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GianFabien

1,974 karma · joined January 3, 2021

I am a electrical + electronics + computer + networking + software engineer.

Have a decade's worth of business analysis & consulting experience.

My industrial experience ranges from steel mill automation, power station and electrical distribution networks down to smart homes.

My business IT experience includes insurance, FMCG, supply chain and manufacturing.

I have a recent PhD in software engineering and have taught postgrad software engineering courses.

Available under contract to create engineered IT solutions for your business.

Email: gian@cyberfonic.com

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GianFabien··on Gigabyte B300 Workstation PC
Not very personal when it probably takes two persons to load it into a rack.

Heading should be edited - its not a PC and not a workstation.

GianFabien··on How much should we worry about the pneumonic plague lableak in Siberia?
Here we go again! 2020 deja vu! Just in time for USA elections.
GianFabien··on A third way of using Linux
Early Reuters and Bloomberg terminals had a text-centric aesthetic.

AFAIK on a PC, when booted into text-only mode, you are still using a bit-mapped framebuffer. From my experiments you can mix graphics and text.

GianFabien··on Leaving Substack
It's the nanny state dynamic. Parents are avoiding responsibility for their own children, instead demanding that the schools, teachers and government take on the unpleasant, confronting and often difficult role.
GianFabien··on All I wanted was a custom domain email
I've tried this approach, but I found that most email providers aggressively filter out all incoming messages that don't come from validated sources. No matter what I tried deliverability of emails remained very spotty. I did configure DKIM, DMARC, SPIF, etc as suggested. But minimal improvements. Eventually ended up going with AWS SES.
GianFabien··on Ask HN: Do you worry about fires in AI datacenters?
All the data centres I worked in had Halon and in recent times its replacements as fire suppression system. Unlike water, these systems suffocate the fire and once vented the equipment is undamaged. Water, computers and high electrical currents are a very bad combination.
GianFabien··on Ask HN: How do you survive a job you hate which is slowly making you sick?
After I read the first paragraph, I could guess the rest. It is typical for the legacy enterprise system space.

My diagnosis is that you care too much. The enterprise IT space is kabuki theatre.

So what if it takes 6 months to accomplish what should take 2 weeks? Explain to the customers that their needs are so special and particular that it takes your highly trained and experienced staff 8 months to accomplish the high quality results that you demand. Every line of code is carefully written and rechecked, etc. No AI slop is allowed anywhere near your exacting group. You are delivering Saab fighter jet plane quality software, not some cheap and nasty jeep software from Cuba.

Of course, the real challenge is to say stuff like that with a straight face. If necessary, take improv acting lessons. After all it is all an absurdist theatre production.

... and keep sending out resumes, etc.

No job is worth jeopardising your mental health.

GianFabien··on Programming as a Hobby in the Age of AI
Technology and automation have never gotten in the way of people pursuing and enjoying hobbies. Painters still paint, woodworkers still make bespoke furniture, etc, etc.
GianFabien··on Get woken up in the middle of the night when your agent hits an external blocker
Isn't getting a good night's sleep essential for health reasons?
GianFabien··on $12B of US ratepayers' money wasted on a modeling mistake in PJM
Every "wasted $" ended up in some parasitical grifter's pocket.

Whilst these sorts of analyses are informative, they lack answers to the who profits? question.

GianFabien··on US President hid in catering cart for secret flight in Turkey amid Iran threat
There is an interesting tell, they sent the old presidential plane. But then Trump flew onwards from England on the new one. The two planes are sufficiently different that they can't be mistaken for one another.
GianFabien··on SQLite should have (Rust-style) editions
Nah, all those defaults are features. Of course, there are contexts where those defaults are unsuitable which means: Use a Different RDBMS!
GianFabien··on You're Not in a Funk: You are not stuck. You are pointed the wrong direction
I have easily read thousands of personal development books and blog posts. Alex's post is easily the most revealing, inspiring to date. Thank you Alex.

I'm a textbook case introvert. Yet at some (only very few) networking events I comfortably act like an extrovert and have a enjoyable and productive time. Used to confuse me -- pretend extrovert? Now I can see I haven't taking the corners by not reading the road and the mountain. Spent too much time on the gravel pointing the wrong way, wondering what the hell had just happened.

GianFabien··on Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important
I have worked in environments where as the day wore on, my performance plummeted.

After a lot of investigation, I suspect that air quality, lighting, ergonomics can have adverse effects. Only recently I read an article that said that in a room with several persons and poor ventilation the CO2 levels reach levels which are known to impair brain and other neurological functions.

That is, I suspect that your depression is the symptom of a bad environment and not the root cause of your problems.

GianFabien··on Ask HN: Should I do a CS masters at Cambridge or start as a new grad at Amazon?
Like all engineering answers: It depends

If you want money, status symbols and no life = Amazon. Oh, you might gain some experience that is near useless in a non-FAANG org.

If you value life, freedom, keeping your mind active, living up to your full potential then Cambridge.

