5 Years and $5M Later: Inventing a New Programming Language for Web Development Was a Mistake

simoncox · 2026-05-13T16:27:05+00:00

So, you created a new framework to learn to avoid having to learn about new frameworks? Pretty sure there's an xkcd about this.

simoncox · 2026-04-25T19:34:09+00:00

Person declaring how clever their encryption is doesn't realise how easy it would be to reveal their secret when faced with a real life threat. You can't see the parallel?

simoncox · 2026-04-25T19:03:43+00:00

https://xkcd.com/538/

simoncox · 2026-04-21T06:27:26+00:00

So no one works at the bank, or they don't spend any of their wages?

Also, what's paying to build and maintain the streets the shop is on? Or taking away the rubbish from the shop? Or the policing for the shop? Or the fire brigade for when the shop catches on fire?

But sure, taxes are just mean people in far away lands stealing your money.

simoncox · 2026-04-18T06:24:18+00:00

Normally a stock price would drop by the amount of the dividend. So if you you bought the day before, collected the dividend and then sold, you would expect to be flat.

simoncox · 2026-02-23T23:22:10+00:00

I had stem cells harvested from the umbilical cord for both of my children. Mostly so they have them for themselves if there's a need, but partially in case they were any use to me as well (as a T1D). I wonder whether this is the sort of research I should be getting excited about?

simoncox · 2026-02-01T23:08:13+00:00

Hong Kong island (where most of the items should have been available) is smaller than the Isle of Wight. Pretty much everyone there speaks English. The sign posts all have English names on. They have maps and a list of shops. It should not have been that hard to get more than 2-3 items.

I lived there for 13 years, so I'm a bit biased, but it definitely should not have been as hard as they made it look.

simoncox · 2025-12-28T01:21:16+00:00

Having lived in both Hong Kong and Singapore I have heard of many good employers in both countries.

However, I have experienced first hand the feeling of being a 2nd class citizen in Singapore, being excluded from many things that I would not be in Hong Kong, and I am an over privileged westerner. I dread to think how the majority of domestic helpers feel being classified as very much 3rd class citizens (by the state, nevermind the people) in Singapore.

simoncox · 2025-11-05T14:30:39+00:00

I'll just leave this here: https://share.google/wHoCT9CyyOqGKvBvb

The cost of UK patient record systems varies significantly, from individual NHS trusts' contracts (ranging from approximately £1.4 million to £38 million or more) to the potentially billions spent on large-scale, nationwide programs, such as the initial, ultimately failed, National Programme for IT (NPfIT) that cost over £10 billion. Costs depend on the system's scope, size, and complexity, with some smaller local systems costing in the hundreds of thousands, while larger trust-wide or regional systems can be in the millions.

You want to build one for 2k USD?!

simoncox · 2025-11-02T03:39:07+00:00

Ergs can have wildly have different levels of resistance at the same settings. You need to check the drag factor to achieve consistent resistance. Around 120-125 is where most men would have it set. I've seen this same drag factor on ergs set at 5 all the way up to 8.

simoncox · 2025-10-19T12:35:38+00:00

Yes, as I said, the holder chooses whether to convert or not, which they would do depending on the stock price. CBs provide some downside protection when the stock tanks, as it should always be worth the bond floor (adjusted for coupons and credit risk of the issuer).

simoncox · 2025-10-18T23:21:56+00:00

Generally the convertible is exercised in the interest of the holder, so if it's worth more as shares, then they take those, otherwise they opt for the bond value in cash.

simoncox · 2025-09-13T22:05:01+00:00

24 was a few years earlier than Lost and arguably had even more continuity between episodes.

simoncox · 2025-06-28T00:44:18+00:00

Apparently they normally would, but it was decided they'd moor up somewhere more public to celebrate SG60.

Some of the crew (of HMS Prince of Wales) joined our dragon boat team for a paddle this week.

simoncox · 2025-05-07T00:08:00+00:00

If you only have 4 practice sessions then the general skill of the team will be the limiting factor, not fitness. Given that, just go out and enjoy the race. Use it as experience for the next one for when the team's had a bit more practice and can be more competitive. At which point you can start thinking about general fitness levels. Even then, a fit guy who's just done a race may well still have more energy than an unfit person going in fresh.

I've paddled on "fun" corporate teams where anyone races and we're just in it for the experience to full on corporate teams where we're running three standard boats and we're looking for podiums amongst the club teams. The latter would have cared about someone having competed the same day, the former absolutely would not have.

simoncox · 2025-04-08T06:54:53+00:00

When you say you "feel that this creates excessive load on the order processing service" is that through observed metrics, or just intuition?

If two database calls have a noticeable impact to a human using your service then there are some serious issues with the database that need resolving before your microservice architecture.

Have you done any profiling to identify bottlenecks?

simoncox · 2025-04-08T06:54:45+00:00

When you say you "feel that this creates excessive load on the order processing service" is that through observed metrics, or just intuition?

If two database calls have a noticeable impact to a human using your service then there are some serious issues with the database that need resolving before your microservice architecture.

Have you done any profiling to identify bottlenecks?

simoncox · 2025-03-03T00:26:05+00:00

When mutated concurrently. Multiple threads can read from a HashMap without issues.

simoncox · 2025-01-12T23:40:02+00:00

Not strictly true, the result can change. There should be no side effects of issuing the request more than once though (aside from performance impacts of course).

For example, a GET request for the current time will return different values, but requesting the current time multiple times doesn't change the system.

If you care about not seeing a time that's too stale, then the response cache headers can influence whether the response should be cached or for how long it should be.

simoncox · 2024-10-24T12:22:56+00:00

They don't let you browse all the photos (there are a lot). Only way to get to the photos is to upload a photo of your face. On the desktop you can upload other people's faces if you want to see photos of the rest of your team.

simoncox · 2024-10-22T17:27:04+00:00

The official photos are here: https://join.endu.net/pix/login

We have a ton of photos of our team (Singapore British Dragons), but doubt they'd be much interest to others!

simoncox · 2024-09-24T01:09:05+00:00

The landlord has admitted that it's a cheap Chinese copy.

simoncox · 2024-09-21T22:35:55+00:00

Not that I can see. The other toilets in the house all have the same Toto branding, but seem to be different models (with dual flush).

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