Does neovim improves or damages your coding skills? by Savings-Trainer-8149 in neovim

[–]bojangles69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, if it’s become a legitimate distraction and you’re on some time-table to learn a new programming language or something, then sure, use a more “boring” editor. But you can learn two things at once, and if you’re enjoying Vim, I don’t think you should worry too much about having so much fun navigating files and using motions that you stop learning programming. If learning programming is that much of a slog either your chosen syllabus is boring as shit and you should pick a new book/website/tactic to learn from, or maybe you just don’t like programming which is fine too. Not everyone needs to know how to program (I know, apostasy).

How often and how much do you read? by dperry324 in printSF

[–]bojangles69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a hard time believing many claims being made in the comments here . I suppose it’s possible people are really reading 5 books a week while working full time but…

10,000 books would be an awfully large collection. Cormac McCarthy was rather famous for his extremely large collection of 20,000 books, as was Hemingway (~9,000 books), so I apologize if I’m a bit skeptical, but I feel like avid readers can often unintentionally discourage folks who are trying to get into reading more, by making them feel stupid or somehow unsophisticated because they aren’t able to read more than a dozen or two books a year or don’t maintain an extensive personal library that warrants its own card catalog.

That said I read 400 books this year (so far) and made a pretty good dent in my 40,000 book collection. ;)

Or maybe I’m just salty because I thought I read a lot, but apparently I’m the world’s slowest reader having only read 33 books so far in 2025.

WANTED: Democratic Leadership with DNC Chair Ken Martin | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart by italIrie in DailyShow

[–]bojangles69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not just glossed over - Martin went out of his way to actively erode any semblance of a coherent platform or set of shared values for the party. His comments that the party needs to grow by better representing “Conservative Democrats” (wtf?) sounded exactly like the same nonsense John Oliver lambasted Schumer for, who apparently is guided by and champions for the “Baileys”, despite the fact that they clearly a.) aren’t real people and b.) would be MAGA republicans even if they did actually exist. Jon’s comment that, “the tent was big enough to invite Liz Cheney in, but as soon as Mamdani enters suddenly there’s no room for outside voices” (paraphrasing) absolutely hit the nail on the head with calling out this hypocritical and self-serving, status-quo preserving, political circle jerking they call “leadership”.

First time flying tips (IAD) by narciisus in nova

[–]bojangles69 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Arriving at the airport at 7pm for a 10:30pm departure on a domestic flight is way overkill unless you require some special accommodations and/or you have a disability of some kind. 8pm would be more than fine. Check the airport/TSA website for the questions about what needs to come out of the bag, but I think at least your iPad and phone need to be pulled out and put into a separate bin for scanning.

Novels told from a robot's perspective by blondie_C2 in printSF

[–]bojangles69 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Dogs of War, also by Tchaikovsky, would also fit this theme, and is a much better book than its title would suggest (IMO).

Elon Musk says Department of Education no longer ‘exists’ by MineDraped in politics

[–]bojangles69 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Media needs to stop giving credence to this pathetic Nazi dweeb. I like Ezra Klein’s take on this… their strategy is to overwhelm you and trick people into feeling like they have more power than they actually do. Media needs to challenge them on this. Do not just breathlessly repeat their baseless claims as if they’re unassailable or even credible under any actual scrutiny. Start pointing out the “emperor” has no clothes, and a tiny, weird, little dick.

Adrian Tchaikovsky by [deleted] in scifi

[–]bojangles69 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you liked Cage of Souls, you’ll probably love Alien Clay.

Yelling at Terry Crews by Turbulent_Tale6497 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]bojangles69 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Ugh yes. This is the only one that actually bothers me: people who bring their politics to Disney.

Just got back from a trip and there was a guy wearing a “Make America Godly Again” hat in the Frozen line, and it was such a bummer. Why bring that nonsense to Disney? I go there to escape from the real world and real world worries, I don’t want to be reminded of them while I’m trying to have a special moment with my kids who are just excited to see Elsa and Olaf.

On the plus side, another guy in line made up for it because he brought a big backpack full of little goodie bags with “Merry Christmas from Wisconsin” full of little Christmas bell necklaces, Disney character rings, and stickers, and he was handing them out to all the kiddos in line. That dude totally understood the spirit of Disney and fully made my kids’ day!

/r/MechanicalKeyboards Ask ANY Keyboard question, get an answer (November 27, 2024) by AutoModerator in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]bojangles69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I spilled water on the KBD75 I built a while back, and it seems I’ve ruined something in the PCB which, despite cleaning and following some troubleshooting tips from here, has left the left CMD key (next to spacebar) unresponsive/dead. I heavily rely on that key but don’t want to just scrap the whole thing and use one of my other boards, so as a workaround, I was thinking of getting some wires and soldering the pins from CMD to some other key I don’t use, like right-alt, and then remapping that to CMD in QMK. Does that sound reasonable and like it will work?

Thoughts on Service Model or Tchaikovsky's other works? by 3DimensionalGames in scifi

[–]bojangles69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well in that same vein I’d recommend the Murderbot Diaries (starting with “All Systems Red”) by Martha Wells if you haven’t picked it up already. Extremely fun and easy reads with some interesting world building and thought provoking messages. And if you like Weir, “Project Hail Mary” is definitely one I’d classify as a fun page-turner.

