n4jm4's comments

On: Making Wrong Code Look Wrong (2005)

[n4jm4]

Clean code in management's eyes is anything at all delivered COB whose customer-deleting latent bugs trigger six months after the author left to work elsewhere. But with 100% code coverage!

On: My Contribution to Markdown

[n4jm4]

I supported an effort to standardize Markdown into an actual common syntax, instead of the nasty variation we see between GitHub, Reddit, Stack Overflow, Atlassian, etc. etc. This became CommonMark, which everyone ignores.

[polygamous_bat → n4jm4]

I am sorry. However, XKCD did warn us about this: https://xkcd.com/927/

[avgcorrection → polygamous_bat]

> 14 competing standards

MarkDown didn’t have any standards to begin with, just different implementations for different platforms. Tired 927 refuted.

[bosswipe → n4jm4]

If Gruber had gotten behind that initiative it probably would've worked but he was weirdly antagonistic to it.

On: I have complicated feelings about TDD

[n4jm4]

TDD's contribution to software quality scrapes the bottom of the barrel. Attention to detail in scalable design, formal verification, fuzzing, and mutation testing offer deeper guarantees of successful operation. But of course, the American ideal "make money" is worn proudly on the rim of management noses. It's the wrong prescription, but they're too busy counting their bills to care. This is evident especially in cybersecurity, where the posture amounts to silent prayer that no one stumbles across their JRE 1.0's and their Windows XP's and Google's latest attempt at a programming language with buffer overflows by design--batteries included.

On: The problem with Go’s default HTTP handlers

[n4jm4]

I've made that same mistake before. And not just in HTTP handlers.

There is a case to be made for a linter rule that warns when a conditional evaluates an error value, without presenting a return path.

On: Carbon Language: An experimental successor to C++

[n4jm4]

Rust is good enough for HFT, Web rendering, and the Linux kernel but go ahead and add Carbon to the massive list of been-there-done-that.

Pro tip: Don't try to migrate an entire catalog of functions all at once to Rust (or pick your favorite C++ alternative). Pluck off individual pieces and use FFI to bridge the gap. Remember, work incrementally.

On: Soft deletion probably isn't worth it

[n4jm4]

I can't even tell you how much political capital I lost at a major retailer recommending against wasting time implementing soft deletions... on an internal portal that babysat linter configurations.

Don't ask me why the linter configurations weren't simply persisted in git.

On: Apple Made Twice in Gaming Than Sony, Microsoft, &...

[n4jm4]

At 30% third party title revenue for doing nothing, not surprising.

On: FDA bans Juul e-cigarettes

[n4jm4]

Another large swath of users is forced to the blackmarket, or to smoking, both of which are far more hazardous to health than vaping.

[dahdum → n4jm4]

Not really, they are going after Juul but not the other providers. Juul already got devastated by the flavored cartridge ban, but the FDA allows any flavors in disposable ecigs so users just switched to those or went online.

The policy and enforcement seems more about punishing Juul specifically as a sacrificial lamb than promoting public health.

[HWR_14 → n4jm4]

And another large (and growing) swath of users are never going to pick up any nicotine product because they never got enticed by Juul's advertising to kids. A net win for society and should have happened years ago.

[randomhodler84 → HWR_14]

Everything good in this world is ruined by your “think of the children” attitude. I don’t have kids, will never have kids. I don’t care about your hellspawn.

Seriously, go away. Keep your authoritarianism to yourself. Your nosy, unwanted, Karenesque attitude can leave us child free people in peace.

I’m an adult, I consume nicotine. It’s my right (and I will continue).

[HWR_14 → randomhodler84]

> I don’t have kids, will never have kids. I don’t care about your hellspawn.

Good for you? What's the point?

> I consume nicotine. It’s my right

Please feel free to consume nicotine in a way that doesn't create clouds of vape exhalations. It's not as bad as second hand smoke but it's unpleasant.

> I’m an adult

Good. Then you shouldn't care about a company being shut down for advertising drugs to children.

[randomhodler84 → HWR_14]

“I don’t like it so y’all have to bend to my will.” “Protecting my hellspawn is more important than your rights and freedoms.”

Your last point would be fine if, as adult, the market didn’t deny me access to a product that is illegal for children to consume anyway.

[potsandpans → HWR_14]

The FDA should shut you down

[coilpancake → HWR_14]

Right and current users can go back to cigarettes? The regular tobacco market is virtually unregulated. That makes sense?

[HWR_14 → coilpancake]

There are fewer of them, they can switch to a flavorless competitor where they refill the cartridges and ween off the juice or not.

The current tobacco market predates regulations. Let's strangle e-cigarettes before they become too big to overcome.

[randomhodler84 → HWR_14]

How dare us adults enjoy flavors. How about you stop telling me, and other adults how to lead our lives?

[coilpancake → HWR_14]

I don't know much about flavorless competitors, but juice, self-refillable cartridges seems like they have a greater potential of abuse/danger.

On: Elon Musk says new Tesla factories are “losing bil...

[n4jm4]

Hosting so many employees on site does tend to raise the bill.

On: Cancer cells wake up when people sleep

[n4jm4]

Not human bodies, no. But look at other long lived species like elephants, who rarely get cancer and have even more cells than we do.

Just splice the right snippet of elephant DNA into ours to kill cancer for good.