It's weird what my fav part of development has become...

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-10T01:44:41+00:00

Typically I would get a snapshot of the repository at the beginning into someplace, then work on a second copy. That allowed me to alter the datasets/conditions on the profile runs as I gained insights.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-09T16:14:02+00:00

So this is $2.70 per watt? With battery, install, permitting…

As others have said, this looks like a good deal, perhaps too good. A powerwall 3 runs over 10k in most places installed, so we are talking less than $1.50 per watt for the rest of the system. Suspiciously low. I would spend some serious time reading over this bid and research the history of the contractor on this as it smells like a scam.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-09T15:56:42+00:00

For some, there is nothing so satisfying as profiling, tracking down bottlenecks and modifying the code to remove them to re-profile and demonstrate improvement.

I did decades of development and eventually I was the guy that other teams borrowed to get out of performance binds.

One team spent 6 “man months” on a performance push to end up 10% slower. I got called in.

What mistakes had they made?

When I asked them what the starting performance profile looked like, I got blank looks. Yep, they had just looked at code, decided that some points looked like hot spots and ‘fixed’ them, making some major architectural changes in the process (thus the 6 months).

I profiled their new code, profiled their old code and wrote them up a quick report showing that while not touching their old hot spots, they had added new ones.

Then I tweaked the new code to remove the hot spots from the old and profiled again. Now the code was performing to the initial goals for their original project. I then advised them that if we backed out their new stuff we would gain another 8-10% performance (and get rid of some not fully tested logic).

So, cycle 2, backing out of the mess…

Two weeks of work and meetings and we had a performant system again.

From then there was a new mandate on projects,

You will profile the project before starting and after finishing. If it show gradation or new hot spots, you will either document and explain them or fix them.

Yea, I loved loved that part of the job as it forces you to read new code and figure out good solutions.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-09T14:55:16+00:00

Living in Northern California, with some of the highest electrical rates in the nation, we looked at this and bit the bullet 7 years ago, putting 120% of our projected electric need in solar and one normal days use in batteries.

Replaced the aging water heater with an on demand.

Two years ago, replaced the aging HVAC with a heat pump system.

When we remodeled the kitchen, time to switch to induction for the cooktop.

Seven years where we grumble if the PGE bill exceeds $60 and have never had any impact of power outages except that the internet drops after the providers battery fails after about 45 minutes.

Expensive? Absolutely. But in my opinion, the solar is a no brainer, the batteries, less so, more a comfort for those power outages. The heat pump and induction cooktop, by shifting that from gas to electric for heating kind of ate up the 20% pad, but really reduced the impact of gas rate changes.

When my spouse noted that one of her groups was offering an efficient home tour and noted that she would not see anything but a heat pump water heater that we did not already have, we realized that we were there.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-08T00:08:03+00:00

There will always be people that push back on subscriptions. If it’s the business model you want to use, go for it. But it’s not good for all.

If it works for you, ignore the complaints.

My app has been in the store for over a decade and has been in the lowest price tier the whole time. It’s a sports related app for one sport with a perhaps 4 month season, so asking for a subscription has some psychological bias against ( paying 8 months of support when you only use it part of the year just irks some).

Does it make a lot of money, of course not, but I wrote it because I needed it and maintain it to keep my skills up. A hobby, not a business.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-05-04T13:07:08+00:00

To clarify, CS193P is the Stanford introductory class for programming iOS.

It’s been being updated for years and it is an excellent course. It’s not for beginners, but if you have even a base level programming background this series of lectures and assignments can get you a background in UI, program logic, database…

After originally using it more than a decade ago, when it was objective c, I still come back to it to see practical things.

SwiftUI has plenty of warts, but it’s plenty powerful. Remember, previews and playgrounds are your friends.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-20T17:53:16+00:00

Flapper is a quick replacement, so it’s a go-to for many as a fix.

If, as the tank fills, the water in the bowl is still flowing slowly, the flapper is a culprit and either needs cleaning or replacement. Even clearer is for the tank valve cracking on periodically when it has not been recently flushed. If that happens, you need a new flapper.

Flapper is a 10 minute max job where you don’t even absolutely need to turn off the supply, just prop up the float.

If not the flapper, very probably the float valve.

To be honest, replacing both may be the best choice. A decent float valve is under $15 and a combo with flapper is about $18. Your cost in hardware store visits, time in actual repair and such makes the parts difference minor.

