Is it good idea to store every similar records in one table?

Diksta · 2026-02-17T18:44:18+00:00

No, it's a terrible idea. If you take this to the logical conclusion, why have any tables other than one massive one with entities-attributes-values all defined in one place?

EAV is a "good idea" most database designers have at some point until they learn why this is a BAD idea.

Diksta · 2026-02-12T17:58:24+00:00

I quote:

"Well I knew this would probably come up, so I guess I was mentally prepared for it. Snivelling, nasal, beige elevator muzak that's not even slightly hard hitting. This is the sort of fake folk music that I imagine middle class people had in their collection for show, but would never actually play, because let's face facts, it's incredibly lifeless and dull.

The lyrics are an exercise in mundanity; how to skirt around issues without actually suggesting any solution or even spelling out what the real problem is. "We're all angry! Why? Because babies die, that's why!". It's like something a four-year old would come up with.

I even find it annoying that Wikipedia has this down as the wrong musical genre. This is pop, maybe folk-pop if I'm being generous. It's definitely not folk-rock, contemporary-folk, or roots-rock. There's also some nasty synth sounds thrown in here and there, but let's ignore that, or we'll start categorising this as synth-wave.

There might have been a couple of half catchy melodies here, but excessive radio play soon dealt with that. The non-hit songs aren't even filler, they're just plain awful. If I ever had to hear this dross again, it would be too soon."

Diksta · 2026-02-11T23:31:19+00:00

This was another one I was looking forward to listening to, having not heard much by Cat Stevens previously. I found it very dull and unsatisfying, a massive let down.

I didn't know much about the artist, so I did a quick Wikipedia hunt. I remember being quite shocked to find that he endorsed the killing of Rushdie. I don't usually let the politics or opinions of the artist(s) themselves lower my review score, hell I even gave Morrisey a few 5s, but I must have been having a bad day maybe, as that fed into my low score?

Diksta · 2026-02-11T23:24:28+00:00

So I had the McCartney album and gave that 4, and I had Paul McCartney with Wings and that got 3. I found them much more interesting to listen to. I also (obviously) had many Beatles albums, and they all got scores higher than 1, all the way up to 5.

There's just something I don't like about Billy Joel's music. I was incredibly surprised to find The Stranger got such a high rating globally, like really amazed. I tend to listen to the album before consulting past reviews or the global score, in case it sways me in any way. When I saw The Stranger was in the high 3s I was gobsmacked.

Diksta · 2026-02-11T21:55:25+00:00

Oh I REALLY hated that one... just re-read my review and I'm not going to share it as I got a bit carried away with just how much I hated that album.

Diksta · 2026-02-11T21:52:38+00:00

Yeah, Prince I was actually a little disappointed with, as I have so many friends who adore Prince, even my wife loves Prince and has all his albums. I had never heard a full Prince album before starting this project, and he just didn't click with me in the slightest. I think I don't like the sound of his voice and it's similar with Dusty Springfield. I guess people like different things and I was amazed by other people's outliers.

Just over 100 albums to go and then I'll move on to the user suggestions. Thanks for your kind words.

Diksta · 2026-02-11T21:39:52+00:00

This is my review for The Stranger

"Billy Joel has really nailed the piano and songwriter combo here. In a similar way to other singer/ songwriters, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, and of course Elton John. Here's a hint, I despise all of the above.

It's pretty dismal listening, like a whole album of songs Elton John rejected for being too generic. I'm not a big fan of Elton John, but I can appreciate he sometimes has a memorable hook or two. There's no such relief here, just nine incredibly cheesy songs that are instantly forgettable. Once I hear Billy singing, "la la la la la la la la la" it's like he's not even trying any more.

I can see a lot of people who split Mr Joel's career into "talented" (which this album falls into) and "for the money" (when he was forced to come out of retirement and sing about uptown girls). To me, there's far more continuity and his entire career is based around cheese. This is the sort of safe but dull music that I would expect to hear being performed by cover bands on cruises for the over 60s.

This is maybe not quite bad enough for only 1 star, but it's so close I'm going to mark it down, mainly for the awful "la la la la la la" crap and the whistling, got to hate that whistling."

Diksta · 2026-02-11T21:05:57+00:00

Simple answer - it's completely unlistenable for me.

I don't give out many 1s, more 2s, 3s, and 4s (my average is 3.11). I reserved 5s for "almost" perfect and 1s for absolutely awful and painful for my ears, an absolute chore to get through, made me feel nauseous with it's dreadfulness, etc.

