kutenai

I tried eM Client for last week.. and, nope. Not my thing. - Cannot select which email to look at "next" after a delete - Does not display number of item in the current mailbox (like Postbox did) - Lack of a Unified set of folders. - Unclear what mailbox any given item is in. Cannot really figure this out, when looking at search results, for example. Just not clear - It looks like a tool written for Windows, ported to Mac. There is a reason I switch to Mac, that's just one of them. - I could not figure out how to control where 'sent' emails go.. I'm picky - Cannot 'group' email accounts.

I mean, it isn't "Horrible", but I'm not feeling it. I'll continue to use Postbox for now, and be searching for an alternative. I already have a paid copy of Spark -- but never really loved that either (but there is a Phone app..)

The search shall go on.

Interesting points, all. But - you don't need to run an old machine to test software. If you are writing mobile apps, then your dev machine is irrelevant, get the best one you can. Writing web apps or Native apps?. Run a VM or other fine test options.

> Running cheap hardware is fun and will make you want to improve your craft

I see nothing fun about that, to be honest. We must agree to disagree here. As far as Improving my craft? Disagree strongly. Improving my craft means learning the technologies better, mastering new technology (AI, LLMS), and writing code. Has nothing to do with being on a crappy machine.

> Anyone trying to make a profit on the tools I depend on will eventually screw me over by capitalizing on that dependency or leave me in the lurch by abandoning the business

Sounds like someone has been burned before. I do agree that using JetBrains software (my personal favorite) does make you somewhat dependent.. But, if JB died tomorrow, I'd find the 'next best' thing.. I would adapt. The "possibility" that JB might die does not make me want to NOT improve my daily work life..

> Oh, but I certainly do - and, like most of us, I care far more about my own opinion of myself than I do about yours. It feels good to get by with less; it suits my aesthetic. Self-imposed constraints are almost as interesting as external ones, and discipline sharpens my skill.

This is the unreconcilable different part. It always surprises me that some people just "like" the challenge (or whatever) to get by with the lowest possible hardware.. but, it is obvious that some just love that. I just love having a nice machine and environment.

I get this is the same motivation that drives someone to get a really "nice" car, and others to drive an old beater cause "it gets you where you are going just as well as that Mercedes, Lexus, etc...

> You seem unreasonably angry by the choices others make that don't even affect you.

Yeah, that's on my. Sorry for the angst. I'm not really as angry as I sound. I apologize for the tone. We all have our preferences, I need to respect those of others as well.

When did software engineers adopt this "cheapest is best" strategy? - Only use free ides - Cheapest computers - Get it free, blah blah

I'm a Software professional - most reading this are also. We get paid pretty well in general. I don't compromise on my tools, my hardware, my monitors, etc. I buy software tools that make me happy, better IDE's, licenses to tools I find useful, etc.

This mindset that a "good" software engineer should be a cheap bastard is insane to me. I respect my craft such that I'm willing to pay OTHERS that develop good software, and good hardware. I buy the most expensive computer I can afford. Period. You want to get by on some old boat anchor? You have something to prove? Fuck you. You don't respect yourself.

My Macbook pro has the fastest 4TB SSD you'll ever see. I use about half of it.. so what. I get no brownie points for "using all of my disk" More is better. I can run dozens of apps simultaneously -- I have so many apps running I can't count them. I rarely reboot -- get annoyed when I have to.

I could probably "get by' with less of a machine, but fuck that. I live my laptop, and I can run 4 full screen large format monitors with it.

Have some self respect. You are a professional, buy yourself professional tools. Nobody gives a shit that you are some cheapskate that "gets by" with less.

What Chat system are you using? - "one line at a time" -- what?? No chat system I use works like this. You get a paragraph, even a whole page, with notes, images, etc.. all at once. - 'must constantly watch the channel' -- what? No you do not have to do this. Mark yourself as away, and get back to the Slack (etc.) conversation later.

It's a nice article on balance, but you definitely have some "contrive" negatives there.

- "Implied consensus" again, wrong. I mean, it's possible that "some people" might discuss a topic and then go off and do it, but generally, anything that requires "consensus" would be left until.. there was consensus. That's an easy one to fix.

- 'Knew Jerk Response' - again, complete bollucks. Nothing "scrolls away", you have a huge or infinite history, and the tools show what has not be read, so just read it when you have time. I've never been in a conversation where there is some "urgency" to read this right away and respond.. who are you talking to??

