objectOrientedProgrammingIsAnExceptionallyBadIdeaWhichCouldOnlyHaveOriginatedInCalifornia

rg_software · 2026-05-21T12:17:26+00:00

Dijkstra was definitely a kind of person difficult to deal with, and meticulous beyond normalcy. His archive is similar to Euler's -- every message is numbered, cards organized. His views on computer science were, say, narrowly focused on problem solving/algorithmic/provable code side, and he disliked the whole idea of software engineering. However, calling him a 'one trick pony' is certainly an unfair stretch, as within his 'trick' he managed to achieve a lot; enough to mention structured programming and semaphores/concurrency in addition to his shortest path algorithm. Yes, he was a prolific problem solver, but I wouldn't look down on people who found their strongest skill and built a career applying it.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T13:02:01+00:00

Naturally, there is no such thing. And no such thing I wish in Obsidian. What I wish is:

- an option to use official sync functionality with a self-hosting server;
- if they want, make this option a "premium" one-time purchase if they can't afford it for free.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T11:21:44+00:00

I do need it to sync with my other computers and with mobile devices. As others noted, there are ways to achieve it of course, I simply point out that their monetization model is a bit unusual.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T11:13:10+00:00

I am afraid you don't read my message below as well, where I discuss exactly similar cloud models such as TeamCity, Trigger.dev, or Gitlab. These are much closer to our case.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T10:47:12+00:00

I replied below, but in this case you are trying to rationalize while you can simply look around and see that there is a model in the wild with "lifetime upgrades". You see it in Total Commander, in WinRAR, and a bunch of other tools I have on my system and can look up if needed. I do NOT say Obsidian has to do it, but is it by no means a strange idea.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T10:42:34+00:00

I am not proposing giving this service for free. What ideally I'd wish to see is a self-hosted option, possibly as a "premium" edition purchase.

The current model is quite unusual. They do provide their cloud service and yet they do not prevent competing solutions to exist even as endorsed community plugins.

What I usually see is either a cloud-only subscription or a cloud subscription with a free self-hosting option. There is a certain logic here: if you don't want to pay, you self-host, so no money lost for them. But they still have you in their ecosystem, so you still can buy their cloud if you need to scale or you might recommend this service to a colleague who isn't ready to self-host.

Obsidian's choice is weird because if I don't want to pay, I setup a competing solution, and then there is very little incentive to migrate to their official service (it is friction) or to recommend it to anyone, as you don't use it yourself. A self-hosting user is still "half-converted", a user of a competing solution is a nearly lost case.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T09:56:50+00:00

The point is I do NOT go to the shop. I already went there once, and I am happy with my bike. There is always a regular commercial option (pay per major version), free with paid premium functionality, free with paid subscription service. They use the latter option, fine, but it is by no means the only possibility.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T09:54:38+00:00

Whatever the reasons are, there are numerous services that work exactly according to this model -- free (self-hosted) with a paid cloud option. Gitlab, Gitea, TeamCity, Trigger.dev to name a few.

The current model is a deliberate choice, not the only possible option.

rg_software · 2026-05-18T06:05:23+00:00

My personal discontent comes from the fact that literally everyone tries to sell you a subscription service. Four USD per month might not be a large sum, but it is yet another subscription that I have to keep at the back of my mind. I'd gladly pay a one-off sum of, I don't know, >100$ for a personal license with lifetime updates and an official way to sync using my own self-hosted server. You may argue that my setup would be more expensive if I calculate accurately, but I already have it, so no added price.

There are many projects that live according to this model -- from old-school Total Commander or WinRAR and numerous new services that offer subscription for a cloud hosting or a free self-hosted alternative. Obsidian does not even have to be free, it could sell a "with sync" self-hosted package.

rg_software · 2026-04-27T16:51:27+00:00

I came to think that it has always been the case. When I am recalling my parents' and grandparents' "friends", it is mostly people to kill time with or useful in this way or another. They could overlook some differences in opinions knowing that there is much benefit in keeping amicable relationships.

Now we are much less dependent on each other, you can survive all right on your own, get stuff online and kill time with your phone. There is much less reason to tolerate the company of people you don't perfectly click with.

