Since #PHP is at the top of peoples minds, a short diversion.

In the Before Times of 20+ years ago, I worked for a smallish tech company that did some of everything. One of the #consulting jobs we took on was to #audit a #codebase for a company that was buying another company - the application was the acquiree's crown jewels, and the purchaser wanted a good solid analysis of it.

It was in PHP. I was not looking forward to it. As a betting person you are unlikely to go wrong with "very #niche market-specific software application developed in-house by small company working in that space is likely to be pretty terribly #designed and #implemented", and most of the PHP I had looked at by that point was, well, bad.

And it absolutely was not. It was in the then-new PHP v.5. And it was cleanly designed, nicely modular, very #readable #code and well documented, good #development practices. Sure, there were some things in it that could be improved, mostly more efficient algorithms / data structures IIRC, but all software can be improved *somewhere*. The final report was fairly glowing about it.

Anyone who tells you all code written in $LANGUAGE is awful, or all #programmers who use it are idiots, is showing you their whole ass. Languages are #tools. Some are easier to use for certain purposes than others, but they're all useful for something. Don't be closed-minded.

#engineering #software #SoftwareEngineering #RightToolForTheRightJob #homily

I love how this enormous merger/acquisition of entertainment companies - Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Skydance - is going.

"We're going to merge all 3 into the biggest entertainment company ever, and we're going to name it ... after the one almost no one has heard of!"

Some real MBA-level brainwork there, fellas. Bonuses all around.

#Paramount #WarnerBrothers #WarnerBros #Skydance #who #wat #merger #MBA

From the local police news feed:

> Within minutes, officers arrived and located the victim nearby. He reported that he
> was approached by a group of individuals who assaulted him and took a gazebo
> and several grocery items before fleeing on foot.

Eric? Is that you?

(Alternately: [you-keep-using-that-word.gif])

#EricAndTheDreadGazebo #gazebo #DungeonsAndDragons #DungeonMaster #GameMaster #Eric #ThatWord

@darkuncle I feel like it also dovetails well with “your culture is the behavior you walk past”

Threatening to tank your nation's economy if your central bank doesn't do something that will tank your nation's economy is certainly a choice.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/04/economy/trump-trade-fed

#USPol #economics #trade #tariffs #tantrum #Trump #BlazingSaddles

The legendary Cliff Stoll gave a talk at DEF CON 34 in Las Vegas this month. He talked about the hacking incident that he experienced and investigated, and wrote about in his book "The Cuckoo's Egg" (1989). He's hilarious, and if you haven't read the book, it's very interesting. The book covers the incident in much greater depth, of course.

You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=656058JxTM0

However, I was really struck watching it for the bits where part of the audience is visible. I don't know why they're all - or many, anyways - wearing headphones, or why those headphones have a giant illuminated logo on them - but it makes this look like a scene from "THX 1138" (1971), or maybe from a cult.

#CliffStoll #CliffordStoll #TheCuckoosEgg #DEFCON #DEFCON34 #hack #hacking #intruder

Force Google, Facebook, and the rest of the hyperscalers to build their datacenters on coasts in arid areas.

Mandate they be powered 100% by wind, solar, tidal, or other non-polluting energy sources.

Require them to use their waste heat to desalinate seawater. This is the only water they are allowed to use.

Require them to maximize the amount of desalinated water they produce, and provide it to surrounding populations gratis.

Completely impractical, but I like the idea of giving Zuck, Altman, etc heart attacks.

It has not escaped my irony detector that this post was also mass-boosted by several tag bots on this problematic instance.

#irony #bots

This new "tags.pub" instance that just blasts out boosts of anything with a matching hashtag is ... annoying.

Pointless.

Practically abuse.

It just boosted a post of mine with *seven* different accounts. Didn't ask for permission to follow/do things with my content.

Its account overviews say "You can opt out!", which is absolutely *not* how bots should be interacting with people in the Fediverse. This should be opt-*in* only.

How is this okay? Frankly, I think it should be completely defederated, it's not operating in good faith.

#Fediblock #OptOut #consent

Jerry Pournelle, a polymath, used to say that a dark age was not when people forgot how to do a thing, but when they forgot that anyone was ever able to do it. I don't know where he got it from, if anywhere.