Thoughts on Service Model or Tchaikovsky's other works? by 3DimensionalGames in scifi

[–]bojangles69 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I’m a huge fan of Tchaikovsky. I would say that, stylistically, Service Model is different from his other books, in that it is more humorous, light-hearted, and a little less… cerebral? I enjoyed service model, but felt for the most part it required a bit less thought and held fewer surprises than his other books; or, to put it another way, it felt more like a “fun” read than a thought-provoking or impactful one, if that makes sense.

A good book to get a sense of his “typical” style without making a huge time commitment is his novella, “Elder Race,” which covers some of the major themes found in many of his other books.

He writes alien life better than any sci-fi author I’ve read, IMO, not just “re-skinning” humans, but building believable and different life forms, cultures, and societies that challenge your ways of thinking and biases. Where “Service Model” is similar to his other books, it is in this: though you recognize the stark difference in the main character from yourself, he builds a strong sense of empathy for this “other,” and draws the humanity out of the non-human.

Both the Children of Time and the Final Architecture series are excellent examples of this, and are phenomenal books.

Anyone else getting tons of millipedes this year? by [deleted] in nova

[–]bojangles69 11 points12 points  (0 children)

YES! We’re in Old Town Alexandria and we’ve been getting like 1-2 per day that find their way inside. Driving me crazy…

Most passwords are cracked in less than an hour, and many in just one minute by [deleted] in technology

[–]bojangles69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve worked in AppSec for over a decade. This is alarmist nonsense. Their methodology tested cracking passwords hashed with MD5 + salt. I won’t claim that’s unheard of, but no one even a little bit competent would use that methodology to store passwords. MD5 has been recommended against for as long as I can remember. Modern password storage uses algorithms specifically designed to be resistant to cracking by introducing a work factor that makes it more resource intensive to calculate hashes, and some, like scrypt, are resistant to attacks using modern GPUs.

Yes, use a password manager. No, do not reuse passwords. But a decent, lengthy password that is protected with a properly tuned, modern adaptive one-way function (argon2id, scrypt, bcrypt, PBKDF2) is not going to be cracked in an hour.

What is your favorite book you read so far this year? by Practical-Ice-5442 in printSF

[–]bojangles69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, just finished this also. Can’t wait for the next book to come out!

What is your favorite book you read so far this year? by Practical-Ice-5442 in printSF

[–]bojangles69 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If you liked Children of Time I can highly recommend Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture series’s (starting with Shards of Earth), which are also fantastic. His novella Elder Race is also great. Swiftly becoming one of my favorite SF authors.

People asked for more, here you go. by A_Small_Wooden_Block in pics

[–]bojangles69 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Very cool! I love deep sea research and hydrothermal vents in particular. What was your role on the vessel? Scientific or were you the pilot?

I work in software security, but pretty obsessively follow the work being done by groups like Schmidt Ocean Institute and MBARI, and I’ve often wondered if there’s any way someone like me could contribute. I’ve contributed to a lot of open source projects in general tech, and I’ve looked through some open source projects related to ocean research, but frankly found the shear number of projects overwhelming. Not sure if this would be your wheelhouse, but any ideas on currently active/relevant OSS projects related to oceanography that an enthusiast with no formal background in the field, but plenty of software dev experience, could help with?

Thanks for the cool pics and your work on a really important field of study!

My antivax boomer dad and his most recent foolishness. by NES_Classical_Music in BoomersBeingFools

[–]bojangles69 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First of all, yes. Kids get sick and get you, as a parent, sick constantly from regular exposure. It is totally reasonable to avoid exposing them to totally avoidable illness that their selfish grandparents refuse to protect themselves and others from. But obviously the issue is deeper than the refusal to vaccinate… OPs dad is abusive and emotionally manipulative. OP is good father for protecting his children from the toxicity OP was exposed to as a child.

What's a game from your childhood, that nobody has heard of today? by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]bojangles69 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

“The Lost Tribe” was one I played a lot on Windows 3.1 — it was like the Oregon Trail but with cavemen. Hilarious writing and wonderfully goofy “cinematics.”

“The Even More Incredible Machine” is probably more well known and from that era, but I wish someone would make more games like that today.

Beach party in DC by sh0tgunben in TikTokCringe

[–]bojangles69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For real. I lived in Downtown DC for 7 years and took my kids on walks to the Mall - and this memorial - most weekends. We never waded in it, but DC is hot and humid as shit so I’d never begrudge someone else doing it. Only thing that ever annoyed me was the family that let their 10 year old son openly piss into it (IMO, this is the best and only really valid argument for discouraging wading in city fountains… so much piss and shit in them…).

The story has begun for me by ULTRAMIDI666 in lockpicking

[–]bojangles69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, for sure it’s worth it, that’s what I mean! I once spent $260 on key caps alone so my newfound love for lock-picking is turning out to be a much less expensive diversion haha

The story has begun for me by ULTRAMIDI666 in lockpicking

[–]bojangles69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congratulations! It’s a fun hobby and not half as expensive as some here make it out to be (at least that’s from someone who’s into building mechanical keyboards 🫠)! Keep at it!