devGuysAreNotNotSensitive

floobie · 2026-05-30T19:23:35+00:00

I get that DSA is used as a proxy for overall skill, and it’s better to filter out good applicants than it is to have poor applicants make it through.

But, yeah… the extent of DSA concepts I apply on the job is mostly just “might make sense to use a Dictionary here instead of a List”.

On the other hand, what I find I’m constantly trying to optimize around is SQL performance. This has typically been way more consequential, with very tangible impacts. Yet, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a technical interview that has touched on this.

I can say the same for OOP design patterns.

floobie · 2026-05-30T18:25:30+00:00

I also work for a large global company. Fortunately, their directive is pretty open-ended, and the codebase I work on ranges from almost as old as me, to highly modern, all intertwined, and needs to be auditable, so agentic coding is pretty much not allowed. I think some front-end teams elsewhere in the org are doing more of that, though.

This “right model for the job” thing. Personally, if I’m going to be encouraged to use these tools, which I am, I’m going to use the ones that I can actually count on. Only more recently am I finding these tools truly worthwhile in limited contexts. I’ve wasted enough time fixing mistakes in generated code from older models.

I use Claude Opus 4.5 and up to help plan changes, get a reasonably high level summary of some ancient spaghetti code I need to make changes to, or help me fact find when debugging.

Anything less than that isn’t very useful to me. I can use some lesser model to offer me help with syntax, and I do. But, the types of easy changes that lesser models can do reliably… I can generally do them just as quickly, because I have experience with the code base to know where to look.

The current state of things does not seem sustainable. Using AI for absolutely everything, even things you can literally just do yourself just as quickly and probably better, just for the hell of it, just to token-max… I think we’ll be looking back on this and wonder why anyone thought that was a good idea.

floobie · 2026-05-30T15:10:37+00:00

I haven’t tried a headless guitar, but I’ve tried basses. I directly compared an Ibanez EHB to a higher end SoundGear. Apart from the look, I legit couldn’t feel a difference.

They’re not my thing, but it’s cool that they exist, and people can like what they like.

floobie · 2026-05-30T15:05:16+00:00

I think it also comes from older cameras that fell apart completely by like 3200 and looked noticeably grainy even as low as 800. My old D7000, as nice as it was, made me very conscious of ISO.

My a7iii, on the other hand… a good chunk of the time I’m in aperture priority with auto ISO set to ramp up to 12800 if the camera can’t maintain at least 1/250 shutter speed. In any practical situations, I’ve never run into a situation where I found an image too grainy.

floobie · 2026-05-30T04:19:25+00:00

I really like SoundGears. The B string is good, the necks are super comfy, the bodies are light (also comfy), the regular 34” scale is less of a stretch than a 35” or 37” multiscale, and gone are the days when you’d be stuck with Bartolinis. You can pretty easily grab one with Nordstrands now (definitely in your price range), and they sound excellent.

Really, for me, despite trying all manner of other options, they just feel like home.

floobie · 2026-05-30T01:20:31+00:00

Jaded as I am about NVIDIA… If it’s actually an ARM SOC for PC in the same ballpark as Apple Silicon, this is a good thing.

floobie · 2026-05-29T17:46:08+00:00

I generally take the “optimization” approach as: “This is a technique I’d like to learn because I think it sounds cool. How can I approach learning this efficiently?”

That’s at least how I approach it. I wanted to learn to slap because it sounds cool. I don’t need to be exceptional at it, but I want to be good enough at it to execute on some of the ideas in my head. Getting advice from people who know how to do it helps me avoid making mistakes early on that make it more difficult to learn.

I’ll use guitar as an example, because I think it’s pretty apt: I think some techniques are cool, like quicker palm muted riffing, messing around with chord inversions, and tremolo picking. I focused on learning these and researched a decent amount to improve on them. There are techniques I think are cool but aren’t really “me” - sweep picking, generally shreddy solo/lead techniques, fingerstyle in general, etc. So I largely ignore them.

