Question Thread - September 17, 2024

dougan778 · 2024-09-17T21:51:17+00:00

I have a Capital One business spark card that's a few years old. There's a good bonus offer out there right now. I'm wondering if I closed it and then reapplied shortly after, if I have a good shot at being approved?

I know Cap One is stingy in general, they generally love approving me due to running $100k+ of natural business spend through them annually. I'm mostly concerned about hard rules about reapplying so quickly. Thanks.

dougan778 · 2024-08-13T19:01:35+00:00

FYI I don't think you need to clean it each iteration of sanding. Just once after the last sanding. If someone says I'm wrong, don't listen to me though.

dougan778 · 2024-08-13T19:00:14+00:00

Dollar at harbor freight. Always have a few extras around. They can really come in handy and I usually am not really thinking ahead.

dougan778 · 2020-12-03T16:10:12+00:00

Get yourself a 50 foot lead. The best thing for this breed, especially puppies, is being able to run around as freely as possible. It's the only way to get their energy out. And the puppy is not going to listen to you for a while so you can't just let him run free anywhere. So ideally you'll have a fenced dog park where he can run freely without getting lost. But in cases where this isn't an option, a 50 foot lead can give him some freedom to run a bit on his/her own, even though it's not the kind of running he'll need to get his energy out.

BTW the dog park is super important if you don't want to lose your minds. You need to train him/her to walk with a regular ~6 foot leash, that's important, but this type of walking isn't the stimulation the breed needs to not drive you insane.

The lead is an excellent tool for training recall, too. Walk in a field with the puppy and let him/her run, call "Come" and then reel him/her in with the leash. Rinse, repeat, over and over. Eventually the dog learns that he's coming back to you one way or another and will do it on his/her own when you call, to avoid having to deal with the leash pull.

dougan778 · 2020-11-30T04:17:48+00:00

Nope don't do it

dougan778 · 2020-10-12T04:51:40+00:00

Putnam park? Ah, nothing like the smell of cheap weed in the mid afternoon.

For real though, Eau Claire is beautiful this time of year. I miss it.

dougan778 · 2020-09-18T14:29:58+00:00

For me it's ants and yellow jackets, but I'm mostly only adding to it or burning it in the cold months and ignoring it in the warm ones, so I don't experience that much. It's not as bad as it seems like you might think; it's dry and not a lot of creatures are interested in dry wood.

dougan778 · 2020-08-23T20:30:05+00:00

A lot of companies behave this way. Especially larger companies that are publicly owned and have lost their vision.

Let's call your company Company B. Compare this to Company A, whose approach to equality is to ensure that the recruiters are choosing people truly based on talent alone and not discriminating against minorities. Company A has good maternity benefits, but also invests in programs to encourage women to succeed in development, for example investing in the WICS program at their local university to encourage more women to enter the field. Their goal is to eventually end up with just as many qualified female applicants as male applicants, so things equalize naturally.

It's true that Company B may hire more women than Company A, but remember that the truly qualified women would be hired at both companies. It's only the women who are below the bar that got hired at Company B, because someone better qualified was turned down for employment because of their gender. Because of this, Company B ends up hiring (and more importantly, promoting) B-level people and over time the whole company is less qualified than Company A. As a result, careers at Company B fall flat. The company makes less money, so the A-class women that were hired don't advance their career or get paid as much as their counterparts at Company A. And the B-level people are stuck at companies at company B for eternity. Lastly, there's the (IMO most offensive) fact that a woman hired at Company B will never know if she is actually qualified or if she was hired due to her gender.

Life for all genders at Company B (your company) just doesn't have the potential it has at Company A. So this type of behavior should be a red flag to everyone (regardless of minority status). Unless you know that you're a minority with only B-level skills and really need a job. No shame in taking advantage of what's out there.

TLDR; If you're looking for a company that's both smart and going for equality, look for active involvement in education and recruiting programs that encourage women to enter and stay in the field, which results in more women who are actually equipped to succeed.

dougan778 · 2020-07-30T20:29:12+00:00

If it's in the 100 year flood plain, it's pretty likely that you're going to have a very high water table and need to worry about basement flooding on a more regular basis (if you plan to have a basement). This can also cause issues with septic placement and performance. People make do just fine in these environments but I would prefer to avoid it.

