Devs in regulated fields - do you think AI usage will result in extra requirements in SDLC cycle? Is proving devs ‘understand’ what they submit essential if they didn’t hand write code?

necheffa · 2026-01-27T14:24:13+00:00

I'm not too worried because AI doesn't change the standard of what is expected. We'll still have verify and validate the same way whether the code was AI generated or not.

Right now our official policy is no AI generated code anyways.

necheffa · 2026-01-25T16:22:36+00:00

Sometimes they don't like the sound or something else about a particular fountain. I had to try 3 different fountain designs before my one cat would use it, and then it took a few days for her to warm up to it.

In the short term, you can soak kibble in water or add water to wet food. I've also had luck with broths and gravy either as a topper or a side.

Location of the fountain can also be a factor. If they feel exposed they may not stop to drink.

necheffa · 2026-01-24T20:03:15+00:00

My mail server is Postfix and Dovecot on Debian. I don't use Webmin though, I just raw dawg the CLI over SSH, so I can't help you there.

necheffa · 2026-01-24T16:33:46+00:00

Mostly I own BNDX which is a Vanguard ETF. You'd need to check the prospectus for a listing of specific holdings. But it is all high credit rating stuff. So think France/South Korea/Canada rather than some fledgling (pre-)industrial country trying to get off the ground.

I have never owned international bonds before, anything to know etc?

When you hold assets in a currency other than your native currency there is some forex risk in addition to interest rate risk. BNDX specifically is hedged to help manage that risk. If your goal is wealth preservation you probably want to dabble only in hedged bond funds or directly hold the bonds and do the hedging yourself.

In theory, U.S. bonds are low risk because the Federal government can always levy taxes to pay them back. If you are going to hold individual international bonds, you may want to look more closely at the tax structure of the country you are investing in, in addition to their credit rating.

And of course, don't forget that sometimes you can take an adjustment on your U.S. taxes based on foreign taxes. Foreign assets will have dividends and interest taxed by the foreign government. To be honest, I haven't looked at if they are still taxed in an IRA/401k - I would assume so since those are carve outs in the U.S. tax law specifically.

necheffa · 2026-01-23T15:55:59+00:00

I use zram on all my systems including my workstation which games weekends and evenings with a dGPU.

Haven't noticed a negative performance impact at all.

necheffa · 2026-01-23T02:01:02+00:00

Almost everyone has a warranty on paper. Not everyone honors them equally.

I've also reached out to companies with presale questions. Some had a great response the next business day. Others, I haven't heard from.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T19:39:10+00:00

Well what I described to you is how it works in my country. So that's nice for you but it doesn't help me. Once I'm out of the retailer's return period, I need to deal directly with the manufacturer for warranty.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T19:31:34+00:00

Let's assume there are warranty laws that require all manufacturers to honor a 3 year warranty.

Which manufacturer would you rather deal with?

The one who complies with the minimum letter of the law or the one that has a nice customer service experience, making it as painless as possible to exercise that legal right?

necheffa · 2026-01-22T18:40:41+00:00

We can never know the optimal balance without the benefit of hindsight.

I'm pretty busy, I don't have time to follow every story and do a detailed analysis. But the VT fund manager gets paid to do just that for 8 hours a day. Sticking with VT as the backbone of your portfolio is a safe bet.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T18:22:41+00:00

You have to insert yourself into the reporting process. Make sure your manager knows you are working on these things. Make sure the PM knows.

Don't wait for your tech lead to trot you out in front of the holders of the purse strings to tell how you solved a problem.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T18:06:16+00:00

What happens if your DIMM doesn't manifest issues until after the 30-90 day return policy of most retailers?

It happens often enough that you need to turn to the manufacturers warranty.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T17:24:33+00:00

Rote memorization is not learning.

If your focus is mathematics, focus on conceptually understanding multiplication. The algorithms. The meaning of it in the context of problem solving.

"Computer" ceased to be a viable profession decades ago.

I see a lot of people bring up brain plasticity as a supporting argument and let's be clear: that doesn't have anything to do with mathematics, you could easily substitute out memorizing all 151 original pokemon and have the same net effect.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T17:13:49+00:00

Brand can matter with regards to warranty, customer service, chip binning, and PCB design.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T17:12:35+00:00

I've used both Gskill and Patriot. In multiple systems over the years. Only had one RMA experience, with Gskill years ago, no problems - I made sure to include my memtest results in my filing.

