thorin

Interested, in the US if you want to go on holiday will companies be ok with you taking unpaid time off? For instance in the UK I get 25 days paid, then the bank holidays we have (8 days I think) but when I asked they were ok for me to take some unpaid leave if required as well. The biggest problem I have is that if you don't take the paid days you tend to lose them at the end of the year.

There are quite a few protest bands but they don't have the level of popularity as Rage against the machine, Bob Dylan or Public Enemy. Pop music is more of a commodity now.

I see Billy Bragg had something to share on FB about recent events as do many older artists.

Maybe you saw what happened at Glastonbury this year with Kneecap and Bob Vylan.

Personally I enjoy Idles, I went to see them last year and they had good energy and try to be politically active while spreading "the love".

One of my all time favourite bands New Model Army are still going and releasing music. I don't think they ever made it big after effectively being cancelled before it was popular releasing the single 51st State of America.

Cows and sheep in the UK (and I guess much of Europe) wander round outside all year round and I guess are eating almost entirely grass. You can't go for a walk in the countryside without coming across them constantly. Most of the beef you buy in the shops (not talking about processed foods) is produced in the UK.

Trading Places

Same reason it got out of every other industry. It wasn't short-term profitable. After the 70s at least everything began moving to the private sector and there was no strategic thinking. This completed in the 90s and there was no reason for anyone to think that semi-conductors, minerals, even oil and gas now shouldn't be bought from a friend rather than being produced internally.

AFAIK know phones are banned in all secondary school (and primary school) from the start till the end of the school day. My daughter just started secondary school and one kid was trying to text her mum to add credit to her lunch money account in the first week and got a one hour detention for getting her phone out during school. This was in the canteen, not in a lesson. Bit harsh but seemed to get the message across.

Ironically most homework is done by the kids on their phones so when I tell her to get off her phone she always has the excuse that she's checking/doing her homework, or looking at her timetable online.

[edit] note this is a UK perspective, not sure why this got downvoted

Yup, AI is actually great for vibe coding yourself up a prototype in a technology you're unsure in but we all know that most of the work on a given systems is in scaling and maintaining the original idea.

What makes you want to visit Iran - doesn't seem very relaxing to me and there are lots of other interesting historical sites in the rest of the middle east and Europe. Assuming you are coming from the US?

Lots of technical questions but what exactly are you worried about - some systems you want to have access to or some data you want to hide?

I've travelled near the Iran border on the eastern edge of Turkey and the countryside is beautiful! Hope you get the break you're looking for!

In recent years I've struggled with knowing the details and how to get started. I've had to programme/design in Java, C#, Android, Python, bits of c and c++ all kinds of stuff. In theory now I can write programmes because I know what I want to do but I don't have a good knowledge of all the details so spent too long looking at docs or Stackoverflow. Now in theory I can write useful programs with AI. In some ways this makes me more keen to create and design programs. In other ways this means I don't really need to learn all the details that I didn't learn recently anymore.

Also stuff like leetcode goes away hopefully soon as as long as you understand a data structure and it's benefits you don't have to learn to implement it in every language?

If you want to live in a low cost of living country you need to learn to live as the locals live. My friends that live overseas in Asia or in Eastern Europe probably spend as much as I do on rent and have servants, drivers etc so they still need to earn quite a bit.

If you don't have any family you could try somewhere relatively close by for short periods and see how you get on e.g. USA->Panama/Costa Rica, Western Europe -> Eastern Europe, or maybe consider Thailand/Vietnam.

Lex gets a lot of hate, probably mainly for political reasons and the way he manages his public persona. However not many people can argue with the fact he has probably the best collection of programmer interview/podcasts out there. If that's what you're into you probably won't find anything better:

e.g.

Carmack Brian Kernighan Gosling Guido DHH Demis Bjarne

List it endless, and something to be celebrated I think.

Downhill mountain bikers basically expect their bike to be destroyed and train to bail and are dressed for impact. Road cyclists wear no protection other than some thin skimpy lycra and don't fall often but when they do it can be catastrophic.

Totally agree. Most of my professional coding has been on window desktops although the servers are often unix/linux. The amount of time spent spinning up a new framework, IDE, build pipeline or something can be ridiculous and every time it seems to be different in some way. Stuff like npm package management, proxy servers, random stuff being blocked by a corporate vpn, getting admin access on certain things, app server setup and monitoring, CI/CD setup seem to take up 99% of the time!

Actually writing some logic and seeing the results can be quite satisfying at times if I can get over all that. Mostly I just do small POCs and things to help out my team and have a break from meetings and system design.

I'm pretty sure they do, but quite a few parts of the Oracle applications suite are acquired so probably not those. I'm sure sap would use sap erp, from what I've seen almost all big European companies use sap for payroll.

