zerogvt

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ currently Rust is 38th

""" Rust is the first programming language I've used where I feel like the language itself, the compiler, the tools around it (cargo, rustfmt, clippy, rustup, etc), and the community surrounding it all actually care about and assist me with writing high quality software. Nothing else I've used comes even close. """

I've been hearing nice words about Rust for a while now but it doesn't seem to catch up in popularity which I find weird.

There are deeper circles of hell yet. Imagine being dragged in a bureaucratic/operations/meetings soup of tasks. Then you could find yourself begging for coding tasks even if they'd be in the stack/project you now hate. The sad reality is that a lot of what we are paid to do as engineers is stuff that nobody would do for free. Boring, ethically dubious, bummer, repetitive, unnecessary complex balls of mud, with people we don't like working with, etc. Balancing between the too-much-shite and good-enough is a whole new art that you get to know as you mature...

Seems that a promo code is needed to play.

"So, why are we doing this?" I think there are a lot of reasons. Market share, control of technology, not invented here syndrome, ego issues, fads, shifting focus on specific set of problems. I personally think that OO proliferation (C++) and Java and enterprise mindset was the point of no return. The mental point where the majority left simplicity and maintainability out of its scope. There was (and still is) an era where complexity (and the ability to comprehend it) is a synonym of mental machismo. Simple was left as something that lesser minds/developers had to worry about whilst the 10x devs (another great proliferated myth) which everyone worth his salt should strive to be (so the myth went on), must not only conquer it but also thrive on it and create more of it. Thus you got a multitude of tooling, languages, stacks that do the same things differently, you got Godzilla OO hierarchies and architecture diagrams that look like a dozen overlapped London metro maps. Now we got microservices and k8s which in itself is a testament to irony - started as an attempt to simplify uservices/cluster mgmt and has evolved to perhaps the most complicated ecosystem ever (one has serious trouble even comprehending what most of the tooling in k8s land are supposed to be doing, much less use them and don't get me started about really understanding code in there).

I personally think more people should read and embrace the Unix philosophy of simple and reusable but on the other hand I'm afraid that the ship is unstoppable now.

I think this whole argument will be largely solved when meat substitute (tasty protein) is synthesized from non-animal products. I heard of a company that did that quite successfully but I don't know if they will be able to scale all that well. Anyhow - it seems that this is an issue that will be resolved by engineering a solution out of it.

Not sure that's the proper way though. I think that such big scale moral issues are something of a species test (our species). Engineering our way out of the moral argument feels like cheating and actually might backpedal our collective ability to create consensus and solve problems as a society.

I had the same argument with a friend a few days ago, only it was centered around the brutal and senseless (IMHO) slaughter of pilot whales in Faroe Islands. There is a simple answer why it is much worse from an ethical standpoint to murder an intelligent sea mammal versus killing a cow and it is based on how that organism came to be in the first place. Cow was there as a result of intentional breeding. It was created in the first place by humans/industry to be eaten (we can argue on how brutal that is in itself but let's not be sidetracked by it for now). Sea mammals were there independently of human actions - and if anything we destroy and downgrade their environment and standard of living implicitly with a myriad of ways. So - there you go. It is much more wrong to kill whales than killing cows. And it is extra wrong to do it while nobody really needs to for survival.

Is it my idea or Apple is aggressively betting more and more in providing privacy to end users? Also it seems that the other side of the party (Android and free services) is moving fast towards the other end of the spectrum.

I'll second that. Code reviews -quite often- is a senseless sh_tshow of arrogance, pedantry and psychological issues that have nothing to do with the code.

Strange thing to hear. Can you expand a bit?

Would you expect the same organization/person/entity doing both of these things? They are contradictory. That's what I'm saying.

All these are quite well known but I wonder whether the contradictory progressive moves of IBM are also as known https://www.eweek.com/it-management/ibm-and-black-history-in...