In my experience, the hedonic treadmill is the biggest trap. But I only arrived at that conclusion after running furiously for decades and having little to show for it, well except for a burnt out husk.

GianFabien··on Bloomberg Terminal Is Ugly and Clunky–Everyone Still Uses It
Have worked with Sabre and early GUI interfaces for travel agents. It has only taken 30 years for WebJet to deliver something consumers could use and has displaced swathes of travel agents.
GianFabien··on American Homeowners Are One Disaster Away from Losing Everything
It would be more useful to determine why insurance premiums are rising faster than almost every other homeowner expense. At the same time noting that insurance companies are making massive profits and squandering millions on executive salaries and advertising.
GianFabien··on How much do amd64 microarchitecture levels help in Go?
I think the more critical question is how well compiler writers can update the heuristics which identify the instruction sequences that benefit from the architectural features. Last I looked, Intel has several thousand intrinsics which must be explicitly invoked to make use of specific features.

I suspect that heavily optimised code either uses intrinsics or carefully written assembler code.

GianFabien··on Ask HN: How to increase depth instead of breadth as 10 yoe as swe?
I get the impression you are not technically challenged at your work. Not an uncommon dynamic when working for a company for which software is a means to an end.

In order to dig deep into one area, you might need to take on a "hobby" project that forces you to deep dive in a chosen area. Looking at your current areas of experience, I would choose either GPU or DSP programming. By being CPU adjacent areas, specialist skills are more likely help your career.

GianFabien··on Too Much Is Happening Too Fast
My jaded view is that many over-enthusiastic people are surrendering their autonomy technology. We've seen the impact of delegating our self-esteem to social media. Now having a machine think for us?

Yank out the power cord. Go outside and experience the reality of nature. It is more humane paced.

GianFabien··on Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?
My move? Get the f** out of the office, away from keyboards, screens and cubicles, take up tools and get apprenticed in a trade.
GianFabien··on Zig → Rust porting guide
Here we go again ...

Company A buys company B. A's management decrees the henceforth B's aqcuihired team must comply with company A's standards.

Second system effect kicks in. Bugs multiply.

Half of original company B devs leave.

I'm investigating whether future projects should revert to using Deno.

GianFabien··on I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]
An amazing effort and result. Shame watching the video gave me motion sickness.
GianFabien··on Ask HN: People who moved away from tech business/career, what do you do?
Yes, tenants can be a pain. The laws have increasingly become less investor friendly. In my experience having a good managing agents provides a valuable buffer. The real money is made when you cash out and collect the capital gains. Of course, you need to tax accountant to make sure you don't give the government most of your gains.
GianFabien··on Ask HN: Why does tech industry not have more co-ops?
I think it is due to the wide disparity between potential members.

For example, consider an agricultural co-op, e.g. wheat growers. The members of the co-op have farms of differing sizes, use similar techniques, have more or less comparable conditions. They produce grain which has a commodity level set price. The main differentiator between members of the co-op is the volume of grain they produce. But on the basis of the commodity pricing it is a relatively level playing field.

Now consider any tech company. Products have vastly different pricing - ranging from free to millions of $ (or whatever your currency) for enterprise levels. The "producers" vary in capability from newbies to rock-star programmers. Plus you need management to facilitate communications, etc. Everywhere you look, you find disparity.

The closest you get to a tech co-op is a startup with a small group of people who respect one another's contribution and follow a shared vision. Unfortunately as soon as you introduce outside investors inequality seeps in.

GianFabien··on Ask HN: People who moved away from tech business/career, what do you do?
Not in SV, not even in the USA. So my experience is probably different. Whilst I was pulling down a good salary, invested in apartments to rent out. Banks are happy to lend if you have a steady income from a job. When I reached critical mass, sold them off one by one, quit the job and living a good life. Not IC level, but zero stress.

A good income is a hedonistic trap if you spend it on booze, cars, babes and parties.

GianFabien··on The three pillars of JavaScript bloat
Keeping it simple usually saves the day.
GianFabien··on The Case for an Ultralight Mac
Back in the day when I replaced the battery in my MBP, I recall the battery was a significant part of the total weight.

To build an all day running ultra-light would probably require a magnesium case, but magnesium and lithium are both flammable metals. Probably not ideal on an aeroplane. Using more plastic doesn't meet the premium requirement.

I'd guess, unlikely?

GianFabien··on Honda is killing its EVs
Smart doorbells and thermostats that upgraded in the night often became a nuisance or an expensive brick. But a faulty software upgrade on a car can kill you and others.

Car company execs need to take a chill pill followed by a reality serum. Monetizing subscription based basic features and delivering in-car advertising is the absolutely worst way to go.

As consumers we need to stop buying into the bells, whistles and trinkets and demand essential and safe transportation.

GianFabien··on Head of FCC threatens broadcaster licenses over critical coverage of Iran war
The Gaslighter in Chief wants to abolish the First Amendment.
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