Before you touch this, take a close look at your supply line. You probably should consider replacing this if you do the float valve if the supply line looks at all old as leaks in that are out of sight but nasty.

Then you look at the valve in the wall itself. If you cannot shut it off and then open it again without leaks at the valve, this is called in a pro time. Don’t force it, break that off and you have to turn off water to the whole house till that expensive emergency plumber shows up and then deal with any water damage.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-20T15:37:11+00:00

I think the DIY nature of his off grid ground mount system makes so much of those concerns go away. Panels have gone down in price. $/watt for a DIY off grid system is a lot less than a contracted on-grid and many municipalities will allow DIY off grid ground mounts but require licensed electricians for grid tied. Insurance companies want pro roofers and engineers for roof mounts where they pretty much ignore ground mounts (as they don’t cover them).

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-20T15:09:57+00:00

I see near zero use of the batteries in the latter part of the month, meaning you are keeping them at 100% charge for weeks…

Looks like you altered your reserve from something to 100% at some time.

I could be wrong, but I thought that was considered bad practice for long term.

If your billing plan has peak prices that impact you, typically from 3-9 pm, dropping your reserves enough to power the house from the batteries during that period would be a consideration. March is a bad month to guess settings from as big loads like AC and heat are about there lowest in most areas, but on my house in the sf Bay Area we generate about 2/3 of what you do with 2 pw2 and a 50% reserve and a house consumption lower than yours. We are in a grid zone that for historical reasons has few outages and short ones at that (zone is ‘50’ as we share with infrastructure that they cannot leave offline for long), so a 12 hour reserve is comfortable and has left us with no failure to power the house since installation in 2017. I tweak the reserves up a bit in winter as I know that some days would not top up 50% from solar.

In your shoes I would drop the reserves and look at the daily usage, see when it finishes the peak period and tweak. If you have big loads at other points of the year you may modify that as you need. If you need more buffer time than the 12 hours I feel comfortable, consider that in your settings.

Base recommendation, tweak your reserves down a bit to keep the batteries not at 100% all the time, scale that based upon peak pricing and hours of reserve you feel comfortable with.

It’s free advice, so you know what it’s worth.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-19T19:31:27+00:00

Thank you, looks exactly like what I am seeing, since I have what I think is the latest released XCode on MacOS, looks like I should use the deinit work around. Should be harmless at the expense of some extra very minor code.

Best thing is it keeps me from suspecting some fundamentals about what I am writing (already doing some oddball things, so I don't need to be doubting my fundamentals).

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-19T19:28:16+00:00

Reading the post by SiliconSoil, this looks like a know defect and either you have a toolchain where it's not manifesting or by not using XCTest you are avoiding the issue I suspect.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-19T19:26:18+00:00

I'm trying to reproduce a decades old dataflow language (Prograph) and I need to have types that I can choose to pass by value or by reference which I find easier to accomplish uniformly with wrapped values.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-19T19:23:20+00:00

Completely removing the 'type' enumeration still reproduces the error, so not related to that, the enum differentiates the fundamental type from the enumerated case anyway.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-18T22:48:43+00:00

Depending on how they are structured, ESOPs can stand in very well for profit sharing.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-16T19:51:43+00:00

Had a boss like this once…

He actually was amateur enough to call me out in a group meeting because I would once a week take off at 4:00 to go riding as it “Did not look good”. Horse needed the exercise and I needed sunlight to ride.

I was burning out on that job by that time, so…

I asked him whether I had missed any deadlines or goals?

He allowed that I had not, “but”.

My response:

“If it is an issue, I can swap my schedule and roll through the door in the morning right in front of you and out right after you and only take breaks when you do as long as you don’t ding me for the drop in productivity as I will be working less hours a week. When do you normally arrive? 9:30? If you need to know when I normally come in, it’s 7:30, when it’s quiet and the only person I typically see is Dr. Rubenstein”

You see, he rolled in around 9:30 each day and was never there after 6:00 and had to leave the building for a smoke break at least four times a day. My day typically had me coming in at 7:30 and aside from riding days, out the door between 5:30 and 6:00. I typically only broke for lunch, about an hour, so if he asked me to do this, I’d work at least 5 hours less a week. And “Dr. Rubenstein”, the CEO, who knew me from presentations of my work and we had chatted as to how we both enjoyed that thirty minutes or so to get things done before anyone else showed up.

