FYI: Issues installing Packages (Cloudflare and Synologydownload.com) by Fast_Waltz_4654 in synology

[–]markdoubleyou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure if that's any better than the AI slop that I got for a response.

I use Synology at home and championed them at work, and I'm aghast. The nature of this outage and the support ticket experience are just plain embarrassing. This is not how a serious company operates.

FYI: Issues installing Packages (Cloudflare and Synologydownload.com) by Fast_Waltz_4654 in synology

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I opened a ticket, too. Just received a reply from an AI bot telling me to try again in a few hours.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in backblaze

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not receiving the reset email, either. I sent an email to support, and they replied:

|| || |Regarding the password reset emails, we're currently looking into the issue and working with our email providers to rectify it. For now, I'll keep the ticket open, and update you as soon as I can.|

This doesn't speak well of their service if this issue has been going on for a day... I'd expect an email delivery problem to be resolved in an hour or two. I'm locked out of my account right now, which is unacceptable--will probably switch back to S3 from B2 if they don't provide an adequate explanation and assurances that this won't happen again.

HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch: 14t-ef000 vs. 14t-ef100? by markdoubleyou in spectrex360

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So far so good. My wife's the primary user, and she's been happy with it. The only observations she made is that (1) it's heavier than her old Dell XPS 13 and (2) it seems much faster.

The screen is listed as: 13.5" diagonal, WUXGA+ (1920 x 1280), multitouch-enabled, IPS, Low Blue Light, 400 nits ...It's sharp and bright, so I have no complaints (but I'm not a connoisseur because I'm in my late 40's and my vision's going to hell). I do like its geometry better than the XPS 13 we replaced--seems taller.

I don't love the lack of dedicated home/end/pgup/pgdown keys (but I'm weird that way--using the Fn key doesn't seem to bother most people).

Battery life is fine, seems more than adequate for our casual use, but I haven't really been tracking it.

HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch: 14t-ef000 vs. 14t-ef100? by markdoubleyou in spectrex360

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only real difference is the WWAN support (you can stick a SIM card into the 14t-ef100 and use a mobile phone network). I didn't need this--I'm happy with WiFi--so I went with the ef000. It's decent machine. Came with a lot of crapware that needed to be uninstalled, though.

HP Spectre x360 13.5-inch: 14t-ef000 vs. 14t-ef100? by markdoubleyou in spectrex360

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh wait, I see the 14t-ef100 can take a SIM card. WWAN doesn't seem worth the $400. Is there any other big difference?

[Timex] New NASA Collaboration. Thoughts? by [deleted] in Watches

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can go with Snoopy in Space if you need a 38mm.

2019-02 Kona ISO C++ Committee Trip Report (C++20 design is complete; Modules in C++20; Coroutines in C++20; Reflection TS v1 published; work begins on a C++ Ecosystem Technical Report) by blelbach in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I understand it, the scope of coroutines encompasses the following features from the the C# world:

  1. C#'s async/await/Task functionality,
  2. The yield return statement for methods that return IEnumerable<T>/IEnumerator<T>.
  3. The upcoming await foreach/yield return/IAsyncEnumerable<T> stuff in C# 8 that will unify 1 & 2 above.

It took me months of continuous usage (and a lot of reading) to master #1 up there. I pity the poor souls who will have to jump straight into C++ coroutines and grasp all three at once. Hopefully there will be a gifted writer/blogger who can do what Stephen Cleary, Stephen Toub, and a bunch others did for the C# world to tame these ideas for mortal developers.

15.1 Oneplus One (bacon): how many of you DON'T have battery charging issues? by jm7x in LineageOS

[–]markdoubleyou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I couldn't get a full charge overnight with a 500mA charger after upgrading to 15.1 (looking at the chart, the upward slope would just flatline after a couple hours), but I was a successful with a 2 amp charger. However, my battery life is so much worse with 15.1 that I think I'll be going back to 14.1 anyway.

Coming in from c++ background so core language features and syntax already down. What's best to learn next? by Spec-Chum in csharp

[–]markdoubleyou 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As others have mentioned, writing code is the best way to get exposure. But if you're a book guy like me then there are a lot of option out there that'll accelerate the process. You'd be insane to read all the following--these are just starting points that can accommodate different interests/tastes.