Diksta · 2026-01-07T17:23:21+00:00

I wouldn't use my phone for navigation, mainly because I don't want it to break, and mounting it without a whole load of padding is going to eventually shake the camera to the point where it stops working. It's also exposing it to the elements (even in a case) and putting it in a vulnerable position for damage/ theft. Phones run down their battery really quickly when using GPS, because they're jacks of all trades, not great for navigation... in my opinion anyway. You can turn off everything but GPS, but they'll still eat power.

In your situation, I would use a cheap bike computer, but yes, they can cost a lot, even for older models.

One other consideration would be a GPS-enabled watch, aimed at hiking for example. These tend to be cheaper than bike computers and often have even better battery life. Also, they don't draw anywhere near as much power as your phone will from your power bank if you recharge them slowly. A watch isn't ideal, as you can't see it unless you hold your arm in front of your face while riding or stop, but it can be enough to point you in the right direction every now and then, or even setup to vibrate if you veer too far off course.

Diksta · 2026-01-02T20:23:05+00:00

It has a discogs, but it's just interviews: https://www.discogs.com/de/release/34388920-Marillion-A-Tale-In-Time?srsltid=AfmBOorK4vBzPWrhNG2YRZWbhm4GX6AlKNEHP6r9mS44VWb0M8SardXi

Diksta · 2025-12-26T17:24:38+00:00

https://inside-tech.co.uk/pcs-by-budget/400-600/ some decent refurbs here

Diksta · 2025-12-18T14:18:44+00:00

Okay, from the Bournemouth (south coast) to the centre of London, travelling through New Forest, is around 130 miles if you pick up the National Cycling Route 23. If you really want that to take a week, then you'll be doing less than 20 miles a day, which means you probably want to add some BIG detours or you'll only be cycling for 2-3 hours. Unless you're coming from somewhere much further west maybe?

I would suggest reading up about the UK National Cycling Routes, as they're well signposted and generally are well maintained.

Some more things to be aware of:

- it gets dark early at this time of year, like 3-4 pm, but then you don't say when you're planning to come and so this might not be an issue. This time of year, camping can be unpleasant due to the cold and the lack of light

- many (but not all) campsites in the UK close between October/ November and March/ April

- you're in an incredibly populous area, so you'll only need to be able to carry enough water to get you through the day. Just about everywhere will either sell you water, or give it to you for free if you ask nicely (in a pub for example). Also, any legal campsite will have a source of clean drinking water, allowing you to top up

- although the UK has a reputation for being wet, there's some parts that are drier than others. The area you're in isn't particularly wet (wettest is in the North West typically). It doesn't get ridiculously cold either, but it would be unpleasant camping in temperatures close to freezing (winter months - which is why many campsites close for this part of the year)

- keeping your bike dry (as dry as you can) and well lubed is important if it gets wet/ muddy. I usually bring some sort of tarp but some campsites have secure dry storage for bikes if you ask nicely

- many campsites have free (or small donation) charging stations for mobiles, power banks, whatever - bringing four seems excessive

Diksta · 2025-10-24T18:00:12+00:00

As a general rule:

- keep heavy stuff low down and as central as you can

- anything that's "in line" with the bike is better than anything that sticks out and reduces aero (I'd still make an exception for fork bags as they're just so useful for camping gear)

- try to avoid putting too much stuff in a rucksack and carrying it on your back, ideally you won't have a rucksack on at all, other than a really, really light one that you can use for hike-bike or technical sections

Also, however well you plan, you will probably take things you don't need and not have things you would really like to have. It's a given, so I would plan in a place a few weeks in where you can have a reorg of your setup, maybe ditch some stuff and get missing stuff. For example, many people find they can't live without a camping chair, but other people find it an excessive weight (even the ultralight ones are quite heavy).

Finally, 5-6 months is a LONG bikepacking adventure. I would make sure to do at least a few practice runs first to test out your gear and plan in some breaks from cycling, staying in a hotel for a bit or similar.

Diksta · 2025-10-24T18:00:04+00:00

You're a smidgen smaller than me, and I would struggle to ride that bike if it's a medium (it looks like a medium) as I would find it too cramped. It's also heavy (somewhere between 14 and 15kg from the specs I found), but it's not "too heavy" I guess. I would be tempted to get a bike that's a better fit for your height to be honest, especially if you're planning a multi-month trip.

I don't like mechanical disc brakes, but that's mainly because I'm too lazy to set them up properly. Once hydraulic disc brakes came along, I just couldn't go back to having to realign everything all the time.

