reedlaw

Social is the key word. The author presumes the end goal of programming is overcoming all sorts of technical obstacles to deliver a working solution in a problem domain. But who defines working? The stakeholders. Ultimately, programming work is about pleasing the product owner, manager, or users. The "power through the obstacles" approach arises when there is a communication breakdown between software engineer and stakeholder. Why should programmers expect to work until 2 AM but not plumbers or electricians? Granted, software projects are more difficult to estimate, but when other types of engineers run into obstacles, they typically go back to the customer to renegotiate. Software engineering would benefit more from improved communication than herculean efforts or early retirement.

If developers factored the true cost of features into estimates then a lot less would get built. Instead, SMBs with tight budgets and long lists of feature requests go with the lowest bid or shortest time frame. Developers are incentivized to under-estimate because the business wants to hear that and if one shop won't, the competition will. Almost no one considers the underlying open-source infrastructure as a liability, let alone a duty to contribute towards. The first step to reduce bloat is to normalize estimates which include dependencies, maintenance, and growth.

This was mostly about making a silicon wafer. This video shows more detail on the rest of the process in a home lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5ycm7VfXg (blog here: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/second-ic/)

Most Raspberry Pi Linux distros take around 10 seconds to boot. It can be made faster by using a tiny distribution or something like https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ but it would be nice to find an OS geared towards gaming.

Do you have a guide or any tips on how to do this?

It would likely be similar to gaming on Linux but with the limitations of ARM-only and OpenGL ES 3.1 or Vulkan 1.2. [1]

What would be more interesting is an open source micro-kernel and gaming SDK targeting Raspberry Pi.

1. See https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_Linux_ARM_games

I would gladly use my Pixel 4a (5G) another few years but its support ends in two months [1]. Even though I run GrapheneOS, the open source community is not capable of maintaining firmware, kernel and vendor code [2].

1. https://endoflife.date/pixel

2. https://grapheneos.org/faq#legacy-devices

How would I do the reverse? That is, turn smart speakers into regular speakers. I have a Sonos Move but it can't play audio from my desktop PC with no bluetooth. I could buy a bluetooth dongle, but honestly I find wired connections easier to manage than pairing bluetooth devices, especially when you need to switch paired devices. I was hoping this OtterCast would have both bluetooth and line-in so I could do this (connect the bluetooth to the Sonos and the line-in to a desktop or other device).

Enjoyed your article on backups. I was intrigued by the idea of NAS as a solution to bit rot, but when I looked at NAS products, sticker shock dampened my interest. I've been using git-annex so I looked into how it deals with bit rot. It shares the same backup philosophy as git: lots of copies to keep stuff safe.

See https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/Wishlist__58___Parity_...

Quite right. Thus they implicitly equate poor quality code with technical debt. This makes the metaphor unsuited to a proper aversion to poor quality code. If it's simply debt it can be paid off later with a small amount of interest. Such a conclusion is contrary to the one the paper is trying to put forth.

The paper uses the term "technical debt" without defining it. From the context the term is used in its popular sense in which the primary source of debt is writing code poorly. Ward Cunningham, who coined the term, did not mean it in this way [1]. Wikipedia defines it as "the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer" [2] which is more aligned with Ward's intention. The problem with the current understanding of the technical debt metaphor is that it justifies poor code quality. Apparently it's like taking out a loan to make a sound investment.

1. https://youtu.be/pqeJFYwnkjE?t=196

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt

This problem is present in Premiere Pro too. The recommended solution is to convert the variable FPS video to constant FPS before using it as a source.

This reads like a positive framing of Jacque Ellul's critique of technique:

> The characteristics of the technical phenomenon are Autonomy, Unity, Universality, Totalization. Technique obeys a specific rationality. The characteristics of technical progress are self-augmentation, automization, absence of limits, casual progression, a tendency toward acceleration, disparity, and ambivalence. [1]

Supposing the harm Google does (e.g. ambivalence towards individuals harmed by algorithms) is a direct result of this totalizing impulse, maybe it's time to question some of the fundamental assumptions present within.