At a previous job just a few years ago, my team were mostly young and junior engineers. I remember showing them some photos of the new electronics workbench I'd built, because I was proud of it. I was having trouble getting this across - it eventually became clear that they all thought what I meant by "I built this" was "I assembled this".

They were flabbergasted when I said that no, I bought wood and sheetgoods and stain and varnish and designed it on a notepad and made it exactly what I wanted it to be. And they didn't ask me "why" - they asked me "how".

I sometimes get the impression that (in the West, at least) we are already living in the dark ages. Many young people are unaware that you can actually create things, and that it used to be common to do so. To them, it seems that civilization is something you pull out of a sea-can from China.

#DarkAge #DarkAges #China #SeaCan #container #cargo #civilization #maker #making #JerryPournelle

Question triggered by a random neural firing...

What is the comment syntax in magical spells?

#syntax #comment #magic #programming #MagicSpell

I replaced the battery pack in a Mac laptop a few days ago. The replacement I ordered came with a tiny little booklet labelled "Instructions", but it consisted of nothing but warnings.

One of them literally says "Do not hammer a nail through the battery."

Aw, that was my first impulse...

#warning #ObviousWarning #obvious #LiIon #exciting

@ondrej @ludicity I used to ask a very open-ended interview question that I could keep making harder/more complicated basically forever, just to see if I could get a candidate to say, “I don’t know”. The ones that can’t say that, you don’t want to hire them, I’ve found.

Anyone know if there's an "Anna's Archive"-type free repository for standards documents, like from UL, CSA, IEC, ISO, etc? You know, the ones that are mostly developed with public subsidies but then are paywalled at absolutely ludicrous prices that mean only big companies can actually get access to them?

Searching a bit didn't find anything for me.

Asking for a friend ... 😃

#standards #StandardsDocuments #download #PDF #archive #free #open #paywall

So here in southern #Saskatchewan, we were predicted to get the " #Alberta #clipper " blizzard earlier today - the one that hammered #Edmonton (Hi, @Satori !). It didn't arrive when predicted. Instead we got freezing rain for most of the day, and then the storm rolled in after dinner tonight.

Because my neighbourhood is on the edge of town, in the direction of the prevailing winds, and because my street faces that direction, and I'm at the end of the cul-de-sac, the wind brings snow for miles, drives it down my street, and dumps it in my driveway. If a storm dumps 5cm of fresh snow, it is not uncommon for my driveway to be hip-deep in snow. [1]

Well, this storm is supposed to dump 10 to 20 cm by morning, with "potential higher local amounts".

So tomorrow I expect I will be spending several hours outside with the snowblower, trying to manhandle it around on a slope with a solid coating of ice under the snow. Sheesh.

[1] The day we moved into this place, as we're carrying boxes in, a neighbour came over to introduce themselves, but the first thing they said wasn't "Hello" or even their name. It was "You have a snowblower, right?" I thought it was funny, until the next two neighbours did exactly the same thing.

#AlbertaClipper #storm #blizzard #snowblower #SnowedIn #YQR #SK

@cstross

The Kobo page for the UK:
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/season-of-skulls-1

It doesn't say no DRM - and since I'm in Canada, it probably won't let me buy it anyway, though I haven't tried.

Does the UK version come in a no-DRM format, and is there anyplace that'll sell it to someone who's probably covered by Tor's presumably-exclusive contract area?

#BritishEnglish

@cstross

Now that it's out, I'm looking to buy Season of Skulls in #ebook form. But there are #complications.

Assuming there are still textual differences between the UK edition and the USA edition, I want the UK one.

Tor directs to here for Canada:
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/season-of-skulls

It says no DRM, which is a must, so that's fine. But it's Tor, so I'm guessing it would be the US edition?

[...]

I'm told I need pinned posts on my profile.

I'm a #software #engineer living in #Saskatchewan, #Canada, the middle of the prairies. I've worked in countless domains, but find #python generally useful for many of them, and have been using it for nearly 30 years.

I'm a #HouseRabbit enthusiast and have had them for more than 20 years.

Other hobbies include #electronics, #rock music / playing #guitar, writing #FreeSoftware, and enjoying novelty music & #RiffTrax / #CinematicTitanic / #MST3K.