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butisaidsudo

266 karma · joined December 24, 2013

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butisaidsudo··on Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%
That book has been on my list since I heard him on this podcast: https://hiddenforces.io/podcasts/chinas-quest-to-engineer-th...
butisaidsudo··on Watching "Grizzly Man" with a bear biologist
If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, good night.
butisaidsudo··on Why is OAuth still hard in 2023?
I read so many docs when I was trying to implement OAuth and got more and more confused. This video was a huge help though for explaining all of the concepts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=996OiexHze0

butisaidsudo··on Pipenv: Promises a Lot, Delivers Little (2020)
We use poetry just for development, but run Docker containers in prod. When the image gets built we just create a requirements.txt (poetry export --format requirements.txt --output requirements.txt), copy that into the image, and pip install. Because this is built using the poetry lock file, it'll always be exactly the same unless we specifically update something with poetry.

I used to work at a place that was just using requirements.txt files that only included our direct dependencies. There was a project that needed updating after not being touched for a couple of years. The requirements.txt didn't change, but when we built the project again, some of the transitive dependencies used a newer version, and a bug was introduced from one of those updates. A bunch of time was wasted tracking down the issue, pinning the old version of the transitive dependency, and figuring out the damage caused by the bug.

As a result, the requirements.txt was changed to also include transitive dependencies. We had vulnerability scanning on our code, and it found a severe issue with one of the transitive dependencies, but there wasn't a version of that library with the issue fixed yet. Time was spent looking into this to see how we could be impacted. As it turns out, it was a transitive dependency for a library that we no longer used and removed from the project months ago. When you create your requirements.txt by running pip freeze > requirements.txt, you don't have an easy way of knowing which library requires which transitive dependency.

There's ways you can fix this using multiple requirements.txt files, but at that point it's a lot easier to use poetry, especially if you want to keep your development dependencies separate.

butisaidsudo··on What if I were 1% charged? (2013)
This is a great article on this, with a bunch of thought experiments on what makes you, you: https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/what-makes-you-you.html
butisaidsudo··on U.S. senators reintroduce bill to make daylight saving time permanent
Oh, this segues nicely from my DST, my favorite bikeshedding topic into my second favorite one!

Base 12 is better than decimal in every way. It divides cleanly by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. Compare that to decimal, where you have 1, 2, 5, 10. It's much better for scheduling. With decimal you couldn't have a nice, clean schedule for a factory with 3 shifts per day for example. 60 minutes (which is a multiple of 12) gives you a lot of ways to break up an hour, vs 100 minutes.

I had a friend once rant about how we should switch everything to base 12. It's obviously crazy given the effort vs reward, but I think we would have been better off to have done so way back when.

butisaidsudo··on Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend (2016)
Yup, I'm a big believer in applying the rule of three ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(computer_progra... ) for moving code into a library as well. I find if I create an API with just one or two examples in mind, it often doesn't turn out to be as general as I thought it would be. By the time I've done something three times, I have a much better idea of what the different use cases will be.
butisaidsudo··on New York is proposing the creation of a 'public Venmo'
They bring it so you can enter your PIN, most places don't use signatures.
butisaidsudo··on A White Lie Gave Japan KFC for Christmas
Me too! I spent Christmas there many years ago, and every person I talked to asked:

1. Are you going back home for Christmas?

2. No? Oh are you going to get a Christmas cake from KFC?

I was like, Christmas cake? And why KFC specifically? My confusion confused them just as much. Maybe they later thought it was because I was Canadian so it must just be an American thing.

butisaidsudo··on Biggest list of fully remote, 100% distributed companies
I wish more companies had this, it's really useful. I looked into applying at Gitlab, but was able to easily find out their location adjustment and avoided wasting my time or theirs. Unfortunately they pay less in a high cost of living Canadian city than for someone living in Alabama.
butisaidsudo··on Twelve-factor app development on Google Cloud
Just wanted to thank you for this. When I was a lost and confused junior, I had no one more experienced around to ask for advice. I stumbled across this and it answered so many questions that I had, and it still very much applies many years later.
butisaidsudo··on U.N. postal union clinches deal to keep U.S. in
There's also three Strawberry, Californias!

