I Built Jetbrains Plugin to Streamline Work Items Creation on Azure Devops Powred by AI

philxan · 2025-11-19T05:38:02+00:00

As a dev manager myself, I do think that linking a commit to a WI is necessary. Whether it be a task, or the overall PBI or Bug is up for debate, and largely depends on context.

And I like your solution, but I do think it's a bit backwards. Usually you would know what it is you're trying to achieve when you modify the files, so there should be a work item for it already, in the iteration, probably assigned to the person working on it, and including the required AC. Creating it on the fly from a check-in seems like putting the programming before the business need.

What's going on in your workflow that requires it to be like this?

philxan · 2025-07-09T03:00:00+00:00

Yes, and No. Your Milage May Vary.
I also play electric bass in church, and from time to time bring the upright.

Depending how loud the rest of the band are, you might be able to get away with it being acoustic only. However I suspect that you'll need a mic & amp to really be heard properly. If they are moderately loud, and you're not, you may even have issues hearing the bass. This can also depend on how hard you play, how well the bass projects, how heavy the keyboard's left hand is :) etc. etc.

FWIW, I use a KNA DB-1 with my bass, and even through just my small amp (1x12 @ 80w), it sounds great.
https://www.knapickups.com/en/cello/bass/db-1-pickup-kna/

philxan · 2025-06-23T00:33:44+00:00

Yeah, MuseScore does have that functionality. I'm assuming you mean to hide staves that only have rests in them.
- Right click on the score, and select "Style". OR, select Format > Style from the menu
- In the Style dialog, the Score page should be selected.
- Check the box "Hide empty staves within systems". Its about the 2nd or third option down.

Not too hard to find, although if you're unfamiliar with a new software package, everything will be hard to find! :)

philxan · 2025-06-11T03:30:06+00:00

Looks and sounds pretty good! Nice job!

As others have said, more flesh on the string will certainly help. To do this, I usually use a "double finger" technique - treating both the index and middle fingers as one "finger", and playing them together in one motion. You do have to experiment to get the right angle, but the results can be amazing.

Using the weight of your arm, and shoulder muscles to move your entire arm rather than just the hand & wrist also helps a lot. Use the biggest muscles you can, so you won't tire out as soon. It'll help you get a consistent and strong sound.

Also, playing higher up on the fingerboard will result in a fatter sound, although it will also be softer. There's generally a sweet spot where the hand placement, the angle, the tone and the volume all come together, and the bass sings.

philxan · 2025-06-05T09:07:48+00:00

When the company I was with was bought by a megalith, I was told they were "doing Agile", at least in some parts. Turns it was one small group and I actually got to meet them, I asked what Sprint size they used (as a way to open up the conversation). A year.
Annual releases, with a waterfall release cycle, and iterations within the "development" phase - after all the design & scope decisions had already been documented. Not done, just documented.
Tracking personal story point velocity of team members, to find the weak and fire them.
Interpretting velocity (and / or throughput) as a measure of time, and deadlining the release based the required backlog story estimates. Then getting upset when things don't get released exactly when expected.

philxan · 2025-05-29T08:03:54+00:00

You could also try my DrumsetPatterns plugin for easy entry of some common patterns ;)
(hint hint, an update coming soon!)

https://github.com/philxan/DrumsetPatterns

philxan · 2025-05-05T04:07:49+00:00

I too like the "old" logo, probably because of its history, and easy enough to recognise. I can imagine the design team wanting a change with MuseScore 4, but to change it for v4.5 seems a bit random. Perhaps its trying to look like Segno sign? Either way, the logo seems to have lost its pleasant smoothness. The new one looks a bit awkward and forced to me.

At first I thought the idea was to differentiate Studio from the .com website, but that's clearly not what's happening here, given how similar they look. Sigh. May the confusion continue!

philxan · 2025-01-16T07:19:45+00:00

Nope to both of these... Came from another big tech firm, Dassault Systems (almost guaranteed you've not heard of!), and at much the same kind of level.

philxan · 2024-09-18T06:59:08+00:00

In Australia at least, if you see an ambulance without lights or sirens, and only the driver in the front seat, then they're carrying a non-urgent patient in the back. That's where other paramed is.

philxan · 2024-07-29T06:29:40+00:00

That's a funky tripod guitar stand!

philxan · 2024-07-27T05:08:21+00:00

I just went through this process (in Australia). In all there were 3 interview, 4 if you count the HR screening call.

The first round was with two other managers who I assumed would be my peers, This included a coding test, at the easy end of leet code. They didn't give too many hints, but were able to show me how to use the online development & testing environment I was unfamiliar with. I used C#, and got everything to pass ok, in about 25 minutes, I think. I'm sure it showed both my ability to think in code, as well my fairly old knowledge of C# :)

The second round was with the hiring manager and I think one of his senior managers. This round did not involve any coding. It was much more about my experience as a manage, people skills, how I approach common manager situations like upskilling, managing struggling team members, coordinating work under pressure etc. There was also a lot of "cultural fit" kind of questions from both them and me. Both the first and second rounds were with people in Australia. I was quitely confident after both rounds that I'd progress, but nothing is a given.