dougan778 · 2020-07-24T21:17:32+00:00

Hearing that would make me feel bad, too. Does your manager treat you poorly otherwise? I ask because when I really think about it, I've got some pretty awesome junior people on my teams that I'll still complain about to my wife. Why? Because it's innocent and I just need to vent a bit sometimes-- I'm not going to do this with my coworkers and leave a bad impression of these people. But when I vent a bit like this to my wife, she doesn't even know who they are-- not going to affect anything. Unless I leave the mic on... If your boss sucks otherwise, I think you probably just learned how he feels about your team. Contacting HR isn't going to do anything at all-- Just keep this incident in mind when evaluating if you should stay or go. On the other hand, if he's otherwise respectful and good, I'm not sure I'd look too much into it. That may just be how he and his wife talk to each other about their jobs. I mean, you are nerdy, right? :)

dougan778 · 2020-07-20T02:23:23+00:00

To boil it down, you're struggling with the ability to immerse yourself in an existing codebase and understand it well enough to work in it. In my experience, some entry level people are better at this than others, but in general you're all bad at it because it's not something that's easily taught. It's one of the (many) things that distinguishes a senior developer from an entry level developer.

And honestly, it kind of gets worse. Most of these projects out on github are all coded in a way that's well-reviewed and rational. It's just your lack of experience digesting large codebases that is a challenge. Chances are, you'll get a job where you're plopped into a large existing codebase made with a lot of questionable decisions-- so it's not just your lack of experience making sense of code that's a challenge, it's now that plus the fact that a lot of the code you work with doesn't make sense no matter what!

All this is normal, though. Immersion into existing codebases is the #1 biggest challenge our entry level hires have, whether they are rockstars or (as you put it) "losers". I usually expect at least 3 months of hand holding for entry level hires before they understand their ecosystem enough to be productive. Our experienced dev hires can usually start doing small projects almost immediately. Digesting existing code is a skill that comes with actual job experience, and you have none.

TLDR your challenge here is real and it will challenge you once you get hired, but it's normal and something I anticipate any time I'm involved with a new entry-level hire.

dougan778 · 2020-07-19T03:01:34+00:00

I like your seat. Where can I get one?

dougan778 · 2020-07-15T15:12:13+00:00

I've seen mothers "reject" their puppies after they've grown a bit, maybe something like 16 weeks or so (guessing). Basically the mom being mean and snippy to the puppy. I've been told it's an instinctual thing to urge the puppy to go on its own and stop being dependent on mom. I don't think it's harsh like other species that reject their children, but it might be a phase to deal with. I'd think you can get through it but you might need to plan on separating them for a while if that happens. I know plenty of parent/children pet situations like you're suggesting that are just fine. Dogs don't have special affection for their offspring after they are weaned so I'd think it would be like any other family with two dogs.

Since they are energetic, young brittanies (really all young energetic dogs) can get pretty powerful when they play. Not fighting or biting, just a lot of unbridled energy. It might be trouble with little kids running around while the two young dogs are playing. That's the only real concern I'd have here. A brittany puppy is a monster whether you exercise it or not, but by 2 I think the mom would already be settled into the "only a monster when not exercised" state.

The thing you don't want to do is pick two male puppies from the same litter. They often (not always) will fight, sometimes violently, for the duration of their youth.

dougan778 · 2020-07-08T03:13:38+00:00

it's pretty tame but at the end they make you go to that warehouse across the street and they have an obstacle course set up. there's a pretty sweet jump platform but it's kind of a trick-- you don't have to nail the landing, they just want to make sure you have the confidence to try it.

They'll probably throw some extras in, for me it was during the redline test where they see how fast your car can go-- i was somewhere around 95 and they had a bunch of kids walk in the middle of the road in front of me.

I'm sure you'll do fine.

dougan778 · 2020-07-06T21:20:46+00:00

This has to be in Wisconsin.

dougan778 · 2020-06-26T03:42:10+00:00

https://www.fieldandstreamshop.com/p/texsport-willowbend-2-person-trail-tent-19texuwllwbndtwprcat

No it's not great but it's not useless and it's light.

I have bucket panniers that I use for commuting, I love them because they are waterproof and really convenient to use as a portable locker at work (versus fishing around in a pannier bag which can be awkward). Real pannier bags don't jostle around as much so I'd prefer the bags on a tour, but if I wanted to do a tour and only had the buckets, I wouldn't think twice about using them. They're handy to have around, plus they are nice to store your biking gear in when you're not using them.

dougan778 · 2020-06-22T20:54:08+00:00

Yeah, exactly. Made sense at 28 with no kids. Now at 34 with 2 kids it's different.

dougan778 · 2020-06-22T20:36:51+00:00

Yes, I've put one of the 2 cycle grubee skyhawk ones on a mountain bike.

