• 17 Posts
  • 518 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Fully agreed. We’ve all had those colleagues, and their lack of deep understanding of memory management propagates up the stack. </bad pun> Can a developer know only managed frameworks and still be good at their job? Absolutely, but in my experience they are the rarity. I think it is tricky to truly understand, say, garbage collection, reference/dereference, etc without understanding direct memory management.

    Extending the driver aid metaphor, features such as ABS, traction control, and lane assist allow good drivers to use their finite attention on quality, rapid decisions. But those good drivers know how to handle the edge cases where the machine fails or is unable to handle the current situation. Managed frameworks are a bucket of super sweet driver aids. There are good reasons why .NET added pointers, because sometimes we need to disable the traction control. Weird COM Interops leap to mind. Sometimes you just need to grab control of that array and be able to do so in memory-safe ways.

    And to throw myself under this bus, could I whiteboard a doubly-linked list in C++ with needed methods? Gawd, no, not in the time allotted to a tech interview. But I could spot the bugs in one in seconds.


  • If you’re looking to network within software development communities, a user group is a good starting point. For example, I am a .NET software engineer, and the Portland Area .NET User Group was instrumental in building out my PacNW professional network. Plus their meetups are generally a fun time.

    Look for API meetups in your area, it doesn’t matter what kind of APIs. Even if you have no interest in API development, API meetups are usually run by Developer Relations (DevRel) engineers. It is the job of DevRels to help software engineers become better and to connect people to resources. Source: used to be a DevRel.

    And even if you live in a small or low-density region, there is probably some kind of computer users, web development, and IT group. Again, even if you’re not exactly interested in those aspects, these people tend to know senior or principal software engineers who can either connect you to resources or directly take you on for mentoring.

    All that said, I frequently say “we are not meant to engineer alone,” however self-motivation is a prerequisite to programming and software engineering. Go to the library and immerse yourself in some books on software development; off the top of my head: “Modern C++ Programming with Test-Driven Development,” Refactoring, Design Patterns, “The Pragmatic Programmer,” “Code Complete,” “The Missing Readme,” “Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications.” A lot of these are going to go over your head at first, but just take a look at them.

    Some people will take issue that I suggest learning C++ first, but I’ve been at this a while (34 years). I liken it to learning to drive a manual transmission car with no synchromesh. The difference between a software engineer who understands memory pointers and one who learned only managed languages is always immediately apparent.

    Good luck out there.




  • Want to demolish a regime? It’s gonna take a lot more than a vote. But waiting for a perfect candidate is a sure way to lose. The worldwide fash uprising didn’t happen within a single voting cycle; this was a concerted, multi-front effort on the part of Conservatives and oligarchs (see: “Evil Geniuses,” by Kurt Andersen). In the United States, that movement probably started in earnest with the Powell Memorandum, but can trace its roots much further to psy-ops like the Red Scare and covert ops like COINTELPRO. Coincidentally, note the dates of when COINTELPRO was revealed and when the Powell Memorandum (“an excess of democracy”) was written/disclosed.

    Get out from behind the keyboard (yep, I’m calling myself out on that one, too), get out and about in your community, talk to people, organize, unionize, seek out common ground with people, build a bigger table instead of bigger fences. We didn’t get into this shit overnight; we’re not getting out of it without decades of work and probably bloodshed. The faster we want the change, the more of our own individual blood we need to be willing to invest, while being careful to avoid the exact mistakes that always happen when people demolish regimes. And count on more COINTELPRO-like opposition at every turn. The oligarchy have lots of motivation and money to invest in keeping us divided.


  • Right? Shit like this almost feels like… a psy-op to keep the left divided against itself. And then we ape-brains conveniently spread such content to soothe our egos via complex purity tests.

    Seriously folks, I get we all want to hold the absolute moral high ground, but we’re all losing the war because of letting psy-ops divide us. “Oh, I wouldn’t fall for any of that.” Bull. Fucking. Shit.

    Pay attention to when Be wary of messaging that pits you against people with whom you actually have more in common than in opposition. When we wait for perfectly aligned allies, we die alone. And when we propagate and perpetuate divisive content, we’re just doing the fash’s job for them.





  • Kudos on being proactive. Empathy by way of anecdote: I just had my first colonoscopy 2 months ago. The prep is, in fact, crazy shit. Until it’s just tea coming out… :D Fingers crossed for nothing burger for you, followed by tasty re-feed. For anyone else with a colonoscopy in their near future: get a bidet toilet seat or a French showerhead. Your tender anus will thank you.

    Since your background is in healthcare, I probably don’t need to say this, but I’m not going to let that stop me! The fear and worry are counterproductive. Stated another way: don’t borrow trouble.

    Like I should be bullying myself.

    Well, I could do that for you, but then I’d get banned. :D

    I can find outlets in writing this brief diarrhy entries

    I see what you did there.

    I wish I’d appreciated the years better.

    It’s never too late to start. Once you’re able to be away from the toilet for more than 10 minutes. Good luck, let us know how it goes.