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Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

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181–190 of 432 posts

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#181
post #82

I wrote a layoff database for Nortel Networks from ~1998 to 2001. The way I got my notice of termination was while I was running some tests on the production database and needed a "negative" so I searched for a userid that was not present in the database: my own. When I saw my name in the list I called my manager and asked him what was going on. He said "Alex, why don't you head on home for the day and I'll call you…

Echoes of Office Space right there. Did you happen to have a red stapler?

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#182
post #53

About seven years ago I got a bright idea to build a quadcopter. I had experience with little $25-50 drones that bumped around the house with their fragile one-inch propellers, which obviously qualified me to build and pilot something significantly bigger. Off to Aliexpress and Banggood I went. I ordered a carbon-fiber chassis, big strong motors, ESCs, 3-inch propellers, a FrSky receiver, a Devention transmitter, an…

[deleted]

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#183
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do not manually create my mixtures because I do not want to know which version I am on, Double blind testing, in the "now unable to see in both eyes" sense?

LMAO, this was really funny. I did not really think of it as blind I just wanted to remove confirmation bias. I saw so much of that at goop. I have no formal training and I just learn on the fly and try to execute. I have no doubt there are better and smarter ways, I would love critical feedback here or via email.

I'm not sure I have any useful advice; I get the impression you're doing incredibly well for someone with no formal training. On the one hand you might benefit from someone with a more rigorous background helping you avoid known non-obvious risks, but on the other hand almost all such people are going to run screaming because your risk tolerance is way higher than theirs. Having a chronic condition for which the existing treatments are inadequate really sucks. I wish you luck and safety.

(For the "era of higher risk tolerance", the good old "Ignition!" by John D Clarke is a fun read from the era when the official US rocket fuels programme consisted of just lighting stuff on fire and seeing what happened)

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#184
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A cordless handheld drill is hardly a tool that most people would call 'hazardous'. You turn the trigger, the thing rotates, grab the chuck and you can likely stall it. But that much energy in something driven by code is extremely dangerous, it's waiting for any of who knows how many conditions to take off, a common one is that putting your hands in/on something that seems to be not moving can 'make' a sensor and t…

An impact driver (rattle gun) is much better for speeding up disassembly than a drill. They also don't apply anything like the same feeling of torque to the operator's wrist. A lower power (e.g. 300Nm max) battery driver is great for when you have to undo lots of lower sized bolts, while it would be a little bit underpowered for wheel nuts or motorcycle fork retaining bolts.

Dear Lord please do not put 300Nm on your wheel nuts.

They're supposed to tentioned correctly with a torque wrench, usually between about 110 and 120Nm.

Edit to add a reference, just random from a search: https://www.barum-tyres.com/car/expert-advice/safety-driving...

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#185
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A cordless handheld drill is hardly a tool that most people would call 'hazardous'. You turn the trigger, the thing rotates, grab the chuck and you can likely stall it. But that much energy in something driven by code is extremely dangerous, it's waiting for any of who knows how many conditions to take off, a common one is that putting your hands in/on something that seems to be not moving can 'make' a sensor and t…

Why would a drill be engineered to put out more torque than a human holding the handle could be expected to counterbalance?

Price, there are some fancy battery powered drills that detect the jerk via an accelerometer and reduce the power, but most drills don't have that. for example: https://www.boschtools.com/ca/en/more/news-and-extras/knowle...

For a continuous drilling operation the torque is totally fine, the problem is abrupt changes in torque because of something catching. On drills without this feature that's what the torque limiting clutch is for.

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#186
post #7

I have. Back in early days of Oculus, I was using one of the development kits (DK2?, maybe DK1) and making something in Unity. The Oculus had one screen, with lenses over the left and right halves. To give depth perception, it renders a view for each eye, and shows them in a vertical split screen. Some script had a bug, and none of that happened; Instead it simply stretched a normal view across both screens. I put th…

I had weird experience with valve index. I somehow miscalibrated it and the floor wasn't level.

I spent maybe 20 seconds in VR with skewed floor and it felt horribly wrong. And the whole evening my sense of ballance and perception was broken not to be the point of falling over but the real world around me felt wrong. Only after I slept my brain fixed itself.

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#187
post #53

About seven years ago I got a bright idea to build a quadcopter. I had experience with little $25-50 drones that bumped around the house with their fragile one-inch propellers, which obviously qualified me to build and pilot something significantly bigger. Off to Aliexpress and Banggood I went. I ordered a carbon-fiber chassis, big strong motors, ESCs, 3-inch propellers, a FrSky receiver, a Devention transmitter, an…

I feel obligated to add my silly mistake here. I was playing with SDR and was soldering together a small antenna for receiving ADS-B signals.

I soon realised my electric soldering iron wasn't powerful enough so I nipped out and bought a miniature blow torch. The kind which are basically a big cigarette lighter. Having got it home I tried igniting it a few times and nothing happened. I held it up to my ear to try to hear if there was any gas coming out, sure enough there was gas coming out, which in that instant ignited beautifully into a 700 degree flame pointed right at my ear.

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#188
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP said a jar of mayonnaise spilled into the server, not food.

Which makes it even more confusing. Were they preparing a sandwich on top of the server? Did they eat mayonnaise straight from the jar? The condiment plot thickens.

And more mystery: Where I'm from, mayonnaise is viscous enough that it doesn't _spill_ out of anything...

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#189
post #122

I was building an underwater mapping GUI, a quick SCUBA dive to do some testing before the weather closed in whilst at sea in the GBR Australia. Dropped to 10 meters, set the datum and started swimming, going well until I crossed into a negative quadrant. My beautiful track went haywire/dead. Then I swam around trying to get back "into" the positive quadrant, I couldn't find it and consequently couldn't get back to t…

The "system doesn't work with negative datum" bug allegedly hit F-16 flight control software, resulting in a plane that would flip upside down on crossing the equator.

They are upside down down there, so it was a reasonable feature.

Re: Have you ever hurt yourself from your own code?

#190
I program CNC lathes in G-code for a living, so yeah. Dodgeing shrapnel is part of the job. A missing dot could cost thousands in repairs and result in loss of life limb.

There is usually an aptitude test for machinists. Not everybody can do it fast enough safely.

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