sprior

Except in situations like a court hearing where someone is asked whether they are an expert in something and they say yes, most of the quality people I've run into would take a more modest approach and talk about the subject and let you decide whether you accept their opinion. It's also an acknowledgement that no matter how much you know about any topic there's usually even more to learn. So outright stating that you are are an expert is often posturing.

If the person says "I'm an expert" my skepticism kicks up considerably.

They really should have saved this announcement for April 1, then at least it would have been funny.

Get a laser engraver and print your documents on actual stone tablets, that's what the cool kids are doing these days.

Well since according to that old ad pasta grows on trees it'll be a really cheap networking media.

A long time ago I started leaving a trivial compile error (I was doing C++ at the time) in the code when I left for the day as a little bookmark, so the next day I'd just kick off a compile and see right where I was working.

The big controversy in my house is that my Polish grandmother made pierogi with rolled edges and we ate them fried (the edges were my favorite part), but when I married a Polish woman who went to cooking school in Poland she insists that she's never heard of doing it that way and she does it the correct way. She'll now make a few with rolled edges for me, but most without.

In point 1 where Will Smith is quoted reminded me of about the year after I graduated college. I wasn't anywhere close to rich, but I had just achieved every goal I had set for myself: I got hired by the company I was hoping for, was living in a reasonably nice place and was in a relationship with my future (ex) wife.

I was in a good place, but also slightly lost while I figured out my next set of goals.

Before the pandemic I had an officemate that didn't take sick days when he was clearly sick, it would be January in the Northeast and he'd say it was just allergies. Then the next week I was sick with the flu and TICK'd! I think it is now far less acceptable to show up sick to work and infect your coworkers.

In terms of mental health days, I worked at one place for a long time and had enough vacation days that I could use one as a mental health day. Then I changed jobs and the new place gave so few vacation days that when I thought about a long weekend to visit family I'd have to wonder whether that family member was worth spending the precious vacation day on. If the company vacation plan is sufficient then you don't need to use a sick day for a mental health day.

Is the raw data available anywhere in parseable format? I'd be curious about looking up new license plates recognized by my home automation image recognition system in my driveway.

You're just figuring that out now????

I build ephemeral data structures inside virtual environments that run in a container in a virtual machine using virtual memory on a processor implemented in microcode.

I'm not even sure I exist.

You should have held out for college credit.

Try watching any movie involving either space or computers...

me: smarthome, please turn on the lights.

smarthome: you're late.

me: smarthome, sorry, please turn on the lights.

smarthome: why don't you sit in the dark for a while and think about being late.

I once got a call with the callerid "Abe Froman". I was actually tempted to answer and ask if this was really the sausage king of Chicago.

Can I be too smug when I follow the story link and all I get is "Error establishing a database connection"?

You can even 3D print one: https://www.printables.com/model/180109-fractal-vise

Murphy’s Laws About Programming #16. Make it possible for programmers to write programs in English, and you will find that programmers can not write in English.

I did it in 2001 and it was one of the most educational things I've ever done. I think there should be a college course which gives you a box of computer parts at the beginning of the semester and at the end you get the grade displayed on a web page hosted on that computer built entirely from source.

I have some precedent for that kind of thing, back in 1987 I made a deal with a prof that as an independent study course a friend and I were going to build a pair of voice synthesizers on IBM PC Prototype boards using the synth chips available at Radio Shack and he'd give us the grade my computer verbally asked him for at the end of the semester. I had no backup plan and it was a crazy risk, but we got A's and the teacher regretted not having us make one for him as well.

I buy Computer Shopper for the articles - said no one ever.

In Summer 2001 I had been laid off from the failed startup I had left IBM to join the year before and the job market had gone downhill fast. So while the year before I had gotten 3 offers going to interviews wearing jeans I was now suiting up (I'm normally a casual dresser). Well I interviewed at one place which I think was a small company that made available financial disclosures on the Internet and the main programmer was a young guy wearing sandals. Well I think the ex-IBM guy in a suit terrified him and at some point when I asked him what he was looking for he said something about someone who would fit in. He couldn't see that I was only suiting up out of respect for the interview. I didn't hear back from them.

I actually took it not as an ad but as a case study in a creative business idea.

I didn't know it was a secret.

I had the same impression.

When I was a freshman in college my girlfriend made fun of me for buying a good and expensive desk stapler instead of a cheap one. I explained that I was buying it once. She went on to become my ex-wife and I still have the stapler and it works great.

"Or you could make a page with absolutely disgusting content." You've never heard of Rule 34, have you...

I first followed that book in 2000 and it remains one of the most educational things I've done in my career. For a long time I used LFS as my base server install though I've since switched to Ubuntu Server.

He kinda did that (pantorouter, computerized box joint jig, slot mortiser, 3d router pantograph).

At one point as a programmer at IBM, me, my manager and his manager were all woodworkers. Same explanation you gave.