system16

That might have been the case a few years ago (at least here in BC, Canada) but these days virtually every sit-down restaurant I go to has their menu available - often exclusively - via QR code.

Even ignoring all the overhead that would bring, it's not feasible for a local municipality to do background checks on the net income or wealth of foreign visitors in any way that would be reliable. It would be trivial to bypass this with fake statements.

Going by the version history, this app has been around for over a decade. You'd think in that time they would have changed the exceptionally hideous app icon.

So many companies are hypocritical about this and I don't know why they don't get called out on it more. My social feeds are flooded with rainbow avatars from accounts like @MercedesBenz and their unwavering support for the LGBTQ community, but a quick look at @MercedesBenzME shows no rainbows in sight.

> Navy SEALS exemplify this idea. Strict hierarchy dominates out in the field: When a leader says go left, they go left. But when the team returns for debrief, “they literally leave their stripes at the door,” says Greer. The hierarchy disappears; nobody is a leader, nobody a follower. “They fluidly shift out of these hierarchical structures,”

This sounds ideal, but I wonder what their secret is to pulling it off in practice.

In my experience, when companies try to create a meeting to encourage "open discussion" where everyone has an equal voice, the hierarchies are still plainly obvious even if we pretend they are not. Egos, company politics, etc. are definitely not left at the door.

> Formica, who has been in the UK for almost three decades, said in a telephone interview that his departure was down to personal reasons, including wanting to be closer to elderly parents. He plans to move back to his native Australia.

> “I just want to go sit at the beach and do nothing,” he said in the interview. “I’m not thinking about anything else.”

Slightly misleading / clickbaity title. It sounds like it was his response to "what's next" and he wants to enjoy some downtime. Not that he never plans to do anything else but sit on the beach and do nothing.

> “The problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.” – Joe Armstrong

"Car/Animal extends..." slowed my ability to comprehend OOP significantly when I was learning to code. It just did not make any sense to me and I felt like an idiot for not being able to equate these "real-world" examples to the code I was trying to write. I just could not make the connection.

It wasn't until I started trying to make a simple video game that these concepts made sense: an "Enemy" class could have properties of health and speed that a "Boss" or "Minion" could inherit from, etc.

> Study find cats rub and roll against these plants transferring compounds known as iridoids to their fur that repels mosquitoes

Interesting, but why only cats? Why don't other mammals have a similar reaction to these plants?

Mildly interesting but confusing. Who is the audience for this little clip? Meta shareholders who need reassurance that the metaverse is on track?

Examples escape me at the moment, but there have honestly been so many times I've hit a wall trying to do - what seem to me like - basic things in JIRA; I couldn't comprehend how such a complex tool could not accommodate them.

And the stuff that can be done is often so comically painful it's mind-blowing. Trying to do something as seemingly simple as create a useful saved search in JIRA is so painful I can't imagine its creation was not an act of sabotage.

IP/location, device used to access, browser used, time spent on the site, other demographics and interests data that may not be part of their user profile but is available thanks to Google tracking cookies, etc.

Most (all?) of which could be developed on their own of course, but that costs more than a one liner to set up Google Analytics.

And again, none of this info was ever actually used. They just felt very strongly that they needed it to better understand their users and improve the experience at some far off future date.

I've had so many clients insist that Google Analytics is absolutely necessary for their site or app since they need the to know as much as possible about who is visiting.

In most cases these same clients never even look at the analytics as the dashboard is too confusing and generating reports too cumbersome.

I feel like Mastodon's standout feature is also its biggest drawback when it comes to adoption. The vast majority of end-users don't understand or care to understand the need for different instances or which fediverse they should join, nor do they have interest in setting up their own.

I got an invite when it started blowing up and gave it an honest try.

Virtually every room I joined was filled with self-described "thought leaders" and influencers promoting themselves to each other, and the conversations were comically similar:

- Start off by validating what a great community this is and how great and positive everyone is.

- Story time: either a huge challenge they overcame to become the great success they are today, or trying to make the most basic common sense sound like some insightful breakthrough.