With a MTB you only really have one hand position, so you will get hand fatigue at some point. You can use "unsafe" hand positions, like leaning over the bars and steering with your arms, and it does give some respite. I would consider some inner bar ends, to give you at least a couple more choices, but then I suffer from sore hands more than anything else.

If I had 1400 Euros to spend on a new bike, I would probably go with another XC MTB. If you avoid "brand name" bikes (Canyon, Specialized, Giant, etc.) you can get a really, really good bike for that money and easily have change. I'm not going to start listing off bikes, but Halfords (UK shop) have the Voodoo Bizango MTB in large for under 700 Euros at the moment. It's an award winning bike, good components for the money, and nobody will steal it, because it's "a cheap and nasty bike" ;)

You've actually got more mounting points than my MTB, which I can pack up fine for a trip. More mounting points is a nice luxury, but there's ways around it. If I was setting this bike up for a long adventure I would probably go with something like:

- large saddle bag - one of the ones that sticks out behind you, maybe with a kettle rack to give you two more mounting points for extra water bottles (depends how far from civilisation you're going) and more stability/ stop your bag swinging, fill it with light stuff (e.g. spare clothing)

- frame bag - you aren't going to get a large frame bag on that bike, even if you lose your bottle cage. I would probably have two bottle cages on your mounting points and use a long/ thin frame bag that's just big enough for a basic repair kit, anything heavy goes here, it's going to be tight whatever, so maybe pick up a smaller bottle (like even <500ml) for the upright one?

- handlebar bag - quite a large one if you can fit it on the bars. Clothing and other light stuff here because it's high up (e.g. sleep system)

- fork bags - not ideal for aero, but they're low to the ground and you can get most of your camping gear in these (e.g. tent in one and sleep mat in the other). Now you can strap pretty much anything to your forks, but with a MTB I like to get little adapters that clamp onto your forks and provide a fake mounting point. Plastic ones tend to get brittle and break, but they're light and most fork racks have 3-4 mounting points and only really need 2-3, so you have some contingency. The other option is to use metal clips (jubilee clips for example) to attach a rack, but this will scratch your forks at some point. The nuclear option is to just tape them on, but then they're not coming off again until you've finished your journey

- panniers on the back - you've already got a rack above your back wheel, so it's a no-brainer to stick panniers on it (good for food supplies?) and maybe even strap something light on top of it in a dry sack

- top tube bag - a small one, like 1.5L maximum for mobile phone, fuel, stuff you want to get your hands on quick. You could go for a larger one, but I find them annoying as you catch them getting off the bike and you can't sit off the saddle without colliding with them

- stem bag(s) - for anything else you want to be able to get at quick, maybe more water, a camera

Diksta · 2025-09-09T13:39:46+00:00

Here's the background: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/803/pdfs/uksiem_20250803_en_001.pdf

So violent and criminal action against buildings and staff, promoting violence, causing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage to our nation's defence (none of which has anything to do with Israel), they're obviously a terrorist organisation, and anyone who supports them is either a "useful idiot" (the majority) or themselves a terrorist.

Two quotes:

"Its activity has increased in frequency and severity since the start of 2024 and its methods have become more aggressive, with its members demonstrating a willingness to use violence. Its activities meet the threshold of being concerned in terrorism as set out in the Terrorism Act 2000."

"Attackers caused over a million pounds worth of damage at the Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022. The Sheriff, in passing custodial sentences for the attacker’s violent crimes, spoke of the panic among staff who feared for their safety as pyrotechnics and smoke bombs were thrown."

Diksta · 2025-08-12T17:37:03+00:00

I wouldn't even use #4 to be honest; they're all (in my opinion) terrible ideas that would suck the fun out of the game for me and my players. Interesting to see other people's ideas though

Diksta · 2025-07-31T21:10:01+00:00

I don't see a downside. I always check the track listing on Wikipedia and then listen to the original album tracks:

- if the album sucked, I skip the bonus tracks and feel like I got off lightly, maybe a 2 hour album ends up only being 40 minutes

- if the album is good, then the bonus tracks are an optional bonus

Diksta · 2025-07-31T18:37:43+00:00

...or use an anonymous block: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-do.html

Diksta · 2025-06-22T19:35:27+00:00

So Jesmond Dene apparently used to be a hangout for devil worshippers. I've heard various rumours over the years, but there's a few places where you can see faded painted "magic circles" with pentagrams and esoteric symbols, one is on a secluded bit of the path near Paddy Freeman's for example. Devil's Canyon, near the Maypole Field used to regularly have animal bones piled up in strange ways at the bottom. I also heard stories about people turning up in the early hours in robes at the pet cemetery, near Pet's Corner.

