markbnj

7 ms·

1.
by markbnj 24d ago
This article basically captures my current professional life to a high degree of accuracy. I still enjoy the work. I still get the satisfaction of conceiving a thing and seeing it realized. That has always been at the root of the pleasure t
2.
by markbnj 29d ago
Good story, and surprising that there was so little assistance from the OEM. As an aside, I got to test out Asus crash free BIOS a couple of weeks ago. A strong thunderstorm hit and before I could get to my office a rapid series of deep vol
3.
by markbnj 1mo ago
I grew up in the 1960's. We lived in a suburb of Detroit where my father was a mechanical engineer who worked on drive trains and suspensions for Cadillac. My mom was a homemaker. We had one car. The house where the six of us lived was
4.
by markbnj 3mo ago
I feel like the author has another disappointment coming. Alexa has been annoying in this way for a long time now. Still very useful as well, but yeah, annoying. It has always been too proactive about suggesting things I don't want or
5.
by markbnj 5mo ago
The John McPhee article that the author references was expanded into a book, and it's a great read for anyone that finds this story interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Oranges-John-McPhee-ebook/dp/B005E8AN...
6.
by markbnj 5mo ago
I've got one sitting on the shelf above my desk, a 33 Mhz dx, I don't even remember what machine it came out of.
7.
by markbnj 6mo ago
Adoption of a new technology has always sorted itself into buckets by early adopters, mainstream adopters and late adopters. I think this post is just demonstrating the mindset of the latter.
8.
by markbnj 7mo ago
Ha, little fall down the memory hole. I had a Harris 20mhz 286 back in the late 80's. I thought that thing was a beast at the time. Paired it with a Conner 100MB disk and I remember my brother laughing derisively, "Who the hell ne
9.
by markbnj 7mo ago
I suspect that my recent experience confirms this. Our daughter shipped two suitcases home from the UK, paying some local company for "door-to-door" delivery. They contracted with UPS who demanded an additional $32 when the first
10.
by markbnj 7mo ago
Like the author I've been in the process of archiving family memories since my parents passed away. In my Dad's case his early fascination with super 8mm film gave way to a lifelong quest to own more Kodak slide carousels than any
11.
by markbnj 8mo ago
For people interested in the subject generally I highly recommend John McPhee's anthology "Annals of the Former World." Actually I highly recommend everything John McPhee has written but this is a good start :).
12.
by markbnj 8mo ago
https://markbetz.net
13.
by markbnj 9mo ago
I would not say your list is anything like complete, although those topics are often discussed here. Apple is a huge player in the general computing ecosystem, and probably a majority of front- and back-end developers these days work on mac
14.
by markbnj 10mo ago
I think the dangers that LLMs pose to the ability of engineers to earn a living is overstated, while at the same time the superpowers that they hand us don't seem to get much discussion. When I was starting out in the 80's I had t
15.
by markbnj 10mo ago
Ditto, self-hosted for over eight years at my last job. SCM server and 2-4 runners depending on what we needed. Very impressive stability and when we had to upgrade their "upgrade path" tooling was a huge help.
16.
by markbnj 1y ago
I once found a bug in code that was read to me over the phone while I sat in an airport waiting for a flight. So I agree that constructing a model of the program in your head is the key, and you can use various interfaces for that. Some are
17.
by markbnj 1y ago
A type system lets different parts of a program agree on how to interpret a pattern of bits in memory and then enforce that interpretation. I don't think electronic circuits built from discrete components that have immutable physical p
18.
by markbnj 1y ago
> crossing the ocean on a boat felt absolutely epic and dangerous Given the way death was implemented ("LFG @ EC tunnel for a corpse run to Guk!") and the fact that you could fall off the ships in the middle of the ocean when t
19.
by markbnj 1y ago
We're not seeing any connectivity issues between pods and vms in our vpc, but your mileage may vary.
20.
by markbnj 1y ago
>> Is that a measured observation? Not trying to nitpick - genuinely curious if this is your observation from experience or there are some studies that you are referring to. It is from my experience as a rider, as I said in my post, b
21.
by markbnj 1y ago
As an almost-daily motorcyclist with 15k miles on my current machine (Suzuki DL650), I absolutely agree that the increased proportion of pickup trucks on the road increases the risks for riders, however I suspect it is mainly because the la
22.
by markbnj 1y ago
Like using a throwaway account to accuse someone of cowardice.
23.
by markbnj 1y ago
Lots of memories from my own childhood and my kids'. My dad took me on my first visit to a Detroit-area store in the mid-60's. Used to love just walking around and checking out the shelves. Sort of a Fry's vibe but there was
24.
by markbnj 2y ago
Nice shot of nostalgia seeing pictures of the mill in Maynard. I taught C++ classes there back in the early 90's. It was fairly early in my professional career and just being in that building gave me a feeling of having arrived in the
25.
by markbnj 2y ago
I have all 21 of the Aubrey-Maturin novels and have read them through twice. At the end of the last time I mentally bid them a fond farewell, sure that I would never devote the time to give them a third go... but now I doubt my resolve on t
26.
by markbnj 2y ago
I also still have an original user's guide, and I think the quick-reference pamphlet too.
27.
by markbnj 2y ago
Sad to read this, but all things pass I guess. Spent a large chunk of my life posting on and reading the AT forum. Last I checked I still have a mod account. Things sort of started to go downhill for me with the sale to... meh can't ev
28.
by markbnj 2y ago
>> Alexa can set timers and tell me the weather, and...that's basically it. I'm not sure if you're intending to be literal or engaging in hyperbole to make a point, but either way it doesn't gel with our experience
29.
by markbnj 2y ago
Confirmed it does work in Windows 11, and the desktop folder shortcut even gets assigned a special icon... however there is so much stuff in the folder I am not sure its really going to be that useful.
30.
by markbnj 2y ago
No, it's not. This immediately caught my eye too. According to google the right number is 7.8 k/s so it was very far off the mark.

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