Item 7 - Yeah, I can see that one occasionally, but not the people I generally work with. On "shared internet" channels, yeah, but internal work channels.. almost never.

Some of the other items seem more real, and things I've experienced. Some seem like minor, nit-picky things though. 25 used to be 1... yeah, occasionally a conversation can drag on --- but so can an email chain.. and, don't get me started about how many "Meetings" ramble on long after the main point has been (or should have been) made.

Some key points I might make -- it's better t have many smaller conversations, with specific individuals, rather than "a small number" of truly "pile on everyone in the organization is in this channel" conversations. Maybe you need to better organize the groups of people in a particular discussion?? Just a thought.

Item 14 -- it's called search, and yeah, it works really well. It might be a great "long term reference" but then, is email? is a meeting? Is a zoom call (or equiv)? I mean, if you need something for long term -- document it for pete's sake (sorry Pete).

#15 - Yeah, that does happen..

#16 - this can be true, but, I don't hesitate to just ignore something I have to. maybe that's a "company policy" that can be implemented?? Maybe not..

My key point here would be - While Chat "seems" like it should be immediate, it is also possible to treat it as "asynchronous", where an answer is NOT required immediately. You have some good points, but I think you "stretch" the negatives to sell your overall point just a bit too much.

My $0.02

I use Tabnine - https://www.tabnine.com/ It supports multiple LLM's and it has it's own internal one, and it can be secure for a company and their codebase, unlike the generic OpenAI, Claude, etc.

I do have OpenAI keys and Claude, and I use them both (just as the mood fits, to see which works best).

I'm been coding for decades, so I"m quite experienced. I find that an LLM is no substitute for experience, but it definitely helps with progress. I work regularly in a range of languages: Java, Javascript with Typescript, Javascript pure ESM, Python, SQL. It's great to have a quick prototype tool.

One key takeaway - learning to "drive the LLM" is a skill by itself. I find that some people are "hesitant" to learn this, and they usually complain about how bad the LLM is at generating code.. but, in reality, they are bad at "driving" the LLM.

If I put you in an F1 car, the car would perform perfectly, but unless you had the skills to handle the car, you will not win any races.. might not get around the track one time..

Also, I'm in my 60's so, this is all "new" tech. I've just never been afraid of "new" tech. I'd hate for some 30 year old hot-shot to show my up because they learned to master using that LLM Tool and I just blew it off as "new tech".

Anyway, my $0.02

I train my team on how to resolve this. Every team member is able to resolve a force push onto a branch they have local.

Also, we tend to avoid having multiple people work on the same branch.. so, that's also a thing.

If there was a multi-person development effort, then each of those people would have to have a sub-branch of a main feature, and then they would be rebasing their work onto the 'main' feature branch.. which would ultimately be rebased on to dev.. etc.

I take all "WIP" branches and rebase them as needed onto the 'latest' development. Any continued work on those branches will have to be compatible with all released code, so deal with any issues -- i.e. merge issues during a rebase -- now, rather than later when you try and submit a PR.

As a team leader, I prefer to avoid "a lot of" WIP branches, but I just expect developers to rebase their WIP onto dev, etc.

Oh, and I really really dislike "merging" develop into the WIP branch. This accomplishes the same thing as "rebasing" the WIP branch onto develop, but it leaves a horrible mess behind.

Frankly, I don' give a hoot about some "history" of work. In the end, I care about the unit of work encapsulated in that WIP branch, and that unit must always add on top of develop. Rebase just makes that super clear.

I've looked at the "arguments" for not rebasing and reject them. I've never once thought 'oh shit, I wish I had not rebased that'.

Keeping things neat in the repo has gained me far more than I ever theoretically lost by some conceptual "loss" of history.

Is there a "proper way" to attribute information on the internet? And, in a comment forum? I clearly stated the source as perplextity.ai.

In fact, perplexity includes actual sources (via links). I couuld have posted the 8 sources that perplexity.ai cited.. I did not want to take the time.

Perplexity does have a sharelink, so, if you are really curious, here is the search and results

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/What-percentage-of-VTOCreO8...

Well, thank you for "oversimplifying it" But, the existence of a 3rd party app store, with "zero cost" to developers apparently, would almost certainly force someone in need of an app for some purpose to use this app store.

If I have a tool, lets say I buy a 'doorbell' camera. Right now, the "app" must be curated and qualified and verified clear of defects, malware, etc by App store policy and review. (not that they are 100%, but it's a pretty decent process).