It didn't use anywhere near as much as the hobbit, but lots of things are enhanced. I have a similar problem with Avengers/Marvel which just doesn't look great to me. Avatar did look very good though. The main problem I have with CGI is if the story isn't there, which for me is definitely the case with most Avengers movies which are just a mess.

The organisation or the people?

Being reported as maybe. But incitement and abuse has always been illegal and doesn't have much to do with freedom of speech. E.g. see Bob Vylan at glasto calling for death of people... is that really what we want? OK it's no where near as bad as actually killing people, but it's still not ideal!

I feel like every UK building and most private companies have a sign saying something like "we take insults and abuse very seriously and will prosecute etc etc". I always see this in hospitals, civic buildings etc so assumed it's already part of normal law in the UK. Is there a reason you find this particularly disturbing? Not sure what the penalty is.

Lightbulbs are horrendous these days. On my first car they were like changing a room light bulb, you just reached in and changed the bulb. More recent cars I've had to take the battery out or pull out the whole headlight assembly. It's good to have an idea of how the bits of the car fit together and the main components but significant maintenance is only for hobbyists or people with a lot of time on their hands.

When I was first driving I went through how to change a wheel with my dad and also brake blocks, oil changes that kind of thing. Even my dad who has rebuilt engines from scratch normally goes to the mechanic for everything now.

That was a good read, hope you are feeling some peace.

Rock climbing is a great way of seeing places no one see and meeting interesting people. For instance I loved climbing in Yangshuo, China. I've climbed in most of the continents but am more keen on whitewater kayaking, which is also a great way to experience the world.

My two worst life experiences (physical and emotional) have been my biggest drivers for growth and looking back on how I get over them gives me a lot of strength.

Good luck!

This is interesting, what would you personally recommend in terms of fiction and fact/history to read to explore that. I've probably read a bit like Nietzsche, Camus, Voltaire, Stoicism, some more classical philosophy. Would like to explore more, especially history as I find my tastes have changed as I move towards middle age.

Worked in field installation of gas and electric meters and I went to a few conferences probably 5+ years ago where aug reality would be used to help installers complete there work. The idea is they would have basic training, but could get help from a few "expert" technicians in a central location, this could be by highlighting fault areas of the meter in the goggles. There was a lot of interest, but as far as I'm aware it hasn't gone anywhere yet.

Spanish guitar is hard, there is not much crossover between spanish styles and modern pop/metal etc. It probably has more in common with classical music, but then the picking is completely different. It's not that Brian couldn't have done that solo, he's an amazing player and can play in multiple styles, it sounded like from the interview they just wanted to add a different perspective to the track.

If you want to listen to something I think very few people in the pop scene could replicate I would suggest listening to Paco De Lucia. Of course people like Al Di Meola who played with Paco were able to crossover into that world but he is a virtuoso in his own right.

I was thinking like this, but after being married before I'm not even sure I want to date. I have friends, hobbies, kids in school to manage. Not really feeling the dating scene right now. I do enjoy talking to and meeting new people but often do this as part of hobbies or groups I've joined rather than in the context of "dating".

Are you looking because you're lonely, bored or just because that's what you think is expected?

Ask Epic how that worked out with Fortnite...

As mentioned this is possible but not recommended for Android. I'm not sure if anyone is releasing paid apps outside of Play store though.

In the statoil petrol stations in Norway you can buy a mug and get free drinks thereafter at all petrol stations for the season. This is very popular with dirtbag kayakers, climbers etc. It was there that I discovered the weinermelange option on the machine which is apparently a cleaning mode that selects every option for your drink so you get a mix of coffee, hot choc, sugar and whatever else. Unforgettable.

Harking back to the days when people at Apple, Microsoft, Google and Bell Labs had fun. It really happened, allegedly!

My dad worked at BT and used to take me to different exchanges at the weekend normally on Saturday mornings. I guess he claimed a day in lieu for working a couple of hours and then we went for lunch or pottered around the shops. In there were all sorts of interesting things. Piles of discarded electronics of various eras. Several computers and terminals for connecting to mainframe systems. I remember a Sinclair QL and Amstrad PCWs I think. He would let me play around with the terminals, no idea what OS was on there maybe VAX or VMS, use the printers and Microdrives. I was really interested in all that stuff as a kid but didn't really have anyone to learn from as my dad was more of a lineman, having started in the Royal Signals. Fun times!

It wasn't very secret, at least for local exchanges as I went into many in the north-east of England with my dad as a kid.

Would agree with this to an extent, however most younger managers would not agree, as they are "agile" and have deadlines to worry about.