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lucidguppyon Watsonx: IBM's code assistant for turning COBOL into Java

This is a management problem. Lack of long-term planning. People knew COBOL was "feature complete" DECADES ago.

"If it ain't broke - don't fix it." does not mean "don't maintain the things you own - just let them run until they break - then fix them."

lucidguppyon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2023)

  Location: Metrowest Boston

  Remote: YES

  Willing to relocate: No

  Technologies:

C++11/14: boost, GDBus, CMAKE, embOS RTOS

JavaScript: Node.js, Express

Python: Dagster, Postgres, MongoDB, SQLAlchemy, flask, zodb, django, tkinter

Web: HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, React, Vue

Other Languages: C Programming, TCL/TK, Matlab, Java, Kotlin

Other Technologies: Apache Camel, AWS SDK

  Résumé/CV/Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-karas-8194714/

lucidguppyon Why do people still use VBA?

WTF!?

Everyone needs to seriously look at DDD again. You want a product?

- Small team composed of a few developers, one or two SMEs, one or two DEVOPS.

- SMEs teach the devs the domain language. Explain requirements in gherkin language or equivalent.

- Devops hand hold the developers to get it into production. (Devops guy can probably be split between 2-3 teams).

Many SMEs want to work their problem, not code. You're helping them.

VBA is anti-technology. There is no version control, there are no tests, automated integration tests? HAH!

*PS: "You build it you own it" Is wrong. You need a small "meta-programming" team that makes sure the teams have the tools they need to own production without their brains exploding. Perhaps these meta-programming teams can be split among a few corporations - as you don't really need them there all the time.

lucidguppyon Suits ignored IT's warnings, so the tech team went for the neck

Give a team a budget - if you achieve your goals and come in under budget you get half the under-spend as a bonus.

Don't let the bean counters force budgets - incentivize them.

lucidguppyon Leaf blowers are a scourge. Why is it hard to get rid of them?

I do that to if the leaf cover is less than 90%.

lucidguppyon Leaf blowers are a scourge. Why is it hard to get rid of them?

I don't get leaf blowers really. I'd love to have some sort of paper bag and connector to my lawn mower. I have my bag and just getting it into the brown bag is a little bit of a pain. But man - you just do it once and you don't have to cajole the leaves for 10s of minutes.

lucidguppyon Splunk to cut workforce by 7% after cisco deal

M&A is noncompetitive and should either be prohibited or heavily taxed.

Create a subsidiary? Fine... Buy up all the tadpoles so you don't have to deal with frogs? Noncompetitive...

lucidguppyon Population.io

I a 1000 year old eye from Mordor.

lucidguppyon The housing market looks like a bubble, 2008 regulator says

How can we have a housing shortage and a bubble at the same time?

The power elite has found out they don't have to build houses and cars in order to make money - just constrain the supply and raise prices. Easy peasy.

Remember - the corporations can sit on foreclosed houses for years and not feel any pain.

Tell me how the free market solves this?

lucidguppyon We have used too many levels of abstractions

I would need to talk to the writer to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

DevOps isn't "that guy does everything". DevOps and Dev ARE different. Dev's product is what we sell to customers. DevOps product is the construction of a software development pipeline - from PR to production that ensures the policies and procedures of the company are enforced on the code base while setting up to code to function in the real world.

Dev designs the widgets.

DevOps designs the widget assembly line. DevOps job is to eliminate the Dev's pain points around deployment, resources, security, and compliance.

I know this sounds like gate keeping - but you should question the leadership of any company that merges dev AND devops. Any one coder is cannot a complete team - there's simply too much to know - unless you heavily rely on high level deployment products like AWS app server.

Now onto "abstractions"...

Your abstractions should focus on the domain language of your subject matter experts. The abstractions should, ideally, let a subject matter expert browse your code and shouldn't be too confused or overwhelmed.

Abstractions around technology like web or gui frameworks should be decoupled from your company's abstractions. Frameworks like that are just platforms that your product should plug into.

A gold standard for a company's code is that it could be easily cut out of a framework and plopped into another environment. A web app one day could be adapted to become a batch job that's run overnight somewhere else.

Every generation we have to relearn these principles because coders are pretty bad at teaching. There are few ways to write code well - compared to the myriad ways of writing code poorly.

lucidguppyon Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150

If you need an electric truck - it shouldn't be as big as an F-150 - it should be more the size of a hilux.

There needs to be two kinds of electric vehicles - 250 mile rangers and 150 mile rangers - and the 150 mile rangers need to use Sodium Ion batteries.

Make them cheap - make sodium ion electric vehicles the cheapest vehicle on the road. Put 2013 tech in it outside of the drive train.

lucidguppyon Investigation: 78% of carbon offset projects globally are “likely junk“

We need to reduce draw down of our limited fossil fuel assets. Once their gone - they're gone.

If we hit peak oil right now - we are absolutely fucked.

I have a feeling like we're hitting it right now - given that car prices and housing prices are getting out of reach.

lucidguppyon Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

I am definitely getting more books from the library now.