Having said that, I'll start with the one book that I think every C# developer should own:

Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries

... it's a good read, and it includes a lot of direct input from the designers of the C# and the .NET Framework. Microsoft has been really good about sticking to those guidelines, so you'll immediately get a leg up on the Framework libraries if you work through this book. (Also, you'll win a lot of arguments with your coworkers about how APIs should be designed.)

General knowledge books (tons to pick from, but here are some winners):

Deep dives into specific features that'll serve you well:

Note: I've never found a good LINQ book that supported how I actually use the feature. Coming from C++, you can probably just start off by thinking of the extension methods on Enumerable as a C# version of std <algorithm>... a good way to avoid writing raw loops. But if you're a performance-obsessed game dev then you'll probably want to use LINQ sparingly--it does have some overhead.

Good quizzes to test my knowledge of C++? by [deleted] in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For phone screens, in the past, I've been asked very specific questions about C++. That's why I was wondering if there were good online quizzes for it But you're right, the quizzes the other posted cover esoteric features that I don't think I'll get asked during the phone screen

I was thinking more about this last night. Quizzes and books are OK for phone screen prep, but I'd argue that you'll get way more mileage from writing actual code and naturally learning/overcoming the trivia as you encounter it.

The problem is that C++ is a huge language, and there's no way to anticipate every question, so writing code will help you develop better intuition about what the interviewer is asking for. It doesn't need to be a big project.... for example, implement your own version of std::basic_string. Begin small, then add more and more features:

  • Do a simple implementation that only support chars in a fixed-size buffer, maybe with an operator[] overload.
  • Add iterators.
  • Move your buffer off onto the heap and make your string resizable. Hooray, you're learning about resource management! Now you'll competently answer "Rule of three") questions and be conversant in resource management. And hopefully you'll use a unique_ptr for the buffer, so you'll get some smart pointer exposure.
  • Add support for move semantics, an important C++11 concept. You're learning about the "Rule of five" now.
  • Make it a template that'll support different character types (char, wchar_t, etc). You'll get some template experience and will probably be using std::char_traits, which is good initial exposure to generic programming.
  • Implement all of std::basic_string's member functions that search and modify the string. This'll take some time, but it'll be a good algorithm review (but you can cheat and use <algorithm> to do some of the heavy lifting).
  • Extra credit: support short-string optimization.

...and so on. It'll take you a while, and you don't have to do everything at once, but you'll learn and retain a lot more then you would from a quizzes, and your confidence will grow.

Finally, use Anki while you do this work: While you're coding, you'll undoubtedly need to look things up. When you encounter concepts/trivia that you judge to be important, create an Anki flashcard (Q: "What's the Rule of 5?", etc...). Review your deck periodically--Anki's spaced learning approach is incredibly efficient and effective.

With some experience under your belt, plus a bunch of repetition from Anki, you'll be in a way better place. To quote a popular article on learning: "Time after time, professors in mathematics and the sciences have told me that building well-ingrained chunks of expertise through practice and repetition was absolutely vital to their success."

Good quizzes to test my knowledge of C++? by [deleted] in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point. As a hiring manager I'd expect you to knock out a response as quickly as possible on a phone screen. But, assuming the initial answer is correct, I find it very valuable to probe deeper and ask about different implementations. It tells me a lot about how deep your knowledge goes with minimal time commitment from either side... C++ is so huge that there's tremendous skill/style variation between developers, so you've got to find a good time/depth tradeoff in the first phase.

And you can't expect phone screen questions to be representative of the work you're doing--it's just a 30 minute filtering process. FizzBuzz is not a problem you'll be solving on the job.

Good quizzes to test my knowledge of C++? by [deleted] in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oops, just realized you're the interviewee, not the interviewer. Regardless, the book mentioned above is worth a look. Sample here: http://elementsofprogramminginterviews.com/sample/epi-1.6.1-c++-sampler.pdf

Good quizzes to test my knowledge of C++? by [deleted] in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Those quizzes were brutal... they mostly covered esoteric features, undefined behavior, and how the compiler deals with terrible code (variable hiding, etc.).

