vjust

awesome, I will try it

This article seems to focus mainly on Western civilization. Not saying they aren't wonders. There were many engineering feats in the South/East Asian subcontinents that are not covered.

I have a bunch of these pencil brands Tombow, Mitsubishi. I usually buy them on ebay. Its an amazing experience to write with them... I usually use the H, HB to write, and its fascinating, how the premium ones H differs from an ordinary H. There is some paraphernalia that goes with it - sharpners, erasers.

I had lost the writing habit..coding invariably takes you to the keyboard. Gradually I'm writing more, and it slows down, and that helps. Its a very analog experience, and is a form of digital detox. I am also learning to draw, hence the splurging on pencils in the first place. While I'm not an artist (yet!) - its a whole another world with an amazing spectrum of varieties of pencils.

I bought a Dell 34 inch widescreen curved monitor 2 years ago for ~500. Somedays even that feels too narrow when I'm coding. 32 inch would feel restrictive.

Support for linux was there, since the very early days of Azure. But at the time this was clearly Nadella's baby. AWS was running away with market share, and Azure gained some decent marketshare, at one point they said 25% of Azure revenue was on Linux, this was about 5 years ago or more, that can only have grown to now. No one lays that credit to Ballmer.

Microsoft's documentation wouldn't even acknowledge the present of Linux, I kid you not, till maybe 2012 or so. For example, pathnames like "My Folder" (spaces in folder names) - which are a no-no on any kind of server code (leave alone the block letters). This was as someone pointed out, Gates, since he was the tech architect (and hated linux or feared it ). In a sense, Linux rescued Azure, and Microsoft. Quite ironic, today we see Gates smiling (cluelessly imo), but Window's is still not a good environment for development - be it C# (a fine language), or Web. My colleagues on Windows struggle to run any Python code - all you need to do is git clone, followed by Pip install - that's still a challenge comparatively on Windows.

Ballmer hated Linux & open source. He would've driven their cloud division to the ground trying to sell Windows servers in the cloud. It would've taken him another 20 years to accept that Linux was key to the cloud. VSCode (Visual Studio Code) - would never have taken birth. Microsoft survived and thrived once Ballmer had no option but leave.

In this era of Python development, Microsoft Windows still feels a step or two behind as far as using a Windows laptop for coding in the cloud. Python is the language of AI - not Asp.net, not C#. Ballmer would never have seen the writing on the wall. He would've pushed something wierd, like VBA .

Companies profiting off Open Source is a very common pattern. Look at AWS (amazon web services) long list of 'managed' services, and there are quite a few open-source candidates. I'm not saying Amazon is not adding anything to benefit users there, they are, but adding a management layer (with all their in-place templates/patterns for similar things) - wouldn't be a huge development or research effort - contrast that to developing the original code from scratch.

Then there will be engineers who will get certified on this tech, training companies, and the ecosystem just keeps taking root, where the source of the innovation is all but forgotten.

The owner of WPEngine is investing in billions - and they are contributing relatively little to the software that they never wrote, but got for free.

In my past non-profit we used WPEngine, that was about 10 years ago. Yes they were expensive but we didn't have people, nor did I (a backend python guy) want to mess with websites and be on the critical path. If I had been aware of, or known how this company was profiting from Open Source, I'd have taken my business elsewhere. Roughly 1K per year, base plan at the time, so, not a huge amount. We were broke, so there was no question of upgrades.

The question is why has that innovation of breakthrough ideas dried up. Past glory is small consolation, or none at all. How long will we keep sharing these 1000-year old memes in 'modern' India? Maybe innovation still happens (likely) - but no one recognizes it, and it gets lost in the endless clamor and noise of meaningless rituals that define religion in India today - or there may be no ecosystem to surface it, ie bring to market.