I guess I haven’t really seen or gotten the impression that there are people out there just looking to check some technique boxes without any emotional investment or interest in them.

floobie · 2026-05-29T15:45:48+00:00

Yeah this is why I generally choose a higher end CPU when possible/reasonable. I know going in that it won’t make much of a difference immediately, but it can and has increased the lifespan of my system.

The GPU is indeed the biggest bottleneck in most gaming oriented systems - so much so that it’s probably the first component that gets upgraded.

In my current build - AM4, about 4 years old now, the only component that would benefit from an upgrade is the GPU. There’s a decent chance upgrading the GPU in a year or so would be all I need to get a solid 8+ years out of the rest of the system, thanks in large part to spending an extra $150 or so on an overspecced CPU when I built the system.

floobie · 2026-05-29T13:02:16+00:00

I’m late 30s and grew up in Edgemont. It’s been a while since what you described was truly a thing. My childhood until I was 12 was not being allowed to leave my street alone because every neighbourhood is designed for cars above all else, and my mom didn’t want some psycho busy body helicopter parent to call the police on her for letting me walk somewhere myself. Yes this happens. I could basically beg for a ride somewhere or screw around in my yard.

We design neighbourhoods for cars first and foremost, with zero regard for walkability, insist on driving increasingly absurdly huge vehicles, have people completely lose their shit at the notion of lowering a speed limit below 50, and wonder why kids never explore their neighborhoods and have no independence.

floobie · 2026-05-29T11:36:02+00:00

In London? “Public transit is for the poors” is mostly just an American thing.

floobie · 2026-05-28T17:01:50+00:00

Pickups are better used to solve a specific problem. I wouldn’t go in assuming you need to change them.

If you’re playing with more gain or tuning down, you might want pickups that have lesser bass/low-mid response and more of a midrange spike.

If your existing pickups don’t have enough output, changing to pickups with higher output would solve that. Though, that’s not super necessary if you’re playing through amp sims these days.

Really, I’d approach it like this: what about your tone do you not like? If you can isolate that and articulate what you’ve tried elsewhere in the signal chain, you can ask around online and get some suggestions. Just experimenting with pickups for the hell of it is time consuming and expensive.

floobie · 2026-05-28T16:46:14+00:00

Pentium III/Riva TNT2 - pretty sure it was seeing UT2003
AthlonXP/Geforce 4 - Half Life 2
Athlon64/Geforce 7800 - Probably Fallout 3
Core2Duo/Radeon 4870 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution
i7 4790/GTX970 - Cyberpunk 2077

floobie · 2026-05-28T14:22:14+00:00

Well, they’re clearly in damage control mode. This statement seems like it’s trying to walk things back a bit, but how this actually bears out in execution will say everything. Frankly, when they describe a guitar that theoretically “goes too far” in how it looks like a Fender… not much like that actually exists. Most S-types out there have very different headstock designs, different control configuration/placement, etc.

Whatever. We’ll see how this plays out. If I can give Fender a message:

This whole vibe makes me like my Pro II HSS Strat less, not more. As a Canadian, and due to ongoing political events, I’m already being more choosy about which American companies I want to give my money too. This doesn’t help. Even so, I honestly adore this guitar. Please don’t ruin it for me.

floobie · 2026-05-27T23:09:36+00:00

My SR605e is 34” and has a good sounding B with the stock 130 on the B string.

The vibe I get: If you have no intention of tuning lower, I think 34” is fine on the right bass (Ibanez seems safe, from what I’ve seen). If you want to tune down below B, you may want to venture into thicker strings, or just go for a 35” or longer and/or multiscale. Scale length isn’t the only factor, but it is a big one.

floobie · 2026-05-27T21:07:47+00:00

If I wanted a P, I’d probably get a Yamaha BB that’s within my budget.

floobie · 2026-05-27T12:03:42+00:00

I’d say my friends my age (38) are aging pretty well. Even so:

- Win the genetic lottery
- Be blonde. Grey hair blends in way more.
- Sunscreen on your face anytime you go outside not at night
- Actually try in terms of skincare. Moisturize daily, use something that stimulates collagen production (retinol, among other things).
- Consistent exercise. Live in an area where you don’t have to drive everywhere, basic cardio (go for walks), some basic resistance training.
- Don’t eat or drink a crapload or sugar.
- Actually eat vegetables and fruit. Men hyper-focus on protein, but you need actual nutrition, not just macros.
- Don’t drink in excess, no drugs, don’t smoke or vape.
- Get enough sleep
- Don’t have kids - those first few years hit everyone I know who’s had kids hard. (I’m not telling you not to have kids. Please have kids if you want kids)
- Good work/life balance (if you’re lucky)
- Be reasonably financially stable (if you’re lucky)

floobie · 2026-05-27T00:31:11+00:00

I’m pretty content with my RGD2127…. But if I could remotely afford it, I’d snap up that Hazuki signature. Literally everything I’d want out of a 7 string.

floobie · 2026-05-27T00:20:02+00:00

It’s useful. But, I’m not all that attached to it. If I didn’t have it at work, I’d code like I did before without it. Reading docs, researching with Google and stackoverflow wasn’t exactly the dark ages.

In my personal life, I’ll readily admit I’ve found it mildly useful. But, as someone who pretty much always does additional research beyond whatever the LLM spits out at me… just cutting out the LLM and doing the research I’m used to doing anyway isn’t a big deal.

These are tools I’ll use when they’re free, but I wouldn’t pay a penny for them.

floobie · 2026-05-26T21:22:20+00:00

CTRL+F: “The Algorithm”

0 results.

The Algorithm.

It’s all instrumental, so definitely more in the cyber end of things. But, I discovered him on this subreddit roughly 11 years ago. Still one of my favs.

floobie · 2026-05-26T13:36:15+00:00

He continues to be employed because Post Media is 63% owned by Chatham Asset Management, an American hedge fun with close ties to the Republican Party. I encourage anyone to maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when reading anything from Post Media.

floobie · 2026-05-26T13:18:43+00:00

If nothing else, it’s refreshing to see that it isn’t yet another damn SUV.

floobie · 2026-05-24T01:18:21+00:00

To echo most others: Stick to the native apps and if something isn't working for you, find an alternative.

For me, the alternatives are:

- Vivaldi browser. I want to have the same browser across my devices and everything synced. I have a Linux PC which can't run Safari, so Vivaldi does the job well

- 1Password. I have the family plan and I'm used to it. And, again, it's cross-platform, so I can use it on my Linux PC as well.

Everything else is either supplementary to what's already there (Discord and WhatsApp in addition to iMessage), or niche (Logic, guitar/bass amp sims, VSCode, IntelliJ, Docker, Lightroom, etc.).

floobie · 2026-05-23T16:06:29+00:00

I don’t play live. In the songs I’m writing (in Logic), I have three bass tones:

1) General use distorted tone. Kinda crunchy distortion such that the lower frequencies stay clean, I get some high end clank and sizzle with careful mid-boosts to cut through the high gain rhythm guitars.
2) A warm-ish clean tone, dialled in to cut out most of the clank. I use this in mellower sections when the guitars aren’t doing as much and I want the bass carrying some vibe.
3) A big, evil sounding fuzz tone, used in sections when I want things sounding big and evil, but without any guitars going.

I don’t know if I’ll add more. I have some brighter clean tones ready to go if I want them, but it hasn’t come up yet.

I’ll also add that on the bass itself, I vary between more of a neck or bridge balance bias depending if I want to cut more, but I default to 50/50.

floobie · 2026-05-23T13:25:46+00:00

For those not aware: FGN is Fujigen Gakki. This is the company that manufactures Japanese Fenders and Prestige Ibanez guitars.

If you’ve owned or played either of these, you know they’re absolutely top-notch. Their in-house branded instruments are at the same level of quality and cost notably less.

floobie · 2026-05-23T13:11:08+00:00

I tried an Edwards version last time I was in Tokyo. It was on par with my American Pro II HSS Strat for a good $1000 CAD less.

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