recfab

I recently tried out Task Warrior for tasks and this is why I switched back to Obsidian + DataView.

Forgetting to check TW is the big reason it didn't work, but the secondary reason is that I take a lot dev logs on context and the `annotate` command is too clumsy to be practical for that.

I like the idea of a CLI tool for todos, but it needs to integrate with my notes.

It's been a while since I've used Logseq, but IIRC you can use yaml front matter. The very first block in the page is special and if you enter YAML there, the underlying markdown will have that yaml block without any bullet points. It renders just like the `foo:: bar` properties.

There was a limitation though that it didn't handle nested YAML. (Obsidian has the same problem I believe though I haven't tested recently)

I had recruiter pull that in my most recent job search. Has to stick "C#/..." in front of everything because they didn't understand that ASP.NET, WPF, WCF, WinForms and several other C#-specific tech had anything to do with .NET.

My previous job used GitLab. I agree that it's less polished and more clunky, at least for the overlap of features it shares with GitHub. (Mostly code hosting and collaboration m.)

I think where it shines is as a DevOps platform. I'm not sure I would say any of the features are best in class but there is value in centralizing them in one place. It takes a lot of investment to get that value though.

Several years ago, at my previous job, I worked on a short-lived project in Moodle. It came to me because I had some PHP experience, a decade prior and no one else had any. I hooked it up to our auth and got it running in Docker.

The project was scrapped after a couple of months as community it was intended for decided to manage it themselves.

Moodle itself seemed like a neat project. I was impressed with the install wizard. I did have some reservations about the "everything is a plug-in" architecture: it seemed possibly too clever for its own good.

In case you haven't seen it already, JetBrains also makes a C# IDE called Rider [0].

Personally, I find the JetBrains IDEs overly complicated. More so than Visual Studio, but that may be familiarity. (Also, I use VSCode for .NET these days so full IDEs feel heavy to me anyway.)

[0]: https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/

It's not even new. I've been doing this professionally for 15 years, and the "web development isn't real development" was a common attitude at least since I started. If anything, it was worse.

I've been searching for about 2 months (laid off early February), and I've not had a lot of luck.

Lots of recruiter calls. Several phone screens. A handful of post-phone-screen Round 1 interviews, but no Round 2. One company reached out to me, rejected me after round 1, but put me on their marketing email distro list.

I did have a phone screen yesterday that I think went well. (For that position, an internal recruiter reached out because they saw my post in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired (April 2023)"). I have two more scheduled for tomorrow. That makes this a relatively busy week.

My last job I was at for nearly 10 years, so I can't compare this experience to the last few years, but it certainly _feels_ brutal.

This week, I'm feeling positive, but in general, I've been worried. I have some severance left and some savings (but not as much as I should). I am also the sole income for my family.

Has this been working for you?

At times, I've had panic mode set in and _feel_ like I need to apply to every little job that looks remotely decent, but I don't know if that's _actually_ helping.

Is the coding question that is representative of the work you do at your company, and that you expect candidates to have done? Or is it a toy, "write a function that does X" question? "ChatGPT solves easily" suggests to me that it's a toy question.

If it is a "toy" question, then I'm of two minds about it:

On one hand, I am used to solving higher level problems, so it might take me a few minutes just to realize you are asking a much simpler question. It also can feel just a tad insulting to be drilled on CompSci 101 questions.

Oh the other hand, I think candidates should be able to solve such questions, as long as the scope is clear. You need to filter somehow and I've met people who could not do that.

"Forgive me Borrow Checker, for I have sinned"

Making medical software that people actually want to use is impressive. I just applied for the Senior Software Engineer role via the Greenhouse link. Looking forward to speaking with you!

> ...forbid you from alt-tabbing or anything that you would normally do while on the actual job, ask for trivia knowledge you'd normally google...

I had to fill out a literal IQ test the other day. 15 minutes, for 50 questions, and a note that you probably won't finish them, and not to use calculator. I'm out of practice for arithmetic tricks _because I've been out of school for 20+ years_. What exactly is that supposed to test, especially under such time pressure? This was followed by a personality test (no time limit).

This is all before they even decide whether they even want to interview me.

> - On the other extreme, you have garbage consultancy/software factory work. Low quality, outdated tech, low pay, and they'll hire anybody who can demonstrate minimal expertise since they aren't interested in quality work but in selling billable hours.

I just had to pass on one of these. Not quite desperate enough to take it just yet. Time tracking software was already iffy. Having to interview again for each project was iffy. Basically, glorified contract work, but less stability. Oh, and they wanted me to screen record my tech assessment assignment.

What cinched it for me, though, was the Glassdoor reviews: they boast about their star rating on Glassdoor, but the CEO would passive-aggressively rip into negative reviews, including one that told a former employee they were wrong for having a bad experience.

> One overlooked aspect of this humiliating process is that it saps your confidence.

This has been me on occasion during the last couple months of searching. I've been worried that my work history was too disjointed to tell a coherent story. Or that I'm not actually as skilled as I thought. Or that some skills have atrophied. Or they just aren't in demand anymore.

I brought it up to a career coach (part of my severance package) and she seemed to think I was overqualified for a couple of them. I'm not sure that's true, and suspect she doesn't grok tech enough to make that assessment. But even if she's right, hell, something straightforward where I'm "overqualified" sounds kind of nice.

