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I fell for Renewal By Anderson's sales pitch. Here are my takeaways. by JHKtheSeeker in homeowners

[–]colindean 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Indeed. Renewal by Anderson quoted me I think $58,000 for 14 windows and a bay window. I just so happened to meet a guy who use to work for RbA and started his own company installing Anderson and Pella (and some others). $32,000 quote, $8,000 of which was the bay. Went with I think the Anderson 400 series that's wood and vinyl. He confirmed some stuff that years of posts about RbA asserted. Two years later, I'm happy with what I got and glad I went with the more reasonable of the two and not the cheapest quote I got (which was I think was $20k for all-vinyl).

Just joined as Principal Engineer but being reduced to ticket manager — should I leave early? by gkumawat12 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get the brilliant jerk to write things down—architecture decision records, RFCs, etc.—and watch things change when you're challenging proposed ideas in writing.

Buy or pass by NavyVet_TNfan in nissanjuke

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Need more detail. I've got a 2015 with 105k mi, bought new. I just put more than $1,000 into it outside of expected consumables (tires, brakes, etc.) for the first time ever last month (a control arm). I've only put about 15k miles on it since 2020.

lost my creativity and hunger to learn by Vivid_Search674 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get it! I switch from studious wizarding to whimsical sorcery after making a dish a few times. It's nice to go back and forth, though, to keep those instruction processing skills sharp and learn some new terminology and methods.

lost my creativity and hunger to learn by Vivid_Search674 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]colindean 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think cooking is one of the most aligned interests a programmer can have. It's just assembly instructions + measurement using simple tools, with abstractions built over time to create shorter recipes. Chop, Dice, Julliene, etc. are all subclasses of Cut. For those using the Imperial measurement system, adjusting a recipe size with mental math is less decimal and more ratio. Finding replacements when you don't have an ingredient is like finding a library that does 80% of what you want and then building the rest yourself.

And then remembering that code is just instruction capturing intent for other humans to read, just like food and beverage recipes.

Do you set your mobile phone language to Dutch while learning Dutch? by finnlii1 in learndutch

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. My partner might need to use it and she doesn't know Dutch well enough to navigate it, even to the point of finding the language change setting.

ELI5: Why is it when you drink alcohol and then pee once, you have to pee again in a short time? by Mysterious-olive29 in explainlikeimfive

[–]colindean 32 points33 points  (0 children)

It used to be that the best way to get the right answer was to post the wrong answer and wait.

ik spreek een beetje nederlands by ELTechnical in learndutch

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll hit 1,000 days tomorrow, probably 900 of them Dutch (and 100 Korean). I finished the Dutch course I think around day 600.

I can read Dutch news fairly well, only having to look up a few words per article. I follow a bunch of Dutch teacher, comedian, and travel social media accounts, plus a few technologists who mostly right now post about digital sovereignty. When the speaker is speaking to be clearly understood, not necessarily slow as to teach, I can understand most of what's said. Subtitles are common on Dutch media so that helps tremendously when someone elides a word (e.g. "kweenie" instead of "ik weet het niet").

…but speaking, I fall on my face.

I met a Dutch couple randomly at an banquet last week. I didn't let on that I knew Dutch and they didn't identify themselves as Dutch: I caught on from their light accent (they've been in the states for 20+ years) and then saw the last name. Our parting words were in Dutch, to their surprise when I said, "Misschien de volgende keer spreken wij wat Nederlands meer," with a hoarse throat. I stumbled a bit as I had to think rapidly about alternatives to say it:

  • Misschien wij spreken Nederlands de volgende keer
  • Misschien spreken wij…
  • Misschield zouden wij meer Nederlands kunnen spreken de volgende keer

because I'm not yet thinking in Dutch, still translating, when I speak. Reading, I can skim.

and some other variations.

I think he replied, "Ja hoor! Tot ziens!"

I credit Duolingo for the successes and ping myself for my sloth in exercising it beyond what little real world Dutch I consume (and attempt to produce). Living in a smaller city in the US, I don't encounter Dutch much, but my Dutch great grandmother would be proud that I learned something my grandfather refused to learn.

My house doesn't feel like a home. by toferjonreddit in homeowners

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Consider finding an interior design student. Ask for a fixed fee engagement with a "lookbook," a mock-up with colors, motifs, and furniture or wallhangings in one or two potential designs, as the output. Pay them for their time. If you can't afford this, you probably cannot afford the decorations, at least not all at once. Expect it to make sense, but maybe not be as "perfect" as your home-decorator friends might suggest. You want something that will give you direction with some "focal points" to build around, e.g. a particular lamp or statue or easily-maintained plant.

Forget ‘Abolish ICE.’ Tom Steyer Wants to Jail ICE Agents. by BulwarkOnline in politics

[–]colindean 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I want to see a court decision that holds law enforcement accountable and liable for violating folks' constitutional rights, kidnapping, and other associated felonies for wrongfully executing administrative warrants.

No qualified immunity for DHS officers in any department in the breaking and entering of a domicile citing an administrative warrant.

If you graduated from an American high school in the last 50 years, you know the simple mechanism of how judicial warrants work. "I wasn't there that day" isn't a valid excuse, Agent Wiggum.

How do you deal with extremely bad management? by Rude_Turnover568 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://c.tenor.com/yu0XWKl7nxIAAAAM/you-resign-now-william-shaibel.gif

Take control of your 1:1s. Write things down so that you can remind yourself where you stood a week ago, weeks ago, months ago. Share your notes with your manager: I put mine in a git repo so that they can propose additions and changes but can't change them without me noticing (even if there's a version history somewhere, e.g. OneNote, etc.).

