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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • This is a serious bummer all around. But wow, does that article suck on its lack of detail. But I guess actually digging into the facts wouldn’t make for clickable headlines. “Oooooh, DRONES!”

    1. There are Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) in place for that region.

    1. Was the drone part of monitoring/firefighting efforts? If it was, that is a terrible error on the part of the sUAS operator and observer. Then again, smoke and fire, which would make for a less interesting story. “Drone participating in firefighting hits plane.” Editor: Boooring! Let’s make it vague so we can cash in on some drone fears.

    2. Lots of drones won’t even fly in a TFR zone. More professional drones will warn the pilot AND provide a warning about planes in proximity.

    3. All sUAS 250 grams and larger are required to have RemoteID. Plenty of drones won’t even fly unless the RemoteID is functioning fully. And if it shits the bed during flight, lots of drones will just automatically land. Again, except for more professional models or for small cheapies. So one of two things are true: the FAA knows exactly who the responsible party is, or the operator is an utter douchecanoe


  • But is it similar to how a compiler uses high level syntax to generate low level assembly code?

    This is an apt comparison, actually.

    Is compiling a type of automatic code generation?

    This is also an apt comparison. Most modern languages are interpreted rather than compiled. C#*, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl… these all sit on top of runtimes or virtual machines such as .NET or JVM. Compilation is a process of turning human-readable language into assembly. Interpreting turns human-readable programming language into instructions for the runtime; in the case of .NET, C# gets interpreted into MSIL which tells the .NET runtime what to do, which in turn tells the hardware what to do.

    Automatic code generation is more of “Hey computer, look at that code. Now translate that code to do different things, but use these templates I made.”

    FWIW, compilers was two semesters in engineering school, so I’m trying to keep this discussion accessible.

    *Before anyone rightfully and correctly jumps on my shit about C#, yes, I know C# is technically a compiled language.


  • Is automatic code generation LLM

    Not at all. In my case, automatic code generation is a process of automated parsing of an existing Ruby on Rails API code plus some machine-readable comments/syntax I created in the RoR codebase. The way this API was built and versioned, no existing Gem could be used to generate docs. The code generation part is a set of C# “templates” and a parser I built. The parser takes the Ruby API code plus my comments, and generates unit and integration tests for nUnit. This is probably the most common use case for automatic code generation. But… doesn’t building unit tests based on existing code potentially create a bad unit test? I’m glad you asked!

    The API endpoints are vetted and have their own RoR tests. We rebuilt this API in something more performant than Ruby before we moved it to the cloud. I also built generators that output ASP.NET API endpoint stubs with documentation. So the stubs just get filled out and the test suite is already built. Run Swashbuckle on the new code and out comes the OpenAPI spec, which is then used to build our documentation site and SDKs. The SDKs and docs site are updated in lockstep with any changes to the API.

    Edit: extra word and spaces


  • I tightly curated my feeds to stick to trusted sources on specific topics. The most “controversial” topic in my feed might be how to cook certain things certain ways or maybe business analysis. The rest of my topics are known, trustworthy primary sources for things such as software, electrical, and mechanical engineering, culinary science and techniques.

    There’s also a bunch of “how to more efficiently do [thing that I already do] with [system I already use/own].” It’s pretty difficult to get suckered into misinformation on techniques for automatic code generation in C# or how to cook a carbonara sauce from the author whose books I already own.

    Something that really helps is never clicking on anything like “I should have bought this years ago” or any similar shit. I realize that I might be missing out on things that would actually make a certain task easier. But if it’s really life changing, I’m sure one of my trusted sources, online or otherwise, will get around to suggesting it to me.

    Staying away from talking heads, even ones I like, goes a very long way to preventing blatant bullshit ever getting suggested. I click quite often on “don’t suggest again.” It’s a chunk of effort up front, but then it’s a small amount of maintenance from there.


  • I have a different perspective. Sure, we want talent in our country. Let’s set aside that H-1B is an abusive program only a half-step away from indentured servitude. Can we agree that we actually want all nations’ citizens to be healthy, well-educated, and high functioning? If we can agree on that point, we should work to enable and empower those workers in their home countries.

