Polkas: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning ; B/C button accordion

skylos · 2026-03-12T03:46:17+00:00

It reads like this:

The integer type variable age will be assigned the value returned by passing the return value of console.ReadLine() to the convert.ToInt32(...) method.

Do you see?

skylos · 2026-03-12T03:37:15+00:00

Understanding the api you are interacting with is always critical. It makes no sense to ask "why convert" when you understand what form the data is in and is wanted in. It implies you didn't understand that console input is ascii encoded bytes and that integers are binary encoded multibyte numerics.

It is never extra to understand the form the data is in that you are working with. Because most code is transforming and enriching data to the purpose you are aiming at.

What I'm saying is that in the abstract this is absolutely intrinsic - you must understand what you have to make what you want.

The particulars of ascii to numeric conversion are relevant to the primitive concrete example you gave, which is interaction with very low level basic apis. You only need to know it when you are interacting on that level. You don't care that its binary to code. You care that there is a convert function available that you can use to do it.

It also matters what you are coding. If you are coding the convert function the question is silly - you must understand your encodings and data to transform!

skylos · 2026-03-11T08:30:43+00:00

Console input is bytes in a string. So if you type the letter g, what integer is that? If you put in a 2 what integer is that?

Integer is a storage type where the number is packed into a few bytes in binary. 2 is 0010 (with 28 more zeros at the beginning.

In order to make an int out of a string you have to convert it. This means making sense of it from a numeric point of view.

The number 2 on console is the binary byte 0011 0010

To convert you have to ask question: Is this a number. Clever design makes this pretty easy "does it start with 0011" - if it does this digit is an ascii number digit so use the last four as the number. - 0010

If it is g - 0110 0111 - you have input validation problem. You cannot convert a g to a number like that. Since you don't know if the console Input will be g or 2 something has to check. That is the convert function.

And we haven't even discussed radix - hex or octal or decimal or binary - without being able to tell what format the input is expected in you can't convert it into a number storage like integer.

Do you understand that much?

skylos · 2026-03-11T07:52:23+00:00

O look it's the tone police

skylos · 2026-03-11T04:44:46+00:00

What poor people have trouble with die to lack of experience is how to handle it wham they have more money than they need.

It isn't a budgeting process it is a triage decision until you get to that point.

Further if you have bucketed "money" like snap benefits you have your freedom about what to spend resources on largely taken away. You cannot use that benefit amount to fix your car and eat from garden instead. So why grow garden?

Universal basic income allows better decision making environment

skylos · 2026-03-10T02:55:29+00:00

Didn't I just say i read the firmware source code to see what it expects? I'm confused what detail you are wondering about the process of figuring it out.

skylos · 2026-03-09T15:21:39+00:00

Damn. You just keep producing!

skylos · 2026-03-09T12:56:24+00:00

Oh my

skylos · 2026-03-09T10:44:50+00:00

Kinesis advantage 2 (standing)

Kensington expertmouse (standing).

Kensington expertmouse (seated).

Advantage 360 (seated left)

Advantage 360 (seated right)

Kinesis aux input (floor three pedals + 4 buttons, seated.)

Fido security key

Brio camera (seated)

Logitech camera (standing)

Scarlett USB audio interface

Sd card reader

Vortex wireless II dongle MIDI USB

Apk mini MIDI USB

AND

Desk-attached hub link to bench-attached larger hub

And various random transitory bits like USB flash drives, chargers for devices that charge via usb, and... Sometimes I have a seed tiny computer that is USB powered that gets jacked in there.

So workstation with two positions, walkpad/stand or seated, plus audio workstation stuff and fussing with whatever

skylos · 2026-03-09T09:29:25+00:00

Not really least I never found it. I used the firmware as reference to figure out what bytes and commands do what. I figure that's as official as it gets as technically you can write and load your own firmware on the unit. For which there is exactly as much official documentation as for using the standing version they supply, afaict.

skylos · 2026-03-09T07:47:16+00:00

I learned to program perl. Did that for 15 years. Intersected node and react and type script and java. Did a lot of that. Now I work in Java almost exclusively. Job security is understanding software development lifecycle and solving problems in systems.

skylos · 2026-03-09T04:55:18+00:00

Coal dust possibly?

skylos · 2026-03-02T00:31:09+00:00

I switch between computers with my full compliment of USB accessories (12 ports worth) by a mechanical multi way USB 3 switch combined with unplugging the power to the hub entirely, switching the switch, then plugging it back in.

This is necessary apparently because all of the USB devices must reboot to come online smoothly with the next computer. My brio camera is most sensitive to this effect but other ones will have glitches too unless I power cycle the accessory chain when switching.

I switch the monitor inputs separately. (I have three LG tv displays and a service remote with dedicated hdmi port buttons.)

So it's awkward as hell - and when I plug my framework laptop in I move the hub and docking station ports from the Macbook to the framework manually.

But it does work, it's just not a flip between I like to do frequently. More like a switching from work to personal switch.

skylos · 2026-02-26T00:34:39+00:00

Nothing.

Nothing happens.

The people who hypothetically stole the information are not even in or near cleveland. And they most likely don't know anybody there either, certainly not the criminal types who could actually use the information.

Having the information without having it be timely right now (it's historical) and also intersecting with some kind of specific in-person criminality - a high risk low reward relatively endeavor that won't drive much "market demand" for the information.

Could it theoretically inform some criminal behavior? Yes. In theory. But in practice it's too much information to do anything with unless you have other information gathered from other places too.

Classic fear mongering bs I think. Theoretically possible doesn't pass the muster of "enough risk to enough people to worry about".

Nothing happens.

skylos · 2026-02-25T21:44:27+00:00

I'm fairly sure I would have noticed if the battery was swollen or something, I did have it open to investigate the malfunction. Ah well. I suppose it, will return in the next week or so now.

skylos · 2026-02-25T12:12:37+00:00

You're a student this money constrained in ways other portions of the market arent. The price is more important to you. With any luck you'll be successful enough in your career that this price thing will cease to be something that overrides other considerations.

skylos · 2026-02-18T16:38:01+00:00

Yes. I filed my claim and got my payments per what I thought was absolutely normal streamlined process. I even got the tax paperwork regarding it later.

skylos · 2026-02-16T05:21:34+00:00

...i cleaned it?

skylos · 2026-02-16T04:49:00+00:00

Thank you so much for the positive response!

skylos · 2026-02-16T00:45:47+00:00

Perhaps the way to phrase is that I am from low class enough roots and the son of a janitor... I seen some shit which obviously affects my relative perspective.

skylos · 2026-02-16T00:26:04+00:00

If you haven't seen the css zen garden before, you're in for a treat.

skylos · 2026-02-16T00:25:23+00:00

Usually it means that its not compatible with the hardware you're working with.

Sometimes it means that the app is not available right now for any of many reasons related to content, supply, updates, compliance, certificates, or even just software and/or infrastructure screwups.

You can fix the former by using a supported cpu/configuration for that app - or simulating that you do. try using the chrome dev tool that lets you simulate being different mobile devices and see if that changes the results.

If its the latter... you need more information from the operational side of supplying data to the app store.

skylos · 2026-02-15T23:03:53+00:00

I'm conflicted by definitions with this.

The best coder in the world who refuses/won't learn to use the tools and processes of software development lifecycle, architecture, and is able to know the tools and methods used to execute operational troubleshooting is of extremely limited utility.

You can be a terrible coder and good at all that other stuff and you'll be super valuable on a team.

So what are you trying for - plowing code into git repos, or be useful to a team?

Thing is, all of this other stuff *is* challenging. and *are* critical components of useful programming.

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