drspacemonkey

I had an XPS13 from two generations ago, and I completely agree with the "killer" wifi linux problems.

I'd also completely agree that it was cheap and easy enough to replace. Lots of guides online, and getting a real intel wifi card was like $15. Took me about an hour, and most of that was gingerly opening the case.

Assuming your API follows REST, I find the MVC pattern to be immensely helpful. Even if the "V" part is just an object serializer, it's still a great pattern.

>Every rotation around the sun my opinion is solidified that we're all just wingin' it, no matter the age and success can happen whenever.

One of the most impactful realizations I've had in my entire life is that, with _incredibly_ few exceptions, everyone is fumbling. All the time. Regardless of age. Some people are just better at hiding it than others.

After I was able to fully internalize that, life got easier. I stopped putting so much pressure on myself. It became "okay" if I didn't know how to deal with a situation, or felt completely overwhelmed. I'm still fumbling, but I've come to terms with it and I feel much better as a result.

If I ever feel really confident I've "figured out" life, that's when I'll get really worried.

Either that or an open MongoDB with default credentials. Again.

I've got a wifi QR code printed and hung on the wall of my apartment. It's nice to be able to tell guests to just scan the QR code instead of giving them my very long wifi password.

The support is pretty good in Vancouver, but there's two big compounding problems.

1 - drugs, which is a massive complication modifier

2 - capacity, which is stressed a LOT by other areas of the country. For example, other provinces have a policy of buying one-way bus tickets to Vancouver for any homeless person who asks (or is slyly convinced to leave). Vancouver can't do anything to stop it, for good reason - freedom of movement within the country is a guaranteed legal right.

It would have been nice if dropping them had been an option for me.

I dealt with one that seemed actively hostile. They would change their API without any advance warning at all. Data fields that we depended on would mysteriously vanish in the middle of the day, causing our entire system to grind to a halt until we put in a hotfix. Happened several times in the two years I worked on that project.

It's worse than zero information. As the saying goes, it ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

15 years ago when I was doing the university thing, I was surrounded on all sides by adults who were chock full of "helpful" information. While this career advice was probably sound back in the 70s and 80s, the world has drastically changed. It's pure lunacy to expect 18-22 year olds to not only recognize the bullshit, but also figure out the actual truth.

Very true. But given the choice between "tracking and secure enough that I don't have to care about it", and "tracking and leaky as a sieve", I'll choose the former.

At least a Chromecast is cheap and replaceable with a de-googled AndroidTV box without having to toss the whole TV.

I simply do not want a "smart" TV. No internet access, no apps - just a lot of HDMI inputs, CEC, and a display. Sadly, this is getting harder and harder to find. When I went to buy last time, Costco didn't have any "dumb" TVs, so all I did was refuse to hook it up to the internet.

I got a Roku and a Chromecast. Those provide better "smart" functionality than any TV ever could.

The Cascades line in the PNW is top notch. Taking the train from Vancouver to Seattle/Portland is a far better experience than flying or driving. Wifi, big seats with lots of legroom, easy customs, dining car, train leaves and arrives downtown - I highly recommend it.

Basically, everything in space is a moving target.

If you'd really like to nail home an almost intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics, I recommend Kerbal Space Program. Imagine Minecraft NASA. You plan, build, launch, and fly space missions using a simplified physics model. It's insanely fun and addictive, as long as you can get past the frustrations of early failures.

I cannot recommend this game enough. I've got hundreds of hours in, and I'm at the point where I've got huge spreadsheets carefully planning out mission parameters to spec the requirements for my new heavy launch platform to colonize the solar system. I'm even assembling a long-term research station in orbit that will eventually be parked around a gas giant.

