arclight - Network

Content warning:SportsballThat could've been much worse. Not sure it was of much value other than getting me to deeply mistrust the...

Content warning:Sportsball

That could've been much worse. Not sure it was of much value other than getting me to deeply mistrust the business writing of Patrick Lencioni.

Content warning:SportsballAt least there hasn't been much glorification of "The jerk Factor". Christ, that essay's a real...

Content warning:Sportsball

At least there hasn't been much glorification of "The jerk Factor". Christ, that essay's a real piece of work. DARVO on a f'ing Triscuit.

Content warning:SportsballDear Management Consultant,Asking 'Does your team most resemble a golf, baseball, or basketball team?"...

Content warning:Sportsball

Dear Management Consultant,

Asking 'Does your team most resemble a golf, baseball, or basketball team?" pretty solidly communicates to me that I'm not really welcome in this discussion.

I'd ask that maybe you revisit your analogy and find one closer to how engineers, technicians, and administrators of diverse ages, races, and genders actually work with each other.

I have absolutely no context for this organizational analogy.

Content warning:Workity-WorkA few go-rounds on the patch and it seems to be trapping the cases its intended to trap without causing too much...

Content warning:Workity-Work

A few go-rounds on the patch and it seems to be trapping the cases its intended to trap without causing too much collateral damage. Now to edit it all into a coherent blob and forward it to the vendor. Probably need to rebuild our application containers, etc.

Content warning:Workity-WorkDid a little more math and writing and a tiny bit of coding to patch the singularity problems in That R...

Content warning:Workity-Work

Did a little more math and writing and a tiny bit of coding to patch the singularity problems in That R Code's analytical solver. A few passes of expanding variables and cancelling terms let me isolate the four terms I need to check to ensure we trap any divide-by-zero conditions. Now testing my patch to the original code before sending it back upstream.

gnuplot has tamed the weird CSV files with the 13 line non-CSV QA header at the top. The plot files are awful but functional and only a...

gnuplot has tamed the weird CSV files with the 13 line non-CSV QA header at the top. The plot files are awful but functional and only a little cleanup is needed now. I'm basically showing that the numerical solver for That R Code can handle the edge case that kills the analytical solver. I didn't detect this anomaly but I chased it back through the code and explained it.

Content warning:Feeling old againIn cases like making a few plots, if I have to write a code in a general-purpose language like Python,...

Content warning:Feeling old again

In cases like making a few plots, if I have to write a code in a general-purpose language like Python, I've failed.

And no f'ing way am I using Excel for reasons previously mentioned. I've used Excel since the late 80s and the scientific plotting functions have not improved in 3+ decades. So no, not happening.

Content warning:Feeling old againI would like to make some plots in a repeatable automated manner without writing software i.e. using...

Content warning:Feeling old again

I would like to make some plots in a repeatable automated manner without writing software i.e. using Python. My tool of choice is gnuplot, which for all its warts, still gives me the least amount of guff of any plotting package. I've never been a MATLAB user so matplotlib is just alien and trying more straightforward libraries quickly leads to overchromed Visualization-y plots. Fine for presentations but not what I want for a formal report aimed at professionals.

Content warning:Why Must I Be SadListening to Alice Cooper's "Dirty Diamonds" and "The Eyes of Alice Cooper" and...

Content warning:Why Must I Be Sad

Listening to Alice Cooper's "Dirty Diamonds" and "The Eyes of Alice Cooper" and realizing I could be convinced that half these songs are actually by Weird Al. Not throwing shade at either of them - it's just eerie how similar their sense of humor is at times.

Also, half the song titles could just as easily be TMBG because CLEARLY. https://youtu.be/0lO3h6MkvZE

The more I think about testing That R Code, the less capable I feel I am at acceptance testing. If I was the code author, it would be a...

The more I think about testing That R Code, the less capable I feel I am at acceptance testing. If I was the code author, it would be a different story. If I actually relied on the code to solve my own problems, sure. But being in that intermediate zone, neither developer nor user, it's rough getting traction.

Then again, I look at the mechanics. The structure of the code, overall implementation, which sections are direct and obvious and which might we expect to harbor instabilities.

Content warning:Bookity BookHonestly, I have no idea how I found Shute's autobiography ("Slide Rule")...

