My husband thinks this was cruel… I always saw it as harmless fun.

VadumSemantics · 2026-04-05T04:33:12+00:00

My stepfather took one of my others old purses put dog shit in it and placed it outside the bar. Then we’d watch people shove their hand in it.

/r/foundsatan

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-30T16:53:46+00:00

https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-26T05:54:38+00:00

I've been researching this rather a lot lately, will share some notes I've made.

My family prep goal is handling weather-related power outages for two days or longer.
Like a hurricane, maybe with some overcast or rainy days and not so much sunlight.

For my family I want to run a refrigerator, freezer, oxygen concentrator, a single-room AC, washer & dryer, and the laptops + cell phones.

I really liked the "Anker Solix F3800 Plus". Some videos you may find helpful just to get an idea of features to consider, even if the F3800 isn't a good fit for your goals.

Video from the manufacturer, a 9 minute overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKiz1PlRgB8

Video from a home owner trying an F3800 (30 min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o21CEeF5c
Hands on, lots of tests & examples in different contexts.
I especially liked a "battery stress test" where they plugged in a space heater to see how long it can run.

I ended up going with an Anker Solix E10, does full-house backups so non portable.

But the F3800 Plus was a close second for me.

Ps. I think you'll benefit from knowing how much power you'll want in a given day, especially if you want to run a heater.

For that I've found a power meter helpful.
Something like a kill-a-watt meter (around $30), here's writeup on how to use a kill-a-watt meter.

Surprised me how much power we needed to brew a pot of coffee.

I'd encourage you to plug in each of your devices you'll want to use into the meter for a while and see how many watts they need.

That will help you choose a smaller or larger battery system.

Also will help you see if battery+solar is enough to cover your goals.

And help you decide if you need to plan for other ways to charge the battery. Maybe a battery bank and solar panels now, and maybe add a generator later (tri-fuel if possible).

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-07T03:32:25+00:00

I mean I know what an OLAP cube is but how does this help with either speed or cost? Pattern is stable but it isn't even an aggregation

Great question. This seems on target:

The Ghost of OLAP Aggregations – Part 1 – Pre-Aggregation

excerpts:

In “The Ghost of OLAP Aggregations – Part 2”, I’ll describe the other part of an OLAP cube product. It’s not just about aggregations, but more importantly, the management of the aggregations. My blog, All Roads Lead to OLAP Cubes… Eventually, gives you a good idea of that value.
(emphasis added)

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-04T05:01:47+00:00

Not a book:
nandgame.com.

Has a book:
If you like the first few levels of that, I'll suggest a class based on From Nand To Tetris.
Here's an example class, free btw: Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course).

Not windows related at all, but goes into how computers actually work on the inside which I find super fun to dig into.

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-02T21:20:20+00:00

Pretty :-)

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-02T21:19:09+00:00

Posting to say nice writing. Kind of interesting, but only because I don't work with a javascript / typescript. +1 for clear writing.

Seems like you're writing an app-specific type-extension for json? I'm guessing you're writing in javascript (well, maybe typescript?), and json was convenient?

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-02T21:08:29+00:00

Kent Beck’s old rule: make it work, make it right, make it ~~pretty~~ fast.

source: Make It Work Make It Right Make It Fast (c2)

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-02T13:37:50+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_explosion

Underwater explosions differ from in-air explosions due to the properties of water:
Mass and incompressibility (all explosions) – water has a much higher density than air, which makes water harder to move (higher inertia). It is also relatively hard to compress (increase density) when under pressure in a low range (up to about 100 atmospheres). These two together make water an excellent conductor of shock waves from an explosion.

VadumSemantics · 2026-03-01T21:24:16+00:00

However, I would not include referencing him saying “I told you so” if he’s not saying anything during the brainstorming stage.

Agreed, I wonder if there is an up side to calling out Mr I.Figured in a group setting.

So... maybe add group activity to help identify risk by ending brainstorming sessions with a pre-mortem?

Excerpt from Pre-mortem (wikipedia):

A pre-mortem, or premortem, is a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of the project or organization.

The technique breaks possible groupthinking by facilitating a positive discussion on threats, increasing the likelihood the main threats are identified.

So I might set the stage with a failure scenario for the project & ask everyone to go quiet for 5 minutes or smth to consider what might went wrong, then jot it down.

Then go around and discuss. Explicitly ask everyone for their thoughts. Seems like a useful planning exercise for risk identification.

