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An Unbelievable Demo

brendangregg.com

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Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#471

Post by knolan »

knolan wrote: post #196

My stories are very minor. I did my PhD in a reasonably well regarded mechanical engineering lab. My area is experimental fluid mechanics. I ended up writing a lot of Matlab code while there and even worked with a spin out company from the lab in the biotech sector for a while. I'd get a lot of other students coming to me for coding help. Most just wanted me to do their job for them and I was too naive to say no. One…

Just remembered another recent one. A couple of years after I had left, my former employer closed the regional site. I saw the writing on the wall I guess. A few colleagues from there have set up a new consultancy company, they’re going to build demos as a service apparently. Several of the showcases on their website are my work.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#472

Post by InfiniteRand »

This reminds me of how the developer of MINIX, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, found that Intel put his operating system on millions of machines only after reading about it in the media: "I guess that makes MINIX the most widely used computer operating system in the world, even more than Windows, Linux, or MacOS. And I didn't even know until I read a press report about it."

https://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/intel/

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#473

Post by brechmos »

Finding code in multiple places....

Semi-related... I TA'ed a Comp Sci class a long time ago (back when they had to submit their code as print-outs). I read through the print-outs and noticed that the "look" of one of them seemed oddly familiar (blocks, line lengths, indenting etc). I went back through the others and found another one that was almost exactly the same.

Took it to the Prof and we agreed the ones that copied got 0 on the project, and the ones who allowed the copying got 50% of their mark. Honestly, they got off quite easy.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#474

Post by [deleted] »

TimPC wrote: post #348
steelframe wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having conducted technical interviews at FAANG companies for over 10 years, I've gotten to the point where I never believe anything anyone claims on their resumes unless I can independently verify them. I also make it a point to ask probing questions about where they got the idea of "inventing" what they did and what alternatives to "making a brand new thing" they considered at the time. However one of my favorite qu…

Your favourite question has some cultural gaps as in many countries in interview settings people downplay weaknesses and flaws. It’s why a lot of weakness questions are often ineffective. Unless you are acutely aware of when a person is doing this BECAUSE it’s an interview you’re going to get some answers that might lead you to reject good candidates.

[deleted]

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#475

Post by jakub_g »

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #461
jakub_g wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specializing in anything is good if you have 5+ years of exp IMO. It's always good to stand out from the crowd of generic developers. The other plus is, if you frame yourself as a specialist in X, it might be easier to explain not knowing Y. You can't simply know everything, especially if you invest heavily in specializing in other things. Personally I've been a web performance (i.e. mostly JavaScript/HTML) guy latel…

Thanks for the advice! My problem with picking a niche is that ones that are easy to learn from a book are too crowded to be considered niches, and the rest can only be learned by doing in real production environments. Now there’s one where I have a foot in, and it’s one that I enjoy.

Yep exactly, it's difficult to learn in isolation. One must try their luck with applying to jobs that you're underqualified. And then seizing the opportunities once in :)

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#476

Post by cromulent »

nix23 wrote: post #465
cromulent wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Australia, for example. https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/is-it-legal-to...

Sounds a bit more complicated then what you think it is: >But the reality is that it is normally against the law to record a phone call without the other person’s consent. >In fact, ‘covertly’ (secretly) using a listening device such as a mobile phone or digital recorder and publishing or otherwise distributing that material can amount to a criminal offence. Recording private conversations: >The laws only apply to ‘p…

No, it's just as simple as I think it is.

Vic, Qld, NSW, SA, Tas, all OK. That's most of Aus.

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#477

Post by warrenm »

gowld wrote: post #376
cperciva wrote: post #49

Reminds me of when Apple started providing "smaller size updates" to OS X. I was curious about the details since my doctorate had touched on the topic, so I worked my contacts (I had a few in Apple engineering from the FreeBSD / OS X relationship) and after a few months I got back as answer: "We're using a tool called bsdiff, are you familiar with it?" I was indeed, since I was the author of said tool. (Just to be cl…

Nowadays, Apple ships the whole 4GB OS, even when they have to ship 3 point updates in one month for small bugs.

You obviously haven't done macOS updates in many years

Re: An Unbelievable Demo

#478

Post by throwaway2037 »

miloignis wrote: post #304
webmobdev wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV/film - is there something new even remotely popular across the world that's French? Indian here who doesn't know French - just finished watching all four seasons of Dix Pour Cent (Call My Agent) and really enjoyed it. I also watched Lupin (after learning that it stars Omar Sy who I loved in the movie The Intouchables ).

Seconding Lupin, it was great and also my first thought! (American who doesn't know French)

I didn't know about Lupin until I saw this profile of Omar Sy in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/21/the-formidable...
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