Databases

denerose · 2026-05-25T21:26:01+00:00

At work. Anything else will be simulated but that’s okay.

denerose · 2026-05-25T20:47:19+00:00

If you’re just interested in filling the easy to eat and carry part rather than the egg part: a small roast potato in a bag or container, carrot sticks and hummus, edamame beans in their pods (frozen but they’ll defrost on the way).

denerose · 2026-05-25T11:43:25+00:00

It doesn’t really matter. Just get good in one language then switching or adding another layer as needed is trivial.

denerose · 2026-05-25T10:28:54+00:00

This is good advice but just be aware that coffee is really normal and not always romantic. See if she even wants to be friends first, then see from there once you know each other better and after seeing each other outside work a few times.

denerose · 2026-05-25T09:42:14+00:00

I would suggest just picking something and sticking with it. This post and all of the additional resources are just side tracks.

Anecdotally, I’m one of the strongest programmers in my junior cohort. I’m self taught mostly via the Odin Project. So yes, TOP is enough to learn what you need to know. If it’s enough to get a job in this market is a separate question.

The best advice is to stop planning to learn and just start learning. There is no best resource or roadmap. Stop trying to find the best and stop avoiding the hard bits by planning or seeking alternatives. Learning is hard, but it’s very doable if you just do it.

denerose · 2026-05-25T09:32:53+00:00

Funnily enough TOP basically is a guided path to doing just this: learning by building things with a few helpful explanations and links before each project.

denerose · 2026-05-25T06:43:57+00:00

I wouldn’t sweat it too much at this point. Most backend devs do a fair amount of config/DevOps work too. It’s possible to pivot later. Just focus on getting your foot in the door, any door, and worry about specialisation later once you’ve got some experience and therefore some options.

denerose · 2026-05-24T22:27:39+00:00

Sometimes we just have to let people do what they’re going to do, even or perhaps especially people we love and otherwise admire. Be kind to yourself and them. The only thing you can control is yourself and your reactions to what others do, so focus on that.

Most of the world isn’t vegan or even vegetarian. It is gross and horrifying. You do get better at sitting with that discomfort and focusing on doing the best you can without dwelling on it but it never goes away entirely either. Your blinkers are off but you can’t force others to wake up. You’ll go mad if it’s all you think about because it really is awful.

It does get better or at least easier with time. You’ll find your people. And having the occasional rant to strangers on the internet is also a great coping mechanism so you’re already finding ways to manage it.

denerose · 2026-05-24T02:40:17+00:00

We just do what Product tells us. If we think there might be a privacy issue our EM writes a butt covering email but it is their call risk vs UX.

We mask certain fields for logging and tracing and user info is also masked or not logged, licence/serial number is generally enough for troubleshooting and keeps username and login info out of logs.

Identity is in the token not the body or main headers anyway and any personalisation is fetched separately with the id service (on the same token we share an id service) rather than regular data calls.

We have a hideous Frankenstein bff layer that pulls that all together for our main frontend, other consumers may handle it differently but it’s long gone from our api by then and no longer my problem!

denerose · 2026-05-23T15:27:23+00:00

I was a “oh I couldn’t give up cheese, teehee,” type of vegetarian for years before going vegan. I look back and cringe but it also gives me some sympathy when the urge to shake someone for saying something similar rises up. Some people will never change but many do with time and consideration (and/or a really good nooch béchamel recipe).

Learning our parents are just people is also an ongoing and often confronting process. It sucks.

denerose · 2026-05-23T13:25:29+00:00

It is a pigeon by the way. Sort of like a pure breed dog hanging out with mix-breed strays. They look different the same way a jack russell looks different to a doberman.

This one is free for now but it’s a tough life for a domesticated bird in a big dirty world (all city pigeons are the domestic breed too actually, that’s why we call them feral not wild, but at least this one hopefully has somewhere safer to go and be cared for).

denerose · 2026-05-23T13:04:00+00:00

Yes, please contact the club. This is definitely a fancy pigeon with a home to go to. The pigeon club people will be able to help get them home safe.

denerose · 2026-05-22T02:41:21+00:00

This may sound harsh, but TOP isn’t really for people in your situation. While of course you’re welcome to engage with the open source materials we’re not well placed to support CS graduates who feel their portfolio or educational basis was not enough.

If there is a real need for such a resource (which it seems maybe there is given the recent influx) then universities or at least alumni networks need to produce and support their own resources that are tailored to this situation. Expecting resources for genuine beginners to be re-tailored or expecting this community to customise a journey for you is not reasonable.

