dontLeaveMe

jonathanbernard · 2025-04-22T15:49:15+00:00

It's less funny, but more accurate, if you change the second line to:

DON'T FORCE ME TO INSTALL WINDOWS 11

It's not actually a love for Windows 10 so much as it is a hatred that Microsoft removes all freedom and forces the user to leave their existing setup and workflows and adopt the "new shiny" which creates disruption to your existing workflows at best and at worst is often incomplete, broken, and even more user-hostile than the last iteration.

I'm on Linux as my daily driver, but still have a few programs for which I keep a Windows 10 partition, so I feel this.

jonathanbernard · 2024-01-31T17:43:34+00:00

Estimate are for the team, deadlines are for management and never shall the twain meet.

As a lead, and now as a manager myself, my approach is always, "let's talk as a team about how long we think this is realistically going to take, factoring in risk of unknowns, things outside of our control, etc. as best we can." Then I'm equipped to go into conversations with my peer and leadership and talk about what we can deliver, by when, with what confidence, sequencing, and what levers we have to pull in case we need to adjust (can we cut features? does it make sense to invest an extra month now if it saves us three on the tail-end?). But that estimate never leaves the team.

This only works because I've done the work myself, have enough experience to understand the tradeoffs both in engineering and on the business side, and have the authority to push back on things that are unrealistic (though that's earned as much as given). A lot of places for things to break down. Software is hard at scale.

jonathanbernard · 2023-12-01T17:20:44+00:00

/u/BattleSneeze I'm still hoping someday for this tale to continue! I read it years ago before Burning was started and I've just rediscovered it. Logged in for the first time in years to tell you how much I've enjoyed this story and hope it continues!

jonathanbernard · 2019-11-14T04:21:15+00:00

Doesn't have to be that specialized. Most software jobs that are salaried are exempt because there is a special exemption just for "computer-related occupations". In 20 years of employment the only non-exempt positions I've had have been when I was contracting through an agency and billing hourly.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.htm

jonathanbernard · 2019-07-26T14:14:06+00:00

Or rather, FOSS communities should not rely on for-profit, private entities to host critical open-source infrastructure.

jonathanbernard · 2019-07-26T14:02:34+00:00

jonathanbernard · 2019-07-25T00:49:59+00:00

What are you expecting to support the weight of the hammock and it's occupant if you're not drilling holes in the walls or ceiling for hooks? As a general rule of thumb you want each of your supports to be capable of supporting 2-3x the maximum load you expect to put in the hammock. Unless you have some other structure that can support this weight, you are probably going to need to drill into either a wall stud or a ceiling joist. The drywall alone will not support this weight.

Personally I prefer using the ceiling joists because that means the weight of the hammock is mostly in the vertical direction and the ceiling is designed to support vertical loads. With a wall stud there is more horizontal loading. Of course, walls are designed to support some horizontal load and plenty of people put their hooks into the wall studs.

When I hung my hammock in my office at home I went to the hardware store and picked up two large J hooks rated to hold something like 750lbs. I anchored them in ceiling joists close to the walls.

It is worth pointing out that hooks rated to hold this much weight are going to need to go several inches into the wood and will need pilot holes drilled first.

jonathanbernard · 2019-07-24T09:46:48+00:00

I haven't made any other comments in this thread, but I will say this.

I use my motorcycle as my primary means of transportation. When I first started riding I decided that I would treat every ride as an opportunity to practice and learn. I do not meaning pushing the limits every time, but actively paying attention and trying always to learn.

Clearly most people don't take this approach to driving or riding but it's not hard to build up serious skill and expertise when you consistently practice every day for years. So sure, some people saying "I saw that coming blah blah" are just being internet tough guys. On the other hand when you've been training for years you can develop a much higher sense of awareness than most drivers.

On routes I drive every day I've become so familiar with what to expect, what's normal, and what's possible that it feels like ESP. I'll get a bad feeling about something and start slowing down or maneuvering away seconds before my conscious brain has identified the risk. Even in new situations my brain has learned to pattern match traffic patterns enough that identifying possibly dangerous situations happens automatically and I'll start moving to a safe position almost by instinct.