Not sure that there is much ideology behind one or the other side though. I'd find it easier to believe that some execs then, now and ever, are trying to be in sync with the general wind direction (today it mostly comes under names such as "social responsibility" and "ecologic footprint") and not miss a good business opportunity in parallel. Of course that whole thing is hilarious when seen from outside and seems like the company is schizoid. In many ways that might not be a totally wrong outlook. These are huge multifaceted organizations and seen as a whole they don't make sense. Ideological or not though they all have to make profit or they'll die. Simple as that. It would be _very_ hard to any of them to say no to good business even if they knew it was trading with the devil. Collateral damage -such as negative publicity and potential future losses- would keep them back but only if the total net was really negative.

For what is worth though I think that IBM is one of the most inclusive companies atm (based on what I hear from LGBT/minorities people working there).

Regardless - the point of the post is valid IMO.

On 4, I mean that your legal status is usually a contractor one (i.e. you're not protected by the laws covering workers/employees). Yet you are not paid by the hour or by deliverables as usual contractors are.

Doing partial remoting atm (50% of the time on site) and having spent a year looking for a full remote job I have a few things to testify from the employee side:

1. Partial remote (sometimes) sucks. Ppl in office either feel they getting less or are bored to go the extra mile to accommodate you (remoting is based on better and more communication) or just ignore you cause it's easier to just ask the next desk. And anyhow you are out of any networking/office politics (not necessarily a bad thing though).

2. Fully remote companies are generally of 3 kinds: a. companies you've heard of and they're serious but since they're looking to hire from a global pool they are extremely picky (Maybe it's easier to get into google than getting into Wordpress). b. companies that are OK(ish) but are in the remoting thing just to cut costs, i.e. they pay peanuts c. companies that are outright dodgy and are looking for suckers or vanish in a puff without a sign. Obviously you'd only care for type (a) but so do thousand others out there.

3. If you happen to be tax-resident on a state where they tax-slaughter contractors (e.g. certain EU states with ~ 70% tax) remoting is devolving to a hobby rather than a job that may sustain you and your family. "Moving" to a tax haven comes with high risks and in the end you end up playing accountancy games rather than focusing on your job.

4. You essentially are a contractor. Few if any or remote companies hire you as an employee (but you are paid as an employee). You can be terminated with a minimal notice and no severance. In case of a mixed mode company non-remoters will probably get precedence over you.

5. Remoting is not for everyone. I personally am fine working like that but I totally understand that a lot of people need the motivation, vibrancy, socializing of the office.

6. Remoting is a very good way to balance work/family (but you might end up doing a half-assed job in both all the time).

7. Remoting it the _only_ way to fight off overheated to the point of surreal rental/housing markets like SF, London, Dublin, Munich.

8. Ecologically speaking the gains are just immense. Dunno if there are any statistics but I wouldn't be surprised if commuting to work is one of the biggest polluting activities overall.

9. Remoting is the only way to do _deep_ work. Focus, get in the zone, minimize disruptions and solve hard problems. Office is better for trivial, communication-heavy tasks.

Just my 2 cents from my experience so far.

Speaking reasonably and from an ecologic point of view you're 100% right. But for the current economic system simple sustenance, i.e. not growing, is similar to death. It's much like a shark, if it stops moving it cannot breathe. I think a lot of it is down to being powered by loans which in essence can be paid back only if the total output grows. Imagine a bank that lends you 100K to set up a business. You'll pay back eventually more than you initially got -say 130K- over a period of the next 10 yrs. The extra 30K will only appear in the economy somewhere if the economy grows. At least that's how this game is supposed to be played.

"Whether you're using Docker, Packer, Ansible or whatever doesn't matter. They are all a solution to the same problem"

Nope. K8s is a cluster operating system that happens to fit very well with the microservices architectural model. Packer is a way to create classic VM imgs (this one is similar-ish to Docker but only if you only care about the 10000 feet non-technical-at-all image. Ansible is an infrastructure as a code tool. You deal with mostly classic infra components and compositions of them as code. Putting all them in the same bag is like saying that all programming languages solve the same problem. It's only true if we cut the conversation down to a level where we consider all digital devices as the exact same thing.