- Repeat a few times, and then someone will "reset the room" and start over again.

I couldn't help but laugh because I honestly couldn't believe it wasn't a parody.

Humorous, but not zero-knowledge at all. They could be on to something here though. Maybe blockchain's "killer app" will be Verifiable Romance?

I wouldn't say it's a slap on the wrist. It's not even a scolding. Tim Hortons was literally found guilty of spying on millions of Canadians, and the only consequence they face is that they have to stop doing it.

> hey elon a lot of people are talking about this leaked email, any additional comment to people who think coming into work is an antiquated concept?

> They should pretend to work somewhere else

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1531867103854317568

The worst is companies that mandate their "fun" on your time. Scheduling these events later in the day or after office hours, or - for some truly evil companies - on weekends.

Roughly 50% of the population in the US have an absolute distrust of the media, election results, and science. But wrap something up in a meme and post in on Facebook and it's treated like Gospel.

Regardless of what people think about McDonalds, this is a very symbolic move. People in the west remember those 90s scenes on TV of McDonalds opening in Russia, and it was symbolic of Russia opening up and a new prosperous relationship with the west. I would not be surprised if the US government nudged McDonalds to exit swiftly and publicly like this because the optics are very clear: Russia is going backwards.

How long is a piece of string? It depends...

The possibility of a bad trip in someone who is not prepared for the experience should not be understated. When reality crumbles around you for the first time, you may not make the best decisions and could hurt yourself or others. Novice users should definitely start with a low dose, and be in the company of someone they trust in an environment where they feel safe.

I hope that's the reason. I've always said Twitter has unbelievably untapped potential that for whatever reason, its current management is unable or unwilling to realize. Over the years they've kept the platform stagnant at best or filled with user dark patterns at worst. Not to mention their hostility to the developer community.

Give it a few days. When their economy is in shambles and there is chaos at home, their focus is going to have to shift from Ukraine.

The speed, severity, and coordination of the west's response to this has been truly remarkable. Putin must be completely shocked at how this has played out.

I expect China to be taking notes and wouldn't be surprised to see them reign in their 'wolf warriors' and claw back their aggressive posturing once the dust settles. The "Taiwan issue" just became a lot more complicated for them.

I was late getting into computers, and back in '98 just got my first Windows PC. I struggled, but eventually figured out how to get MAME installed and loaded up a long forgotten arcade game I used to play as a kid at my local corner store.

It's hard to describe the sense of wonder I felt when when the ROM check sequence flashed to the title / insert credits screen and I knew it worked. It might sound silly, but few moments in my life have been so eye opening. It was definitely a key factor in me starting my path to becoming a developer.

Say what you want about China, but their ability to weaponize capitalism and make multi-billion dollar companies cower and self-censor in ways they would never do for Western governments is remarkable.

"When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract".

I guess it depends a lot on the company's dev culture or team dynamic.

In my current company, our code reviews are essentially a second set of eyes by a peer. When things are "flagged" in code review it's never confrontational. Mainly they provide insight for those who haven't worked on the code base as long as to "why" things are the way they are, and it can open up discussions for improvements (or at least things to ponder for the backlog.) The odd time neat language or platform tricks are also learned.

I've worked in other places though where code reviews are done by rockstars or ninjas just looking for a reason to criticize or find fault with another's code so they can stroke their own ego. And if their code is ever questioned, expect a tantrum. Toxic environments like these say more about the company and people there than code reviews though.

Looking forward to the follow-up "no QA by default".

Reading things like this and how common it is for investors to take over, I just wonder how it is possible that a young - and presumably naive - Mark Zuckerberg avoided the typical VC pitfalls and board guillotine / "CEO replaces themselves to help transition company to the next level" path?

Was it just because Facebook's growth was so unprecedented they had no need to replace him? Or did he have a very good mentor or early investors that believed in him or helped guide him without taking advantage of the situation? Or was he actually just extremely shrewd at navigating board politics?