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I no longer build software

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Re: I no longer build software

#561

Post by jacquesm »

roel_v wrote: post #265
snazz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally off-topic, but the automatic blade brakes on modern table saws are really cool. It runs a current through the blade, so when something moist like your finger or a hot dog gets too close (maybe using capacitance?), it automatically drops the blade and instantly stops it with a single-use brake mechanism. Better to destroy the $100 blade-and-brake assembly than to lose a finger.

Those videos show up in my Youtube feed the last few weeks too (although these saws have existed for many years now), but I still wonder - why do they always use hotdogs in the demo videos? Can't they find anyone who's willing to risk a finger, or is it something much more boring like OSHA rules or something?

Technology can fail, so why risk it? I'd not trust my fingers to someone else's design either, no matter how good, though I'd be happy to have that system installed on every table saw. But we'll have to wait until the patent expires. Even table saw blades that are protected like that should still command healthy respect and anybody that wants to show off that capability is throwing the dice. It's a bit like driving into a wall at 50 Kph to prove that airbags work. Sure they do. But you may still get injured.

Re: I no longer build software

#562

Post by jacquesm »

Unklejoe wrote: post #272
snazz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally off-topic, but the automatic blade brakes on modern table saws are really cool. It runs a current through the blade, so when something moist like your finger or a hot dog gets too close (maybe using capacitance?), it automatically drops the blade and instantly stops it with a single-use brake mechanism. Better to destroy the $100 blade-and-brake assembly than to lose a finger.

> something moist like your finger I wonder how well this would work in a real life scenario. My dad does autobody work, and his hands are like dry, cracked stone. They probably have very high electrical resistance. I'd imagine a wood worker's hands to be similar.

The first nick will conduct plenty due to the blood.

Re: I no longer build software

#563

Post by Accujack »

notacoward wrote: post #125

Totally on board with not building software any more. In fact, at 55 this is my last week of it. For real. Basically, everything sucks more about building software nowadays more than I remember it sucking before, from the mere mechanics of navigating through an obscenely large pseudo-object-oriented codebase to the WRONG constructs/idioms people use to build distributed systems to the way software is packaged and dep…

Nice. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Me, I'm about to turn 50, and I don't see being able to retire until... well, ever at this point.

I might change careers some time, but I doubt I'll entirely give up on software. Maybe just do it for fun.

Re: I no longer build software

#564

Post by the_af »

derefr wrote: post #342
coldtea wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These technologies really do solve problems for some people. Ignoring the temporary problem it’s solving for most-everyone right now, VR lets quadriplegics and house-bound invalids go places that aren’t accessible, e.g. the middle of the jungle. And VR is also useful for assisted visualization in the treatment of PTSD and other associated disorders. Yeah, that's a valid market. But they're touted as some ultimate r…

The thing nobody likes to mention in casual conversation about the benefits of VR, is that there’s a whole industry working on VR sex simulation games, with big FOSS extension ecosystems, control of modern sex toys through open-standard teledildonics APIs, etc. There’s Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 levels of effort and detail put into these. (And the further thing that nobody likes to mention in casual conversation…

> have an addiction to visiting prostitutes, that can be as costly as a drug habit; and that a good VR rig, coupled with this extensible, customizable VR sex-sim software, can manage—much more-so than regular porn—to mostly sate the same psychological needs that made them retain the services of escorts in the first place

Two thoughts:

1- Are men really replacing flesh & bone prostitutes with VR sex sims?

2- Is this really a "good" development? At least with prostitutes there are two human beings involved. With VR sims, aren't we going to a Brave New World kind of situation, and would this be a good thing at all?

Re: I no longer build software

#565

Post by orbifold »

aarongough wrote: post #460
jlangenauer wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are right to say that the methods are vastly improved, but the ends to which those methods are applied have become ever more uninteresting (for a lot of people), and often morally suspect. We have built exquisite tools, but we use them to extract profit, to manipulate behaviour and often for no discernable purpose at all. Programming has become joyless. There are ever-shrinking spaces where a developer ge…

Unfortunately I agree with this. A great quote I saw a while ago: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” –Jeff Hammerbacher Every paying software job I've ever had was in some way involved getting people to click on ads. Either directly making a product where ad click rate is a measured metric, or products that helped people make products where clicking on ads was a metric.…

The quote should be

"The best minds that I know are thinking about how to make people click ads."

