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ejrowley

26 karma · joined December 7, 2012

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/ejrowley; my proof: https://keybase.io/ejrowley/sigs/3hTgKI61Z1ER9pEw5FV_Ekn_5WFC1jrmfrierkVvTPw ]
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ejrowley··on End of Apple
The cell phone market has matured, the rate of innovation has slowed and the need to update your phone at every release has subsided. Apple has recognised this, they have better long term support for their phones then any other manufacturer that I can think of. As an example I have given my son an old iPhone 5S that my wife got in 2014, it had been sat in a draw for a couple of years but a good charge and an update has made it like new, it is running the latest iOS like a champ. Apple is taking a hit on sales because it is making an effort to support it's products long term. Now for me as the consumer I'm prepared to pay a premium for my phone because I know it will last 3+ years.
ejrowley··on Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers
I studied physics, with intention of becoming a developer (which I did). I didn't have much appetite for a CS course and felt the physics would give me a broader set of skills.
ejrowley··on What “full stack” really means to the job market
> Most full stack developers have breadth but not depth.

I have to disagree with this, its a generalisation at best. In my experience the "full stack" developers have had a much deeper knowledge of a subject then the "specialist". This is simply because the layers in the stack are not as discrete people would like you to think and the full stack developer has a much better understanding of why and how something is.

ejrowley··on Org Mode for Emacs – Your Life in Plain Text
Another long time vim user, I switched to emacs+evil then to spacemacs back to vim back to emacs+evil. Spacemacs was good but I started to feel bogged down, as I do with big ide's and went back to a very minimal vim.

I have now started back with emacs + evil and a minimal setup. I find it gives me the best of all worlds.

ejrowley··on Details of UK website visits 'to be stored for year'
There is a lot of Tory bashing going on here but this policy runs deeper, Labour tried to put through similar legislation. The coalition dropped it but is back. Each Home Secretary seems to become more hard line and blinkered, like they are being poisoned by the fear emanating from the security services.
ejrowley··on Call for Amiga Developers: Kickstarting PowerPC and 68k software development [pdf]
I was the same, yet I continued to invest in the Amiga in the vain hope that it would come back from the brink, in hindsight I should have jumped ship then too, I stuck with the Amiga until the 2000ish
ejrowley··on Call for Amiga Developers: Kickstarting PowerPC and 68k software development [pdf]
I can certainly agree with that, I invested far too much time and money in the Amiga long after it was relevant. But I still have a fondness for the machine, it was elegant in a way that just isn't necessary anymore, time and moores law stands still for no man
ejrowley··on The Last Line Effect
An interesting article and I am guilty of copy and paste errors myself. But the bias towards the last line may be because those mistakes are tested less then other parts i.e. in an if statement early conditions mean the final condition is never tested.
ejrowley··on The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free (2009)
I work for a small company, not a startup (I've been here 9 years), about 20 people. Yesterday we launched a website, today we got Pizza. I was happy. It cost the company £100 but it made all of us feel appreciated.

A couple of weeks ago I ask an owner how much he wanted for an old TV we had in the office, hoping that he would say just take it (the tv was 8 years old and not been used for about 3), he didn't, he wanted its ebay value. We agreed £30. That made me feel sad, less appreciated.

tldr; Small things can affect people in a big way.

ejrowley··on Boris: A tiny but robust REPL for PHP
Very useful tool, partially useful is being able to start a Boris shell mid script:

$boris = new \Boris\Boris('myapp> ');

$boris->setLocal(array('appContext' => $appContext));

$boris->start();

so that you can poke about.