    This obviously requires other factors: penalties for offshoring, compulsory unions, strong unions, limiting corporate power, strong environmental protection… And while I’m dreaming, I still want an RC car for Xmas.

    But seriously, brain drain is real. And pulling talent from other countries is just colonization on a smaller scale, but with serious impacts for both countries involved. If US corporations can’t compete without importing talent, all while refusing to invest in our citizens, they deserve to be consigned to the scrapheap.


  • It absolutely happens. Most of my long term partners were that “sparks at first sight” energy. In high school, my first girlfriend and I saw each other from across the bus waiting zone, and it was on. Even our parents were blown away by our chemistry. Unfortunately, she died of acute lymphocytic leukemia two years later. My first wife and I spotted each other from across a nightclub dancefloor. I thought she gave me a fake phone number, but turned out to be real. I was on a bike tour, stopped at a winery, and met an amazing woman who became my second wife 18 months later.

    But here’s the problem with that instant connection: it’s almost always a very bad sign. Those instant sparks are indicative of non-verbal cues that both people fit a mutually faulty template. For people who have unaddressed trauma, that template is just waiting to be matched, and it produces disastrous results in the majority of relationships. John Gottman at University of Washington has studied intimate interpersonal dynamics in depth; he and his lab have literally written the book(s) on how to have healthy, fulfilling relationships. Spoiler alert: instant attraction should be a red flag for about 99% of the population.

    But yeah, get professional help.





  • A huge factor is occupancy rates, which directly affect commercial real estate values which in turn affect interest rates on the loans for a given property. Commercial real estate loans are reevaluated every ten years and a low occupancy rate results in higher interest rates because the property is determined to be lower value. For example, Amazon is pushing RTO so hard because the South Lake Union properties are coming up on their ten year mark. Even a tiny increase in interest rate would result in (IIRC) billions in interest payments over the next ten years. Corporations are willing to risk the unknown labor/skills carnage than face the known interest payments carnage.

    The other factors are getting people to quit so that unemployment/severance don’t need to be paid and managers with control issues. It’s all contemptible, but that’s what’s going on there.

    As an aside, I work in software. Even in compliance-intensive environments (think: auditing, national security), some forward-looking multinational corps are going remote-only. And the really nimble players are remote-first. They get their pick of top talent at lower pay rates. I gladly take ~50% less to work from wherever I want on a flexible schedule without ever sitting in traffic. I think we’re going to see a shakeup in the top ten companies because new entrants are going to get superlative talent.


  • Oh, I skip FB and IG ads completely. It’s crazy: I didn’t even have to install anything, and the ads just disappeared one day.

    But seriously, the “your attention is being monetized” model makes for such an awful experience for me. I’m envious of people who can enjoy the world and the Internet when ads are everywhere.





  • My BS, unprovable hypothesis: The Golden Age of Piracy was actually a successful Socialist movement, with Nassau being a disruptively successful enclave of Socialism in action. The pirates deeply threatened the budding power structures in the US (not conjecture) and the entrenched powers in Europe. While some powers, most notably royalty, were willing to use pirates as mercenaries (privateers), there was an excess of democracy and human concern (somewhat my conjecture) among the Nassau pirates. The Nassau pirates had pensions, a form of worker’s comp, disability, democratic command structures at sea, and healthcare (such as it was given the era). According to the historical texts on the Nassau pirates, there were almost no written records, which strikes me as especially odd since they had so many long-running financial and governing processes.



  • Having seen firsthand what happens when someone unknowingly enters a hypoxic enclosed space, I think the difference is foreknowledge. Thrashing sounds like acidosis from holding one’s breath. I was helping an acquaintance work on his old steel boat. There was a watertight compartment. The risk of steel-enclosed spaces is that rusty steel in an enclosed space can consume all of the oxygen, leaving only nitrogen rich air.

    He opened the hatch and, before I could stop him, he just strode on in like it was nothing. He was unconscious before I could get to him, maybe ten seconds. Fortunately, he was near enough to the hatch that I could just reach in and grab him, rather than trying to find an air tank and regulator, and then put it on.

    He recovered just fine, but had a terrible headache. He didn’t remember anything about it. He didn’t thrash. There was no drama. He walked in and fell unconscious. Lucky for him it was a small space, so the bulkheads kept him from doing a full header into the steel deck.