alexfoo

17 ms·

181.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
Masking is hugely mentally draining. I masked for years but recently (possibly linked to some bereavements in the family, who knows what the actual trigger was if there even was one single trigger) the constant effort required just burned m
182.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
> I find all these conversation around neuro-divergence extremely weird, for the simple reason that I have a never seen a proper definition of what a "normal" person actually is, and for good and obvious reasons: The problem is
183.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
Also the NHS ADHD/ASD services are completely overrun. Waiting lists for children can be more than 5 years long. In order to cope with this the NHS has spun out much of the ADHD/ASD assessments through the Right To Choose program
184.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
> The day-to-day impact of being diagnosed is practically non-existant for me. Yeah, as the old adage goes: with an ADH?D diagnosis you get to try drugs like lisdex or methylphenidate (or the non-stim options if those aren't suitabl
185.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
> Once you can you really start to appreciate the work that folks like your friend do. That can be a real double edged sword. When you realise how good things can be it means many of the everyday/average things can become intolerabl
186.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
Gutted about this. I use Zipcars 4-5 times a month specifically to get to things that are unreachable by public transport within reasonable timeframes. What can be 45 minutes in a Zipcar can sometimes be more than 2 hours by public transpor
187.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
Not sure. I covered them during my Comp Sci degree in the mid/late 90s. I'm probably not even implementing them properly but whatever I do implement tends to work. Just checked my copy of TAOCP (Vol 3 - Sorting and Searching) and
188.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
No, the puzzles are every day from the 1st to the 12th inclusive. From https://adventofcode.com/2025/about : " Why did the number of days per event change? It takes a ton of my free time every year to run Advent of
189.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
Either Russia (8am) or West Coast US (9pm) would be my preferred options. Sadly it's 5am for me as I'm in the UK. In 8 years I can say I've never once tried to be awake at 5am in order to do the puzzle. The one time I happene
190.
by alexfoo 10mo ago
I disagree, the odd few are quite simple and can be done with pencil and paper. https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/1 for example. It's not hard to do part 1 by hand. You need two numbers from the input list (o
191.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Yeah, time is almost certainly the thing that kills most people's progress but that's not the root cause. I think it comes down to experience, exposure to problems, and the ability to recognise what the problem boils down to. A co
192.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
The group of people for which the problems are "too easy" is probably quite small. According to Eric last year ( https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/1hly9dw/2024_... ) there were 559 p
193.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Some part of me would love a job that was effectively solving AoC type problems all the time, but then I'd probably burn out pretty quickly if that's all I ever had to do. Sometimes it's nice to have a break by writing a load
194.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Got to agree. I'm even surprised at just how little progress many of my friends and ex-colleagues over the years make given that they hold down reasonable developer jobs.
195.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Perl is my starting point. It has many of the required structures (hashes/maps, ad hoc structs, etc) and is great for knocking up a rough and ready prototype of something. It's also quick to write (but often unforgiving). I can al
196.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Looking forward to it but also sad that it is "only" 12 puzzles, but I completely respect Eric's decision to scale it back. I've got 500 stars (i.e. I've completed every day of all 10 previous years) but not always
197.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
It depends on the individual problem, some have a smaller problem space than others so unique inputs would be tricky for everyone. But there are enough possible inputs that most people shouldn't come across anyone else with exactly the
198.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
> The idea of being constantly monitored by a megacorp tracking all my movements wih their swarm of cameras to feed us personalized ads is utterly dystopian indeed. That's very similar to the basis of _The Circle_ by Dave Eggers.
199.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
> The BBC was able to access the PDF version of the OBR's key report at 11:45 on Wednesday by replacing the word 'March' with 'November' in the web address of a previous edition. Simple URL prediction. You don&#x
200.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
The old Warner stand at Lord's cricket ground used to be where the press watched from (before the new Media Centre was built). The urinals in old stand used to have windows above them looking out over the pitch so that the journalists
201.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
It’s almost certainly not because of the advance fee scam. You don’t have to meet many Nigerians before you find one that claims to be some kind of a Prince back home. Nigeria used to be hundreds/thousands of separate kingdoms and many
202.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
Yeah, I'm going to take Internet advice to get on some medication that I don't have any real need to get on. I can live with the variance thanks.
203.
by alexfoo 11mo ago
White coast hypertension isn't just about a clinical setting, it's more generally about the worry about the results of having your BP measured. [EDIT] OK, well maybe there's another type of hypertension which is related to an
204.
by alexfoo 1y ago
> 1 - ((1-45000)/45000)^(365 10) = 0.08 I think you mean: 1 - ((45000-1)/45000)^(365*10) = 0.08 Whilst it doesn't matter if the exponent is even (such as 3650 above) using (1-45000)/45000 will give a wrong es
205.
by alexfoo 1y ago
Taxis exist.
206.
by alexfoo 2y ago
I live in an apartment in London. In daily/weekly use: 2 x Outer front door keys (shared with apartment above) - one Yale type, one deadbolt type 2 x Apartment front door keys- one Yale type, one deadbolt 1 x Bicycle storage key 2 x Bi
207.
by alexfoo 2y ago
Infomercial is one existing word for it.
208.
by alexfoo 3y ago
The UK has a concept of a BritRail pass for people from outside the UK. It's currently £568 for a month long pass. That would be £6816 for a year, although (again) "You can use a BritRail Pass if you’re not a UK citizen and have n
209.
by alexfoo 3y ago
Finally Year of the Linux Desktop?
210.
by alexfoo 3y ago
I think I was in Lowell for a few weeks helping out on some App Packs when I heard about the acquisition. Working with JFK? and another guy with a short nickname that escapes me right now. Wedge?

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