1. https://ellul.org/themes/ellul-and-technique/

One way to circumvent this is to use a strong passphrase to deterministically generate the PGP/SSH key [1] to unlock other passwords. The SSH key could grant access to a remote server with backups and the PGP key could decrypt passwords using pass [2]. Of course, the "master" passphrase must be kept safe or remembered.

1. https://github.com/skeeto/passphrase2pgp

2. https://www.passwordstore.org/

Burning US $1 notes could not provide backing for minted coins. A better analogy is currency backed with gold without enough in reserve to handle a run on the bank.

What if we assume skilled authorship which made connections purposefully in order to emphasize important points? Genesis is full of such connections.

If we assume harmony between Genesis 1:11-13 (fruits/grains) and Genesis 2:5 (bush/plants of the field) then it is clear that fruit was the chief food in the garden and agriculture came later.

Genesis 2:5 begins with: "When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up...". "Bush of the field" and "small plant of the field" were not part of the list of vegetation created on day 3 in Genesis 1 ("plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit"). The explanation can be found in Genesis 3:18. As part of the curse for eating forbidden fruit, the Lord says to Adam: "cursed is the ground because of you [...] thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field." The bush/plants of the field were not created until after man was made. We can conclude that these plants did not produce food in the form of grain or fruit like the vegetation created on day 3. Because of man's sin these plants became thorns and thistles. There is no need to assume a contradiction between Genesis 1 and 2.

Spotting things the author missed is a low bar for code review. I believe the author assumes a context of high quality, well-tested code (e.g. "added a feature using an established pattern"). Unfortunately, for many teams code review is the only opportunity for improving code quality. If code quality is treated separately ("focus your efforts on activities that build trust, such as training, team discussions, or ensemble programming") then the importance of code review could be lessened.

One of the original signatories of the Agile Manifesto, Ron Jeffries, suggests developers abandon the word Agile [1]. Instead, we should recommend and practice "Manifesto Agile".

1. https://ronjeffries.com/articles/018-01ff/abandon-1/

That's too bad. I have the 2020 model and was able to upgrade RAM to 40GB and add a second NVMe drive.

I've never had a MacBook but I feel the LG Gram line of notebooks is top-notch. I have a 17" version and it's light, fast, and has a long battery life. It has a full keyboard and is easily upgradeable. I run Arch Linux with GNOME desktop. All the hardware works on Linux except the fingerprint reader .

Jitsi Meet (https://meet.jit.si/)

Compared to Windows and MacOS it's a secret. I don't consider Ubuntu's desktop environment as pure GNOME, otherwise why would https://ubuntugnome.org/ exist?

I'm speaking primarily of GNOME 3 and above. I didn't use earlier versions much.

Click on the Show grid/list toggle icon on the top right. When showing icons in a grid I see thumbnails.

I've been using Gnome for years and it's basically the best kept secret among desktop environments. Simple, unobtrusive, and continuously improving without many sudden changes that force one to relearn how to use it. I've tried tiling window managers but they just eat up time configuring to my liking. Compared with Windows and MacOS, I'm delighted with how easy it is to configure and use Gnome right out of the box. The UI is consistent and these guidelines are refreshingly concise.

I took it to mean people used to wear clothes longer between washes, not just that we do more frequent, smaller loads. It would be interesting to see a comparison showing how much longer an average person should wear the same clothes in order to make hand washing time commensurate with machine washing time.

Freshly popcorn popper-roasted beans are better than non-freshly roasted beans but not nearly as good as those of an experienced roaster using better equipment. Try local roasters or order fresh-roasted beans online. Fresh-roasted beans tend to improve in taste over several days and then rapidly decline after around ten days.

Thank you, this is clearer and more concise than the video.

On Linux? I just tried installing browserpass-chromium from AUR and it works fine in Chromium but not in Brave.