I think you should listen a bit of Alan Watts. You can start from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_HkQ4-x4P4

That's actually good as long as there are companies out there that get it right https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards Avoid the type of corporations that sleepwalk into that type of interviewing out of boredom or lack of knowing any better and head for the type of companies that seem to know what they're looking for. In most cases you'll land in a place you will actually like rather than in yet another freaking soul-less corp job that it just pays the bills.

My thoughts exactly. Situation in healthcare is utterly dismal. I see prescriptions of very expensive medicine where there are alternative brands (or generics) for a fraction of the price and when people complain (a serious percentage of the price comes off their pockets) doctors respond with vague mumble-mumble about that drug being a new generation.

And before long, someone asks why just automation engines? If you can get a bio-mechanical brain to drive a car you can get it to understand Math, C++, Law and what not. All at a much lower cost than training a full human being... And before long someone will think that - hey, how do we know this has not already happened? ...

"So the FAA said to the airplane manufacturers, “Why don’t you just have your people tell us if your designs are safe?”" This

So this is like quadratic obfuscation.

That -apart from being a brilliant idea- seems to be easy to replicate in open source software. Replicate not in being compatible but as a different system altogether. Or has that already happened?

SRE as I see it being implemented in various places is a glorified name for cruel on-calls. I'm afraid that the larger the organization the worst and farther from optimal it tends to be. I'm putting this resource here mostly as a future ref as I prepare to test the waters in that role and I'm afraid that the odds are not good.

Regardless of anyone's political affiliation and/or fear or trust in moderation, FB is a company operating a private service. Private as opposed to general elections where you and I have a constitutional right to participate. FB service is FB's home not our collective. So, I don't get why their new rule (long overdue IMHO especially after the NZ shootings) is a cause of concern, criticism or outrage.

I should also remind you that similar (equally sane IMHO) bylaws apply in the current forum - at least from what I've seen as long as I'm here.

Everywhere I look I see the same story unfolding and hurting the productive parts of the economy (productive as opposed to rentier ones). Jobs move in a place. Cost of living (largely dominated by rent) is reasonable. Workers move in. Cost of living starts to rise and rises till the point where a lot of the workers actually pay most of their income just to get by. Pockets of them (e.g. married high earning couples and singles that are lucky to have a place) still save a lot but the proportion of people that actually makes no sense to live and work there any more is getting too high.

In my eyes this is a highjacking of the productive capitalism by the rentier parts of it and it is demoralizing, unproductive (by definition) and destructive. An apartment does not produce value. It is a mere necessity. The people living there may produce value if they are allowed to. But sinking all their energy and finance in just securing a roof over their head leaves less and less for any productive risk taking.

Disclaimer: Living the renting/housing drama in Ireland.

Feels quite similar to Ireland as well. Another rental market that has gone insane over the past 4-5 years.

“improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion.” Loved that maxim.

Also: "if...your application uses microservices...you are essentially turning program function calls into network calls..."

Great post overall, full of nice insights.

#relevant: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-infinite-space-between-wor...

Most job ads are like this - laundry lists. Speaking only for myself I'd go for an ad that talks more about underlying technology principles rather than an endless list of specifics (e.g. OOP knowledge instead of C++ or java and continuous integration flows instead of jankins or travis). Then I'd try to draw an accurate picture of what the role involves, describing the tech stack actually used and a bit of the roadmap ahead with regards to the product. Lastly I'd mention how we work, e.g. agile, scums, etc.

Most important thing is accuracy/honesty. Nothing worse than overselling a backwater tech or a bureaucratic mess as a dream job.

PS: Avoid boilerplate phrases that constitute 'sweatshop-smells' like "passionate developer".

I don't think so. You need a non-maxed out mainstream credit card (gift cards or prepaids won't work) and still you're locked out of a lot of functionality (e.g. k8s in AWS) unless you are willing to actually pay. Also any trial period comes with an expiration date. That might be a low barrier but it is not a zero one. I know a lot of people that are still out of cloud due to all that.