that IP clause is one of the few things I don't worry about in UK employment contracts. When I first came across the phrase "during the course of employment"[1] that they invariably use and researched it, I got the impression that it seems to have specific legal meaning of when you'd reasonably be considered to be 'working for' the company. At the place of work, on duty for them, using company equipment, etc.

There are much more egregious terms in most copy-paste contracts that you can helpfully point out to HR people if you're feeling helpful (or mean), including attempted rewrites of UK labour law (meaningless, it always takes precedence) or ceding rights, to more subtle things such as full-time jobs disguised as freelance contracts, putting you at risk if the taxman comes a-calling[3].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_of_employment [2]: It's mostly used to judge whether the employer is vicariously responsible for an employee's offences, e.g. was the delivery driver on his own time or was he in the course of employment when he hit the pedestrian? [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR35

jeffbr13

10년 전discuss

Combine pure dates and times with timedelta[1]? Python's multiple comparison expressions help here too.

For events in the last hour, the following expression should evaluate to True:

    (datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=1)) <= event_datetime

Checking whether event_datetime is within May of the current year is a bit more involved, but you may not need to convert everything to a date (would have to check in an interpreter):

     date.today().replace(month=5, day=1) <= event_datetime.date() <= date.today().replace(month=5, day=31)

The point is that the language already has good support for sensible time operations, but it's parsing is weak. And there's Arrow for that[2]!

[1]: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#timedelta-ob... [2]: http://arrow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

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