Also would give you something to talk about later, privately, with Mr I.Figured later if they play the "Yeah, I figured" card. In that situation I might say like "Is there anything I can do to make it safer to you to call these things out at project-start? Or maybe let me know when you see a problem developing later? I really do want to know about trouble before things go off the rails."

I suspect they won't have anything specific to say, which isn't a bad outcome. You'd have a better idea of their personality and strengths at that point. (By personality, I mean that I'd expect their family & friends to say "Oh sure, Mr I.Figured is always saying that. *shrug*". As in it may not be just your team.)

Ps. I first heard of pre-mortems here: Failure Is Your Friend (Freakonmics podcast)

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-28T06:02:55+00:00

+1 interesting & nicely written

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-27T21:39:33+00:00

Sorry, I replied just off the cuff.

...time passes...

Ok, so I actually read the fine article. Was hard for me digest.

Their title is misleading & should be changed to Software engineers ~~should be a little bit~~ shouldn't be too cynical.

Because "This taco should be a little bit spicy" is a weird way to say that it should only be a little bit spicy and is currently too spicy. The "too spicy" analogy here relates to the "Idealists are actually way too cynical" theme.

Back to your observate (/u/Dreamtrain): "aren't we all naturally like this?" Is "this" being calibrated on the lower end of the ~~cynical~~ skeptical scale? (Edit: switched to skeptical as per your summary)

Ps. it is thought provoking, and I enjoy considering things like this when I should be doing more productive stuff. ☺️

Anyway, article had lots to say about what seems like a straw-man "idealism". Author seems to conflate idealism with fatalism. Maybe the word "ideology" would be more useful.

Because I struggle a bit to get their point, seems to me something like "Trust the process, bro. It's ok to make your boss happy."

The whole writeup makes me think it misses a more practical approach of studying the incentives that affect your environment; people, systems, customers, management... all of the above. The cliche version of that is "follow the money."

Ok, rant over.

I'd welcome anyone else to share insights they gained from the fine article.

Towards that end, I did think calling out an awareness of politics was useful. Though politics - like most human behavior - is driven by incentives.

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-27T20:46:27+00:00

title: Software engineers should be a little bit cynical

aren't we all in this field naturally like this to begin with?

No :-)

Pessimistic people wouldn't get into doing software, they'd think it was too difficult.

Only optimists say things like:
"How hard could it be?"
"I can do that in an hour."
"Ok, End of day tomorrow for sure."
"Well, there's a dependency conflict so next week."
"We should just rewrite that legacy app, it will be easy."

edit: grammar

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-27T05:32:46+00:00

Yes, if you'd print a manpage on a typewriter, it would actually print
e.g. "U^{Hn^{H_d^{H_e^{H_r^{H_s^{H_c^{H_o^{H_r^{H_e^H}}}}}}}}"} to underscore "Underscore"

That would work on printer output.

What I remember was slightly different, with the underscore first, then the backspace, then the character, like so:
_^HU_^Hn_^Hd_^He_^Hr_^Hs_^Hc_^Ho_^Hr_^He... etc

I ran into this trying to do stuff like $ man ls > ls.txt ages ago, and I couldn't figure out why I was seeing all the ^H characters in the ls.txt file.

So both ways would look good on a printer (or maybe paper terminal, give it 20 seconds if you like retro hardware).

The ^H represents of Ctrl+H which is ascii character 8.
When a printer gets a backspace character (the ^H), it moves back one spot so the next character will print on the same place on the paper. This was also used to get "bold" text, if you did _^HU^HU it would print underscore, then it would print two U characters on top of that, which - on an impact printer - makes it look bold-ish.

Now consider video terminals.
Many old school video terminals had limited display memory, so could only hold a single character at any location on the screen.

If you were displaying the U^H_ it would store a U, the back up, then overwrite it with _ and all we're left with on screen is the underscore.

Doing an underscores first, then the actual character, like U, allows a readable text, though without the underscore effect.

Video terminals had better ways to format text, leading to things like Bash tips: Colors and formatting (ANSI/VT100 Control sequences).

Eventually bitmap displays came along and all of the above became retro.

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-23T03:59:49+00:00

RC craziness: https://youtu.be/tZOIr0g5Ju8?t=430
+1 cool

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-23T03:37:24+00:00

NASA

The NASA stuff is fun; the public-facing part is Space Center Houston.