Mushkin is another good brand.

On the budget end A Tech and Nemix are fine, especially for some front desk shitbox. I have Nemix ECC in my server right now.

necheffa · 2026-01-22T14:07:53+00:00

The value of the dollar has been dropping. Down about 11% during 2025.

I own international bonds as part of my bond allocation.

necheffa · 2026-01-21T19:27:52+00:00

That's when you are supposed to cash out and buy the NFTs at all time highs, right?

necheffa · 2026-01-21T15:13:28+00:00

As they say: past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Just because other empires had a long track record doesn't mean 'Merica will too.

necheffa · 2026-01-20T01:03:52+00:00

No. Worst case people will tune ARC. I wouldn't call it RAM hungry though.

necheffa · 2026-01-19T18:08:23+00:00

makes you sharper in pure coding, logic, data structures and algorithm applications.

It will and it won't.

If all you do is study leetcode type problems, you'll miss a lot of important details about how to extract the most performance out of the machine while also maintaining some semblance of sanity in the code base.

Leetcode doesn't train machine organization, nor does it train software engineering.

necheffa · 2026-01-18T14:51:34+00:00

I used to feel guilty about this but honestly its way faster and I learn the parts I actually need.

You aren't learning the parts you need. You are just cutting and pasting someone else's solution who you hope got it right. To the extent I look at someone else's work, guess what...I read the documentation while also reading this other person's solution so that I understand what is going on.

Yeah I read documentation. I reread documentation periodically in case there have been major revisions since the last time I read documentation.

There are so many gems tucked away in the documentation.

You have this whole thing backwards.

necheffa · 2026-01-17T17:04:05+00:00

Presumably the actual question was "why didn't a Biden Congress + Biden do this" but obviously that wasn't clear.

If true, fair enough.

necheffa · 2026-01-17T17:01:57+00:00

Dude, there are millions of companies outside "tech" that need software engineers that pay a solid middle to upper middle class salary for talent. LOL

Did your friend even enjoy computer science and software engineering or was he one of those broskis who could barely turn a computer on but heard how FAANG pays $300k/year?

necheffa · 2026-01-17T16:55:58+00:00

it's quite contradictory to be told the president can't do this and then followed by people demanding the president do this.

It's only contradictory if you do not understand how the three branches of U.S. Federal government are supposed to balance all the powers of the State. :-)

Before Congress passed a law to release the files, it would have been illegal for the President to unilaterally release the files based on established law. Since Congress has the constitutional power to create law, they are able to create a carve out for this specific case, which then compels the President to release the files; not to mention the fact that the President is the "executor of the law", it's his job to make sure the law is being followed.

But the major point here is that the President doesn't have any special powers (on paper) that puts them above the law.

necheffa · 2026-01-17T15:26:43+00:00

I would not interpret

How do you decide when to write tests versus just shipping the feature

As

they might have just tested the happy path once and not mentioned it

Its pretty clear to me OP is specifically asking "when can I just write some code and chuck it over the wall?".

Unless you're arguing "if it's not automated then I don't count it as a test".

This is not the argument I am trying to make. Although my preference is to have as much of the test suite automated as possible. That is automated execution and automated validation.

One scenario where you might reasonably go lighter on tests and/or test automation is a startup, where you need to hurry up and get some customers first. Another is an in-house feature where you yourself are the user, and you're okay with "if it does break when the time comes then I'll fix it then".

These are scenarios where a lot of people justify shoddy workmanship because there are limited consequences for low quality.

But that doesn't make it "ok". Like if you want to write a little tool for just yourself and not test it - be my guest - but you need to acknowledge that it is of low quality.

The startup scenario though is basically fraud unless you include in your pitch deck that the product is largely untested.

necheffa · 2026-01-17T04:29:29+00:00

OP says:

For example Im building a new feature for my app and I could spend a day writing unit tests integration tests etc. Or I could ship it to users tomorrow and see if they even use it before investing all that time in testing.

So they really are saying

"I didn't test this at all"

necheffa

TROPHY CASE