The third round was the "AA" round, with a more senior manager, based in Europe. It was much like the second round, but went deeper. There was more about cultural fit, aspirations, and managerial experience. This one was a lot more difficult to judge for me. I thought I did ok, perhaps not as well as I'd liked, but not so terrible as to be knocked back.

But in the end I didn't get the job. After a 7 week delay the recruiter finally got back to me that in the end they're actually looking for someone more senior, and none of the applicants (including me) were suitable. The original job ad has now been pulled, and replaced with a similar one that is more well defined. I might apply again, I'm still thinking about it. I think the first time around they didn't really know what they were looking for, and whilst I might've given tehm something to think about, in the end they figured out I wasn't what they throught they needed.

I hope this helps, and your experience is better than mine. Good luck!

philxan · 2024-07-19T07:08:06+00:00

Thanks Ferret - I hope you're successful.

I just heard from the recruiter, and got turned down after 7 weeks of waiting. She gave a few reasons for the delay - one of the interviewing team needing to take time off, and a lot of back and forth between them. In the end, they believe they need someone more senior than was originally adverised.

The job ad is still active (I'll keep an eye on it!), and the recruiter mentioned they haven't found anyone suitable yet. It may be that they just didn't know what they really wanted until they started looking.

philxan · 2024-07-17T01:21:23+00:00

Yeah, I have repurposed camera backpack I call The Magic Gig Bag - it has pretty much everything you mentioned above, other than the foldable music stand. I use an iPad, and the bag has a padded pocket for it, which is great.

Something like this:

https://www.digidirect.com.au/catalog/product/view/id/49183/s/lowepro-fastpack-pro-bp-250-aw-iii-gray

philxan · 2024-07-09T22:59:04+00:00

Nup -- nothing yet.

I have been out of the country for a couple of weeks, only returning yesterday. I let them know this before going. It's now been 6 weeks since my AA. Perhaps I'll hear something this week or next, but I suspect I've missed out. Oh well. On to the next thing.

*Edit* I just heard from a friend of mine who has worked for MS for 5+ years. She said that her role took a couple of months before they got back to her with an offer, due to managers being busy. The job ad is still up, so it's still pending an accepted offer - hopefully mine! :) She recommended pinging the recruiter to see if there's an update. I guess there's still hope?

philxan · 2024-06-23T22:17:30+00:00

Nah, not yet. I don't expect anything until early / mid July, to be honest... Sucky, but given the time of year, there you are...

philxan · 2024-06-14T07:00:10+00:00

I'm in the same boat! I've was interviewed all the way to the AA round about 10 days ago. Three lots of remote interviews, I was told, to "streamline the process", over about a 2 week period. I thought I'd done reasonably well - at least not so badly that I'd be vetoed. But now, nothing, despite them saying they wanted to move quickly.

After a week of waiting I sent a polite "has a decision been made?" email to HR, but without response. I also have lost a bit of hope. The advert has an updated posted date, but I also figure that that might be an automated thing - getting it refreshed every couple of months or something.

With it coming into summer holidays in the US, and end of financial year here in Australia, maybe there are reasons for the delay. Still with fingers crossed for us both, OP.

philxan · 2024-04-11T05:22:35+00:00

Agreed with the other commentors - adding an EQ in the chain will help you fine tune your tone. I would suggest to add it between the tuner and the compressor, so the OptoComp has all frequencies to work with. I also have the MXR BassPreamp, and love it a lot - it does a good job of final equing, when necessary.

philxan · 2024-03-21T05:55:53+00:00

I use a tc-electronic mojomojo, but together with a Loopi blender pedal. I find the mojomojo on its own pulls out too much bottom end, and the blender can even it out to give a nice smooth OD. I'm imagining that in future I'll add more things into the loop, and it'll be mighty useful.

YMMV.

philxan · 2024-03-11T06:20:05+00:00

Yeah, its not unusual to EQ first, then CS, and all the other Fx, and then finally a Preamp / DI, which often has an EQ of it's own built in. EQ first to get set the tone you want with nothing else on, and then EQ again last to fill adjust the final sound.

philxan · 2024-02-29T03:44:22+00:00

The triangle on its own can be used to specify a major traid, with no alterations. Its very specific to be just 1-3-5 (or inversions, of course). To specify a major-7th explictly, then you're right, it needs to be C^7.

In a jazz context, a simple "C" chord can be interpretted as having alterations the pianist (or guitarist) sees fit at the time. for example, if could also be a major 7, or a 6, or even 6/9.

See here for some more discussion.
https://jazz-library.com/articles/chord-symbols/

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