Dan Jacob

Software developer. Originally British, naturalized Finn. Interested in #scifi #fantasy #movies #opensource #python #django #javascript #running #nature #art #podcasts #languages #history

My side projects include a podcast aggregator app
https://radiofeed.app.

Header pic: Pascal Blanche https://pascalblanche.artstation.com/projects/r9ZEKL

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Last Notes

2024-07-05 17:31:41

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@npub1wfj…2ewz yes things are quite ugly in France at the moment, with candidates and activists being assaulted.

2024-07-05 17:26:43

For all its many faults (FPTP for example) democracy in the UK feels a lot more on solid ground and healthier that its erstwhile colonies across the Atlantic. A quick and cordial transfer of leadership after an efficient overnight counting of votes. That should be table stakes for a 21st century democracy.

2024-07-05 08:10:00

Greens have same number of seats as Reform so of course they will get equal billing on Question Time, right BBC, right?

2024-06-28 20:10:29

Me, working on work website: why is the designer making such a fuss over 9px vs 12px
Me, working on my hobby website: this looks awful, it should be 12px not 9px

2024-06-26 11:17:48

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@npub16u7…uend and just when we start getting a handle on the transition to green energy, along come the tech bros with their crypto and LLMs to consume all the gains.

2024-06-24 13:43:40

There's a disconnect with the Tory right wing press that believes Brexit is a crowning achievement won by the people that must be defended at all costs, and the general public who believe that it was a huge mistake and can we just go back to 2015 please.

2024-06-13 11:52:58

Much of the blame for the rise of toe-rags like Farage can be laid at the BBC, who turned Question Time into Jeremy Kyle but with fascists instead of cheating spouses for entertainment.

2024-06-11 13:36:54

It's clear that the Tories want to close universities because they see that as the reason young people don't vote Tory rather than, I dunno, not having a place to live or losing their rights to work abroad.

2024-06-11 11:02:14

There's a lot of column inches written about the "fast pace of change" in today's world and honestly 🤷
My great-grandmother wrote a memoir which started with her catching a glimpse of Queen Victoria's carriage as a child and ended with her watching the first moon landing on television.

2024-06-06 19:12:25

Cleaning team called in by new owners of Alex Jones' Infowars ranch
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/112/570/786/710/328/829/original/8f627e6bf7040572.mp4

2024-05-15 12:52:21

I keep writing "quertyset" instead of "queryset" when writing #django, like I'm just hitting the first 5 keys of my laptop each time

2024-05-11 16:04:47

It's downright criminal how universities and other courses encourage or force students to set up private AWS accounts.
AWS is for companies, period. It should never be used by a private individual. If it were designed for private individuals, they would have implemented hard limits on the free tier rather than their laughable billing alerts.
You should never use it for coursework or side projects: the danger is too high.
https://old.reddit.com/r/aws/comments/qgr9jh/was_billed_60k_with_a_free_tier/

2024-05-07 16:35:02

I never understood the rule about Clerics in DnD only being allowed to use blunt weapons. Perhaps this might have been a thing with priests in Medieval Europe but clerics can belong to any number of imaginary religions. What if you are high priest of some Holy Pointy Objects cult, where clubs and maces are considered ungodly?

2024-05-07 11:46:22

"Open the pod bay doors Hal"
"I'm a Boeing, Dave, they've already fallen off"
https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/06/boeing-starliners-first-crewed-mission-scrubbed/?guccounter=1

2024-04-27 13:16:15

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@npub16u7…uend wait what has Dollar Store Musk done now?

2024-04-27 13:05:47

The VCs have long since outgrown their usefulness to society. Their brains have turned to mush, whether it's the drugs, the money or just living in the same suffocating bubble too long.
https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

2024-03-14 09:51:50

How to fix Boeing quality control: all test flights must include a member of the C-suite handcuffed to a chair without a parachute

2024-03-08 11:21:13

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@npub16u7…uend it seems their idea of cross-device was....the Mac. Thereby leaving the market of Windows, Android etc untouched. For productivity software aimed at the workplace, that seems a huge omission.

2024-03-05 10:54:25

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@npub1g0t…tvm4 the words "Oracle" and "IT disaster" are seldom found far apart.
However what is interesting is the procurement process: why government keeps going back to these big IT companies, who keep screwing up with little consequence.
We like to think it involves some combination of golf memberships, trips to Las Vegas and compromising pictures with strippers, but often it's just plain incompetence and short term thinking.