When a 'free app store' shows up, then this same doorbell camera company will just pop their app, which will become a much shittier version of what would have been available, into some shitty app store, and, not bother to make a better version.

What will happen, in practice, is that there will be some percentage of apps that become shittier and only available from the shitty 3rd party store, and not the curated (and not free) app store.

So, no, it won't be a simple matter of just "don't use that store", there will be more factors at play.

I agree, but I'm just pointing out that this fine is outrageous, and, basically almost equal to total sales in the EU.

I did read that, and I think it is OUTRAGEOUS. I'd call it criminal, but these thugs in the EU have no moral character.

Estimated annual sales of iPhones in EU are about 12.4M phones in Q4 2023. If you just do quick math, that is 49.6M phones/year. If you pick an ASP of $800 (??) then that would be about $39.7B annual Gross sales.

If EU actually tried to get that money, Apple would have to just halt all sales of iPhones in EU.

Now, maybe that's what the EU really wants. Are there some bitter former Nokia execs on the EU panel?????

I did. Perplexity updates daily. Better than "googling" these days. At least I attributed it. Don't like the stats, find better ones, or contradicting ones.

I hope they allow 3rd party app stores ONLY in EU. Then, we can laugh and laugh and laugh when malware takes off on EU iPhones.

The EU is just out for money. Why doesn't the EU make their own phone. I do NOT wnat any 3rd party apps stores. It will open the door to a ton of garbage apps, spyware, malware, and all kinds of crap that you currently have on Android phones but NOT apple phones.

Here are some stats for you (from Perplexity.ai): Android devices are nearly fifty times more likely to be infected by malware than Apple devices. Android was responsible for 47.15% of observed malware infections, while iPhones accounted for less than 1%

There are 50 times more Android mobile malware infections than iOS infections

Over 99 percent of known mobile malware originates on third-party app stores, which are more commonly used by Android devices due to the open nature of the Android operating system

So, EU, back off on your pushing for a 3rd party app store.

I just memorize it. Write it on a small sticky and hid it somewhere for a period of time until the master is memorized.. then destroy it.

you could write it on that flame paper they use in spy novels.. now that would be cool also. Does Amazon carry that?

I use git rebase all of the time. We rebase all features onto develop. Develop is then merged --ff-only into stage/release, etc. Which is then merged --ff-only into main/master, and then tagged.

I use squash less, as it can be helpful for blame of course, so rebase with minimal squash (like, squash that typo fix).

The article makes it sound like a 'rebase' workflow is so complex, and time consuming. Poppycock. it's easy, and force pushing a branch cause practically zero issues for developers.

If I have to rebase develop, for example, and then force push it, then remote users only have to do this: git checkout develop git reset --hard origin/develop

Since a user would never have any local changes in develop, it would never be an issue.

The "fanaticism" about and against rebasing is overblown in my opinion. Oh, and the "time wasted" dealing with merge issues.. same, exactly the same in fact.

Granted, I don't go around rebasing everything all of the time, but a developer working on a feature just rebases to develop before they submit a PR. Sure, if there are multiple PR's then they also need a rebase merge, but since nobody would "continue" working on a feature once it is submitted, this isn't an issue.

Oh, and IF they did, well, again, they can just pull develop and rebase their feature.

Now, what I don't do is have multiple developers on a single feature branch. If my team was much larger, and that was a "normal process" then, it may well make rebasing more of an issue..

I'm one of those people that can't stand Microsoft. I don't agree with everything Apple does, but I generally like the direction.

The best thing M$ ever did was add WSL2 to the OS. Now, if they could just get rid of the rest of the operating system, I'd consider switching back. Here are a few other things they might consider ditching if they want "my vote" - like they care:

- The registry - File locking of every dang file (so, you know, just reboot) - Horrible system of "installing" an app - Warnings that pup up full screen. Where is my baseball bat? - Backslash in filename. Backslashes are for escaping characters - Clippy (oh, wait they already got rid of that??) - Forced reboots twice weekly - The entire concept of "Did you reboot it??"

This is the best response so far. "What can I learn from this" -- brilliant.

And, this line, double brilliant: ``` I’ve genuinely seen that the most intelligent & successful people I know truly believe they can learn from anyone - including people who are factually wrong. ```

I can't add much to this, but I'll make some additions/rephrasings

- When you submit a PR, start with the attitude "I can't wait to see what my peers point out, so I can learn from it"

- When someone points out a mistake, or flaw, or just a way to improve it.. maybe some "improved" code organization or more succinct logic, just say "Hey, THANKS!!" Be enthusiastic, appreciate their feedback, and "Opportunity" to learn. If you look at it as a "Opportunity", not as a "Criticism" then no matter what they say, you can't really be bothered by it!!! Your are uh.. anti-fragile!!

