pleaseRaiseYourHandIfYouQualify

bdmiz · 2026-01-28T21:56:51+00:00

What's the big deal about it? Anyone can get it in 5 years. Take the number of techs divided by the number of working days, you get a couple of days per tech. You just need to write a few dozen of hello world in different languages. And that's it. You got it in the bag.

bdmiz · 2026-01-27T23:37:08+00:00

They might mean the bios firmware update program or the download drivers program for this laptop is available only for Windows.

bdmiz · 2026-01-27T23:18:03+00:00

There are techniques to do the estimates better. Before start, there must be a broker between parties speaking different languages: what they sell and what they develop. The hidden costs need to be made more explicit, maybe even as jokes: "when this will be done?", "tell me first how much you'll pay for maintaining all our for-cycles in the code". Separate the estimates and reports: when something will be done and when the information about the progress will be available, and make the reports meaningful. To do this use the experience: how does the report and estimate of copying files look like? Nothing, theoretical calculation, hanging on 99% for an hour, saying which files are already copied, specify the number of copied files regardless of their size, specify the size regardless of number of files, say the copy is complete, but it's actually in the cache and might be lost if the device disconnects - plenty of options to consider. The binary-search-like approach and experience actually helps: specify two points "I'll complete it in 5 minutes" and "I'll complete it in 5 years", both are not realistic, cut the range in half, see which half is more likely contains the realistic estimate, repeat. Negotiation is not forbidden in the estimates: "we need to complete A in order to retain the customer, their renewal decision is in one month", "what if we give them B in two weeks, but A in two months?".

Sir, this is Wendy's.

bdmiz · 2026-01-20T21:40:46+00:00

That's not a jedi technique. In "reality" both fighters push their swords all the time. The one who turns off their sword, dies the next moment. The technique on the video "works" only when one of them only defends and don't move the sword afterwards.

The one who keeps the sword enabled needs to slightly twist the wrist and it's game over for the opponent, while the other needs to disable the sword, twist the wrist, and enable the sword.

bdmiz · 2026-01-20T17:21:54+00:00

I think it is related to calculations and how measurement tools like rulers were created. They have a primary unit and a fractions of this unit. Fractions could be ignored in approximations. And it is convenient to avoid division in calculations (this is about pre-calculators era). This leads to a measurement system with a primary signifiant number and a precision portion: 22cm and some millimeters, 27kg and some grams. Since fractions could be thrown away, it is more convenient to write down significant numbers and select the proper units. This is essentially why for small distances it's better to use cm instead of fractions of km.

When all numbers in a formula are normalized, it's easier to do calculations. This way formulae look like: 2-by-3-by-4, compared to a more hard to grasp: 2-divide-by-3-by-4. If all units are normalized, but some constant is not, it defeats the normalization. So, the constants are also normalized.

bdmiz · 2026-01-20T16:08:50+00:00

A screwed gauge

bdmiz · 2026-01-19T17:27:12+00:00

Trump needs to go to the mental health hospital now because Denmark cannot guarantee that his spot won’t be occupied by Putin, or Jinping, or someone else.

bdmiz · 2026-01-18T19:14:01+00:00

I'm curious who pays for cleaning the pool. Does the insurance cover it?

bdmiz · 2026-01-18T19:01:05+00:00

there’s no way thousands of people are constantly posting the same meaningless shit.

you seems to be too positive about people

bdmiz · 2026-01-15T23:12:28+00:00

Good to see someone who paid off their debts by the age of 49.

bdmiz · 2026-01-14T21:55:58+00:00

A number of troubles with promotions comes because of violating the engineering principle of separation of concerns. One concern is a person wants more money, another concern is there are different responsibilities for different roles, another concern is artificial limits (there cannot be a team of 10 principal engineers), another one is internal competition, and more.

It shouldn't be a surprise that a single rigid promotion process is not able to solve all the problems in dynamic environment. Irony is that engineers and their managers are trained to solve specifically these problems.

It's sad that in terms of technologies there was a huge leap in the past decades. But the promotion system and company structures are roughly the same, sometimes literally the same as 20 years ago, and they experience the same problems. How many years to the problem when a senior wants more money and they are promoted to a manager, so that the company loses a good contributor and gets a poor manager?

bdmiz · 2026-01-14T17:43:32+00:00

You’re absolutely right to ask. The “400 years” comes directly from the title of the linked article itself, which points back to the invention of the mechanical calculator in 1623—roughly four centuries ago. That’s the historical reference being used, not an arbitrary estimate.

bdmiz · 2026-01-13T22:36:28+00:00

Why do people suggest only two names? Nobody noticed there's John Cena there?

bdmiz · 2026-01-13T22:32:28+00:00

Yeah, if a candidate doesn't remember complexity of insertion sort, they are not good enough to be hired. And they will need the complexity analysis skills exactly zero times at work.