What religion/culture was then in the time of Aryabhata (which no one really knows I suppose) - is very likely totally different than what it is today , i.e. a way to impose majority opinions with zero debate. Because Aryabhata and others created works which made it through the centuries of strife, they survived, they had an ecosystem that supported the genius - which seems to be lacking now in Modern India - which might explain why it has dried up - i.e. Indians aspirations are far less lofty, the bar is set quite low - because there is no lack of money, there is no lack of tools. Whether now, or 1000 years ago, they were recognized as authoritative, transformative works - do we have the current generation creating anything (to which the average Indian response is the last 70 years of liberal rule has to be ruled out, and undone first).

I guess the author, a historian, writes about ancient Indian mathematical contributions (a science of which he has no expertise presumably). These historical references I have learnt in various mathematical texts (the story of Fibonacci and al khwarizmi) - the journey across multiple centuries, of these innovations made by Aryabhata or Brahmagupta.

As an Indian, and as a math aficionado (and degree holder) - I wonder, that was about 1500 years ago. In that era, a discovery (as you can read it) took 500 years to move from Arabia to Europe, thanks to Fibonacci's writing. Contrast it to today's instant dissemination of information and breakthroughs. Yes those were the glory days of Indian civilization. We have a Ramanujan every 100 years in India. Breakthrough ideas (earthshaking ones like the concept of 0) emerging out of India are few and far between. Around 1000 years ago, the fountain of (world-changing) creativity and ideas seems to have dried up, as far as India is concerned. Maybe it was the invaders , easy to blame everything on outsiders, though - what is India today was 600 or 400 odd kingdoms, frequently warring each other - so turmoil was always there. And if you were a reclusive monk in a forest with a bunch of students, no Brit or Mughal dude was stopping you from innovating. So, the big question is - can we explain why genius ideas stopped (without blaming British, or Mughals etc) - because thanks to Indian's instincts, the first step is to blame the Brits/Mughals , so problem solved, proved, ostrich is happy in the sand.

I can only indulge in thought exercises , like : Aryabhata and Brahmagupta didn't have computers, didn't even have pencil and paper. They just sat there and thought. For months, or years. Or maybe they were walking. And gazed at the stars and observed and observed. And most likely, and importantly debated orally : endlessly with their teachers (in a monastery type place class sizes were small), peers- I believe this was a time in India's cultural history when debating, and disagreeing were positive things. In modern India, intellectualism has taken a back seat. To disagree is to be unpatriotic even. (Nalanda University comes to mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda_mahavihara - not its modernized recreation which is likely going to be hardly attempting to break the mold). WhatsApp - the destroyer of brain cells by atrophy , has a grip on every mind.

We read about the great Greek debates. We see videos of Tibetan buddhist monks practice debating in a monastery. Surely this kind of debating, face-to-face is missing in today's world (without getting angry) - this is the equivalent of the modern cafe in Paris or Vienna, with Godel and co. debating . This debating society , was Nalanda back a thousand years until invaders burnt every manuscript down and slaughtered every monk almost - except the manuscripts the Chinese monks took back to the Emperor in China - they are the only written records of life that remain, that and some arabic ones.

Yet I hope new lotuses will bloom from India - we can never predict where the next genius or breakthrough idea will emerge from - why not Africa?

You're likely as old as my kid, so I am sad to see this. Yes, take your health into your own hands. Medicate as little as possible - but this won't work for many people - in fact it could be dangerous. I am lucky to not have chronic conditions so I could afford not to believe my medical professional.

In my case - just to get the facts on Blood pressure took quite a bit of digging - thanks to some independent doctors who went against the grain and had a conscience and courage to dissent. Cholesterol is an even murkier pool. Its amazing how muddled the picture is.

Geeks who worked 24 hours straight to remedy the outage earned their cup of coffee. Uber is happy for sure.

Land of the free, home of the brave - doesn't come cheap.

By definition "Leadership" in this capitalistic society is predatory - this style extends to the armed forces, where everyone is expendable.

She goes back to skydiving. I have mixed opinions about that. She should've not revealed that part.

I love info, and wish more developer docs where available on Info. Saves me from opening up a PDF - navigating an info-based reference manual is more ergonomic in comparison

Fermented foods, especially yogurt, kefir, buttermilk are vital for good health. People buy probiotic pills etc. But all it takes is to buy a tub/can of Greek yogurt. The best snack there is.

