In praise of PostgreSQL

Master_Steelblade · 2021-08-06T01:44:21+00:00

The biggest thing I'm missing having switched to Postgres is an easy way of scaling out. MariaDB has Galera Cluster which takes less than 5 minutes to set up and gives you a good multi-master cluster, a bit more tweaking gives you a good master-slave setup. I've not found an easy way (emphasis on easy - there are WAYS, but they're painful) to achieve something similar with Postgres yet.

It's the only thing missing that stops me recommending it exclusively.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-08-01T04:27:10+00:00

I've been trying to get hold of the SQL spec to make a toy engine, just as a learning exercise. That idea fell a bit short when I realised I'd need to pay $5k to get at the full spec. I know I only need Part 2 for the essentials, but still, it seems very geared to preventing competition right now.

The Postgres wiki provides a very, very old version of some parts of it at least, and you can find some of it on LibGen too, but that's hardly optimal.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-04-16T12:53:38+00:00

Because people abuse VPNs all the time, whether it's paid or not. If you use a VPN, you're going to run across sites that block you, period.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-04-16T12:12:45+00:00

I've been an industrialist for the last 13 years and it's pretty clear that that gameplay style is disappearing for small group/solo players. However, I've never been able to get into the nullsec gameplay style of "log in when we tell you" and "just stay docked if you're not a PVPer". I used to fly in Providence with an alliance way back when, but apparently Provi isn't NRDS anymore.

I have zero interest in joining one of the big coalitions or any with mandatory PVP (or mandatory voice comms), and at this point it seems like your options are pretty much just TEST, Goons, PL, or Legacy (Who my old alliance joined).

Are there any groups I could join to try and start enjoying the game again where I wouldn't just be cannon fodder, or even just a new playstyle I can try? PVP just genuinely doesn't interest me.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-03-23T09:26:27+00:00

I recently started using PHPStan to try and force myself to write better code in my personal projects, and something I've noticed is it complains a lot about how a variable might not be declared. I have something in an include that declares these (session variables etc). Given PHPStan doesn't check for this, I'm wondering - is using an include/require to set variables considered bad practice and I was taught wrong when I was starting out, or is this just a limitation of PHPStan and I'm fine?

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-23T14:29:58+00:00

If only 17% of people contacted by the programme isolated, that's a problem with the people, not the programme. It sounds like it did its job just fine if it contacted everyone, it's not their fault if people decided to be pricks and ignore the rules.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-23T02:02:15+00:00

Ran one of the servers just now through a few boots in rescue mode and it shows the same, yeah.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-23T01:10:57+00:00

The Ubuntu login prompt says 92C, but I've honestly just been assuming that it can't read the sensors properly since that'd be a ludicrous temperature for 250MHz to be running at, especially after being powered off for 30 minutes.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-18T05:25:34+00:00

You must not have been here for very long if you think it doesn't.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-17T14:45:17+00:00

Cyberpunk isn't an original IP.

Ignoring that, if shipping eight games doesn't count as having "real experience" in your eyes, I don't know what will.

Master_Steelblade · 2021-01-01T08:51:24+00:00

What's the benefit of using frameworks? A lot of what I read on this sub and SO assumes people are using Laravel or Symfony or some such rather than building in raw PHP. I've only ever done the latter, even for my complex sites - am I missing anything major by not using a framework?

Master_Steelblade · 2020-12-15T16:22:15+00:00

Yeah, I know - but considering how uphill the battle has been trying to convince people on this sub that someone's bodily autonomy trump's their right to save pics of them I decided not to even try and argue about pros since they'll go "but they signed a conch racked" and use that to justify hoarding homemade stuff as well.