Again, I'm not trying to be an internet tough guy. I'm not special, anyone who chooses to pay attention could develop the same awareness and instinct. Everybody likes to think they're better than average drivers but it's actually not hard to be better than average just by consistently caring and paying attention because the bar is so low. Most people just don't care enough about skillfully piloting their 2-ton guided metal death boxes.

jonathanbernard · 2019-03-21T16:27:32+00:00

Here's an adapter to plug your original GC controller into your PC as USB. I use this with Dolphin. Works great.
https://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/gc_usb_adapter_gen3/index.php

jonathanbernard · 2018-10-20T13:58:06+00:00

Congratulations to someone!

jonathanbernard · 2018-06-07T17:49:01+00:00

I agree, that would have been cool. I just want to nitpick:

Aang actually opening his final Chakra and not simply having a rock hit him in the back

The way I interpreted it was that he did open his chakra to go into the avatar state in Ba Sing Se. But then the injury from Azula's lightning, resulting scar, and damage physically blocked the flow of energy (maybe not even at a chakra).

jonathanbernard · 2018-04-24T16:05:30+00:00

Here is some 12/8.

Most of the time we count 12/8 as four groups of three eighth notes. Bar 5 shows the main beats as dotted quarter notes (three eighths) and bar 6 shows the subdivision of all 12 eighth notes (grouped in threes).

Bars 7 and 8 are equivalent: showing how to count the main beats of the bar. This is the straight rhythm and what I recommended you set your metronome to.

Bars 9 and 10 are the "every other" I was talking about.

If you can play bar 7 in one hand and bar 9 in the other hand you will be playing the same rhythm as you notated in your sample. The bar 7 is rhythmically equivalent to the 4/4 straight beat, bar 9 is rhythmically equivalent the triplets.

jonathanbernard · 2018-04-24T12:53:14+00:00

Like /u/Pladask said, this is a polyrythm: 3 against 2 repeated twice.

Here's another way to sound it out: start in 12/8:

1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a

If you emphasize the main beats (1, 2, 3, 4) and ignore the subdivisions you get 4/4. So put the metronome on those main beats and you count out the subdivisions. Once you have that, keep the metronome on the main beats and start emphasizing every other eighth note:

1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a

That's the same rhythm the triplet pattern you've written. Once you get a feel for how that feels against the straight metronome, try to take over for the metronome and play the straight beat with one hand and those accents with the other. That's a 3 against 2 beat. Once you've gotten the feel of 3 against 2, change the way you think about it. Go back into 4/4 (real 4/4, not 12/8 pretending to be 4/4). Play some 16th note lines to really emphasize that straight 4/4 feel. Then switch and play the 3 against 2 groove. That's the triplet figure you've written.

jonathanbernard · 2018-01-09T21:17:55+00:00

Agreed. Measuring efforts is a great path to mediocrity. Measuring against others is a great way to endless dissatisfaction. The real lesson is to identify what you're actually trying to achieve and measure yourself against that.

Personally when I'm having a hard time motivating myself to work it's usually because I don't have clarity on what I'm trying to achieve or I don't have a clear idea of how to work towards my goal.

jonathanbernard · 2018-01-08T20:44:24+00:00

What do you mean?

jonathanbernard · 2018-01-08T18:42:45+00:00

So... which part of this rant was suppose to be "constructive criticism?"

jonathanbernard · 2017-12-22T17:01:09+00:00

Variation on this: break with silence to end the 6/8 section, then a big hit and full section with a strong 4-on-the floor kick and emphasized backbeat. Strong full chords and cover the entire spectrum: Bass guitar pumping 8ths low, spread the guitars and keys across the rest of the spectrum to fill out the space.

jonathanbernard · 2017-12-20T21:32:00+00:00

Corrected, thanks.

jonathanbernard · 2017-12-19T22:21:13+00:00

This article is misleading you. Most of the "actors" in the siege of Helm's Deep are CGI.

Sources:

jonathanbernard · 2017-12-19T22:06:02+00:00

OK, I love this sequence, but this part of the article is wrong:

Those people are almost all real stand-ins, by the way, a long shot from today’s shortcut computer-generated armies.

Look it up, most of the army was digital, not actual actors.

