There's a funny story behind the -a flag on ping on a modern mac. ping doesn't have an -a flag in any of the native *nix streams, despite the obvious way that would be both useful and apt for name analogy.

That flag dates back to a very long weekend I spend back in the 90s fixing a computer lab. 1/

Eldest is finally doing some slightly interesting maths homework, but we are both entirely unconvinced made up mnemonics like "simpify like a butterfly before you multiply like an iguana or something" are helpful, when we have the handy-dandy hammer of prime factorisation.

Yay. Hammer :)

I'm continuing to see people claiming that various AI tools have already replaced software engineers. I think this has been vastly overstated, and as far as I can see the people saying this are a mix of out and out grifters, and people who don't interact with technical people. (1/2)

How are people feeling about the tech job market right now? How about students currently doing a computer science degree?

Are people genuinely frightened of tech interviews? I see lots of people complaining about them being terrible, but not very many folks suggesting how people can make them better.

What are some professional settings that aren't pure tech in which you've used programming skills?

I'm interested in examples for a video I'm making and for a talk I want to give a tech school soon.

What have people used CS/Programming for, way outside the regular paths of the tech sector. I'm trying to put together examples when talking to students who are using tech skills as a career change path.

Big tech looks like it's back, and with it big tech interviews. There's a reason they lean on algorithms questions, and it may be for different reasons than you expect.

youtu.be/DtaIs6mftmU

Because I periodically shifted media from from to another, (1000s floppy->DVD->HDD) I know that 360k 5.25" disks could last for decades in poor conditions while the HS 1.2Mb had over 35% corrupt in under a decade when stored carefully.

And this fact is of absolutely no use to anyone today.

Seen a lot of folks hesitant about how to start learning to write code. It shouldn't be that daunting to pick a language and there are some simple things you can do to make it easier.

Video here. youtu.be/NUCVmj3ncsI

GenAI Hallucinations are trippy. I don't thnk people appreciate the entirely new failure modes that AI assistance with writing code has, we're just not ready.

I should make a video about this.

It's interesting that, since they are locked in pattern filtering, LLM errors are going to look plausible more than they're going to be useful or right.

This is a new failure mode and almost feels like malice.

I'm going to be making a video about this. What should I cover?

#llm #chatgpt #ai

There’s a lot of big feelings about why tech interviews for engineers lean on algorithms but I don’t think a lot of folks appreciate why they do it.

I made a video explaining why this happens
youtu.be/DtaIs6mftmU and I’ll have some follow-ups on how to prep and crush the interview.

I'm thinking about making a bunch of content around effectively bootstrapping a tech career for current and recently students. I'm aware things are hard out there, but there are ways to present a lot better.

Who would be interested in this? What should I cover?

I was startled that tech journalists had such a flawed model of how scaled tech works that they were surprised #twitter didn't immediately turn off when lots of people were fired, even though the actual consequences kicked in pretty fast

I made a video about it:
youtu.be/A3b9u7wa6N4