Most recent startup I worked for had a decent concept for an entirely new kind of advertising channel, but the CEO was more interested in fantasizing about running a unicorn than actually building the company. We had the following problems:

- Relied on legacy systems built by large, entrenched companies

- No consideration given to interchange fees that nearly guaranteed operating at a loss

- Repeatedly burned clients by drastically over-promising, delivering late, then abandoning support beyond minor bugfixes

- Poor project management (more interested in tweaking JIRA than answering critical questions)

- No product ownership

- Refusal to build MVPs or prototypes to prove concepts were feasible before trying to turn them into finished products

- Extreme lack of focus

The company still exists because keep having to get money from more and more questionable sources (most recent round came from an investor who is wanted by the Chinese government for corruption). Assuming they continue to operate, I wouldn't be surprised if they got raided and shut down for one financial crime or another.

I've also been doing interviews for a few years at three different companies, and I've encountered it. It depends heavily on the quality of the recruiter. Good recruiters will attempt to filter out complete duds, bad recruiters will pack a clown car full of "rockstar candidates" that just wasted my time. There was one particularly bad instance where a guy with 10 years of experience and a masters degree got stuck for an hour trying to write a for loop. With unfettered access to Google.

Don't forget us devs who are required to use OSX as a matter of corporate policy. I'd much rather be on Linux

Similar things happened to me. My main takeaway was that these supposed authority figures were so certain about this stuff, and they obviously had zero clue. Made me distrust authority in general for years, which led to several problems.

There have been a few such documentaries. I even saw one that followed a woman who worked at one of those cafes, and she would in turn spend large amounts of the money she made at another intimacy cafe.

My guess is that it would be more like "get sick, don't seek healthcare until it's an emergency, go to emergency room, rack up many thousands of dollars in medical debt, be unable to pay it back, linger for a while, then die".

>Pray tell, what is the difference between tylenol and explicitly non-opioid Rx tylenol, aside from the dose of acetaminophen per pill?

After some emergency dental work last week, I was given Rx Tylenol. It has a low dose of codeine, which is an opiate.

>Enabling people to learn more about the software they use every day is better for everyone involved

I agree, but the flaw in your assumption is that the people who want help from "the office Excel guy" want to learn more. Much like being the "family computer guy", the person asking for help is really asking for you to just fix the problem.

What was the podcast? I wouldn't mind giving it a listen.

From way down at the bottom:

14.0 C - No effects [Baseline]

14.5 C - | Minor changes |

15.0 C - | Localized Acid Rain | Some mobs spawn less | Some mobs spawn more |

16.0 C - | +1 Sea Level Rise | Tropical fish die |

17.0 C - |Global Acid Rain | Some trees no longer grow | +1 Sea Level Rise | Coral Reefs die |

18.0 C - |Noxious Area Potion Effect Clouds | Farm yields decrease | +2 Sea Level Rise | All Snow/Ice melts |

19.0 C - | All fish die | Random Forest Fires | Slower Health Regen |

20.0 C - "Devastation".. Highly polluted chunks get permanent severe area potion effects, forest fires, etc

This seems to be a lesson we have to learn over and over. Each time more expensive than the last.

Given their market penetration in India, it wouldn't surprise me if they went so far as to set up in-person payment infrastructure. Wouldn't have to be complicated - it could even be like the Steam or Hulu gift cards you pick up at BestBuy. Any shop or market stall could sell them, just ship 'em out en masse and charge the store when they activate, possibly via the app.

I love mechanical keyboards, and as a tinkerer the concept of making a custom one really appeals to me.

That said, the fact that the main page loads up dozens of multi-megabyte "thumbnail" icons is absolutely baffling.

>I'm sorry, but saying that as long as your process isn't broken (whatever this means) and your system isn't poorly designed then Rails is maintainable seems to be a pretty weak argument

If you've got a dysfunctional team and poor design, the language/framework choice isn't gonna help you. There isn't a framework in the world that will save you from tight coupling, lack of styleguide, business logic scattered all over the place, poor test suites, or monoliths made by bootcamp graduates.

There was at least one case of a false negative resulting in a preventable heart attack.

Mostly, they're kept as pets, and the population has drastically reduced because they no longer have much utility outside entertainment.

That's not exactly a scenario I would call an improvement for human beings.

For what it's worth, the book is excellent, and very in-depth. You're correct that this is just a glorified advertisement for the book, though.