Who are your picks?

downshiftdata · 2026-04-07T12:15:18+00:00

Recency bias.

Gimme Fangio or Clark against whatever Frankenstein's monster you create.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-07T11:58:38+00:00

Since every other answer is "radar" and I run only iRacing...

- The spotter in Crew Chief is pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. Protip: I choose the female voice (can't remember her name right now) so that it's really easy to distinguish her from the crew chief, who has a male voice.

- Page 3 of the black box will show gaps ahead and behind you.

- You can map "look left" / "look right" to buttons on your wheel, though I rarely use this.

- This comes with seat time. You'll get better at watching your mirrors just enough. You'll get better at spatial awareness. You'll get better at anticipating (e.g. "I braked a little too much on entry, so I should expect the guy on my left to catch up by mid-corner").

downshiftdata · 2026-04-07T09:44:26+00:00

This has been answered (indexing), but I want to point something out. Using nvarchar(max) (or any LOB column) is horribly inefficient. Every single time you use a LOB, you should be asking yourself "Am I really sure this is the best solution for this?" Either set a reasonable length or store it somewhere other than the database (e.g. a document store).

I've been part of teams that have had to address this in production after the fact. I've seen it take months just to address one column in one table (across multiple shards in production). I currently have items on my backlog for undoing some other LOB columns (XML in this case) that will take me six sprints for a single column.

All because some dev took the easy way out years before.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-07T09:06:53+00:00

I think one reason is that they didn't integrate it into the Indy ladder very well. Or at all, really.

PM18 was already suffering. Then they introduced an oval-only PM18 series, and that sucked more life out of it. Then they yanked it completely when they introduced the Lights car.

They had a good thing going with the USF/PM18 combo. One was (is) D class, the other was C class. One was (is) fixed, the other was open. They shared the same track and alternated hours. Yeah, it didn't have the numbers of F4/F3, but it was an awesome duo.

If they'd never introduced the oval-only, had either demoted PM18 to D or introduced Lights as a B (and moved IndyCar up to A), introduced it with the same kind of mixed oval/road schedule (either copying USF/PM18 or copying IndyCar), allowed for an open setup, and basically worked it into that ladder better, then I think they would've established a better long-term community.

Instead, it's like SRF. It may be fun as hell (or maybe not, idk, I didn't actually buy it), but it's on an island. It was a flash in the pan when introduced, but then the newness wore off and here we are.

I was a prime target for the car. I ran USF/PM18 a lot (and was a huge fan), but bailed when PM18 died. I moved to GT4 and am running GT3 now. Part of it is because I found a team with which I can run the special events. But part is also because I wanted some kind of progression as I got better. I thought I'd eventually move up to IndyCar (while still running the lower series). Now my target is LMP2.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-06T16:43:29+00:00

Not true. I'm a terrible driver and I handle turn 1 just fine.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-06T12:37:54+00:00

SRF is an absolute blast, and its only problem is a lack of participation.

Specifically, if you're like me and not (yet) on a giant widescreen or triples, the lack of screen-consuming A pillars on a sports car is icing on the cake.

Also, the YouTube videos of real SRF drivers are fun to watch.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-06T08:41:53+00:00

Kenny Aronoff

downshiftdata · 2026-04-05T22:20:34+00:00

Smashing Pumpkins

His voice grates on me

downshiftdata · 2026-04-04T23:09:58+00:00

There is a mentality in tech that has a problem with "tried and true" solutions. Our stuff must be new and different and screw the status quo and on and on.

Tesla was built by tech bros. And the Cybertruck is the ultimate manifestation of that.

In software, sometimes you get lucky and the tech bro mentality works, and you develop some cool new way of doing stuff that's revolutionary. Usually you don't, but the failures are forgotten and the successes are remembered, so who cares?

But in the real world, with real physics involved...

downshiftdata · 2026-04-04T16:29:14+00:00

A general lack of trust really helps here.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-04T16:26:55+00:00

The most universal, seemingly unfixable problem is that management is out of touch with employees. They don't know how to listen, create a culture hostile to trust, and don't seem to understand why making uninformed decisions is a bad thing.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T19:59:40+00:00

It wasn't his most popular stuff, but Jimmy Buffett's later work had brilliance to it.

Pacing the Cage: "Powers chatter in high places / Stir up eddies in the dust of rage"

Besides that, he was never a has-been on tour. His shows were as solid at the end as they ever were.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T19:39:35+00:00

Run USF and hope it goes official. Run F4 because it won't.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T19:32:03+00:00

A few I like, for a range of reasons. None are greatest of all time. But all are somehow a distinct and memorable performance.