I posted last month and didn't hear anything from it. I'm hoping this month is more fruitful.

I'm not sure I could go back to in-office work, but also moving cross country isn't even feasible for me at this stage in my life, even if I wanted to.

Yes, I meant C. Reading too quickly I guess.

  Location: Greater Seattle Area
  Remote: Preferred (will consider Hybrid in Seattle Area)
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: .NET (Framework and Core); JavaScript (Vue.js, Node); Python; RDBMS+SQL (MSSQL, Oracle, Postgres); Terraform; Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Bash, AWS (RDS, Route53, EKS, SQS, SNS)
  Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yael-namen/
  Email: [email protected]

Hi, I am Yael Namen.

I am a software engineer with 15+ years experience across several fields, doing full-stack web development--focusing on backend and system design--and more recently, DevOps and infrastructure engineering.

I am detail oriented, and enjoy working on hard problems that require that kind of detail.

I am passionate about improving things for the whole team/org. That can mean process improvements; writing docs; picking up the work other folks don't have the time/interest to pick up (e.g. this is how I got into DevOps).

I am always learning, and enjoy sharing what I know with other engineers, whether through mentoring, book clubs, or tech talks.

I'm curious about this, and also how hard of a requirement C++ experience is.

It's surprising how many developers won't even bother to read an error message.

At my list gig there were a few folks who would regularly message me anytime there was a failure in their CI pipeline. No reading the message. Possibly not even opening the failed job at all.

Most of the time, the pipeline was doing what it was supposed to: failing a bad build. It didn't even occur to them that it was their code that was the problem. Just "the pipeline is red: send to @recfab".

There can also be a lot of what I'll call "political inertia" involved.

In my experience, the existing process has a way of appearing invisible such that any change will feel like more work, even when it isn't. It's hard to improve things when your coworkers perceive you as trying to give them more work.

It consumes a fair amount of resources just idling.

I'm currently using a laptop that was mid-to-low spec when I got it a couple years ago. It was chugging, especially during video calls. Uninstalling the Widgets feature was enough to make it useable again.

GP specified "internal revolt", i.e. Microsoft employees. The composition of the customer base is a non-sequitur here.

Learning to work "quick and dirty" is something I'm actually working on improving, personally.

I don't necessarily do BDUF or anything, but I generally do more "engineering" than is often directly necessary. Partially, it's my personality. But part of it is that in my experience, prototypes have a way of becoming production systems.

Last time I had to do a prototype for work, I split the difference: working quick and dirty, just meeting the minimal requirements, but also documenting what we would need to do if we decided to move forward with it. That felt like a good balance.

In my current reading conditions (on my phone, outside, nighttime) I couldn't even tell there was any text. They all appeared the same solid grey.

I would also like to know these things.

This sounds like a type of interview that respects my time, which makes me think there is a good chance the company as a whole will respect my time and humanity as well.

Location: Greater Seattle Area

Remote: Remote preferred, Hybrid/On-site for right opportunity

Willing to relocate: Yes, for right opportunity

Technologies:

* Professionally: .NET (C#), JavaScript (frontend & backend), RDBMS (PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Oracle), Kubernetes, Terraform, Argo CD, GitLab CI/CD, Bash, AWS (RDS, Route53, EKS, SQS, SNS)

* Hobbies/side-projects/learning: Python, Ruby, F#, Rust, Network Engineering, Golang, Haskell, Elm

Résumé/CV: https://github.com/recfab/recfab/blob/trunk/resume.pdf

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yael-namen-494441248/

Hi, I am Yael Namen.

I am a software engineer with 15+ years experience across several fields, doing full-stack web development--focusing on backend and system design--and more recently, DevOps and infrastructure engineering. I am detail oriented, and enjoy working on hard problems that require that kind of detail. I am passionate about improving things for the whole team/org. That can mean process improvements; writing docs; picking up the work other folks don't have the time/interest to pick up (e.g. this is how I got into DevOps). I am always learning, and enjoy sharing what I know with other engineers, whether through mentoring, book clubs, or tech talks.

I am primarily interested in remote work, or hybrid/on-site in the Seattle Area, but would considering relocating for the right opportunity.

I like Sphinx [0] with the MyST Markdown syntax [1]. There is a related project, Myst NB [2], which enables including Jupyter notebooks in your site. There is also a plugin for blogging [3].

[0]: https://www.sphinx-doc.org [1]: https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io [2]: https://myst-nb.readthedocs.io [3]: https://ablog.readthedocs.io

I'm not sure I would caution against AsciiDoc, but I stopped using it personally due to lack of support, and Markdown (of various flavors) being good enough for the use cases I cared about at the time.

There isn't much tooling. The community is small. The spec effort seems to have stagnated. AsciiDoctor and related projects seem to move at the speed of what Dan Allen decides is most worth his time.

That said, I've been wanting to do more long form writing, and AsciiDoc is lovely for that, so I may pick it up again for that.

This just sounds like Continuous Delivery. We never achieved it in my last job, so I can't speak from experience, but my understanding is that typically "deploy" is separated from "release" using feature flags of some kind.