Found that out the hard way when I went to meet a fried at the general store in Strawberry, and wound up a few hours away from him.

butisaidsudo··on Vinyl set to outsell CDs for first time since 1986
Magnetic tape is still used in recording, but for the distortion it adds rather than concern about quantization. In fact, the audio is simply routed through the tape machine, then into a computer for storage.

Distortion here means both extreme distortion (e.g. clipping) which is what people often think of when they hear the word "distortion", or the more technical definition of any alteration of the input signal. The pre-amps, compressors, and so on will all add their own distortion to the signal. However this is desired distortion. Tape offers some of this, although I'm not familiar with what its exact characteristics are.

Clipping (when the input signal amplitude exceeds the limits of the storage medium or output device) is a type of distortion that can sound great or absolutely awful.

Digital clipping sound awful. The max amplitude is all 1's in the digital storage medium. When a signal exceeds this, for the duration of it exceeding every sample will have that same value of all 1's. The waveform will basically have the top lopped off. There will be sharp "corners" where it starts to clip, and where it stops clipping. Those corners create "pops". It makes that part of the recording unusable.

Analog clipping can be a very sought after sound though. The max amplitude on tape is when all of the poles of the magnetic material are aligned. This isn't perfect though and it's not instant, so you get a slower compression of the signal and some variation. The waveform will look like its top has been squeezed downward. This can sound amazing.

The quality on youtube is pretty bad (spotify or elsewhere is better), but this song has a great example. You can hear his voice distort in many places, but it sounds wonderful (particularly starting around 2:20 - 2:40 and 3:10). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAGS8UL9b6A

butisaidsudo··on Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?
I love these kind of issues, here are two classics:

- Open Office won't print on Tuesdays: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cupsys/+bug/255161...

- Can't send email more than 500 miles: http://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles

butisaidsudo··on Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste
From what I understand, shipping containers are sent out from Asia stuffed with goods, but there isn't nearly as much going in the other direction. The containers need to go back whether they're full or not, which is why it ends up being so cheap to ship plastic. And the CO2 caused doesn't really change as a result.

To the rest of your point though, I agree. My wife is a hardline recycler. I generally am too, but I have a hard time seeing the benefit in recycling soft plastics.

butisaidsudo··on Animated Knots: Learn how to tie knots with step-by-step animation
You "make" a loop but "take" a bight, as unhelpful as that may be. A loop is a step in making a knot, where as a bight is just a handful of rope somewhere in the middle of it.

You can tie a regular bowline, or a bowline on a bight. The same knot will need a different technique for tying on a bight, since you can't pass the ends through. When you tie a bowline on a bight, first you take a bight, then you make a loop.

butisaidsudo··on Animated Knots: Learn how to tie knots with step-by-step animation
I think you may be looking for a "bend" rather than a "splice".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bend_knots

butisaidsudo··on Goldman Sachs, Patagonia, and the Mysteries of “Business Casual”
Named after a region where the company's founder adventured down to in a Econoline van and made a first ascent up Cerro Fitzroy, which is part of the mountain range shown in the company's logo. It would be worth taking a read on his history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard, the man is an absolute giant in rock climbing and alpinism.
butisaidsudo··on Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers
So even passengers wouldn't be allowed to use their phones?
butisaidsudo··on Forget Bribery – The Real Scam Is Pretending That Degrees Have Value
BCIT (near Vancouver, Canada)
butisaidsudo··on Forget Bribery – The Real Scam Is Pretending That Degrees Have Value
I went to a school that is pretty much as you described. A 2 year intensive program designed to make you productive right out of the gate. We still took math, operating systems, computer architecture, and the like, but in general there was a big focus on writing a lot of code (often doing so in groups), and learning how to communicate effectively. It wasn't perfect, but it was absolutely the best decision for someone like me where programming wasn't my first career.
butisaidsudo··on The Elaborate, Dying Art of Hustling for Money at Dave and Buster's
I love this description! Your father in law sounds like a character from a Steinbeck novel.
butisaidsudo··on Japan plans to lower age of adulthood to 18 (2018)
I lived in Japan when I was 19, and I never once was asked for ID when buying alcohol, neither at a store nor a bar. It seemed to be largely the honor system, since you could buy alcohol from vending machines. Although when one bartender found out my age, he said it wasn't a problem since I wasn't Japanese. Go figure.