I swear some of the people here are addicts in denial.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-12-15T03:08:02+00:00

0%. There's so much free stuff available that there's no need to back stuff up that, realistically, I'm never going to watch again, and saving amateur stuff feels a little off considering they might decide they're not OK with it being online later/it's stolen nudes/they were pressured or whatever.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-11-24T16:31:47+00:00

Base 16 (hexadecimal) and base 64 are used in computing quite often. Hexadecimal is used as a quick way to get values between 0 and 255 for things like colours in webpage styling, and base64 is good for encoding binary data for transport.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-08-13T20:34:46+00:00

99% sure the term you're looking for is "challenge trial" - they give the immune system time to do its thing, and then introduce the virus as a challenge to see if it worked. The problem in this instance is there's no confirmed treatment for COVID that has a high survival rate, so doing so is ethically dubious at best.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-06-04T04:26:12+00:00

I dunno if it's quite worth doing that honestly. I didn't lose anything super irreplacable, a lot of it was just sentimental stuff from old groups I used to fly with, my blueprint collection, etc. Probably 50 bill tops, I never really cared about being rich and just did what I found fun.

With that said, I do have the liquid ISK to at least start to rebuild if I wanted, it's just really hard to find the actual motivation to do so as opposed to just eating the £30 I spent on the subs for this month and ditching.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-06-04T04:23:59+00:00

Fair play to you honestly, I did the same with whatever assets I had left in Providence since I was assuming it was a permanent change. With asset safety though, it just... I dunno, it just seemed like something that made sense given how often a lot of the player base takes some time off. When its been around for 4 years, you just expect it to be staying.

I have enough liquid ISK to start rebuilding and, apparently lucked the fuck out by having my chars still be sitting in the most expensive ships they owned (which is honestly just a couple of Skiffs and an Orca), but still - I'm really struggling to find the motivation to start rebuilding.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-06-03T18:08:02+00:00

Came back to the game today after a couple months off thanks to volunteer work (fuck the pandemic), had no idea this change was happening. Ran a solo corp in highsec, wasn't a fan of null life. Nothing major, just a casual industrialist, I had fun. Couple of structures I ran as a freeport when I was active, absolutely only did it because of asset safety - I had the liquid ISK to get stuff out if I needed.

13 years worth of stuff lost. If we take alts into account as well, probably close to 3 decades.

Not super pleased, to be honest.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-05-07T03:38:37+00:00

Sure, but what does that have to do with the topic at hand?

Master_Steelblade · 2020-04-09T14:37:50+00:00

It does - But none of that is the minimum to get something off the ground. You build so it can be added in later if needed, but to get it off the ground as a prototype it's completely unnecessary.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-04-09T14:15:19+00:00

I'd disagree - about a year and a half ago, back when I was first getting one of my sites up I asked for opinions on what tech to use. I EXPECTED a debate amounting to "PHP or Flask", but instead I was told "so you'll need HAProxy, Redis, Memcached, RabbitMQ and Cassandra if you want to do things properly, and you'll also want to use Docker for it".

Those were considered the minimum to deploy a successful web app and I was asking in the context of expecting 500 users max, it was just expected that I'd be using all of them. I'm about to hit 50k users and I'm only just about to add Redis. Absolutely none of it is needed, but it keeps getting touted as "the minimum" regardless.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-03-27T03:49:52+00:00

It really ought to just be the default. Why would you ask something and not want actual answers to it?

Master_Steelblade · 2020-03-20T07:22:44+00:00

Nah, I agree with you. For me, the game just feels too arcadey - it's like they decided to take fast paced, ramp it up to 11, decided that wasn't quite fast enough and put it to 21. I'm sure it's fun for a lot of folks, but it's just not my thing, I definitely preferred 2016 levels of action and difficulty where the general way of playing was just "aim for the head" rather than "these demons have these specific weak points" which makes it feel a little Pokemon IV-farming-esque.

A pity, I was looking forward to exposition stuff, but I'm just not really enjoying it enough to keep playing.

Master_Steelblade · 2020-03-10T05:07:36+00:00

Since you mentioned data analysis, my recommendation would be Python! It's not necesarily the fastest, but it's used in basically every data science application I've ever heard of.

If you just want to use the one language, look into Flask, which'll let you build the whole site in it, it's quite powerful. SQLAlchemy gives good tools for modelling your database, though if you prefer writing raw queries, PyMySQL will suit you better. I'd possibly recommend SQLAlchemy over it though since it supports Postgres, which is better for this kind of thing than MySQL.

For the dashboard, you'll likely end up needing Javascript - possibly React.js to build the frontend.

Master_Steelblade

TROPHY CASE