Content warning:Bookity Book

Honestly, I have no idea how I found Shute's autobiography ("Slide Rule") https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_Rule:_Autobiography_of_an_Engineer

It's not like I go looking for bios on obscure airship engineers moonlighting as famous authors. Really glad I finally bought it and (relatively) immediately started reading it. Interesting perspective from a century ago.

Content warning:Bookity BookFinished Murakami's "Underground" last week - mad props to him acting more as shepherd than...

Content warning:Bookity Book

Finished Murakami's "Underground" last week - mad props to him acting more as shepherd than author. Also, Part 2 was as messed up as one might expect.

Working my way through Nevil Shute (Norway)'s autobiography (author of "On The Beach", head of calculation dept at Vickers for the R100 airship design). You can smell the pipe smoke in the prose. Very good insights on safety, engineering, 1920s-era numerics, and having a full & satisfying life both as an author and as an engineer

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My MoneyI sent Mr. Radu a few euros on principle for making my life better in about 30 seconds.Now to find...

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My Money

I sent Mr. Radu a few euros on principle for making my life better in about 30 seconds.

Now to find out how to cancel the pending account registration PayPal has for me because you can't donate with registering for an account.

Aside: How much of an MBA program can be described as Creative Enshittification? (h/t @pluralistic)

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My Money"I know, maybe if we get The Olds to complain about some trivial jackassery we've pulled...

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My Money

"I know, maybe if we get The Olds to complain about some trivial jackassery we've pulled with the UI, we can convince people to dismiss their more substantial complaints about gratuitous online account requirements, data harvesting, and surveillance capitalism. Because, you know, they're Olds. Yelling at clouds, amirite?"

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My MoneyToday's SUATMM Software Award goes to Valentin-Gabriel Radu for Explorer Patcher:...

Content warning:Shut Up And Take My Money

Today's SUATMM Software Award goes to Valentin-Gabriel Radu for Explorer Patcher: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher

It has a REAL installer. It's open source. It does one thing really well. It immediately deshittified my Win11 taskbar: icons are now small and everything fits and is nicely aligned. Not clear what "problem" MS was trying to solve in Win11 (an example of "Solutioning" perhaps?) but having to use a half-assed registry hack to preserve the Win7/8/10 UI drove me nuts

@historyofpunkrock The fact that Michael Gerard, lead vocalist & bassist of Killdozer, is now practicing maritime law both makes me...

@historyofpunkrock The fact that Michael Gerard, lead vocalist & bassist of Killdozer, is now practicing maritime law both makes me happy and also substantially messes with my head.

If the software doesn't work without a persistent net connection, it's a 'service'.

If the software doesn't work without a persistent net connection, it's a 'service'.

Content warning:Legacy codeI'm uncomfortable treating legacy code as a purely technical problem. Some group of investors decided The...

Content warning:Legacy code

I'm uncomfortable treating legacy code as a purely technical problem. Some group of investors decided The Company should go on an acquisition spree and they made bank getting rid of a lot of "redundant" staff but they didn't actually pay to unify the innards of the infrastructure. They just fired people, then bailed with the cash before the system collapsed under the deadweight of INTENTIONALLY unmaintained infrastructure.

That is not a "code smell" problem.

Content warning:Legacy codeI know, it's a lot easier to get bleary-eyed corporate devs to memorize "Legacy code is code without...

Content warning:Legacy code

I know, it's a lot easier to get bleary-eyed corporate devs to memorize "Legacy code is code without tests" for the quiz at the end of the training class. The problem is that the root of the "legacyness" problem is likely organizational. WHY doesn't the code we rely on have tests? WHY is it difficult to change? Is it technically difficult or is it a matter of management not wanting to pay to understand and maintain and update core infrastructure?

Content warning:Legacy codeThe presence or absence of tests doesn't matter. Tests are one (important) way of assuring a code meets is...

Content warning:Legacy code

The presence or absence of tests doesn't matter. Tests are one (important) way of assuring a code meets is requirements. But are tests _necessary_? If a code is provably correct, what additional information do they provide?

Pragmatically, it's rare that any code ships without some form of installation or acceptance test, explicit or implied. Even if code "has tests", how valuable are they if the code's reqs are not known or not clear? How do I know the tests are correct & complete?