greenspot

OT: Who has experiences with serverless and which providers/services could yoi recommend?

Could quit FB (took around 2-3 years and wasn't easy) but now I am super addicted to some Reddit subs such as r/mechanicalkeyboards.

Addiction is higher than with FB but it doesn't make me feel miserable.

Celeste, one recent major indie game, was started and initially developed on Pico-8.

If are into games, check out Celeste. Just the music is reason to play this game (I played it on PS4 but all versions are equal).

This. So true and extremely well framed.

The only thing I can add: At the beginning of a relationship, everybody is kind. Background checks not just help, they are essential, do them.

Getting into conflicts and power plays with VCs, or just any person at some point, should be expected but there are still huge differences in how people deal in messy situations in terms of morale and ethics. You will find everything between feeling uneasy and facing a nuclear war.

I like to extend the question: Which online mail provider has many or just some third party integrations, in particular those offering mail merge and per recipient email tracking.

Gmail is here unfortunately by far the leading product.

I am bit surprised about this article. The momentum around AMP slowed down. AMP pages do not rank that well anymore as when they were introduced. Also within Google, there is no unanimity about the future of AMP. But maybe I got the signals wrong.

Google is abusing its powers. The search rank is our currency and Google has pushed AMP sites to the top for some while. So, everybody is now building weird AMP layers for their sites. We went from a free to a proprietary mobile web in just a few weeks. And we can't do anything. It feels like the times when the Internet Explorer tried to rule except that more people were complaining.

The open solution to a faster mobile web would have been so easy: Just penalize large and slow web pages without defining a dedicated mobile specification. That's it. This wasn't done in the past, slow pages outperformed fast ones on the SERPs because of some weird Google voodoo ranking, heck sometimes even desktop sites outperformed responsive ones on smartphones. If they had just tweaked these odd ranking rules in way that speed and size got more impact on the overall ranking there wouldn't have been any reason for AMP—the market would have regulated itself.

I'm wondering who at Google is responsible for AMP. Who created AMP's random specs (no external CSS but external fonts files, preference for four selected font providers, no JS but their JS, probable ranking preference of Google cached AMP sites, etc.). Why did they decide on the spec themselves and not as a part of an industry group? Again why didn't they just tweaked their ranking algorithm and btw, they could have also made Android's Chrome faster, it's still significantly slower than iOS' Safari. I'd be happy if this person could comment on the abuse of power (Sundar Pichai?).

Is 'not finishing' an inherent problem of being a coder and a coder's reward system?

When I look at myself, coding is great when I learn new things, new APIs, can glue stuff together to create new systems which haven't been there before. Once I master a technology or have to do stuff which was done million times before it gets boring. Then, I rather seek for the next kick, the next API, the next language/framework/lib.

So, having ongoing novelties seems to be an important part of a coder's reward system. This hurts finishing and going the last mile, the most difficult part of a project that is not about facing steady novelties. Often it even means to abandon the shiny new tech and rebuild stuff in some proven tech.

However, the bad is you never finish, the good is you learn all the time. Better than checking Facebook, Instagram and your smartphone 24/7.

Great post & thread, a tl;dr:

  Ctrl-r      search history
              - then Ctrl-r again to show next match
              - then Tab to show all options
  Ctrl-p      previous command or arrow up
  Ctrl-n      next command or arrow down
  export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups
              Add to .bashrc to avoid duplicate entries

  Ctrl-a      to beginning of line
  Ctrl-e      to end of line
  Alt-b       one word back
  Alt-f       one word forward
  Ctrl-k      delete to end of line
  Ctrl-u      delete to beginning of line
  Alt-d       delete to end of word
  Ctrl-w      delete to beginning of word
  Alt-Backspc same

  cd -        change to last dir
  pushd <dir> mark current dir and go to <dir>
  popd        go to marked dir 
  z           fuzzy cd, install from https://github.com/rupa/z
  j           fuzzy cd and more, install via autojump

  Ctrl-z      to background & suspend
  bg          recent background app continue running
  fg          bring recent background app to front
  disown -h   remove recent background app from current tty
  fg %n       bring nth app to front, e.g.: fg %2 for second

  less        better than cat, doesn't flood screen, same keys
  find        find files, e.g. find / -name <filename>

  ag          install via the_silver_searcher, faster grep

  tree        shows dir like a GUI app, install
  !!          last command, e.g. sudo !!
  fish        bash alternative with more sensible defaults

  man bash    read more about bash

tl:dr

  ctrl-r     search in history, ctrl-r again to skip-
  ctrl-p     previous command (instead of arrow up)
  ctri-n

I'm going through this thread comment by comment and it feels like reading customer reviews on Amazon. Many comments are written like those '5-star' reviews there. It's just a vague feeling and maybe I'm wrong.