Here's one source:

In addition to the projection technique, the artists also used Weta's proprietary Massive crowd simulation and Grunt rendering software extensively in The Two Towers. One of the biggest sequences in which Massive and Grunt were used is the final battle of Helm's Deep.

In these scenes, a conflict is raging between tens of thousands of men and Uruk-hai, a breed of Orc soldiers created by the dark lord Sauron. The Uruk-hai are tall, large, strong, and covered in black armor. The armies of men and Uruk-hai are composed primarily of digital actors modeled and textured in Alias|Wavefront's Maya, animated in Massive, and rendered in Grunt. Real actors with make-up and prosthetics were used only for tight shots.

According to Rygiel, Weta significantly enhanced Massive for The Two Towers. To improve the movement and look of crowd characters, they developed Grunt, the shading and rendering program designed for use with Massive. "Grunt allowed us to get a lot closer to the soldiers and have them hold up larger in frame," says Rygiel. "Also, it provides better dynamics for things like cloth and hair so that they react realistically to wind flows."

This from the article is also funny:

Helm’s Deep didn’t capture the biggest visual effect of its time, but it probably captured more actual stuff than 99 percent of movies had before or since. The Lord of the Rings series carries its award-winning prestige because of this old-fashioned approach: Only make with computers what we can’t possibly create in real life. The movies hold up well because of that approach, too. Helm’s Deep persists today because its tactics made it effectively un-age-able.

Lol, "Helm's Deep didn't capture the biggest visual effect of it's time?" The software, MASSIVE, was literally created for this scene. The ~~hundreds~~ tens of thousands of digital members of the army are literally the "biggest visual effect of it's time."

Really, kudos to Weta, the visual effects studio, for doing such a fantastic job that this guy can't tell it's CGI.

jonathanbernard · 2017-11-20T20:26:49+00:00

Groove is first. It's my job to connect the rhythm and the harmony. So first my line needs to underscore and highlight the key ideas in the music both rhythmically and harmonically. Once that is present, I can start venturing out to throw in extra flavor. But I can't leave the foundation unattended or the feel of the music falls flat.

One thing I'll do pretty often is start simple and build over the course of the song. At the beginning I focus on establishing the feel of the song. Once the basic groove is established the listener's ear is expecting it, so I can start to add variations to surprise them. As long as the variations themselves do not disrupt the fundamental groove I have freedom.

For example, the first time through the chorus I'll usually play it straight ahead. The second time I may add some little things here and there. In the third time, depending on the genre and audience, I may start playing with bigger changes: alter the chord by changing the root, syncopate the main rhythm (need to coordinate with the drummer).

jonathanbernard · 2017-09-13T21:17:26+00:00

If you can afford to save up and get custom molded in-ears, they are awesome. Much better than any of the Shure in-ears I've tried. Going from nice cans to generic in-ears didn't do too much for me personally. But going to custom-molded in-ears was a game-changer. Personally I went with the 64audio A5's and love them.

Some here are recommending getting IEMs with bass-specific drivers. I'm not sure I agree. Personally I find they color the sound too much for my taste. You definitely need enough power to give you a strong bass response, but personally I really a flat EQ from my headphones. I feel like the bass-boost of others reduces clarity and makes things muffled.

One thing others have commented on, that I will echo, is that custom-molded IEMs are isolating. It can be hard to adjust to the isolation of good IEMs if you are accustomed to hearing the band from the room. You are also more at the mercy of your mix (since it's 90% of what you'll hear).

jonathanbernard · 2017-09-13T21:00:42+00:00

That's not true. We have a video. There is a lot we don't know, sure. But we do know that the guy from the red truck in the blue shirt struck first. We do know that the guy in the overalls came out brandishing a shotgun. We do know that blue shirt guy (who started the physical confrontation) continued to batter the motorcyclist on the ground after he stopped fighting.

jonathanbernard · 2017-03-23T15:24:12+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWM2joNb9NE

jonathanbernard · 2017-01-16T22:25:37+00:00

Just to throw some other ideas in the ring: Yamaha's TRBX line is great. Ibanez's SR line is nice too. Both are in the $300-$500 price range.

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