The Official Status Thread
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@Zenith even in the UK, senior devs in PHP make more than $52k allowing for exchange rate… but $120k is London Java money or possibly lower end COBOL. It’s basically the upper limit for many here.
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STATUS
It's July the fourth and I would like to take this opportunity to remind the Americans: its spelt colour.
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@DogsB said in The Official Status Thread:
STATUS
It's July the fourth and I would like to take this opportunity to remind the Americans: its spelt colour.
Get out of here with your tyrannical "u"s, we already won the war to get rid of them
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@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
LUbuntu
I just installed this on an old laptop the other day. Seems to be pretty good (much better than some other "light" Linuces I've tried), but the wifi chip sometimes randomly drops and I have to disable/re-enable wifi to get it to connect again. And obviously I can't do it remotely
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@loopback0 said in The Official Status Thread:
@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
Linuces
Linii?
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@Applied-Mediocrity Linuxen
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@hungrier Make up my mind
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
@hungrier Make up my mind
Linuces would be correct in Latin.
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Status: 3h meeting. Again. Talking about the same "problems". I swear, these people are stuck in concrete-operational stage of development.
They want a configurable system. Ok, so I asked them what particular cases they have. Well, this and that, and bazillion others, and maybe more. So I design some abstraction to handle these cases, describe it and ask if it's ok. Perahps I missed something? The response is some vague "It's fine, we'll adjust to that, just tell us what the data format should be". So I send them the data format with examples and lengthy description. Silence. Meanwhile they are still sending randomly nested blobs of data without any typing, which I have no idea what to do with.
When I start explaining that for example their X is a case of A, so it should be hadnled like this etc, it's like talking to a brick wall. 'Just tell us how the data should look'. I fucking told you 10 times already how it should look in terms of underlying data structures. I don't know how many specific items do you have, because you didn't even tell me, you're just spamming some randomly nested blobs.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
these people are stuck in concrete-operational stage of development
Time for classic requirements gathering and writing down user stories and stuff like that. Yuck.
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@dkf said in The Official Status Thread:
@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
these people are stuck in concrete-operational stage of development
Time for classic requirements gathering and writing down user stories and stuff like that. Yuck.
Can't be done in terms of user stories and mockups, because this is an integration with another system, with its "developer" and his half-technical boss. I already know the story, the problem is that they need to implement some communication protocol.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
they need to implement some communication protocol.
It sounds like they need to implement effective human-to-human communication first.
Filed under: Quixotic ideas thread is
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
@dkf said in The Official Status Thread:
@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
these people are stuck in concrete-operational stage of development
Time for classic requirements gathering and writing down user stories and stuff like that. Yuck.
Can't be done in terms of user stories and mockups, because this is an integration with another system, with its "developer" and his half-technical boss. I already know the story, the problem is that they need to implement some communication protocol.
This is the one case where I'll ever say it, but this requires weaponized meetings. Book meetings for full days and hammer the API specs out in them. With bosses forced in there as well.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
It sounds like they need to implement effective human-to-human communication first.
No, they need to implement abstract thinking. Their whole system is like that - a collection of disjoined concrete objects. Their devices are composed of components, and every component talks to the server separately, in different format. Some components are not even aware of others, but they are still for example switching their power supply. We need to join all this crap server-side to get a picture of what's happening. The big success was forcing them to use MACs as unique ids, because previously they were relaying on IPs in a private network, so the whole system couldn't be extended outside of that one network.
You may ask - how was the old system working at all? Well, apparently they just dumped everything into one big Postgres table, and ran some scripts on that. For more complex tasks they simply telneted into the device and typed stuff like "echo something > /dev/ttyS1" by hand. Now, with increasing numbers, they noticed that it doesn't scale. No shit...
@Carnage said in The Official Status Thread:
This is the one case where I'll ever say it, but this requires weaponized meetings. Book meetings for full days and hammer the API specs out in them. With bosses forced in there as well.
The bosses are present, and the meetings are long enough (or more than enough). But yes, they have an aversion to writing specs. I do write some specs, but apparently nobody on their side reads them. All of this got so complex, that even our boss gets confused from time to time. I try to remove accidental complexity, but that needs some common understanding, so it goes slow.
Now, one important thing: I'm not the PM here, and I don't wish to be, at least with no firing power. I'm just a contractor.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm not the PM here, and I don't wish to be, at least with no firing power. I'm just a contractor.
Hmm, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe I've
heardlived that one before...
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Status: Iced Earl Gray tea, again today, just because it seems to annoy some Brits. Also, I know it's properly spelled Earl Grey, but again annoying our former overlords by using the 'Murican! spelling of gray.