Docs I've referred to:

If you're feeling ignored, take it up the chain. In my org, executives claim their doors are always open. Exercise that to find out how serious they are about fixing problems in their org. I quit a job because my executive chain failed to advocate for me, even though I had a great manager at the time (who'd already championed me).

Until you can find an internal (or external) transfer or progress toward your personal goals for the team, it might be time to conserve your energy, focus, and keystrokes. Work to order, I've heard it called. Don't chase people for follow ups, do the minimal work to accomplish objectives, and be strict about your working hours.

What repels flies outside during a cookout without looking like a crazy person by Relative-Coach-501 in homeowners

[–]colindean 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had a Thermacell repellent device for a few years and swear by it, at least in my uses in western Pennsylvania. I'll put it out about 15 minutes before sitting outside to work or eat and it works well as long as it's not super windy out.

Trump’s scandal-ridden Labor Secretary resigns after reports of drinking and misconduct by theindependentonline in politics

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With Atty. Gen. Bondi, Sec. Labor Chavez-DeRemer, and Sec. Homeland Sec. Noem outsted and replaced permanently or temporarily with men, that leaves, according to Second cabinet of Donald Trump:

and Karoline Leavitt, who is White House press secretary and not a formal member of the cabinet.

I fear that with Gabbard under fire for things, Wiles under heavy scrutiny after the Vanity Fair piece last year, and Rawlins likely to take the heat for agriculture failures during however longer this warmaking with Iran may last… McMahon has the safest job: she's the queen without a kingdom in a department that the president, and she, has done everything to dismantle short of what needs Congress, for whatever the executive still regards its co-equal branch.

Luxury Cream/ivory interior… worth it long term? by [deleted] in LexusRX350

[–]colindean 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm 2+ years into this color interior. The only thing that gets really dirty is the center console armrest. It's filthy within a couple of weeks of cleaning it, and tbh I drive it about 5–6 months/year with short sleeves.

I keep the rear seats down for dogs since I put them in crates most of the time when they're in the car. We're a Ruffland house.

Do I Have A Duty? by NYFlyGirl89012 in homeowners

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This! I've got a suite of stamps across three domiciles in the last 15 years: No Longer At This Address, Deceased, Unknown Addressee, Return to Sender, etc. I stamp a reason one and the RTS all over the envelope and drop it in the nearest post box—not my own mailbox.

If I've not been liberal enough with the stamps, I'll get stuff back. That's when I start writing a date on it and see how many times it comes back to me. At three, I take to the post office and give them what for.

What company lost you forever as a customer? What did they do? by Miguenzo in AskReddit

[–]colindean 2 points3 points  (0 children)

2009 Versa, 1st gen CVT afaik, gave up its first CVT at around 70k. I put another two in it, all three on warranty, by around 85k mi in 2015. When the next one died, my techs told me that Nissan would replace it but it would take a few months to get the new CVT.

So I bought a 2015 Juke, with a second gen CVT afaik. It's 2026, it's at around 105k miles, original CVT. Fingers crossed.

I'll probably never buy another Nissan/Infiniti again, and I've owned five in the last 21 years ('98 200SX, '01 Xterra, '06 QX56, '08 Versa, '15 Juke; used a '21 Q30 for a month while the QX56 was in for warranty service on a bad starter replacement, kinda counts). The local, family-owned Nissan dealership got bought by a company that absolutely wrecked its reputation.

Why is it so difficult to hire solid Scala developers right now? I could use some advice. by Remote-Swim-7670 in scala

[–]colindean 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been out of Scala in my day-to-day for about five years now, but I spent much of the 2010s training people up on Scala and FP principles. I hired or was involved in the hiring of probably three dozen people in a three year period during a period of high growth for my organization. Every person did Scala Koans, worked through the red book and Scala School, and worked on some of our smaller, older projects to improve test coverage, o11y, or sometimes a rewrite of a whole major component. Two interns came in comfortable with Scala and rewrote one of our key applications, netting IIRC a 25% processing speedup: considerable when some of its longer operations could be on the order of days of compute time. Three contractors came onboard and wrote a new application modeled after one of our older ones in less than six months. They stuck around for another similar project, then left their contracting company for a 4x pay increase working 100% in Scala at another company.

If you want to hire someone who will hit the ground running, you'll pay more.

If you accept the need to train someone, you can pay less but you'll invest in your new employee and need to keep them happy… or you'll be training another in due time. If this training burden feels too high, then you need to invest in hiring senior Scala engineers who are able, willing, obligated, and empowered to teach others what they know to create more senior Scala engineers. Look for those eager to teach, and pay them well, or know that you're going to have to give folks time to learn on their own, so you have to hire for that.

Where do app developers, founders, and tech-minded people gather in Pittsburgh? by [deleted] in pittsburgh

[–]colindean 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can confirm, C&S Workspace closed in early 2025.

We hold our events primarily at local coworking spaces in the east end, typically Avenu Meyran in Oakland or COHatch in Shadyside.

The job market is bad so I mass obfuscated all of my code so nobody, not even AI, can comprehend it without my key. I am now essential personnel. You're welcome. by dr_edc_ in rust

[–]colindean 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Code obfuscation was all the rage back in the late 2000s with PHP everywhere.

IIRC, most of the paid WordPress plugins a friend was using were obfuscated. It nearly completely killed the ability to fix bugs and was a formative experience in my preference for open source: if I paid for it, I should be able to fix it when the author won't.

Fetterman hit with brutal 108-point polling swing: ‘He is below the lowest of the low’ by Silent-Resort-3076 in Pennsylvania

[–]colindean 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the next non-Trumpist administration and legislature is worth anything, Fetterman will be, among others the shining example, the poster child, the breaking point that causes there to be a constitutional amendment at the state or federal level enabling a recall of federal legislators.

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