jenkstom

We don't need "more theory". The vast majority of computer science theory goes unapplied in solving real-world problems. While I'm sure this is great for postgrad computer science students, it's not very useful for the every day programmers out there.

We already have a term for it: victim blaming. Just because someone is using a valid issue (sexism) doesn't mean they aren't using it as a weapon. When the victim acts in a more cautious manner that's perfectly reasonable. To call them out on that (non-imaginary) fear is victim blaming. The abuser in this case is someone with a personality disorder or some other mental health problem that means they will use any tools at their disposal to manipulate or control another person. It's not sexism, it's prudence. One would use the same prudence against men who used something to manipulate or control them. It would look different, but it would be the same thing.

In the US all first responders are required to go through various levels of incident management. You can get free training on NIMS and ICS online. It works, and it works very well.

My favorite bit, and it more or less sums up the whole article: "Obamacare’s survival says a lot about the differences between the two parties nowadays, and not just on health care. It’s a sign of how different they have become, in temperament as much as ideology, and why one has shown that it’s capable of governing and the other has nearly forgotten how."

Wow. Just wow. I remember early cyberpunks talking about how the internet would enable infinite lies to spread and for the truth to be completely buried in the noise. And here we are. Now our entire reality has been taken over by people living in a fantasy world. No end in sight. Maybe they weren't nearly pessimistic enough.

Delphi.

It's certainly not a science.

It just amazes me how QAnon crazy opinion pieces are making it to the front page of HN now. I find this way more disturbing than I should I guess.

What is the solution for shared custody of children? I have three kids that spend half their time at their moms. Are their Spotify and Netflix accounts (and mine) going to get shutoff? Is there some sort of appeal process?

I'm in the transportation industry and your use of "semi-truck" doesn't instill confidence.

Some of it is encouraged, in a "Darwinian" sense. Yes, it's very common.

Any VOIP DID provider with a provisioning API, like Twilio or Anveo.

It's annoying to the person who needs to get details and pricing and who would love to buy the product but right now is just trying to find out if a project is feasible.

It's insulting in that they could just give me the information but they won't because they think I am too stupid to understand it "the way they intend it" (i.e., in a way that doesn't solve my problem or does so using mostly marketing buzzwords that cause endless technical implementation issues and waste so very much time).

The buzzword I've learned to dislike the most is "RESTful!". It means that your API is written by developers who don't my industry at all. And no, it doesn't matter what industry. RESTful means you've started with a set of premises that don't work in the real work except under very limited circumstances (like distributing media files).

It's self-destructive in that any normal people aren't interested in a sales pitch. They just want information. If you aren't going to provide that then you're at the bottom of the list and we're probably going with a competitor of yours unless you somehow find out that I need a similar product and you start calling upper management. That's the worst-case scenario... now we aren't implementing technology that fits into our use case and architecture, we're dealing with a push from senior management to use technology that doesn't work. We know that a sales call means your product sucks. Hard.

At face value no, this isn't a dark pattern. But experience tells me otherwise. If your product is "contact us for a quote!" then I already know it won't work and is overpriced because you have to work so very hard to "sell" it. Could I be wrong? Yes. Have I been wrong? No. In 30 years of doing this.

Wow... I guess I had a lot to say on this subject. I feel so much better now. ;-)

Part of it is that us old greybeards have been around long enough to see what works and what doesn't. IT is more "cult"ish than most industries. There are long-held destructive beliefs that cause projects to fail or other problems. For example... RESTful APIs. If you're building a single-page web app then it's probably going to work really well for you. If you're replacing a B2B api that "does something", you're gonna have a bad time.

This reminds me of a quote I heard during the dot.com bubble. "If I can't expect 1000% return I'm not investing in a company". It's such a high level of expectation that you just know a correction is coming.

I've left several jobs because of women with personality disorders that target men. I'm tall, so for some reason I usually wind up being the first target. I worked at one place where the senior VP (she couldn't be the same level as the "regular VPs") was openly hostile to men who worked under her and would actively harass them until she found a way to fire them or they left.

I'm going to just say that making a codebase testable increases the complexity by a couple of orders of magnitude. Certainly it's great for some things. For other things it's a net negative.

Say "Yes, but it's worth $xyz to me. Otherwise I'm not doing it."

I survived triplets using this book.

It says she was employed by the DNC.

A scatter / gather / peering protocol makes a lot more sense.

I guess I have a minority view, but when were they not?

Steve Jobs was famously toxic (which is just popular term to describe someone with a cluster B personality disorder, aka "psychopath"). But he dresses like a rock star and creates beautiful things and so everybody is willing to forgive him.

This is kind of like the abused spouse who, after decades of abuse, finally realizes he or she was making excuses for a psychopath all along. Just file for divorce and get it over with. The abuser will make sure it's a horrible experience for you, but you'll be happier in the end.

When an attractive woman that I don't know sends me a link request on LinkedIn it's kind of obvious that she's trying to sell me something. It's been everything from companionship to printer supplies to headhunting, but it's no different than any other platform. I know the article is about women being approached by men, but it happens the other way around as well.

Commercial software will always be a "black box". Many, many companies use commercial software. This is not really anything new. I will admit that the complexity has grown so much that it's nearly impossible to understand any significant software system in its entirety. That's not new, either, just more prevalent than it used to be.

To be honest, I see this more as a baby boomer thing than a Gen X thing. Gen X who are into technical things tend to be into digital things. I mean hey, give me a commodore 64 hooked up to a modem and I'm gonna have a good time. Other digital modes are all the same to me. I'm Gen X and I'm 50, and I'm gonna whine more about k-pop than digital modes.

Reducing the suffering of humanity.

Probably a better question is "Will the demand for software developers outpace the supply over the next 10 years?" Perhaps the looming failures of universities I keep reading about will mean less degreed professionals. I think the demand will increase as more industries become automated, but the supply is the big question.

I wonder how many people at Apple wake up every morning thanking the universe that he's gone and they never have to deal with him again?

I tried "Mere Christianity" at the urging of my mother. It was a series of logical fallacies one after the other. Although I will give him props, though, he tried to put a twist on most of them. Instead of a "false dilemma" it was a "false trilemma" and so on. It was still pretty silly.

Stay strong. I stayed for the same reasons but she wanted to end it. I'm in a better place, but I'm terrified for my children and nobody that can do anything about it believes any of it.

Don't expect your kids to see through it - it's normal for them. Sorry, but that's my experience.