VR might be a hit but there're questions marks which got outlined by other commentators quite well.

I'm not qualified to judge if VR is going to be a hit but I realize that a lot of people seem to be committed and invested in this space (so money is involved) and we should be just wary when we see 5-star reviews.

OT: What are these sub brands from Medium like Backchannel and Hackernoon? Are there more sub brands/communities and why did Medium create them?

Your message is basically 'learn from your mistakes' which would be usually a good advice. But in this special situation he just shouldn't.

Why:

- You don't have the time and the energy to do so; the risk of getting depressed or apathetic in such situations is quite high (once you are depressed you have another problem you don't want and can deal with); so discipline is the most important thing; to stay disciplined you MUST stay positive, 100%; thinking about 'micro-failures' doesn't help your mood; and btw, every situation can be seen positive or negative, you remember when people say the glass is half-full?

- Maybe the OP didn't do anything wrong, how do you want to know? Maybe it was the financial situation of the company, or they changed the product strategy over night or, or, or...; he might never find out the real reason, so any time spent on such thoughts is wasted time he could use for new endeavors

- Maybe in a year he can think back and learn from failures; but you know what, he doesn't have to sit down, think and learn from potential failures now: I am pretty sure that when he faces similar situations in future where he did mistakes in the past, he will remember and will act accordingly and automatically without the need to prepare himself

It's of course always better if you know the CEOs in person or can get in touch via intro.

If you don't know them but there is some connection to them or to their company and if it's just that you like their product or brand, just write them. People say that cold mails are bad. I think they are only bad if you could have reached the person via intro. Otherwise they are better than doing nothing. And at the end, it's just a number game.

Re the emails and how they should look like: there is really no right and wrong. The best advice I can give: Just imagine if you were writing a good friend. Then your email will be balanced: not too needy or too formal. Keep it short, tell him who you are, why you write him and suggest a next step.

Thanks, I was just wondering why the OP didn't compare Rax to Inferno.

Is it faster than Inferno[1]?

[1] Inferno seems to be the fastest React drop-in replacement at 9kb size at the moment: http://stefankrause.net/js-frameworks-benchmark4/webdriver-t... - full post to the comparison table before: http://www.stefankrause.net/wp/?p=316

going on vacation, which I believe is a bad idea after a lay-off as your mind constantly replays what has just happened

so true

Looking for a job is a full time job in itself.

I agree, it can be a full time job and you should take the job search seriously. BUT it puts you also a very needy state if you are not careful. If you apply 24/7 30 days in a row, I am not sure if you will get that more job offers than if you just spend, let's say 2-4 hours every other day. It's more about being efficient and creating many job opportunities while spending little time on the actual job hunt.

Reason: If you are in a needy state everybody can feel, smell and see that you are needy. Actually, they don't need to see you in person, your voice and the chosen words on a phone call disclose your level of neediness already. If you spend 24/7 for job hunt, you MUST be needy or you will get needy at some point. And who wants to hire a needy guy (who just got fired)? Nobody.

Besides, the activity of applying (writing always the same emails, doing minor tweaks on your CV again and again, doing interviews with HR folks asking about your weaknesses, getting rejections or no responses) is not really fulfilling at all, therefore I suggest in the other answer to spend also some time on personal projects, they give you back your state and let you be perceived less needy.

DRM?

1. You must reframe the situation as quick as possible. Don't think, 'shit, why me, what happened, am I not good enough?' Such thoughts bring you a vicious cycle. You must treat this situation as the best thing ever happened, you must be happy about it. And I promise you, heck I bet $10,000 that you'll tell us in one year that this lay-off was the best thing ever happened and led you to x, y and z. So, basically it's not reframing or lying to yourself—no, what happened was really the BEST what could have happened (so, I just did the reframing for you). Change is always good and rarely gets triggered by oneself.

2. Reach out to as many people as possible, preferably people outside the company. Most people from the company won't help you and even if they did, they just remind you of the company again, what happened and this brings you again to a bad state and you need to start at zero and reframe again. Just let them go, all of them, really. So, look for prior peers, old friends. Further, write applications or just plain emails to many CEOs and tell them that you are out. You don't have to write that you look for a job. Just get into conversations with as many people as possible. It's more about staying connected and keeping a social context (after you lost the one of the company) than finding the next job.