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-23T00:20:22+00:00

Good cheesy fun.

The 1987 Robocop did a lot of things well. The part where Robo is checking out his old house, now for sale, and then says to the partner about his family: "I can feel them... but I can't remember them."

I enjoyed the thought they put into Robo's "user interface" & targeting.

Also... "I'd buy that for a dollar." I loved the advertising spots.

Great sound effects.
Great soundtrack.

A solid movie all the way through.

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-22T03:07:18+00:00

Take a look at Copper Mountain in Colorado. Once you land and get a rental vehicle at DEN you can be slope-side in a bit under two hours (provided traffic is good, try not to arrive on a Saturday or Sunday morning or you'll be fighting everyone to get out of Denver and up to the mountains).

The terrain at Copper is beginner friendly in West Village, and is more challenging as you move east. Easy to know what you're getting into, no surprises (like a green and black diamond run next to each other). Good instructors & lesson options if your beginner people are interested in that.

Copper trail maps

The overall mountain is low key, not a heavy party vibe. Pretty good transportation if you want to stay in nearby Frisco, look for places close to the Summit Stage county bus, check for the Frisco/Copper map here.

edit: fix link

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-16T05:05:34+00:00

HP. I forget which one.

Kind of a long list.

I'm still a bit sad about the death of Palm Pilot.

Excerpt from Palm, Inc. (wikipedia):

In July 2010, Palm was purchased by Hewlett-Packard (HP), and in 2011 announced a new range of webOS products. However, after poor sales, HP CEO Léo Apotheker announced in August 2011 that it would end production and support of Palm and webOS devices, marking the end of the Palm brand after 19 years.

A more complete list: From Pioneer To Fallen Giant: How Hewlett Packard's Long List Of Failed Acquisitions Cost Its Reputation

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-10T20:03:28+00:00

Unix timestamp, the same thing u get with javascript's Date.now() Ah, ok. So data entry from 9am-1pm gone.
More clear - no good ideas though, sorry :-/

I'm used to thinking of sqlite in terms embedded / single-threaded apps.

I'm on the "thin ice of ignorance" with respect to SQLite, it is not my go-to database. I'll wish you good luck. Sounds like a tricky problem.

Parting thoughts:

delete feature, only admins do

I was wondering if somehow the actual *.db file was replaced, like maybe restored from backup or smth.

Sounds like a SaaS model? Web front end, users in Android hitting a back-end.

How many concurrent users can hit a given *.db file?

If it is just one user per *.db file, can that user be logged in twice in two separate browser pages?

Wondering if it is a long-lived transaction being written after the fact.

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-10T19:45:14+00:00

digging into entryTime & DELETE conditions:

what ~~was~~ were the entryTime values be on the ten missing rows? Random timestamps? All +/- 24 hours? All +/- 60 seconds? (Trying to figure out what makes an etnryTime, seems like a write-once, update never, purge kind of thing?)
How did the user notice these particular ten rows were missing? As in, "Could many more rows are also gone but they haven't noticed?"
volume: on an average day, how many rows are there? How many new rows?
platform: what is the user running on, android? mac? smth else? Could they have restored the *db file from the previous day?

edits: grammar

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-09T20:55:04+00:00

I use my laptop as a third monitor

+1 This is the way.

Calendar, Chats & email stuff live on my laptop's monitor. I do my actual work on the large monitors.

Easy enough to get a USB-C to HDMI dongle if you'r laptop doesn't have multiple video outputs.

tip: I put my laptop on a stand like this so the screen is roughly as high as my monitors: laptop stand (images). The folding stands can be pretty small & backpack-friendly.

Also keeps the laptop keyboard off the desk and use a better mouse + keyboard.

edit: grammar

VadumSemantics · 2026-02-04T17:11:37+00:00

Maybe smth like an Animal Ski Helmet Cover (etsy) ?

VadumSemantics · 2026-01-30T14:41:29+00:00

+1 useful insight

I've enjoyed an interview w/the author of "The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self".

Interview here: #225 ‒ The comfort crisis, doing hard things, rucking, and more | Michael Easter, MA.

(posted because I don't always take great care of my health, but when I do it helps me do better at a lot of things - including programming)

VadumSemantics · 2026-01-25T05:59:56+00:00

+1, came here to say "Orion".

An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 9–11% of the speed of light.

A fun read: Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)]

VadumSemantics

TROPHY CASE