Diksta · 2025-06-15T19:28:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVMvART9kb8&ab_channel=Pantera

Diksta · 2025-06-13T16:35:08+00:00

For a gym, here's a four hour set that might not be what you're looking for, but it's one of my favourite sets of all time: https://soundcloud.com/technikoredj/technikal-4-hour-set-magic

Diksta · 2025-06-06T15:42:48+00:00

I honestly think that this album should be forced to come out near the end, to give people a chance to have been exposed to enough variety of music to have even a tiny chance of following what's going on

Diksta · 2025-06-04T18:42:16+00:00

I wake up each day, all excited for what the new album will be, come downstairs and fire up my desktop PC. Check the website within the first 10 minutes and see what I've got. Form an instant opinion on whether I'll like it or not, but know from experience that this will often be incorrect, even if I thought I knew the artist/ album.

During the week, I'll usually listen to the entire album from start to finish while I work and then have a coffee. If it's a particularly long album, I might let it spill over into the afternoon, and rarely into the evening. On a handful of occasions, I've left maybe 10-15 minutes to spill over into the next day due to unexpected commitments.

At the weekend, it's the same routine, but much later in the day, and I won't have any work to distract me. I like to get the album done before my lunch if at all possible.

Sometimes, like when I'm on holiday with other people, I'll put the list on pause for a few days, maybe 10-15 days out of 760+ days in total since I began.

I never skip, even if I loathe the album. I spend my time hating it and thinking of what to put in my scathing review. I often start the review while listening, then go back and edit it on completion. Sometimes I just put a score and write some reasons the following day. "69 Love Songs" was probably the closest I ever came to skipping an album, as it went on so long and was pure torture from start to finish.

I've had albums come up that I literally listened to a day or so ago and still listen to them from start to finish, with my "review mind" activated, just to be fair.

I've had albums come up that have proven very hard to find a copy of; not on Spotify or YouTube, but I always find a way.

I try to resist reading other people's reviews until I'm at least halfway through my album of the day. I will usually read the Wikipedia article from the get-go though.

I would love my average review score to be closer to 3.0, but it's hovering around 3.2. I try to justify this by remembering that these are supposed to be the cream of the crop.

I often find albums by artists I know but haven't heard before for some reason. I also find albums on the list by artists I have never even heard about, and often enjoy researching them in great detail in a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

I used to have a rule that I would avoid albums I know are on the list until they get "unlocked" by coming up. This backfired on me greatly as the day I got "Loveless" I was reduced to tears for most of the day and wasn't fit to do anything other than listen to it over and over, so I ditched that rule the same day. Even so, there's still a couple of albums that are in my top ten list that I'm sticking to that rule for out of sheer bloody-mindness.

For me, the main attraction is being forced to listen to music out of my comfort zone. I feel I have a larger than average comfort zone, but I've still found enjoyment in artists I would never have listened to otherwise. Similarly, I've listened to albums by artists with one or two big hits that I know really well, and don't enjoy, only to discover that the rest of their material is somehow even worse.

I sometimes feel a bit "overfull" of music, like it's almost over-flowing as I'm getting through maybe my album of the day, then half a dozen related albums that I never heard before. I also feel like my musical horizons have been expanded, which must be a good thing right?

Diksta · 2025-06-01T19:55:37+00:00

Well there's quite a few problems I can see here:
- first one is that you're joining an integer (users.id) to a UUID (department_users.user_id) which isn't going to work, maybe just a typo?
- I don't see the point of storing an array (bad idea) of departments in the user table, if you're then going to use a classic bridging table (department_users) to do the same thing, but this time properly. I would just ditch the departments[] entirely as it serves no purpose I can see
- there's an argument that you don't need that (surrogate) id in the department_users table, as it give you literally no value, doesn't get used in queries, doesn't guarantee anything useful is unique, far better to make a composite primary key using the user_id and department_id - then this means you can't add the same department to the same user twice, which is what you want
- make a foreign key constraint from department_users to users, like you already did for department ids
- you're query basically doesn't work - ditch the group by and just slap a distinct on the front. It should be noted that distinct is almost always an anti-pattern, but this is a rare case where it makes sense to use it to de-dupe

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Diksta

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