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: I predict a storm of grammar atrocities commig your way....:
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@HardwareGeek Charles Grey and/or William Grey depending on the origin of the name would like to heartily disagree.
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@Arantor That's alright. Today, on
day, I'm happy to offend them along with the rest of their fellow countrymen.
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@Zerosquare said in The Official Status Thread:
Hmm, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe I've heard lived that one before...
And how did it end?
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Most of the times, with me silently
while thinking "remember, you're being paid for this". (This is one of the reasons I keep the webcam disabled when attending meetings remotely.)
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@Zerosquare said in The Official Status Thread:
This is one of the reasons I keep the webcam disabled when attending meetings remotely.
As for the other reason, ...
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@Zerosquare said in The Official Status Thread:
This is one of the reasons I keep the webcam disabled when attending meetings remotely
I don't even have a webcam on my development machine, but when the virus hit I hooked up an old DSLR with a cheap M42 lens and sometimes appear on meetings with a crystal clear quality and low depth of field (the real thing, no AI tricks). I also put on a polarizer, so that they don't see reflections of whatever I'm browsing in my glasses.
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@Zenith said in The Official Status Thread:
Anyway, I would've gone through NewEgg or somewhere else but there is apparently a camera shortage due to a microchip shortage. It was difficult to find much under $900 (I didn't want a pro DSLR).
B&H has plenty, what are you trying to do? I have this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1576157-REG/olympus_v207132bu000_om_d_e_m10_mark_iv.html
Can't be used as a webcam, but takes pictures and is small and light.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
It sounds like they need to implement effective human-to-human communication first.
No, they need to implement abstract thinking. Their whole system is like that - a collection of disjoined concrete objects. Their devices are composed of components, and every component talks to the server separately, in different format. Some components are not even aware of others, but they are still for example switching their power supply. We need to join all this crap server-side to get a picture of what's happening. The big success was forcing them to use MACs as unique ids, because previously they were relaying on IPs in a private network, so the whole system couldn't be extended outside of that one network.
You may ask - how was the old system working at all? Well, apparently they just dumped everything into one big Postgres table, and ran some scripts on that. For more complex tasks they simply telneted into the device and typed stuff like "echo something > /dev/ttyS1" by hand. Now, with increasing numbers, they noticed that it doesn't scale. No shit...
@Carnage said in The Official Status Thread:
This is the one case where I'll ever say it, but this requires weaponized meetings. Book meetings for full days and hammer the API specs out in them. With bosses forced in there as well.
The bosses are present, and the meetings are long enough (or more than enough). But yes, they have an aversion to writing specs. I do write some specs, but apparently nobody on their side reads them. All of this got so complex, that even our boss gets confused from time to time. I try to remove accidental complexity, but that needs some common understanding, so it goes slow.
Now, one important thing: I'm not the PM here, and I don't wish to be, at least with no firing power. I'm just a contractor.Been there, done that. You are fucked.
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@SirTwist said in The Official Status Thread:
@Zenith said in The Official Status Thread:
Anyway, I would've gone through NewEgg or somewhere else but there is apparently a camera shortage due to a microchip shortage. It was difficult to find much under $900 (I didn't want a pro DSLR).
B&H has plenty, what are you trying to do? I have this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1576157-REG/olympus_v207132bu000_om_d_e_m10_mark_iv.html
Can't be used as a webcam, but takes pictures and is small and light.
Seems it has hdmi out, so it can be used as a webcam. I'm using a camcorder as a webcam with one of those silly HDMI USB dongles.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
@Zerosquare said in The Official Status Thread:
Hmm, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe I've heard lived that one before...
And how did it end?
I'm leaning towards I could probably get a better rate in London and live in London to boot!
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
The big success was forcing them to use MACs as unique ids, because previously they were relaying on IPs in a private network, so the whole system couldn't be extended outside of that one network.
IP addresses aren't too bad as identifiers, provided you need to be able to route to them all from one central place in the first place. They're not ideal as they are reassignable, but they are at least unique (until you have to deal with NAT, but that's what the "route from central place" limits). Probably best not to have them as the primary key, but they've got identifier nature.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm so sorry!
It's not quite as bad as living in Silly Valley. More like NYC.
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: Not moving anymore.
Are you sure it really counts
steps
(Schritte
) notmouse clicks
?
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@SirTwist said in The Official Status Thread:
@Zenith said in The Official Status Thread:
Anyway, I would've gone through NewEgg or somewhere else but there is apparently a camera shortage due to a microchip shortage. It was difficult to find much under $900 (I didn't want a pro DSLR).