Medicine is food, food is medicine.

I stopped reading when he started talking set theory. there's a far simpler way to explain it and learn it. nice way to tie ourselves into knots. no thanks.

I find jq's syntax (and docs) kind of opaque, but I guess we have no other options. And I don't think this latest incarnation breaks any new ground there. But it'd be better if I just wrote it myself - "be the change ...."

All these fads prevent us from producing simple maintainable code.

Give me a date when it will be done.

That’s mgmt for you

Agile is evil

Employee surveillance under a different name. Pick your poison, i.e. sell your soul to a big player, or a toxic startup, or someone with a size in between. It also depends on how you think about it. What's agreeable for you is toxic for someone else. I'd bristle at this but that's me. This market does not reward an ethics-first organization - rather, is it even possible to be an ethical organization.

Even if the accusations are true, India will not respond. To protect the lives of Indian nationals in Canada , and to protect the Indian high commission and ensure staff safety is paramount for them. Because, if I was an Indian who had the opposite opinion ( to these Khalistan people) - I’d be fearing for my safety- that’s a reflection of how much ‘rule of law’ these people will apply.Months ago these Khalistan activists vandalized the Indian consulate. The so-called Canadian rule of law seems pretty selective.

This activist who was killed was an illegal immigrant and criminal fugitive, and Canada PM wants to protect his interests. It’s clearly political pressure and the rule of law might be an excuse .

I’m pretty sure there’s other nations that have carried hit jobs in Canada - China , Saudi Arabia etc and we never hear about those. The leader of NDP is a Sikh and is kingmaker in Canada politics- I have a feeling Trudeau is just trying to cling to his job

The Khalistan movement found a fertile breeding ground in Canada about 40 years ago. They bombed an airline (AirIndia flight 182) in the 80s, the terrorists who plotted walk free in Canada to this day. Additionally, any Sikh , in Vancouver, who dissents with the Khalistan idea is asking for trouble - its a mafia. This tumor in Canada's politics has been allowed to fester, and now their PM is hostage because he is a minority party , one wrong move and he's out of power. Assassinations and hit jobs are common. In 1984, leaders were groomed, there were riots over Khalistan and a major political assasination of PM Indira Gandhi. I wonder what other Sikh leader is being groomed, this time in Canada - to blow up in the Canadian political scene.

When the Khalistan govt. crackdown, and violent riots happened in India in 1984/85 I saw that first hand. These fugitives from India are a mix of Political aspiration (nothing wrong there), bigotry, criminal mafia, and vengeful militias that wields political power in Canada - Canada has opened its doors to trouble. Some of the grievances are no doubt legit, but there is (effectively/relatively) zero religious repression of Sikhs in India (unlike other minorities in India who have experienced problems, based on their religious views, that are covered in the media).

The vast majority of Sikhs want nothing to do with these extremists. Sure they want to protect their distinct identity, and culture, a beautiful thing in itself. Obviously, the Indian govt can do much more and be more effective if it tries, within its own borders - but thats a matter of political will or games. But India has already paid the price, and been there.

Canada has no clue they're dealing with a major social/political/criminal nuisance.

All Lisp related stories, especially those that refer to the creator of Lisp, get automagically upvoted.

thanks Bram.

Well put.

Not knowing what you are building is the greatest impediment to building it.

100% agree. Am a consultant, and its frightening how many FTE's of my client, don't know what business their employer is engaged in. They aren't even beginning to learn the business vocabulary.

They are all frogs in the Terraform pond.

SICP is a beautiful book. The Youtube lectures are just as good.

While Data is always associated with SQL, there is a world of data separated from SQL. SQL is a standard way in many cases to persist and work on data, but doesn't span the lifetime/journey of data. Software systems are built on classes, functions and structs, caches, interfaces, buffers. Its common to have hierarchical relationships between data objects. SQL doesn't naturally handle hierarchy, despite the fact it has syntax to do so.

As a software engineer, data modeler, and data engineer, DoD is a weird label applied to anything. I've decades of experience with SQL but don't gravitate towards it. Reality is messy.