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McP

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www.wilsoncenter.org 5y ago

The Hijacking of Democracy: The Role of Political Parties in Iraq

McP
2pts0
www.business.com 9y ago

The Case for Bootstrapping in the Unicorn Era

McP
4pts0
www.engadget.com 16y ago

Flipper USB plug can't be stopped

McP
4pts0
Converting a Git repo from tabs to spaces (2016) 1 year ago

Nice to see ignore-revs getting some love :)

I originally wrote it because I wanted to do a mass-refactoring to llvm-project to change its weird naming convention and "it will mess up git blame" was an objection that was raised. Getting ignore-revs landed took many iterations over several months (thanks Barret!) and at the end of it I felt so drained that I didn't have the energy to do the mass refactoring I originally planned. Oh well. Maybe someday.

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The EU wants to cure your teen’s smartphone addiction 3 years ago

I agree with you but also: I gave my young daughter her own Android phone last week. Google Family Link is fantastic. It prevents her from using a web browser or any other things I don't want her to do. All she can do is message people, call people & look at maps. It turns itself the phone off an hour before bedtime. She can get headlines from Google search, which I didn't expect, but it's not proven a problem since the links can't be opened. The usage tracker shows she spent almost an hour messaging/calling yesterday, which is more than I expected, but if it gets too much then I can limit it. One happy customer here.

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Speed Up C++ Compilation 3 years ago

I was expecting its Java based nature to be a problem but in practise found bazelisk to be remarkably self contained and fast. Bazel has issues but Java isn't one of them.

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Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative 4 years ago

I've helped compile guidance on inclusive language for my company. Whoever came up with this list has scored an own-goal against people who genuinely seek to make their communities more inclusive.

There are words like "slave" that actually cause offense to real people when used in a trivialising way. Accordingly, terminology around databases and the like has changed, and that's a good thing.

A laundry list of terms to be "eliminated", some of which are completely harmless makes a joke of real problems and is the opposite of helpful.

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Challenges for Rust 4 years ago

Computing is full of metaphors like "kill".

My 7 year old niece looked over my shoulder as I was writing this and said "kill!?" with a look of disgust! Disgust! I suspect that this reaction is typical of many females getting started in computing. Could it be a small part of why there are so few women in computing?

My niece gets very excited when she sees me use commands she knows like ls, cd, cat (especially cat!). The fact that she could grow up to become a DBA and won't have to talk about "dumb slaves" is something I celebrate. It's not nearly as important as <insert whataboutism here> but it's progress.

(If you or someone you know has been victimised because they're comfortable with existing terminology then I'm sorry for that, really. If you feel that changing terminology is a waste of time that is OK. If you don't want to rename your branches then no-one should give you a hard time about it.)

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On the Weaponisation of Open Source 4 years ago

Accusing people of virtue signalling is a prime example of virtue-signaling.

But really I don't know your motivations and you don't know the motivations of the Terraform folks. Let's be a bit more humble please. But yes, I also find it unprofessional.

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Worms or bust: The story of Britain’s most tenacious indie games company (2016) 4 years ago

Thank you Team17 for giving me my break into software. I was/am a massive introvert and had failed many interviews because I was so awkward to talk to. At Team17 the interviewer just talked at me for an hour while I listened and that was it (my demo was a pretty awesome GTA clone so I guess he didn't feel the need to assess my skills further). But yeah, lots of Worms games. Worms 3D and Worms Forts were in full production simultaneously. The lead designer explained to me that this was what the publisher demanded, and he had a mortgage to pay. So it was a bit disenchanting but I'm still grateful to have lived the dream.

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Message from cycling heaven: it’s not that fantastic here 5 years ago

Thanks for the links. My point was that studies wouldn't invalidate mattlondon's observation that cyclists more often break laws that affect pedestrians. The studies you referenced do seem refute his claim "cyclists - as a general rule - totally ignore any rules" - presumably the non-aggressive majority aren't catching his attention.

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Message from cycling heaven: it’s not that fantastic here 5 years ago

Which studies? You say "the rules" - I suspect it varies a lot by rule. Speeding? Yep, drivers are going to slip above the limit unless they're very careful, whereas you have to be a very capable athlete to do that as a cyclist. Running a red light or going on the pavement? I'm pretty sure cyclists break these far more often.

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