To summarize -- Don't "dread" the criticism, "Look Forward To it" -- it's how you improve, it's how we all improve.

This article is pure trash. I only made it 5 minutes in.. surprised I made it that far.

This article should come with a trigger warning!! Live by your own rules.

You know, "tax the rich" only puts more money in the hands of the government and the government bureaucrats. Those people are as corrupt as they (people) come. They are certainly no better than these 1% of the rich they want to villify.

I'm not saying that this "information" makes me happy -- I'm nowhere near any 1% -- but I'm saying that taking the money from the 1% and giving it to the government won't solve anything.

Try again

You make some very subjective statements here

> ... overly complex ...

To you, it might be overly complex. Who is to say that your assessment of "overly" is accurate? You provide a specific example that seems to prove your point, at least in on particular case.

Be careful of this, as you may be the problem here.

> Their code has no consistent style

Uh, there are tools to resolve this, so, quit the complaint. Use a lint/style app, tie it to commits, or better to the IDE, and insure everyone uses the same formatter. Get consensus from the team, don't just leave it to each individual. Who is in charger here anyway?? This is a solved problem..

> They have a big appetite for adding complexity to systems

Another "subjective" assessment. Each item should be judged by it's own merits, and your "assessment that it is complex is not the final answer.

Setup a code review system, and for any 'large scale' changes, have a code review with co-workers, peers, anyone relevant. You can even discuss a proposed code change before starting the work, or, part-way through an implementation. Challenge the team to look at the proposed change and, perhaps find alternatives (if they exist), and, in that way, get some team consensus before spending the time to build a "complex" feature.

Don't judge a feature by it's complexity "per se". Some things are complex, and for one person, a "level of complexity of say "8" on a universal scale (that does not really exist), might be a 10 for them, and a 6 for someone else.. complexity is not the same to everyone, so, don't take the "least clever" person in the room as the 'standard' for what is too-complex, that will limit your system. For "complex" systems, require a bit of extra documentation. A complex system, well described and documented, can become simpler for that "less clever" person.

A bit of management here can resolve all of the issues you describe. Don't get all judgmental, use the team, and apply some leadership.

Good luck

I'm pretty sure this is a generational thing as well. Younger engineers are used to just "google it", or "watch a youtube video" and you are suddenly an expert in whatever you want. Watch a video on building a cabin in the woods, and you have it all figured out.

Older generations are used to studying the field, and learning about the capabilities of the language, environment, etc.

It comes down to this. A language is a tool. Learn your tools well. Become a master craftsman in the tool, and then you will be able to craft amazing things.

If you just learn "enough" to get by for now, i.e. "On Demand Learning", then you won't even be aware if some particular capability of your toolset exists, because, you can't "learn it" if you don't know about it.

Eventually, you will "see some code" that does something, and suddenly you will be prompted to "go learn it", but your understanding will always be limited.

I still take time to read through books (Oreilly, packt, etc) or do some langauge reviews to understand what my tools can do, and do my best to get a good feel for the capabilities. As I approach a particular problem, I usually need to do some more review, more "on demand" learning to deal with the specifics of the problem.

I guess, my approach is a bit of both. General coverage so I "know" my tools capabilities, and then on-demand for the details when I'm trying to use a particular capability for the first or 2nd time.

I did the same thing. I'd always try and read ahead so I had read the material BEFORE the teacher covered it. This was an immense help in understanding. Seriously, it helped so much.

I do not like to use homebrew for python, but I install it for Homebrew dependencies.

I use the native installer available on python.org. It works perfectly on my mac, and gives me no issues. I create local virtualenvs for each project, from the base distribution of choice.

I have found zero reasons NOT to use the standard distribution, and it allows me to install any version of sub-version I desire.

Not quite true. Python PEP 8, kind of a core in Python style, states that lines should be no longer than 79 characters. I personally, and I believe many current Python developers use a more realistic 120 character line length.. But, in Python, long lines are frowned upon, and your multi-line function call is the preferred approach.

Python, Django and Wagtail CMS. https://wagtail.org/

Make it not be from Microsoft.

yeah, because it does not operate as a space heater. I can buy one of those for like $100, and that's a high end model.