I'm sorry but everything sucks now. There's no point anymore in trying to find good content. They've done this on purpose - and you can't fight it.

lucidguppyon Study: U.S. dietary recommendations for protein intake are too low

I think its necessary to point out that one of the authors is Mary Weiler and Steve Hertzler who work for Abbott - who makes Ensure products and Pediasure products which supplement protein for the old and the young.

lucidguppyon Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

This is causing more package waste.

lucidguppyon Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries

We are done falling off the cliff and are toes are starting to impact the ground.

The best case scenario is for the powers that be to understand that there isn't enough private island to stop what's coming. They're in the same boat with us no matter what. Nature always has the last say.

We need to stop draw down of fossil resources, reduce our impact on the land, and seek the best possible outcome of a really bad situation.

lucidguppyon Is air conditioning making cities hotter?

https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/cool-roofs

Paint roofs white - and then go plant some trees.

lucidguppyon Sucking carbon dioxide out of the sky is moving from science fiction to reality

The best way to sequester carbon is to leave it in the god damn ground.

Please go google climate town talking about clean coal. Carbon capture is a scam.

lucidguppyon Effectiveness of physical activity for improving depression, anxiety, distress

American civilization is designed to make money - if it can make more money with you sick and depressed vs happy - you know what they will do.

Now that e-bikes will flatten many hilly towns - we can all get outside a bit more.

Towns need to orient their lots to be centered around 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile mixed use zoning nodes where very little parking exists. Single family zoning between the village nodes.

That alone will do half the work of eliminating obesity. Just get people walking 1/4 mile two times a day.

I wish the rich people around 1900 had more financial interest in livable cities than the huge automobile dystopia we all live in now.

lucidguppyon Global population could peak below 9B in 2050s

Educate more girls as fast as possible.

lucidguppyon Farms that create habitat key to food security and biodiversity

I would think that inter-cropping would be more possible with GPS and robotics. I heard it cuts down on pests (confuses the bastards, and also attracts predators).

Our farms have to more and more resemble natural ecosystems to increase resiliency.

lucidguppyon Pesticide safety limit for salmon farms watered down after industry lobbying

My take on US democracy is that the level of representation needs to get back to the levels seen in the 18th century.

35000 people per representative. That would mean we would need a larger capitol building - but at least it would be harder to gerrymander and to bribe/lobby all of these people.

In this day of technology we could manage a large congress quite well.

lucidguppyon Pesticide safety limit for salmon farms watered down after industry lobbying

Freeze more meat and veg. Puree or dehydrate the ugly stuff. Educate people on how to not overbuy and how to fucking cook.

You can't eliminate food waste - but many well off Americans have no clue about how to properly feed themselves while minimizing waste.

lucidguppyon Pesticide safety limit for salmon farms watered down after industry lobbying

funny how people with more money get more democracy - and people with less money get the end of a baton.

lucidguppyon iFixit Petitions Government for Right to Hack McDonald's Ice Cream Machine

I think there's some pretty good podcasts about this.

Essentially - this should be a fight between franchisees and McD's. It's also a bad look for McD - yes let's get a lot of bad PR about how we screw over franchisees. If they do that to their partners - what do you think they're doing to the food?

Who are we kidding - we know what they do to the food. The less you deal with the arches the better.

lucidguppyon Electrolyzer efficiently converts CO2 into renewable propane fuel

Someone should tell theses guys about wind power.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/travel/wind-powered-cargo-shi...

lucidguppyon How do we pay for parking?

I was at Dick's sporting goods and the cleats section was this special "app" area where you could either enter in your search criteria or scan shoes so associates would approach you with the shoes in hand.

The app was slow as f - and only really worked if you brought up and scanned the shoes.

Was there any instruction? No - you had to figure it out yourself. To be honest if felt like you were playing myst.

Why was this done? IDK - to stop shoplifting?

Why was the old way so bad that you had to add all this crap. They're goddamn shoes - put them in boxes and let people try them on like we've been doing for 40 years. Creating an app is not going to improve the experience 10x.

If it's not going to improve the experience 10x - why are you doing this? WTF?

These are the instances where I understand a Steve Jobs type blowing their lid.

lucidguppyon July 2023 was the hottest month on record

Many of them can telecommute. Many companies can set up a smaller satellite campus - even if its a few desks in NH.

Companies need to see where people are commuting from and set up a small office to capture those people.

Who thinks it's a good idea for hundreds of thousands of people to burn fuel to sit in an open office with half the company WFH that particular day?

Commuting culture is insanity.

lucidguppyon How do we save water: Stop growing alfalfa in Imperial County

If I use 74 tons of 24 karat gold to create one plant - I don't care much about how much gold is in the plant. I care about how much less gold I have now.

lucidguppyon 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

A portion of office space needs to become more fungible. Work office pods of 4-8 offices or desks that are lockable if needed.

Small satellite offices that don't need big commutes would probably bring in more people. I like the idea of a small office that I can come into if I want - I just HATE commuting. I also hate open office spaces - its anti productive.