dwc

31 ms·

241.
by dwc 11y ago
Ok, so I've spent my career as a "line engineer" (aka programmer), but in my previous job we were heading for a crisis. I stepped up to manage because there was only so much I could do to avert the crisis by typing code. I (w
242.
by dwc 11y ago
I can show you how to use a table saw and all the other tools of carpentry in a day or two. It takes a long time to become a master carpenter. Heck, it takes 30 seconds to learn to use a planer, but a good while to really learn how to use i
243.
by dwc 12y ago
You left off the following bullet point: * NetBSD technically did it first * But OpenBSD is the one who engaged with the rest of the software community to fix bugs that were uncovered Now it doesn't seem so backhanded.
244.
by dwc 12y ago
Yes, open is source indeed awesome that way. Anyone can, in theory, go chase down that bug they tripped over. And many people do! But not nearly as many people as are capable of it (say, developers with some familiarity with the language, e
245.
by dwc 12y ago
> Usually, doing something myself or my boss never had done before, and we would figure it out off the prints, and build it. Yes, of course. That's been my entire career in software as well. And I'd suggest that's what peo
246.
by dwc 12y ago
Last summer I planted a Blue Java banana plant, never having tasted one. I'm waiting rather impatiently for it to mature and fruit so I can see how they taste.
247.
by dwc 12y ago
Here in the Phoenix area Hass is usually the only thing available. Once I saw big, smooth-skinned, lighter green ones from Florida and I bought some. I was very disappointed. I'd love to try some different varieties.
248.
by dwc 12y ago
So this comes up fairly often in language learning forums. Language acquisition is an especially good example since it can take quite a long time to get to a decent point of proficiency, and often times external rewards are minimal. So find
249.
by dwc 12y ago
Yes, experience should bring improvement in all areas. Not uniform improvement, but improvement to some degree. Expect that over time you will gain significantly in some areas. Another point is that teams are ideally made of people with co
250.
by dwc 12y ago
So I've dabbled in Prolog and used it a few times, like many here. But yes, there are people doing significant and interesting work in Prolog. A friend of a friend who I followed when I was on Facebook uses Prolog quite a bit[1]. He&#x
251.
by dwc 12y ago
Years ago I worked as a developer for a company that also owned a small ISP. The sysadmin for the ISP had quit and they didn't bother to replace him, as another guy could usually keep things running. Until a huge wave of spam hit and t
252.
by dwc 12y ago
I did this, or close enough. I fastidiously added lots of small tasks, and any time I had a few minutes, or a half hour, I would scan through and find something doable and check it off. I got a LOT of stuff done. I also added the larger thi
253.
by dwc 12y ago
It can also work digitally with a text file, which may feel less lonely.
254.
by dwc 12y ago
Checking CVS[1] I see there are a few changes recently (4 weeks, 6 weeks, 2 months, ...) so it is being maintained. 1. http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.sbin/ntpd/
255.
by dwc 12y ago
Great recommendation. It's an older edition of a print book (still in print for decades) that's online for free with permission. It's well done, clear, and has very little woo in it.
256.
by dwc 12y ago
I used emacs for about 10 years. I got to be pretty ok with it. On a lark I decided to try vim for a few weeks and see what it was like. About 2 weeks in I was already more productive in vim. I've never even considered switching back.
257.
by dwc 12y ago
Dowsing for bombs. Yeah, it really happened.
258.
by dwc 12y ago
> though most plants pretty quickly decay and release their CO2 back into the atmosphere, with the exception perhaps of some woods There are ways to keep a fair amount of the carbon. Old plant material should be composted and thus recycl
259.
by dwc 12y ago
Of course it depends on the wavelength, but single band images look a lot like any grayscale image. It's typically only when different single-band images are compared side by side that the differences really jump out. Which is, of cour
260.
by dwc 12y ago
(Educated) guess: the monochrome image was simply the first wavelength band that came down. The later color image could be composed after the other bands were received.
261.
by dwc 12y ago
There are wild cows and chickens. Most domesticated ones might die, but they'd largely just revert to pre-domestication levels and modes of living.
262.
by dwc 12y ago
I'm a programmer and I've worked with scientists (planetary geology). The code is usually pretty bad, but ignoring how "pretty" or maintainable it might be, from the outside it ran way too slow, used too much memory, and
263.
by dwc 12y ago
I tend to think the reason that support dissolved was that many people, myself included, think OpenBSD will do a better job of responsible maintenance. I have no good reason to think throwing money at OpenSSL would actually improve anything
264.
by dwc 12y ago
I'm sure that portability is a major goal, but "from day one" isn't. Better to focus on correct, high quality, readable code first and then deal with a portable version. And OpenBSD C code tends more toward generic UNI
265.
by dwc 13y ago
I'm pretty sure that I read more longer pieces than I used to, as so much is available for any topic of interest. In fact, I must decline to read some things simply due to time constraints. Contrast that with getting a magazine once pe
266.
by dwc 13y ago
Also, having a dedicated device for in-depth reading makes it easier for me to switch into that mode.
267.
by dwc 13y ago
At the office, a few people might do gags, and maybe one is really good and sucks you in totally. That's funny. No, it's awesome to get punked to that degree even when you were looking out for it! On the net it's (become) unb
268.
by dwc 13y ago
A while back I was learning Haskell. I had a problem I wanted to poke at a bit, so I thought I'd give it a try. So I made various types in Haskell's nifty type system, which is NOT hard or tricky. I made some functions to work wit
269.
by dwc 13y ago
> Basically something like the metaverse in Snowcrash More like the Oasis from Ready Player One, but owned by the Sixers from the start.
270.
by dwc 13y ago
I have heard that before but I've never understood it. As a user of software myself, I can't think of cases where BSD-style licenses have let me down rights-wise, freedom-wise, etc.

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