GianFabien

I enjoy watching Kinding It Design, Wheeler Dealer and similar shows. I suspect that some people might be inspired to consider those careers after watching the gleeful professionalism of the people featured on such shows.

My understanding of a "distro" is as being a curated collection of components from lots of different sources which have been re-compiled and tested to work together. At its core is always a specific version of Linux and then the userland packages that users may choose to install.

The most fundamental alternative would be to build the core Linux system, e.g. following the Linux from Scratch process and then downloading each application from its repository and compiling, installing and configuring. That too is a valid choice but one that some of us don't care to indulge in.

I was looking for some update on Wayland's status.

Wayland isn't actively on my radar, but I am sufficiently aware of it, that I would like to consider it, but only if it has gotten past the early adopter stage. My Debian desktop system is my daily workhorse. I don't futz with it to try out bleeding edge stuff.

There's only two reasons to buy stocks:

  1) for future cashflows (aka dividends) derived from net profits.

  2) to on-sell to somebody willing to pay even more.

When option (2) is no longer feasible, the bubble pops and (1) resets the prices to some multiple of dividends. Economics 101.

After the dot bomb of 2000, the market got flooded with CISCO and Sun gear for pennies on the dollar. Lots of post 2000 startups got their gear from those auctions and were able to massively extend their runway. Same could happen again.

Here's a fantastic chance for a tech mega-billionaire or company to step up to the plate and take on the $15M p.a. commitment to keep the satellite orbiting.

For example, for Google $15M is probably less than they spend on stocking their fridges with fizzy drinks. The PR benefits would be huge and they could probably sell the data to the current users of that info.

The pertinent question is about your company as a whole. If it wasn't for your manager would you be content to stay?

If "yes", then blacklist his number and never answer after hours. When asked to do something different always explain how that affects the other work in progress. Only work 8 hours or whatever you are contracted to do. If your manager kicks up a fuss, then go to the next level and/or HR. Refuse to be demeaned. Of course, you could get fired, but then your manager might get fired for his incompetence. It is a risk. But taking the "I don't give a F**! FAFO" attitude makes you feel more in control.

I speak from experience. I once had a managing director give me a hard time, I blew up on him and waited for what I thought was the inevitable termination. A week later, and most unexpectedly the firm's partners fired the MD.

I guess that's one way to do it. For a simpler approach, I'd just use a basic 4-chan mixer and feed its output into the computer.

Never mind that ... look at next quarter's profit numbers and dividend. Like all corporations the only cohort they care about are their shareholders and executive suite.

Two perennial opportunities in Australia IT are fixing up outsourced systems and building workarounds for enterprise shovelware.

Job ads tend to be for Java/C# coding and project managers willing to harangue techies to deliver improbable results to impossible schedules with meagre budgets

AI's capabilities are very unevenly distributed. If there is a wealth of quality information on the internet about something, then it usually comes up with a solid answer. But where information is scarce it often just bullshits its way. Two examples:

Trying to get some JS code to work for a GUI - mostly correct, but I did cross-check with MDN.

Tried to debug PXE booting Raspberry Pi from Haiku-OS as a server. A mixture of good information on PXE as per the standards, but sketchy when it comes to Raspberry Pi's non-standard implementation. Failed to solve problems arising from Haiku-OS beta5 state.

As career advice: skate to where the puck will be! Get proficient at solving domain specific and edge case scenarios. Fixing AI created monsters is going to be like tattoo removal clinics erasing regrets of past bad choices.

From what you've written I deduce you are living in a rural community in the UK and plan to got to Cambridge uni to study CS. Your GitHub works are both in C.

I see two options:

1. Since opportunities for your skillset are limited in your area, you could seek out project based C/C++ programming remote or gig work. But, I think you'd be up against a lot of competition.

2. Broaden your offering to being a Mr PC FixIt guy. I don't know if GeekSquad or similar operate in your area. You could charge for results instead of the time you take.

I would recommend the second option, because it exposes you to real-world use of computers and provides an insight into how businesses operate. This level of knowledge and expertise is a valuable complement to technical knowledge.

The observations reflect the deeper cultural differences. Japanese corporate goal is to build a company that lasts 500+ years. In the West the corporate goal is to maximize this quarter's numbers, deliver profits for the shareholders, maximize the executive suite's gains.

The majority of folks are consumers and unable and/or unwilling to handle the complexity of self-hosting, self-sovereignity, etc. They will gravitate to what is free and easy. There are no incentives for the major vendors to implement protocols that will threaten their massive advertising revenues.

If you decide to foster an online community, then you might end up being the tech support to that community. For many of us, that is not an appealing choice.

