electrosphere

I would love to know about the classes your Dad runs. Is there any info online about the curriculum etc? Thanks

Sorry to hear this - fwiw I was in a similar situation: divorce, estranged from parents, father with anger/mood problems he refused to fix. Social life tanked.

I joined cycling and hiking groups for a while... but thats very different from having someone close. I recommended trying to get on the dating scene again and find someone compatible. Good luck pal.

Another comment said to move to a city, highly recommended - there is loads to do and you meet people through other people in real-life (online/apps are a minefield)

Amazing story, thanks for sharing Simon.

I blogged about a local one some years back

https://ejectdisc.org/2017/11/05/repair-all-the-things/

Kudos for all the sysadmins out there for keeping our platforms secure, maintained and performant

You could probably make Rocky's ship from Project Hail Mary with this cathedral model.

It depends on your workload etc - but there are TONs of advantages for the monolith approach when you factor in dev environments, access to good data for testing/development, dependencies on components/libraries/services etc.

Note: I'm saying microservices CAN be the right answer, just not always and we should over-engineering.

sauce: I work as a product engineer where we use microservices extensively. I have also worked on monoliths. Preferred working on the monoliths overall I think.

I used Gemini recently to upgrade my 10-year old desktop PC. I listed my current components, budget, requirements and it walked me through different options/components etc. Gave me all kinds of tips. I committed probably ~£450 to the project and more or less trusted it.

The handful of times I did a manual "spot check" of it's advice, it turned out to be good. The upgrade was a success and I'm very happy.

My take away is that AI is a wonderful tool and if this "AI laptop" is optimised for that then it's a bet/product worth trying. Well done Google, I'll watch with interest.

Good list!

One addition?

* start with a modular monolith

I remember 1999/2000-ish I had both a Pentium III/Intel motherboard and Athlon PC. The Pentium III system was rock solid, and performed fantasic. Even the CPU and motherboard looked amazing.

The Athlon was solid but less reliable, various reboots and glitches. I kind have always had a preference for Intel since then.

Sorry to hear that. Being a sysadmin, I guess you're mainly interacting with systems rather than people and need to focus. They should exempt you from RTO except for the odd "all hands" meeting days.

I'm a software engineer in a Product Engineering team and it's about 75% hands-on engineering, 25% Slack/Teams interaction and alignments between people. I find being in the office helps to make connections with other staff in other teams (eg. bumping into people while making coffee in staff kitchen etc). I think thats important from a career perspective.

Thanks pal, I was not forcing anyone... but I guess my wording made it sound "this applies to everyone!".

I put my comment out there to trigger just this kind of discussion.

The London office commute is 30 minutes train and 25 minutes walk. I really like that balance as it gives me sunlight, exercise and fresh air.

I work from a library on the other day, thats a 30 minute drive. I tend to leave before 0700 when the roads are peaceful. My car is pretty fuel efficient, i try to hypermile it and get ~50mpg.

I'm introverted but very glad I have the option of working from the office and being among fellow staff, we also have a lunchtime exercise club once a week. It's much better for my mental health.

In fact, I've added two days working outside of home instead of one because of the benefits. I think 3 days home/2 days office is the sweet spot.

Taking AI out of the equation for a minute - they don't build anything, engineers do. A carpenter builds a chair, table etc using the skill he has accumulated over the years.

I went into software because I like building things and coming up with solid solutions to business problems that are of use to society. I would not describe myself with "love to code". It's a means to an end to pay bills and have a meaningful career. I think of myself more like a carpenter or craftsman.

I used a coding agent for the majority of my current project and I still got the "build stuff" itch scratched because Engineers are still responsible for the output and they are needed to interface between technical teams, UX, business people etc

> I am forced to use simple words to explain

I work with mostly Polish engineers and I am struck by how clear and concise their English verbal comms are. I admire it actually.

I'm a native UK English speaker and I wish I had the simple directness that the Poles, Dutch etc have.

As I get older I've realized that speaking less and just listening more has a LOT of value

I work mostly remotely, recently our Fibre internet upgrade left us without internet for a week. It forced me to work from a nearby university library - which turned out to do wonders for my mental health.

I found a little thriving town in the university with all the important things I needed and the most important thing of all: human social interaction and seeing people around me.

It reminds me of the Star Wars content thats come out recently - before there was the Original Trilogy which we all watched many times and the lines became iconic. Since then it's all become a mismash and blur of mediocrity due to over-exposure.

(except The Mandalorian, and I can't believe I'm using the word "content" :/)

edit: Totally forgot about Andor & Rogue One sorry, great film and two seasons of top-notch storytelling.

Upvote for wanting to help with digital soverign effort (UK national here).

This gives me a homebrew project idea - to create something portable that would allow me to sniff Bluetooth devices on my daily train commute into the office.

Has anyone done this or can give me ideas where to start?

I recently spent time on Stoicism Week 2025: https://modernstoicism.com/stoic-week-2025-live-like-a-stoic...

This years theme was on well-being, I found it useful.

Some years back I hunted down a Bang & Olufsen MX4000 TV for my retrogaming project. That thing was deluxe with a beautifully vibrant picture.

Photos of it plus Trinitrons in my CRT buying guide: https://opticalgarbage.com/wiki/index.php/Gaming/CRTBuyingGu...

I often take my friends to the walkway where they filmed the Imperial capital scenes in Andor.

The Barbican is Coruscant.

I worked remotely from Tenerife last year. I was there two months, at first it was great, everything new and novel. But it wears off and towards the end of my stay I longed for home, community and my usual routine.

The best balance is occaisonal "pattern interrupts" like travel abroad (or within your own country). You do not necessarily need big sweeping vacations or "experiences". A bike ride in a forest for a few days with a friend you have not seen for months can give you that mental refreshment.

I used a CGM recently. I tried breakfast as oatmeal with blueberries and mixed in with peanut butter. It spikes my blood sugar outside the "normal range". I treat oatmeal as once a week treat to avoid food boredom.

The oatmeal was a "big bowl" variety from a packet. I heard rolled oats might be better but it's a hassle to cook.

Most days breakfast is scrambled eggs (3 eggs), spinach, cheese. Sometimes I add tuna or avocado for variety. That keeps things stable.

Just a comment that the library has become my "third space" these days.

I am sooo grateful my local University library is open for public visitors. I visit every weekend and enjoy fast internet, a pleasant and quiet environment and can plug my laptop into one of many large desktop monitors here.

Fantastic shot!

I was in Tenerife in November 2024. I did some basic astrophotography one night with my Pixel 6 phone and a steady hand.

I managed to photograph M31, the Andromeda Galaxy for the very first time. It just appears as a faint oval smudge... but I was in awe.

Locating it was a challenge (I was flipping between a 2D star chart and my photos) so I was very happy to finally capture it. A few days later I discovered the Stellarium app which makes locating things much easier.

I had something similar!

300Mhz PII - it came in a black cartridge thing.

NVidia RIVA TNT which used the AGP bus on the Intel LX440 mobo.

A whopping 128Mb of RAM and 8Gb HDD.

I recall using a program called WinSplit to split the Nvidia driver over several floppy discs on my bosses Win3.1 machine in the office. I didn't have internet at home and really wanted to play Jedi Knight and Battlezone.