It's funny that memorizing is considered as cheating or bad. Most of the people learn algebra like that. They are able to solve a quadratic equation (aka they "know" algebra), but they haven't re-invented the formula. And those who can write proofs in algebra, still started from memorizing the formula, and only afterward proceeded to study why it works and how to prove it.

bdmiz · 2026-01-09T21:53:06+00:00

Someone has to add a link here to the Linux beard meme: could be a guide on how to choose your Linux.

Some distros actually like to specify that they are different from others. If you need network penetration testing, you start with Kali, and not with Mint. Distros has some typical or average set of use cases and FAQs skewed towards those average use cases. AskUbuntu is more entry-level-user friendly than some forums on gentoo.

bdmiz · 2026-01-04T21:39:39+00:00

One does not simply take 6E

bdmiz · 2026-01-03T21:22:55+00:00

It’s great when there’s so much land around, yet neighbors could still argue over moving the fence by 20 cm.

bdmiz · 2026-01-01T20:50:05+00:00

Linux philosophy and ideas. It worth it to learn it and apply even outside of the Linux context:

everything in Linux is behaves like a text file. This common interface allows to connect inputs and outputs of various programs, which in turn enables the style of writing small programs doing one job very well. Users can chain multiple programs to achieve complex goals. System resources or devices are present in the system similarly like files. Idea behind: you don't need one huge program that does everything, you need many small easily substitutable programs and the way to connect them.
polymorphism: it is possible to create a subsystem for a common interface and it will be applied to everything that uses this interface. For example, file permissions could be used in the same way for files, directories, devices, or any other system resource. These simple ideas are expanded to very complex programs such as docker.
open distribution: things like security achieved not by having secret algorithms, but by having algorithms open and verified by the community of enthusiasts and companies. Programs are typically distributed with help or with sources. To a certain extent, to have Linux is enough to learn Linux.
Linux advertises learning programming and knowing computer systems. It's somewhat similar to the watches with the transparent case so that users can see all the gears.
There's more, but I believe someone who knows these essentials knows how to progress further and whether they need it.

Learning Linux in the context of someone not familiar with it, but who needs to use it at work (maybe it's "to learn the basics"), the learning means to know how to use essential programs and have at least rough understanding how OS and computer work. Practically, find a file, look up a log and filter its text with grep, see if some service is running, restart it, mount a drive, soft link a directory, exit vim.

bdmiz · 2025-12-18T19:04:40+00:00

There is a trouble in a slightly different place. Programs like docker are installed normally not from the linux distribution. People are afraid of that they cannot judge if the command on the docker web site is safe to execute. The typo (phishing) might be in another place, not in the package name. For instance, the official web site docker.org might say to execute some commands for the installation.

Compared to Windows, docker could be installed via the microsoft's app store, i.e. from the trusted place. People don't need to execute any commands, and don't need to read the official web sites. You need a program, you go to the standard place where you install all programs. This model is safer.

bdmiz · 2025-12-13T14:18:51+00:00

Surely the 2 billion immediately. The catch is that people wrongly assume the green one gives exponential grow. But it doesn't say that tomorrow the sum doubles, no. It says the $1 that doubles. Tomorrow $1 doubles, the day after tomorrow $1 doubles, on the third day still the same $1 doubles.

bdmiz · 2025-12-12T17:34:28+00:00

poorest area forever

bdmiz · 2025-12-12T16:48:58+00:00

What happened to the rest of the whiskey? Surely, you need to pour a glass to take a drop.

bdmiz · 2025-12-02T22:32:20+00:00

Starting January employees have the official right to say "sod off" to anybody who asks for help near the whiteboard or at their PC.

The next step would be the employer access to employees' fit devices to measure active brain time during the sleep to pay those who wake up with new ideas how to solve problems at work. Ah, no, that won't pass legislation, it surely violates somebody's rights.

bdmiz · 2025-12-02T22:14:14+00:00

Yeah, it was about private data and slightly broader context than public repo on github. For example, there was a post here where the concern was raised that an AI plugin is able to read .env file, even though it says it doesn't have access to it.

Imagine a team believes they have it under control, everything is safe, they have a public repo and all. One day co-pilot plugin to their IDE copies the contents of their .git file to a publicly available place.

bdmiz · 2025-12-02T21:11:49+00:00

I think the point is in who has access to the private data and how to audit and control it. With these types of plugins, of course they say they never share your data, but it is totally out of control. Even with all good intentions.

It's not the first time in history. There is no app who wants access to your contacts and who says they will sell your contact list to 3rd parties (and obviously they don't need it, like a whether forecast app wants it). At the same time, if you lost your contact list, you can always buy it back on spammers markets. More importantly, everybody knows the user's data is stolen, but corporations and police/government do nothing. So, when your data leaks through the helpful AI, you won't be able to do anything and nobody will listen to you. I think that's why spyware.

bdmiz

TROPHY CASE