A big club in Tokyo was the only place I was ever asked, and even there I was waved right through. Apparently, they were just checking for "gang affiliation".

butisaidsudo··on 24/192 Music Downloads and why they make no sense (2012)
The loudness buttons were more to equalize than to affect the dynamic range.

At lower volumes, we perceive mid-range frequencies to be more prominent than at higher volumes. The loudness buttons would add lows and highs and/or lower mids so that the music would "sound better" at lower volumes.

https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/fletcher-munson-curve/

butisaidsudo··on Why Portland's Public Toilets Succeeded Where Others Failed (2012)
Greyhond therapy is a thing in Canada as well, although I've never heard that exact phrase before. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/homeless-sas...
butisaidsudo··on Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)
Yup, I had an official replacement about 5 years in, then a few years after that the replacement died and I paid for another replacement (long story).

Now I'm just waiting for this newest one to kick the bucket. There are already some stability issues. Once it goes, I'm going to try fixing the thermal paste myself (https://www.ifixit.com/Story/20939/MBP_2011_GPU_Nightmare). I have all the parts and tools in my desk drawer ready to go for when it's game time.

I don't really know what I'll do if that doesn't work. I've considered getting a refurbished 2015 MBP.

butisaidsudo··on Whitespace killed an enterprise app
My wife is a genetic counsellor, and as part of her work she regular has to use this one formula to calculate the probability of this one genetic condition I can't quite recall.

Because of the complexity and the importance of getting it right, it took her around 10-15 minutes every time she needed to use it. She, and her colleagues, are pretty much luddites so a basic calculator was their only tool.

I spent 10 minutes writing the formula in javascript, dropping it an html file, and running a few test.

She absolutely loved it, and shared it with the rest of the staff. Apparently some counsellors at another clinic heard about it and requested it as well. Someone thanked me at her Christmas staff party.

In terms of effort to build vs. hours saved and end user appreciation, I don't think I'll ever top it.

butisaidsudo··on We can confirm that there was a successful 51% attack on Ethereum Classic
I'm trying to understand what "cashing out" would look like in an attack like this. One option would be to send coins to an exchange as you mentioned, and I presume cash them out before publishing your longer chain.

However, after the attack wouldn't it be easy to compare both chains and see which coins were double spent? Wouldn't you obviously be the perpetrator, having both double spent, as well as having cashed out a large amount of money? Or is the idea that you'd be able to cash out to a bank account not tied to your real identity?

butisaidsudo··on Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver
I don't know which Stats Canada statistics the Financial Post article refers to (I'm sure they have more than one measure), but here's Stats Canada putting non-resident ownership at over 7% in Vancouver (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/180625/dq180...).

Whatever the exact number is, I don't think you can draw a conclusion just from that measure alone. The percentage of total properties owned by non-residents is less important than the percentage of recent sales that went to non-residents.

Some completely made up and simplified numbers to illustrate my point:

Let's say 10% of all properties in Vancouver have been sold on the market in the last 8 years, and 25% of those went to foreign buyers. That would only account for an increase in 2.5% of non-resident ownership. That by itself doesn't sound significant, but 25% of all sales going to buyers many of which are price insensitive is going to have a massive effect on prices.

butisaidsudo··on Amazon Promised Drone Delivery in Five Years Five Years Ago
Five years ago, just before Christmas, everyone was taking about Amazon drone delivery. My hairdresser brought it up to me. My dad was talking about getting his guns out of storage so he could take a pot shot or two. A lot of people who had never ordered a single thing from Amazon were bringing it up. Just before Christmas. Pretty effective if you ask me.
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