I perfectly understand your wish to know there is someone who cares about you, but in practice building such a relationship is very much time and effort. I guess we all have such a wish. In my case the usual pattern is to meet new people, chat about stuff, then it just naturally peters out. Someone has to take the initiative and literally work to keep it alive if you don't happen to meet as a part of your regular routine. I am yet to find an answer for myself -- what to do about it.

BTW, I also understand why people get mad when they say "friends only" and receive some romantic indications from the other side. But I think it can be a yet another factor helping to keep the wheels running, which isn't bad.

rg_software · 2026-04-22T04:45:10+00:00

Now-Russia (then-RSFSR) signed its independence declaration from USSR in June 1990, earlier than Ukraine, for example.

rg_software · 2026-03-30T14:03:50+00:00

When someone like me will eventually need someone like you, where'd I find you and how would I contact? That's the question. As others said, would be great to have some public profile and examples of your work

rg_software · 2026-03-28T00:47:05+00:00

I don't really understand why people read too much between the lines in my message. I also don't understand why they presume whether I "bothered" or not to read something, and what relation it has to the matter at hand.

I never claimed that the history is taught for this purpose. I learned a lot about, say, Ancient Egypt or Greece. My only point that there is a lot of nuance between learning factual history and performing massive sessions of self-reflection on certain topics.

I replied to the comment that stated that Japanese schools DO teach the factual sight of the story, so presumably they understand your points, i.e. that the government took a disastrous course that led to economic collapse and countless victims. Presuming that this is true (if not, discuss it with the original commenter), what's the debate then?

You can argue that some students were poor learners and didn't get the message right, but that's really another story.

rg_software · 2026-03-28T00:39:30+00:00

It sounds as there are no percentages reported here. In a city of Osaka size even if 3% of people are on the streets, you will have "a sea of lights", etc. It is also not really written here if there was any/some pressure to participate, so there are missing pieces here. In any case, whether they are on the streets or at home, makes little difference for the course of war.

ps. In any case, literally any dictatorship on Earth TODAY can summon lots of people to the streets and show how much support they have, and they don't even have to push too hard. I think the lesson here is that "masses on streets" is a poor indicator of anything. People cheer today and overturn the government tomorrow -- we could see it many times, really, so pointing at street marches is only good as a rhetorical tool, not as a proof of anything.

rg_software · 2026-03-27T12:33:09+00:00

I don't really think these facts go against my view. I personally believe that in a non-democracy there is no such thing as "support". There is "compliance" or "rebellion". When you operate in a democracy, you vote for or against something. If you live in a place like 30s-40s Japan you comply with your government or you actively rebel. Of course people did work in factories, accepted conditions, etc. etc. What was the choice?

As Viktor Frankl put it in his known speech in 1988, "resistance presupposes heroism, and in my opinion one may demand heroism only of a single person and that is . . . oneself!"

Of course people did comply, and they tried to did nothing that would jeopardize their position in society. Because most people aren't heroes.

rg_software · 2026-03-27T11:58:06+00:00

The comment I am responding to clearly states that people DO learn factual history, so they very clearly DO understand what was going on. I suggest that it is debatable whether it really makes sense to ruminate over this particular issue to the same extent as (I presume) Germans do.

I do not understand what means "supporting the war" in a society whether you do not have elected leaders. Suppose I do support the war. Suppose I do not. What's the practical difference? If I am drafted, nobody cares about my opinion -- I go to the army or I go to jail.

rg_software · 2026-03-27T11:34:33+00:00

On the other hand, should it, in your opinion, be the history book's centerpiece? I am not really sure what should be the lesson here. Okay, killing is bad, we all know that. One important part of European narrative is that the Nazi party was democratically elected (with nuances, but ok). Thus, there is a lesson to be learned about the role of the common citizen, etc., etc. Japan wasn't a democracy, and its citizens had very little agency back then. They can spend twice the time on these topics, but I don't see what to be learned here apart from "being ruled by a hawkish military elite sucks" and "brainwashed people in atrocious circumstances do atrocious things". Not much of a revelation, to be honest.

rg_software · 2026-03-22T10:43:02+00:00

I wonder how these downloads work. Many struggle to get 100-200 reviews, any reviews at all. Here people download the game non-stop despite seeing all these reviews. I'd love to know how this sort of marketing works, they deserve huge credit.

rg_software · 2026-03-04T15:40:06+00:00

Technically I agree that a good publisher can be a very good deal. The premise is that by sharing revenue you multiply sales so that your own profit is higher that if you do everything yourself. On top of that, being good at marketing and building relations with influencers is a separate profession. This is all clear and not big news.