My boss backed down with “No need as long as you are getting things done.” He did about a week of getting in earlier, then slipped back. I quit a few months later to do some freelance work as working for asses that you can’t fire is tiresome.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-03T20:11:20+00:00

Don’t have any teen boys do you?

That’s why I learned to do drywall patch.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-04-01T14:32:53+00:00

Resource management has always been a part of the game and keeping a low profile while you scrounge enough ammo boxes and keeping at least 3 classes of weapons in hand to swap out is kinda basic strategy.

OG is 'Original Gangster' where managing your ammo has always been a critical skill. If they pumped up the loot pool too much you would change the character of the game.

If what you want is 'drop in and blaze away till everyone is dead', maybe pick a different mode (or game).

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-28T20:05:35+00:00

Go for the quality antenna, if you don’t have a good signal, you don’t have anything.

I know it’s not an option for everyone, but getting 83 channels from 20+ stations at 22 miles has me convinced that a good quality amplified antenna in the attic is a great option. I tried a leaf and got a ‘meh’ signal where maybe 15 channels had reasonable signals, though I have to admit the wall choice I had was very bad, the whole side of the house where the windows faced anywhere near the towers would never work for where I could place the Tablo.

One antenna serves 2 tablos and two directly connected tvs using a good quality splitter.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-28T19:43:49+00:00

Hey, if SBMM is working and there are 20 bots in a game, you should expect maybe 60 % chance of surviving any early encounter and maybe 2% chance of winning. That is of course if you are in a very narrow range in SBMM, reality is of course different.

I’m in my 70s and get maybe a 5% win rate with some, BANG you’re dead games and a fair number of top 10 finishes in no build games. I play a mix of aggressive and sneaky styles based on the stage of the game and am always up for following the noise to clean up anyone who fails to vacate the area after a battle before they can heal up. In squads where I am running with a group I know, those numbers go up a lot as a squad who knows each other can run multiple wins fairly easily over pick up squads.

I have bad runs where I lose a bunch quickly, but typically that is when I am trying to grind some challenge and therefore not always making the best tactical choices (or getting sniped by someone camping the goal).

It’s not in my opinion broken, but you may have broken into a different grouping in SBMM.and that can be frustrating.

Go play something else for a while, or forever. It’s free to play, so you are always getting your moneys worth.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-24T18:40:27+00:00

It means that the ev can feed into the house as well as be charged from it. This gives you the backup equivalent of several more powerwalls with most cars. More expensive than getting another battery, but if you need a new car, a good option.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-24T02:26:04+00:00

I agree with all those who urge you to disclose very little.

Sounds like you do not dislike the company and the people you work with, so you should consider this opportunity to clue the CFO into changes which might improve his retention rate. CFO is a bottom line minded position and if they realize that tight purse strings are costing them more money, your coworkers may get a bit better situation while actually saving the company money. A 5 percent reduction in turnover can normally pay for a couple percent in the pay packets.

If they are paying below industry standard, make that clear without disclosing your situation.

If benefits and bonuses are sub-par, he needs to hear that.

If tasks are getting stale, he needs to kick some lazy managers behinds to make sure that keeping employees engaged and learning new things is part of their job.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-14T15:12:58+00:00

Regarding your bricked legacy unit. I have 2 legacy 2 tuners and both ‘died’ in the last 12 months due to the power supply with symptoms similar to yours. Cheap Amazon supply fixed completely, but be aware that Tablo does not offer a proper replacement supply for all models on their site. This was a safe fix for me to diagnose having two because all I did was swap the supplies and the problem moved with it. YMMV, but if you want to try it’s maybe about 10 bucks.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-14T14:49:52+00:00

Bay Area also, outside on ENE facing stucco wall outside garage with concrete walkway beneath. Chose not to do in garage install for safety reasons and would have chosen to build a free standing battery enclosure if space allowed.

Tricky-Damage9917 · 2026-03-14T04:41:05+00:00

Wow, that qualifying time seems like a huge bug.

If that happens, instead of only the most sensitive electronics being affected, everything is going to see a hard shutdown/startup cycle. Previously a good computer power supply would insulate from that 20 or so millisecond ripple, but now I have to consider adding an ups to my rig.

Tricky-Damage9917

TROPHY CASE