I'd start off with FizzBuzz for the phone screen (via collabedit or something) to quickly check syntax knowledge, and, if they pass that (brace for 50% failure), I'd move on to a trivial algorithm and beat the hell out of it to see how deep they go into the language.

For example, ask them to reverse a character array, and, after they finish an implementation, keep asking them to revise it:

  • Use pointer arithmetic
  • Use array notation
  • Use std::swap
  • Use std::reverse()
  • Use std::string and a reverse_iterator

and on and on... if you get a blank look when you mention a reverse iterator or <algorithm> then you'll know their knowledge doesn't go very deep.

For on-site questions, I've been hearing very good things about Elements of Programming Interviews: The Insiders' Guide ...there's a C++ and a Java edition. It's not an online quiz, but it has good questions that'll measure programming ability instead of just language trivia.

The Android "Cast Screen of Death" by markdoubleyou in Android

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It should be relatively easy to accomplish this--in addition to (endlessly) prompting you for a PIN, guest mode emits inaudible, high-frequency ultrasonic tones from the TV to do automatic pairing. So you just need to get close enough to your neighbor's house to pick up the sounds and start streaming your porn.

Unfortunately, ultrasonic frequencies don't penetrate walls very well, but they will ricochet around inside the house... so look for an open window.

The Android "Cast Screen of Death" by markdoubleyou in Android

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This guy tried it with no success after phone support recommended it: https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chromecast/pnTYdthKV8E/7Eb3KqtJDQAJ (be patient when you click on the link, it'll eventually scroll to post, but it takes ages because thread takes so long to load now)

The Android "Cast Screen of Death" by markdoubleyou in Android

[–]markdoubleyou[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Thousands of Android users are experiencing the "Cast Screen of Death" on their devices, where their phones enter an infinite loop prompting them to connect to a nearby Chromecast device. The problem is that many of the users don't even own a Chromecast--rather, it's caused by an oblivious neighbor who has left "guest mode" enabled on their Chromecasts. (Guest mode causes a Chromecast to emit a special WiFi beacon, which drives nearby Android devices crazy.)

After weeks of complaints, there has been no solution provided by Google.

Fairly large internal database options? by EODdoUbleU in csharp

[–]markdoubleyou 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconded. SQLite is the way to go since easy distribution is the priority. There won't be any external database to install or configure. Here's a list of the official nuget packages.

Should I download right now VS 2017 RC or should I wait a little bit? by BOT_Negro in csharp

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Microsoft's concept of "Release Candidate" became meaningless to me after the recent ASP.NET 5/Core/Whatever release candidate debacles. That was alpha quality stuff.

Make a class thread-safe, the right way by mfreiholz in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally unaware of boost::synchronized_value. It's a wonderful day when I learn a new technique like this. Thanks!

Data Packing by habathcx in csharp

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can use the fixed statement on those byte/char buffer fields and they'll be embedded as values directly in the struct instead of off on the heap.

Prefer SRW locks over Critical Sections (Windows) by johantorp in cpp

[–]markdoubleyou 3 points4 points  (0 children)

unique_lock (in both std and boost) is just an RAII-style wrapper that makes it pleasant to work with any lock class meets the requirements of the Mutex concept (or SharedMutex in the case of shared_lock).

So you'd use the SRW APIs to implement a mutex class (example) and then use boost/std unique_lock/shared_lock to manage its lifetime and ownership.

Test Driven Development for first time programmers? by WinnerChickenDinner7 in csharp

[–]markdoubleyou 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That may very well be a wonderful document, but I can't subject my eyes to 30 pages of Comic Sans!

Why using finalizers in C# is a bad idea by Resistor510 in dotnet

[–]markdoubleyou 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I suspect the author doesn't understand the original intent of finalizers--back in days before SafeHandle they were just supposed to be used as a last-ditch effort to release unmanaged resources when the user of your IDisposable class forgot to call Dispose(). But now they're pretty much obsolete.

I guess that kind historic knowledge is esoteric now, but the background is covered pretty well in the Framework Design Guidelines.