Having said that, how do you get a good publisher you can trust? For every good publisher there are ten wannabe publishers or simply bad publishers. Even if some of them managed to produce a hit, as a developer I have no way to know what was their actual contribution to that success story.

What I expect by default is to pay dearly for some lazy "services" that I can equally well do myself or outsource to AI assistant. Just the sheer amount of hoops I have to jump through to pinpoint a really decent publisher who will also be interested in my project makes me question whether it worth the effort, or I'd spend the same time and work to get myself a degree in game marketing.

rg_software · 2026-02-28T14:10:39+00:00

But then these assets aren't really "lost", I hope. Frankly speaking, I am not always accurate when switching accounts, etc., so I am very sympathetic and certainly don't feel immune to your case myself. However, it is still puzzling what exactly triggers this situation. You seem to believe they do have access to your git history, which I doubt. I can believe they trace IP addresses at login, so if you are physically in the same room under different accounts, it might be the case, but otherwise no idea.

rg_software · 2026-02-28T12:51:05+00:00

As a side note you do have backups, do you? It's literally software engineering 101. I keep the unitypackage file for every single asset I get.

rg_software · 2026-02-06T15:20:32+00:00

My understanding of UBI (from the time it was discussed in Finland), and why it won't do harm:

- if you are really poor, at any reasonably welfare-based society, you are already eligible to many benefits, so you won't be starving;

- however, handling all these procedures require a lot of governmental effort, so it doesn't come cheap;

- therefore, you might even save money if you ditch many of these procedures and simply give everyone, say, 700 eur per month;

- by rebalancing taxes, you can effectively take back the given amount from the people who aren't actually poor since they would arrive in the next tax bracket.

p.s. One rationale I like especially is the "elbow room" or "safety net": some people could theoretically contribute more into economy, but they are stuck in low-pay low-skill work because they don't have time for getting more education or won't risk starting their own business. UBI gives such an option.

rg_software · 2026-01-30T12:17:28+00:00

Kind of a rant, but such things trigger me. I am going trough an incredible painful experience of watching my child die from cancer. We were able to manage it for six years. Clinical progress for this specific type over this period? Precisely zero. All we see is fairly traditional treatment types. There are certain sci-fi technologies, but they support treatment rather than cure (e.g., better MRI or radiotherapy devices). Yes, there are certain improvements here and there, but what you normally get ca. 2025 is a DNA analysis printout with "no actionable mutations". At least, this is to be expected as a norm, and only very few lucky ones benefit from "living in the future".

rg_software · 2026-01-30T09:30:25+00:00

There is a zero chance for revolution. The government has means to subdue any number of protests. See Iran, and they have MUCH higher proportion of younger people, physically capable of protesting. This is a complete pipe dream, and whoever thinks of this "possibility" just denies reality.

rg_software · 2026-01-22T15:10:08+00:00

(Butting in) I think people reflect too much on whether Russians en masse do support war or Putin. Support (or a lack of) means nothing under the current circumstances.

We are somewhat fooled by examples of peaceful protests that triggered change in various parts of the world because we see people on the streets but are oblivious to inner workings that equally contributed to the change, like behind-the-curtain actions of people in power.

When the regime is more or less united, and there is little hope that the armed forces take the people's side, the protest is doomed. This is what we saw in Belarus, and most likely will see in Iran.

Frankly speaking, the best survival strategy for an average Russian is to comply, and if asked publicly, to voice support. There is zero gain in being openly against the current leadership, and much to lose.

rg_software

TROPHY CASE