Rotundo

Consider storage requirements. Strings (ASCII? UTF-8?) are not as efficient as integers or UUIDs. You're not storing UUIDs as strings, are you? They are binary, only converted to the string expansion for display and/or export.

Sometimes something is a standard, not because it is the best, but because it is the thing that everybody expects and can trust to be there.

If you'd like to use another editor you can easily install it.

Great, I'll make sure to avoid them.

I've blocked some sites in /etc/hosts in the past. That gives just enough friction that opening the site isn't an automatic reflex anymore.

It would be trivial to automate this: block HN in the hostfile and only unblock for an hour or two on Saturday evening, for example.

If work on a house was specified like a typical software project, no builder would even return your call.

"I'd like to have my roof reshingled, but with glass tiles and it should be in the basement, and once you are half way I'll change my mind on everything and btw, I'm replacing your crew every three days".

Of course vi/Vim is used for programming ('coding').

I've been doing that since the early nineties. First vi, later Vim.

I like it better than Visual Studio, better than Eclipse and way better than VScode.

Why use C++ when you can use BASIC?

The learning curve can be steep but once you learn vi/Vim you can never go back to an IDE like VScode because it is so unbelievably limited.

When you get comfortable with vi it really begins to feel like you can type text in VScode but you can't edit it.

Tip number one in marketing: make it easy for the customer.

I'm not going through the hassle of installing something if I don't already know I want or need it. No screenshots -> "Next!"

It's the same effect of all the (no doubt wonderful) tools that begin their website with "Foo is the next Bar, now at version 3.1, here is the changelog:...", without ever mentioning what Foo even is. So many customer/users lost through bad marketing.

The current trend is to get off social media.

A social media app based on music has a narrow audience anyway, in my opinion: young people that still find music important enough to make it a thing. For me (old), music is something to listen to, but certainly not be obsessed about.

I find it an amazing success you have so many users to begin with! That signals that there is a market, you "just" have to focus in on it a bit more. What is the common factor of your current users? Market to that demographic. Leave the rest (for now).

The "Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide" got me hooked on computers. Without that book I my life surely would be very different.

Focus on health. Take a step back from work related drama. Try to be online less.

I remember. It was very expensive for not a lot of extra bandwidth. You also needed a special ISDN phone or a, again expensive, box to convert the signal to normal POTS.

Not long after the cable company started offering 'broadband' at 115 kbps, quickly upgraded to 512kbps.

ISDN was a complete non-starter in my locale.

It's currently September 11804 1993, the September that never ended.

I'm sorry the author never learned how to cook. Or had anyone near that could.

Homemade pancakes a way better than what a diner concocts out of pre-mixed mystery batter. At least in my home.

I decided to not work on the bleeding edge of technology.

Mostly I work on "legacy systems" written in languages that don't have much churn. There is a lot of work to do in this area and most younger developers are not interested in doing it. Job safety is great. The pay isn't amazing but not bad either. Work/life balance is excellent at 36h per week.

I expect to work here until my retirement.

They will continue as long as people keep buying their printers.

We don't need smarter printers, we need smarter people.

If you want to play: https://royalur.net/

Snaps were the final straw that pushed me from Ubuntu to Debian.

From a ~/snap directory that can't be hidden by design (and the developers are rather vocal about that) to the snap experience of every application seeing their own version of the file system, no thank you. It's not for me. Debian is a delight after Ubuntu.

Protip: check the trademark register before deploying anything on this domain. Could be very costly otherwise.

Buy a Pi-hole or other firewall and block all social media. Cheap and life improves greatly. First week (detox) is hard. Then bliss.

The tedious Scrum/Agile events where nothing new is ever said and no problems are ever solved.

S03E20 "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"

Reverend Will Dexter: "You know before I got married Emily he used to come by sometime to help me clean out my apartment well I asked her how come here so he could help clean up my place when your place is just as bad she said because cleaning up your place helps me to forget what a mess I made a mind and when I sweep my floor all I've done is sweep my floor but when I help you clean up your place I am helping you."

Anything and everything you do on a work computer can (and often will be) monitored. Only use it for things that you would be comfortable doing with your boss looking over your shoulder.

Give them no reason to dig up dirt if they eventually want to fire you. "Sorry, we have to let you go as you used company property to order lunch way back in 2016". If you think that's paranoid, I'm speaking from experience.

Organizing files is a difficult problem.

For me, grouping by extension would not help. That only serves to bundle my shopping lists with my project plans and tax forms (all .doc), or the cool online picture I saved to get mixed in with my holiday photos (both .png).

I'm not sure how the even begin solving this. Perhaps this is one of the rare instances where AI could help. But only if it works completely local and offline.

Progress OpenEdge ABL

They are not, if you consider all the instances of the bloatware running.

How many users does Spotify have? Multiply that by the 79GB mentioned above. Is it still cheaper?

Don't tax income at all, but tax wealth progressively.

That way it doesn't make sense to hoard all the money. Spending the money keeps it in circulation.

Somehow I hope it will. Since iOS 26 I've used my iPhone a lot less. It is so ugly and un-intuitive. I can't find half the options I need anymore.

In fact I started reading books again. I consider it a win.

I did read them. In the eighties.

I'm not tired of AI itself.

What does get old is the barrage of hyped-up projects that are a veneer-thin layer over an existing AI of one of the big players. Everybody is rushing to get something, anything out there. Nothing of value, but the hype, oh man, it's insane.

This is blockchain all over again. In the end there will be a few useful applications for AI, but at the moment it is the wild west in attention grabbing.