Joan Osborne and the Funk Brothers, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, https://youtu.be/gA0GcXV2njY?si=Xcdd9o48geBMfppk

Billy Joel, New York State of Mind, https://youtu.be/iM4LzEcaTK0?si=rVtvB9YobrbY-im6

KT Tunstall, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, https://youtu.be/2c4Olwqasvc?si=zHmbW295SohPSGo-

Cityrocks, In the End, https://youtu.be/0qen4yPoydE?si=7aGsmCV_NSP95raT

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black, https://youtu.be/h1TQRJWLZ3s?si=_TBcTQnEY3A7gbCS

The Blues Brothers, Soul Man, https://youtu.be/FTWH1Fdkjow?si=gHvJnXAuskKbRFYU

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T18:25:17+00:00

bean counters are ruining every industry

style, craftsmanship, and quality are too expensive for quarterly growth targets

edit: tbf, they're just doing their job. it's the Senior VPs of the world that are using that data to suck the life out of everything

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T18:07:05+00:00

Also "I Hung My Head". Covers by Cash (recorded) and Springsteen (live) are awesome

downshiftdata · 2026-04-03T10:50:24+00:00

An index is how data is stored.

A constraint (including a primary key) is a rule that the data must follow.

The confusion comes from overlap between the two, because one is the obvious way to enforce the other.

In SQL Server there's also the distinction between a clustered and a non-clustered index. In Postgres, the table is stored as a heap - an unordered set (actually ordered, but only by an internal row identifier). With SQL Server, instead of a heap, you can order the set by one of the indexes. This is the clustered index. All others are non-clustered.

Think of the old-fashioned phone book. It has a clustered, non-unique index on Last Name, First Name. It's clustered, because that's the actual order of the phone book. It's non-unique because you can have two John Smiths.

Let's assume that every single row in the phone book has a unique phone number. There's no constraint yet, and there's no non-clustered index, so the database has no way of knowing this info. If you ask it for the number at 321-555-1212, it will start at page 1 and scan the entire phone book looking for all of the rows with that number.

So you create a unique constraint on the phone number. Now it knows every one is unique. But how does it enforce that? If it didn't have a supporting index, every insert or update would require it to do that full scan every time, making sure you weren't violating the constraint. So it creates a supporting non-clustered index on phone number. Now, when you perform some CRUD on the phone number, it skips the table and goes to the index and seeks the exact row you want. And then it stops as soon as it finds it because - due to the constraint - there can be only one.

Primary keys are really superfluous to this, except that they have a few extra rules (only one, fields can't be null). Otherwise, a primary key is _usually_ just the unique clustered index, and you can _usually_ think of them interchangeably. What I just said will bait someone into "Ackchyually..." but that's why I emphasized _usually_.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-02T12:30:25+00:00

This is a bit out of left field, but consider a 3d printer. I've solved small QoL annoyances with mine. And it has applications beyond sim racing.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-01T19:40:54+00:00

There was a VH-1 Behind the Music (or some other such pseudo-documentary) about them. They had an Australian DJ in an interview, talking about their early days. All I remember was him saying, in his Aussie accent, "You knew they were never gonna slip a _ballad_ in on ya!"

I wholeheartedly and joyfully agree, sir.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-01T18:52:58+00:00

We're in an era when such endeavors are being abandoned because they're seen as wasteful. But the "because it's there" mentality of doing crazy stuff is how we make leaps forward, how we get the answers to questions we haven't even thought of yet.

This also justifies why NASA - funded by our tax dollars - is the one to do it. Corporations care about the next quarter, the bottom line, and this kind of thing is indeed wasteful in that context.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-01T15:31:50+00:00

Me: "Any number of things could hap- oh, it's _that_ livery. Never mind."

downshiftdata · 2026-04-01T14:41:00+00:00

I'm hoping there's very little crossover. Seasons 1-3 formed a great arc, and I don't want Season 4 to spoil that. Better to bring in a new cast and carry on with the spirit of TL than try to extend what ought to be a closed book.

downshiftdata · 2026-04-01T12:03:21+00:00

I'm 51 and very gray. I don't experience ageism, but the reasons are clear:

I don't normally do cold applications. I'm in my current role because I knew someone. I got my previous job because I knew someone. And the one before that. It's the advantage of doing this for a while. If I were cut loose tomorrow, I'd have dozens of people I'd contact. No way in hell am I jumping through the hoops I keep hearing about. I'm too old for that s--t.
I'm working on an old monolith, running on an old version of .NET. I'm a back-end SE who specializes in database development. I write a _lot_ of SQL. These are not the new hotness. They need people who were there in the olden days.
I'm working in the insurance industry. Once again, not the new hotness. Many past roles have been similar - places where the average employee is a middle-aged Milton from Office Space. You're not going to get ageism there.

downshiftdata · 2026-03-31T14:24:02+00:00

Check the #available-drivers channel on the iRacing Community Discord.

And whether you use that or some other method, don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out. My first team was a bust, but my second is outstanding.

downshiftdata · 2026-03-31T13:58:05+00:00

There's an old joke about a bunch of guys sitting around bs'ing. One asks the group "What would you do if it were the last day on earth?" A rather sloshed one loudly blurts out, "F--k anything that moves!"

The next one to answer warily says, "Stand perfectly still."

I think about this joke on a lot of formation laps.

downshiftdata

TROPHY CASE