2024-02-29 14:24:03

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@npub1urn…c83k wait does that mean we're bringing back Doggerland?

2024-02-27 18:15:53

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@npub1l3g…vu48 hard to blame them for doing so. Especially as software development has become a more precarious profession the past year.

2024-02-27 11:09:59

""There were certainly things we could've done to test it and actually fire it. They would've been very time-consuming and very costly,"
Real tech bro energy here
https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/moon-lander-odysseus-mission-expected-end-tuesday-morning-5-days-after-touchdown-2024-02-26/

2024-02-21 13:12:43

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@npub1psd…9sr7 so (per Wikipedia) cars have a death toll approaching or exceeding that of all civilian and military deaths in WW2.

2024-02-15 13:12:18

GraphQL is a disaster, dreamed up by promotion-chasers at Facebook and promulgated by resume-driven developers everywhere.

2024-02-14 20:42:48

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@npub14fs…qegk how can you read my dreams

2024-02-14 20:37:31

I had a dream last night I wrote a completely new Linux command that did literally anything with just 100+ different flags.
No I don't remember it

2024-01-31 12:23:20

OK so it's 2024. You are a web developer and you don't have any money, but what you do have are a set of particular skills.
What kind of side project or application would you build today, with the aim of making at least a decent side income?

2024-01-25 14:17:48

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@npub1e7v…flg9 output in lines of code has never been a good measure of productivity.
If you mean that all the junk code will need more developers to maintain it, then perhaps we will need more developers...

2024-01-23 21:16:47

Working through tokio and a bit of sqlx today. I'm fairly familiar with async principles in Python and other languages, but still quite a lot to take in.
Sqlx is interesting: comes with migration cli tool and compilation of SQL statements! #rust

2024-01-21 20:25:42

My first #Rust project! Took a couple hours, but not as painful as I thought it would be.
It probably needs some improvements but works well enough...
https://github.com/danjac/wallpaper-randomizer

2024-01-18 08:19:59

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 there's Pakistan, a largely failed state the US is nominally allied with, and there's the ISI, a state-within-a-state that has its own agenda that only occasionally coincides with the interests of Pakistan itself.

2024-01-18 08:14:28

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 that would be the same "ally" that hosted Osama bin Laden in comfort for years?
With friends like that...

2024-01-17 14:58:33

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@npub1g0t…tvm4 to save money, I would suggest each public institution has to source the portrait from a local primary school. They select the picture from the best drawn Charles III among the year 3s

2024-01-17 14:55:49

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@npub129g…4kwg dynamic languages (I think you mean Python etc) are maybe a different market though?
What are Rust's peers? C++, Java, C#, Go?

2024-01-16 10:34:17

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@npub1t3r…6knd @npub15zu…s7lx that also includes younger expat voters who likely had to deal with real-life issues thanks to Brexit, and therefore have a burning hatred of all things Tory.

2024-01-16 07:38:20

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@npub1g0t…tvm4 even the Italians, for all their reputation of corruption, convicted Berlusconi.
The US however is too far gone, and has probably entered its final death spiral as a unified democracy.
Of course the media will want to paint all this as politics as usual, either because they are inept, or because their owners want to create a picture of normalcy because that's good for business.

2024-01-16 07:28:41

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@npub1g0t…tvm4 a second Trump term was always on the cards, especially given the pitiful attempts of the US justice system at bringing him to account for Jan 6th.

2024-01-15 07:58:17

Managed to get through most of the #rust book over the weekend - I tend to jump back and forth a lot in learning, so some things not completely understood yet (e.g. lifetimes and wtf 'static means).
Some thoughts - the Rust type system and compiler will really do their best to stop you breaking shit, and that is IMHO a good thing.
Most of my career is spent in maintenance - bug fixes & features. Speed of writing code is never the problem. Speed of fixing it is.

2024-01-13 14:09:27

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@npub1h4u…cnpk because often we inherit projects and don't get to choose

2024-01-11 14:54:48

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@npub18c7…er9d presumably the firmware doesn't work with the latest version of your open-source spell

2024-01-11 10:15:04

One of the most mind-bendingly stupid results of the past decade's fetish for microservice-all-the-things has been the crippling of the local development environment.

2024-01-10 06:57:09

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@npub17sh…6e06 I remember as an EFL teacher trying to explain why the phrase "it's up to you" makes any sense whatsoever based on its constituent parts.