There is a considerable number of exceedingly intelligent people in pure mathematics and (theoretical) physics that don't work for Google, Facebook etc. and never would. Those that do often have nothing to do with Ads even three to four edges removed (think Martinis or the people at MSR).

Re: I no longer build software

#566

Post by mikewarot »

I used to build software, back in the days of MS-DOS... wrote it all in Turbo Pascal, used pkZip to make archives of the source code every day, saved them on floppy disk. Towards the end, Windows was starting to be a thing, but I didn't have to deal with it. Delphi was fun.

Then I was a system admin for about 2 decades, and only occasionally did I do the odd bit of programming.

I took a detour into making gears, until the plague hit.

I've had a side project for the past year, Initially I tried to do it in Python because where was a good charting library for it... but it turned out that building a GUI for the user was an exercise in masochism. There just was nothing like the interactive GUI builder in Delphi that I could find for python. After months of banging my head against the wall.. it worked, but changes that should take 30 seconds were taking 20+ minutes because I had to tweak all the python code for every little change in the GUI. I tried out Lazarus/Free Pascal, since Delphi is out of my price range.... it's buggy... but it took a pretty intense weekend, and I had everything replicated, and the pace of development went back to reasonable.

The focus on C++ and the weird class factory thing, Java and the madness there... so much wasted time and effort when things USED TO BE BETTER.

GIT, on the other hand... is awesome.... way better than ZIP files. 8) It took a while, but GUIs work much better for users, and they are almost trivial to build in Lazarus. You can bang out a CRUD app in a few hours.

Re: I no longer build software

#567

Post by bmc7505 »

mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

Where in NH are you based? Anywhere near Whitefield/Lancaster?

Re: I no longer build software

#568

Post by phkahler »

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #500
genidoi wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's easy to forget that modern tooling (+AWS/GCP/Azure) let's one dev match or exceed the productivity of 15 developers and a couple of PMs in 2005.

That's a very specific meaning, like in terms of scaling maybe? But in terms of actually meaningful problems solved for end users... But there very nature large scale systems aren't very common, but everyone is chasing that unicorn startup which can serve 10 million users; so scalable APIs are more "practical" then simple workflows

Scalability seems overhyped. If you write small efficient systems they can handle a lot of work. If you use big clunky frameworks that convert simple things into map-reduce style problems of course you're going to care about scalability and how much your AWS bill is going to be.

Re: I no longer build software

#569

Post by cambalache »

chpmrc wrote: post #208
DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #168

It seems like nowadays you just can't make money building interesting things anymore. Most of the available programming work is really just writing glue code to make big software systems work as intended, to the point where it can feel more like writing configuration files than actual programming. Put simply, 98% of programming these days is scripting. On the other hand, you have lots of fun things one can do with co…

I can order a comfy car anywhere I am with the tap of a button. I can order food from hundreds of restaurants and have it delivered in less than 30 mins with the tap of a button. I can book flights and hotels with the tap of a button. I can play with friends in virtual reality and actually sweat. I can watch a live stream of SpaceX launching reusable rockets in space. I could buy a car that is almost fully "self driv…

Not if you dont have enough money

Re: I no longer build software

#570

Post by jagraff »

Unklejoe wrote: post #272
snazz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally off-topic, but the automatic blade brakes on modern table saws are really cool. It runs a current through the blade, so when something moist like your finger or a hot dog gets too close (maybe using capacitance?), it automatically drops the blade and instantly stops it with a single-use brake mechanism. Better to destroy the $100 blade-and-brake assembly than to lose a finger.

> something moist like your finger I wonder how well this would work in a real life scenario. My dad does autobody work, and his hands are like dry, cracked stone. They probably have very high electrical resistance. I'd imagine a wood worker's hands to be similar.

Once the blade started cutting through the skin and got to blood vessels, the resistance would go way down, so it would probably still work - just with a larger/deeper cut than more conductive hands.
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