3. Work on a pet project with a technology you always wanted to work with, get into flow and put it online. This will be the most fun and will give you tons of self-confidence in a very short time.

You should spend 30% of your day on 2 and 70% on 3 and 0% on thinking about the past.

Sounds good?

Looks gorgeous and I am just installing the macOS version.

Does anyone know if they plan a Linux version too?

A good plot twist:

Nintendo just sells these left & right Switch controllers you stick to the Switch screen BUT tries to get other smartphone manufacturers to integrate connectors to the left & right Switch controllers PLUS builds there own mobile phones. This is still the biggest bummer when playing games on phones—no physical buttons.

At the end of the day, Nintendo must get into the smartphone market and if it's just as a modded Android distribution or heck, just a pure Android with their own game app store (like Steam). They would have the killer properties to gain significant traction and enough users who would install a new app store just to play Mario (but they gave this opportunity away to Apple...).

If you are a designer, this is absolutely the best thing you can do to sky-rocket your market value over night:

Create a concept design from a popular product and put it on a slick landing page. It shows that you, as a designer, are proactive and think beyond designing standard stuff (like webpages or mobile apps).

Moreover, you are not limited by any client restrictions[1] which hurt your work (and portfolio), you learn 3D modelling if you haven't yet (it's not hard just time consuming), if you are lucky with social news sites you get so much free promo and finally, it's the eye-catcher on any CV.

[1] A classic and recommended post if we talk about clients restricting designers: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Ok, didn't know and good info. Do you know if it will be treated equally SEO-wise?

While I prefer an 12.5" ultrabook with Arch + a tiling window manager (i3) as my daily driver. There're still moments I need my Macbook Pro:

- Sketch (this is macOS' killer app, there is no other app on any OS where you can create mockups that fast and accurate)

- Support of multiple 27" screens with 5K (5K makes a difference and the new 15" MBP can drive 2 (!) of them at the same time)

- Xcode (and if it's sometimes just for using the iOS simulator)

- Word (for contracts) and Excel (rarely)

- And of course the trackpad: sometimes I have to deliver and when in panic mode, the touchpad must work 100%

But when I look myself at the list above, it's not much left to migrate fully to another OS.

Edit: Thanks for the downvote but why?

5 different JavaScript frameworks

This is not the problem. You can easily use i.e. React and some related libs on mobile without slowing down the experience at all. Everything will be fast and responsive, loading times and the mobile site itself (if done right). The problem Google tries to address (and this is a real problem) are the cascaded ad networks on webpages which load hundreds of JS libs once a page is loaded. This is a huge problem and yes, it needs to be solved. Just go to any news site and open Chrome Inspector's Networking tab, then you'll be shocked about the millions of resources still being loaded. AMP is solving this by putting Google as the gatekeeper in front of all this networks. I am ok with this, those ad networks created the problem and I am fine if they now need to deal with Google's monopoly but I am not fine with being restricted in using JS in general because you can do it right, even on mobile.

I have a bad feeling. Google is creating a proprietary version of the mobile Internet, a layer between them and us. Looking at the specs, it's open but paired with the AMP cache and Google's ranking algorithm which already clearly prefers AMPed pages it doesn't feel like a free choice.

What if I don't want to use Google's AMP cache and rather my own CDN? What if I don't want this useless AMP banner at the top of my AMPed pages which takes 25% of the screen estate for nothing? What if I can build fast mobile sites without following the AMP spec?

Totally agree.

The part of Emacs which needs a ramp-up is the Lisp layer, not the C layer.

When I read this post I just had a big 'why' in my mind.

Strange advice. Not sure if I understood what they mean.

One important use case to exclude sections of your website is to not pollute the sitemap which Google crawls or to be more precise--the daily crawl volume Google allocates to your site. If you let every page be crawled more important pages get crawled less. Example: In the past, you created a content category which didn't turn out successful. Before you remove this category with plenty of links which would result in crawl errors it would be smarter to exclude them in the ROBOTS file and focus on your core categories.

There's another reason too. While Linux got more 'desktop-friendly' with all the GUI apps and Windows-like WMs we faced a shift to web-base apps which I think is the real reason.

I run Arch + i3 as a WM, so a very bare-bone setup, and use just terminals and a browser. No other GUI app. I don't need anything else and I am not a power user, rather a non-tech guy who wants to get stuff done.