2024-01-10 06:42:51

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@npub1ugl…wx5l @npub1yk6…4zz4 often these properties are on the portfolio of some hedge fund thousands of miles away.
Rather than rely on the imagination of the owners (a hedge fund manager looking at a spreadsheet ain't got any) we need laws in place that allow local governments to seize abandoned properties after a certain period under eminent domain and repurpose them for public or shared use.

2024-01-08 10:11:59

What are people's experiences with #fedihire? i.e. people looking for work.
Has Mastodon helped you find a job, or at least get a lead? Or has it been crickets?

2024-01-07 16:28:02

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@npub1psd…9sr7 @npub1yj3…cmfd @npub1uul…yelz @npub1hyk…3p33 I have the feeling had Fleming lived into the 1970s he'd have written an installment where Bond has to deal with a leftist PM secretly working for Moscow, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Harold Wilson...

2024-01-05 12:49:51

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@npub1sys…ckr3 only if they have to live in a caravan throughout the episode

2024-01-05 09:46:54

What I'd like to see is a TV show like Grand Designs, but posh people who decide to build their own web app.
Kevin McCloud appears halfway through the show in his hard hat, shaking his head sadly.
"Unfortunately their decision to use Kubernetes has led to a very problematic deployment. Meanwhile, their offshore React contractor has left for another job, leaving Jocasta and Tarquin trying to write the JSX themselves..."

2024-01-04 18:27:45

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@npub1xed…yg9w move the loans into the shadow DOM?

2024-01-03 20:35:35

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@npub1xed…yg9w Eleventy is a great tool, thanks for making it. It's been a major factor in getting me back into blogging.
And burnout sucks, and I hope the new year works out better for you.

2023-12-28 09:03:34

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@npub1sdk…0kgj who wouldn't want to be buried in their favourite loafers?

2023-12-27 15:51:59

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@npub1zyl…t54n what was the purpose of this? If they wanted an essay wouldn't Google Doc or similar be better?

2023-12-27 15:12:17

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@npub1zyl…t54n while of course there are some good authors on Medium, the majority of tech articles seem to be written by juniors or as part of some bootcamp course. Lots of low-effort, low information listicles and poorly informed opinions.

2023-12-26 13:35:49

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@npub1u3q…8ard I remember an old scifi story where the world leaders declare WW3 and go hide in their bunkers and the rest of the world just disobeys their orders and carries on. They make fake nuclear wasteland scenery around the bunkers to make the leaders think the war happened.

2023-12-23 08:59:59

Companies do job postings for one reason only - it's a legal requirement. They will fill the position through their network or recruiters. It's a lot of make-work for people who make an effort in writing resumes and cover letters and HR who have to go through the motions of pretending to read them.
That's why the lists of requirements have become sillier over time, it's just to cut down on the make work by reducing the pool of potential candidates that won't be looked at anyway.

2023-12-16 08:45:25

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@npub1j7a…p393 I think there is also a cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2023-12-13 07:53:38

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@npub1pfe…e2dm my favourite: "late-stage capitalism". The old adage about the market staying irrational longer than you can stay solvent comes to mind.

2023-11-28 08:00:44

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@npub1g0t…tvm4
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/111/486/881/643/727/228/original/37dfd7378523e673.jpg

2023-11-24 15:37:39

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@npub1sdk…0kgj @npub1psd…9sr7 oh you were in polite company then

2023-11-17 16:35:45

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@npub1aka…zzz2 as with the UK, the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians is just a convenient backdrop to our own faction fights and psychodrama.

2023-11-17 15:13:28

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@npub1xed…yg9w not to be mistaken for the sign to the bathroom

2023-11-11 23:21:49

"Finland has become a low wage country"
#Finland isn't the poorest Nordic country; it's the richest Baltic country (for now).
https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000009950256.html

2023-11-10 14:11:03

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I remember Michael Moorcock recalling a meeting with John W Campbell (Starship Stormtroopers I think?), when the latter opined that riots in inner cities at the time (I guess late 60s) was due to unruly freed slaves. Yeah reactionary doesn't even start to describe the man.

2023-11-06 15:07:04

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@npub1c35…9pmh muggle

2023-11-02 12:28:19

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@npub1psd…9sr7 which is why Sam Altman, in the most revealing self-own, said we are all stochastic parrots.

2023-11-01 21:52:12

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@npub1aka…zzz2 it's obvious some of these job postings are fakes, either to keep it looking like they are hiring, or they already have the candidate.