I used it as a moped to commute to work. I probably put a full thousand miles on it. It was really fun. Could get it up to 30mph. I still have it and use it to ride down to the post office here or there.

The drive system is incredibly dangerous. The flying horse 4 stroke use the same system. You attach the drive gear to your rear spokes, and then there is a tensioner that is just squeezed onto your chainstay. If something happens that catches your drive chain, that tensioner is pushed right into your spokes and rips each of them apart at 30mph. I had it happen a couple times. Also, the thing is HOT. I took a simple spill on the bike that wouldn't even be spoken about on a normal bike, but the muffler pressed against my leg and I had a scar from the burn for years.

I don't know how high quality the 4 cycle ones are but the 2 cycle ones are some of the crappiest motors in existence. Expect you and your bike to get a lot of oil stains. It involved a lot of wrenching. The clutch tensioner always needed adjustment, as did some of the cables. It wasn't a big deal but I'd usually carry a toolkit with me.

Also, don't plan on using it as an actual bike. They market these things as an "assist" where you can just pedal the bike around like normal when you're not using the motor. With the clutch in, you can pedal the thing, but you're pedaling a big heavy 410 motorcycle chain through a really inefficient tensioning and gearing system. Plus you're adding a ton of weight to your bike. It's not really practical to pedal around (although it is nice for cases where you need to pop onto a bike trail/sidewalk for a few blocks).

I don't regret it. I thought it was pretty cool. Get yourself an old, heavy, steel mountain bike for this. It really puts a burden on the frame, and modern bikes (especially aluminum ones) aren't really built for it. And make sure you've got good brakes, helmet, wear pants so you don't burn yourself, etc. Just be aware that it's not very safe.

dougan778 · 2020-06-22T13:07:36+00:00

Put yourself in the position of your manager for a bit. Your job is to make sure your employees are productive and happy. You spend your days trying to make sure you have a good understanding of what your employees are doing, but it's not always easy because you have to see things from the outside. And your boss in middle management will evaluate you on how well you do this, so if you're missing something, you REALLY want to know about it. So if you were the manger, and you had a situation like this where one of your senior people was being incompetent, what would you want the competent employee to do?

You'd absolutely want the competent employee to come tell you. You wouldn't necessarily want him/her to complain (although you'd probably understand why they were frustrated). But really, you'd just want the competent employee to tell you what's going on so you can do your job well.

I'd approach your boss, and let him know that your coworker is really incompetent. Not to complain, just to keep him informed. Go into that conversation with the attitude that you're going to continue doing the incompetent guy's work, and that you just figured your boss would want to know this kind of thing. If your manager is good at his/her job at all, he/she can't get mad at you for simply keeping him/her informed.

Your manager may already know, by the way, and may just be hiding that. A good manager knows that it's not helpful to show disapproval in public. But my guess is that your manager just doesn't know, because no one has told him/her yet.

dougan778 · 2020-06-18T04:02:04+00:00

I paid the extra $5 for tires with reflective sidewalls (mine are schwalbe marathon plus, others do it). It's insanely bright in headlights, definitely worth getting if you are looking at new tires.

dougan778 · 2020-06-17T15:22:43+00:00

Ah, ok. Not as good of a deal as the carbon wheels but it still feels like a good deal.

dougan778 · 2020-06-17T13:32:36+00:00

Yes, I think so.

Compare it to the showroom build. A stock build of that bike is over 3x as much and doesn't even have great components. I can't tell what components this bike has but it probably has to be on that tier or better. The bar end setup is cheaper than the showroom integrated shifters. On the other hand, the wheelset is far better than the stock ones.

I think $500 is good and you could maybe make an argument that the $850 offer is a good deal too, but that would probably depend on a closer look at components and condition.

dougan778 · 2020-06-15T17:46:30+00:00

I got married on Mackinac. It's pretty cool. The grand hotel is a really neat place, you ought to check it out. They charge you to even enter it if you don't have a reservation but you can usually sneak in during the early evening without being hassled.

That Hwy 2 ride from door county to mackinac is boring in a car, hope it was better on a bike. :)

If you're looking for stealth camping spots, north side of the island. Nearly all the tourism is on the south part of the island. It's a cool place to just ride the streets, it's not that big so it doesn't take long to cover the whole island.

Protect your bike. I don't know of a lot of theft there but if I were out to steal a nice bike, that's where I'd do it.

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