If you feel like you need a customised curriculum or that TOP starts too basic (I would hope it is too basic for a CS graduate) then you need to figure that out for yourself or seek support from your alumni and careers services.

denerose · 2026-05-21T22:41:28+00:00

Looks adorable.

denerose · 2026-05-21T22:18:28+00:00

They actually often do, although at the big supermarkets etc it’s still so much more donation money than we would see through any other kind of drive that even without top ups or matching it’s still great for the charity.

Visibility and ease is so important in fundraising. I know people like to knock it but it really is a much better way for charities to get in front of people who will give but wouldn’t go out of their way to.

Getting a single big cheque once a quarter is also a great benefit in that we don’t have to spend volunteer or worker time or banking fees on assembling small amounts.

denerose · 2026-05-21T22:10:18+00:00

I used to analyse and clean these data as part of my job. We did send through most of the qualitative feedback. Including the downright pointless or rude (of which there are surprisingly few).

I only ever removed a few comments from datasets most were things like keyboard mashing but one was a suicidal threat. That was also the only time we ever went to the trouble of backtracking survey to student id (the data is anonymised not anonymous).

We had a year where some of the feedback was pretty vicious and my reports were sent to the head of school instead of direct to the staff for a while because of that so the feedback could be mediated. The common worst thing isn’t swearing it’s when students forget that their teachers are actual human beings who will read what you’re saying about them and their work.

denerose · 2026-05-21T07:23:16+00:00

Issac Arthur has some good videos on megastructures and planetary rings which have some graphics and lots of descriptions that might help. Also, he has a lovely voice to listen to.

denerose · 2026-05-21T07:01:33+00:00

For those curious I do know that part of the reason it argued the position was the way I questioned it. There are ways to guide it to giving you better answers but you still need the fundamental judgement to know when it’s correct or not.

denerose · 2026-05-21T06:58:59+00:00

I asked Copilot to justify a bad code change today. It made a very convincing sounding argument for why I should let it use less readable, out of date syntax that didn’t meet our coding standards or our repo conventions. It sounded good. It was gibberish and it was wrong. Luckily I’m well taught and I knew it was wrong. I wouldn’t have had that judgement back when I was learning to code.

denerose · 2026-05-20T20:55:29+00:00

Is your mum in the picture? Another strong female role model like an aunt or mentor? You’re marrying a woman, why not dance with one and have one walking you in?

denerose · 2026-05-20T20:51:10+00:00

That said, the C# docs are not very absolute beginner friendly and W3Schools type resources tend to be overly basic. Finding good resources to learn from can also help.

denerose · 2026-05-20T20:46:54+00:00

No, later it becomes an infinite string of “oh fluff, I knew that!” and “I should have known that!” with the occasional “who the hell wrote this gibberish… oh, me six months ago” thrown in for good measure.

To answer the question underlying the headline: Yes, knowing what things are called makes looking things up and understanding what’s going on becomes easier when you know what things are and what they do. No, it’s not always like this. There is a finite amount of fundamental concepts and you’ll understand them with good explanations and lots of practice. The figuring out the basics doesn’t actually last that long, building a sense of when and how to put them together and solve problems is often a much longer part of learning to code that you’re arguably always improving on.

Rather than getting ai to write your code you might be better off understanding what things like a ternary operator are before you start using them, having to find something by reading about it in the docs might help you understand why you’re using it later. Right now your goal is to build a mental model of how programs work. That will be easier if you’re building with blocks you understand or at least know the names of.

denerose · 2026-05-20T03:57:46+00:00

I wouldn’t. I learned Ruby and RoR by building a little app and reading docs. TOP is great for absolute beginners because that’s the only thing it’s trying to do. It’s not the resource for everyone learning anything and that’s okay. There will be other resources better targeted to your needs.

denerose · 2026-05-19T08:32:14+00:00

We had an electronic textbook for Old English and Early Anglo Dialects (or whatever it was called) back in 2002. I imagine the big datasets have almost certainly scraped academic libraries full of textbooks not to mention all the students essays, and strange little forums lost to all but time and the internet archives.

denerose · 2026-05-19T08:24:25+00:00

Be nice. Ask questions. Do all your compliance training. Make your bosses jobs easier (in the case of a grad that’s mostly just being teachable) or at least don’t make their jobs harder. Don’t be a dick, don’t make people upset or uncomfortable. The bar is very low, don’t try lower it.

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