2023-10-26 10:59:00

Personal keywords to avoid in job search:
- Microservices
- Blockchain/Web3
- ChatGPT/LLM
Anyone got their own red flags?

2023-10-23 06:14:43

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@npub1h9x…hmaf last time I was there I lit a flare to distract it and they threw me out.

2023-10-21 10:21:41

This is interesting:
https://lobste.rs/s/igt4ez/10_year_anniversary_healthcare_gov#c_0fu122
My limited experience of gov projects (not in the US) is that good intentions and the big consulting ecosystem conspire to build software in the most expensive, inefficient and user-hostile way possible

2023-10-20 07:40:41

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@npub1a4c…t2kf how do you quantify how much a single engineer can save a company? You can hire a "great" engineer, but if the team dynamics, office politics and myriad other factors are off, individual ability doesn't matter very much.

2023-10-18 06:36:26

Articles like this make me think that the US is not so much a land of freedom, but rather a land of hundreds of little authoritarian enclaves (and always has been, going back to the New England theocracies and Southern plantations).
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/17/small-business-owners-they-are-pressured-to-hire-off-duty-mpd-cops-for-security/

2023-10-11 15:48:28

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@npub1jc0…sldg is she not working at home?

2023-10-09 10:53:22

Is blasphemy still illegal in Scotland?
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/111/204/210/147/314/570/original/bd4f1978ead71858.webp

2023-10-03 09:35:08

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@npub1yyx…qa5g the only voter class that matters in Britain are the NIMBYs, and wind power annoys the NIMBYs, so pumping energy from Morocco it is.

2023-09-30 10:57:08

#htmx #javascript #django
https://s3.masto.ai/media_attachments/files/111/153/259/679/772/636/original/713a3a28c188e865.jpg

2023-09-28 10:49:27

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@npub1cus…6789 under feudalism, that was everyone's lot in life. You were born a peasant, you died a peasant. Your dad was in a guild, you join that guild. Monarchy is the last vestige of that.

2023-09-22 11:52:25

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@npub1gfd…7gg6 *unless it's your last day at that company

2023-09-22 11:26:52

Maybe the criteria for a "so bad it's good" #movie is that it has to have heart, rather than just be a cynical cash-grab. The makers' reach exceeded their grasp (or budget).
Plan 9 From Outer Space is an example of the former: Ed Wood was a terribly untalented director with no money, but he genuinely tried to make a good movie. Asylum shark schlock on the other hand is the latter.

2023-09-06 12:59:57

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@npub1jeq…jglm I think the Umayyad caliphs in Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) may have been part Berber, which would make sense as Spain is within touching distance of North Africa.

2023-09-06 12:39:51

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@npub1jeq…jglm and the Arabs and Berbers, of course.

2023-08-25 14:49:17

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@npub1qll…r5q8 why 18-24 year olds? Why not everyone? Why not a 75 year old boomer who hasn't taken a civics class since LBJ was president? Surely they would benefit from a refresher.

2023-08-19 08:02:08

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@npub16mj…alcf the tragedy of the past century is treating economics as a serious social science rather than a flaky and ill-disciplined branch of political philosophy.

2023-08-18 14:55:30

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@npub1psd…9sr7 what it is with VCs these days? they were never ethical, but at least they weren't wild-eyed fanatics with a fervent desire to realise every SF dystopia.

2023-08-17 18:25:49

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@npub1ytq…9rrp @npub1psd…9sr7 a good old-fashioned Cosy Catastrophe where civilisation has collapsed apart from one village pub.

2023-08-12 22:45:10

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I can see the Target book now:
"Doctor Who and the Demon Sex and COVID Conspiracies, by Terrance Dicks"

2023-08-07 12:55:31

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@npub1psd…9sr7 fusion is the only way big container ships make any economic and environmental sense in a post-fossil economy. Otherwise why not just make more stuff locally and just ship the raw materials you absolutely need?

2023-08-06 21:32:46

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@npub1yyx…qa5g capitalism isn't an ideology though, it's a diagnosis.

2023-04-18 10:16:46

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#[0] sure, but what I mean is that Mastodon is not going to be seen as the Twitter replacement (for influencers) that Bluesky is, because it is structurally not set up to be so, not just because it has lower numbers (whether that's good or bad depends on point of view).

2023-04-18 10:12:12

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#[0] to what extent is the Fediverse influencer-proof? Of course there will be individuals with greater reach and influence than others, but it seems it would be much harder (from both a cultural and technical point of view, not just the size of audience), to earn your living as a Fediverse-based influencer.