Democracy is a mirage. The industry groups and lobbyists own the politicians.

Persons who strive to work their way up within the political parties are driven by hubris and greed. Pure ideology gets you nowhere. Being a good party operative, aka selling your soul to the devils, is the road paved with gold to a seat.

The worst thing that happened to Unix was the MBAs at AT&T and then Novell wanting to extract the maximum possible revenue from it. Whilst large vendors licensed the code, e.g. IBM, HP, Sun MicroSystems, sundry workstation vendors and Microsoft (Xenix!) it was off limits to universities. So Xinu, Minix and subsequently Linux emerged. BTW Plan 9 and Inferno were also subjected to the heavy handed monetization efforts.

Had AT&T taken an enlightened approach, the brilliant folks at universities would have worked to improve it (granted Berkley did contribute, but they too were sued) instead they wasted time reinventing the wheel.

The big question: How is pilot training and certification going to ensure that accident rates are further reduced?

Will also need huge changes to training and certification of aircraft mechanics.

Existing air traffic controller shortages, under-staffing, equipment deficiencies are going to have trouble coping with the increased workload posed more and faster planes.

IBM has been doing that for decades. They have even been repeatedly sued over unfair dismals, etc. But for them it's only the cost of pursuing their off-shoring goals.

If Australia doesn't have the capabilities then why are the university campuses full of overseas students? So they can learn, return to their homelands and work at some outsourcing org?

CBA like all large corporations don't care about their staff nor their customers. Their only priority is to pander to their shareholders and pay their executives ever larger salaries and perks.

Government powers don't work. Lobbyists and party donors make sure that they own the decision makers. Politicians, like the corporations are only in it for what they can personally gain.

Best TLDR;

Ok, guesstimating that the 6 figure sale was around 3x earnings, the total of all the revenue is less than $450k for 5 years. Then you need to allow for expenses and taxes. Might be Ok as a side hustle, but probably insufficient to replace a typical income.

A reality check to counteract all the startup boosterism.

The managements who hire consultants to tell them what they should be doing.

Thanks for sharing. Good to read that after trying so many different things you are actually facing the underlying psychological factors. The anxiety over breaking things is common, especially when what you are deploying is critical and the adverse impact of problems could be widespread.

Personally, I prefer to go on long walks and leave the phone at my desk. I can't decompress with a reminder about work in my pocket. Besides it would keep pinging, etc.

There are several dimensions to your question. I can only touch upon a few that immediately come to mind.

The easiest and quickest is to throw up your hands, give up and do something else. I suspect your question doesn't expect that option, but it usually is an option.

Why not AI? If what you are working with has been around for a while and is widely used, then with a bit of careful context setting AI beats searching by other means. AI is only as useful as the information that was scrapped from numerous sources correlates to your context and question.

You could raise a support ticket with the product and hope that somebody can solve your problem.. In my experience this can be rather fruitful or futile yelling into the void.

Then you could attempt to solve your problem by going about it in a different way. This requires backing up and trying different directions. It is always possible that the way you are trying to solve a problem is an edge case that the original designers / implementers didn't anticipate.

If you are really determined, then you have the option of digging into the code, determining how it works, etc. This can be a very deep dive into a rabbit hole. At the bottom of the rabbit hole you will have studied and understood stuff you didn't even know existed and grappling with disassembled machine code. Going this deep is rare but not unheard of.

Perhaps I'm mistaken. But I thought that several of the original MIPS designers, etc became the leaders of the RISC-V movement.

The ISA and its implementation are two different dimensions. Look at the x86 ISA how it evolved from 80386 to present day superscalar, predictive, re-ordered, who knows what else microprogrammed implementations. The code I compiled back in 1990 runs today without even recompiling it. My sleek light-weight laptop is totally unlike the beige box I originally compiled it on.

So ... what's new? It's standard MS attitude. The CTO bought it! Who are you to question his wisdom (after a bozzy night out with the sales team).

Contrarians betting against the herd have often been very successful. For example, John Paulson and Michael Burry made billions by shorting CDOs that lead to the 2008 crisis. The movie "The Big Short" is an Ok dramatization of how it all unfolded.

Same herd mentality, different soapbox.

This is a very raw read. Yet, I have to admire the honesty and the clarity of the introspection.

When you manage a team, the team's successes and productivity are a reflection of your leadership skills. Your role becomes rather meta.

In my experience, pushing back against unwarranted scope creep can be draining but very necessary.

Sometimes your greatest contribution is ordering in pizzas for the team and handing out long necks (of beer).

I've had conversations with people who didn't even know that the name "Tesla" comes from the prolific inventor, Nikola Tesla who was Edison's competitor as in DC vs AC power.