B&H has plenty, what are you trying to do? I have this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1576157-REG/olympus_v207132bu000_om_d_e_m10_mark_iv.html
Can't be used as a webcam, but takes pictures and is small and light.
Well originally I was trying to replace a compact Canon Powershot that used to sell for around $100. Prices on those went way up though so I started looking at larger models. And I was through the B&H site and an awful lot of their Canon and Nikon stuff under $900 was backordered.
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Having returned from a short bike tour, Bernie is puzzled by the odometer reading.
What does that mean?
- Take
2
times drugs (420
). And nothing (0
) else. - for the
2
nd time: the meaning of all and everything (42
) can be found in the rest room (00
).
While waiting for ideas pouring in from the
community, Bernie enjoys some cold
Oh, btw, the bed room thermometer shows
69
°F.Interesting times are approaching.
- Take
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@BernieTheBernie said in The Official Status Thread:
Having returned from a short bike tour, Bernie is puzzled by the odometer reading.
What does that mean?
- Take
2
times drugs (420
). And nothing (0
) else. - for the
2
nd time: the meaning of all and everything (42
) can be found in the rest room (00
).
While waiting for ideas pouring in from the
community, Bernie enjoys some cold
Oh, btw, the bed room thermometer shows
69
°F.Interesting times are approaching.
Not pictured: @BernieTheBernie riding in circles in his parking lot for an extra 1 km after his planned ride just to make the odometer ready for this joke.
- Take
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@izzion
would not let me do so.
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Performance review time. There's nothing quite so anxiety-inducing as being asked to fill out and review a form listing your own strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and shortcomings.
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@BernieTheBernie
242000 km left before the end of training... Better get cracking
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and shortcomings.
What about Vigor, Faith and Poise?
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@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
Been there, done that. You are fucked.
Then why did I just get a raise?
@dkf said in The Official Status Thread:
IP addresses aren't too bad as identifiers, provided you need to be able to route to them all from one central place in the first place. They're not ideal as they are reassignable, but they are at least unique (until you have to deal with NAT, but that's what the "route from central place" limits). Probably best not to have them as the primary key, but they've got identifier nature.
Yes, if they were statically assigned internet addresses, that would be less of a problem, although it would still fail if some new devices needed to connect through dynamic IPs, which usually come with DSL here.
But in reality the addresses were from a class-A private network and were assigned by the ISP to SIM cards (phone numbers), so the system was basically tied to one operator, whose VPN was already being clogged with data.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
Then why did I just get a raise?
A rather small compensation for the mental distress experienced.
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@sebastian-galczynski said in The Official Status Thread:
@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
Been there, done that. You are fucked.
Then why did I just get a raise?
Oh, dealing with such stuff can be profitable. What I meant is that those clients will not change. They won't read specifications, and if forced to, they will ignore it later. They won't put in effort to understand things. They won't migrate to sensible data structures. And they certainly will not implement abstract thinking. I am sorry.
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@SirTwist I eventually went with a Nikon Coolpix B500.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
@dkf said in The Official Status Thread:
Time to book a taxi.
@DogsB said in The Official Status Thread:
Strikes! ... Some of the services may be disrupted but we don't know which ones yet.
Taxi drivers on strike!
Nah, they just won't show up.
(When we were in Hawaii, one of our party had an earlier flight. So he booked an Uber. Yeah, his wife was a little pissed when she had to drive him to the airport.)
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@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: this HP has a sticker on it claiming it lets you do multimedia things like watch DVDs.
It can't keep up with a 480p YouTube video.
I think this says more about modern technology, to be honest.
Or something about your internet connection...
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@dkf said in The Official Status Thread:
@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm so sorry!
It's not quite as bad as living in Silly Valley. More like NYC.
At least we have decent weather here. And ... um ... decent weather.
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
Performance review time. There's nothing quite so anxiety-inducing as being asked to fill out and review a form listing your own strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and shortcomings.
I'm
on that still. Guess I really should do something there... sigh. Maybe tomorrow.
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@dcon said in The Official Status Thread:
@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: this HP has a sticker on it claiming it lets you do multimedia things like watch DVDs.
It can't keep up with a 480p YouTube video.
I think this says more about modern technology, to be honest.
Or something about your internet connection...
Works fine on my 5-year-old phone on the (arguably technically worse) WiFi at 54 Mbps.
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Status: Teaching myself to sharpen knives on traditional whetstones, accidentally rubbed off a fingerprint to the point of bleeding.
But damn it, it was worth it to have my (somewhat cheap) knives once more slice through vegetables as if it were warm butter.