- sam_bristowHonestly, if I was writing some code that depended on dicts being ordered I think I'd still use OrderedDict in modern Python. I gives the reader more information that I'm doing something slightly unusual.
- One key point that people overlook with that paper is that they were applying the coding standards retroactively. Taking an existing codebase, running compliance tools, and trying to fix the issues which were flagged. I think they correctly identified the issue with this approach in that you have all the risks of introducing defects as part of reworking the existing code. I don't think they have much empirical evidence for the case where coding standards were applied from the beginning of a project.
In my opinion, the MISRA C++ 2023 revision is a massive improvement over the 2008 edition. It was a major rethink and has a lot more generally useful guidance. Either way, you need to tailor the standards to your project. Even the MISRA standards authors agree:
"""
"""Blind adherence to the letter without understanding is pointless. Anyone who stipulates 100% MISRA-C coverage with no deviations does not understand what the are asking for. In my opionion they should be taken out and... well... Just taken out. - Chris Hill, Member of MISRA C Working Group (MISRA Matters Column, MTE, June 2012 - Back in my undergrad days I built a similar clip out of a broken clothes peg, hot glue, and some 2.54mm headers. It worked well.
- I think the web itself would be stronger if it was served in pure HTML and not 95% created by JS SPAs.
- Stoke Space[1] uses a similar system, letting people write arbitrary code to generate a static configuration for their launch vehicle. It means you get all the power of something like Python during development but also a deterministic, bounded config for the critical flight systems. I think their config files are just TOML that is consumed by Rust.
I'll try dig out a link to the talk one of their Flight Software Engineers did on the concept.
- I've only had a cursory look at Varlink, but it almost felt too simple. In particular the lack of unsigned or sized integers.
This might enf up being be fine, but it gave me pause when I looked at it previously.
- I found Hillel Wayne's series of articles about the relationship between software and other engineering disciplines from a few years fairly insightful [1]. It's not _exactly_ the same topic but a lot of overlap in defining wht is "real engineering".
- Wasn't there a phenomenon with the GPUs being retired from crypto mining operations being basically cooked after a couple of years. Likely because they weren't keeping temperatures in check and just pushing the cards to their limits.
- Multi-version approaches to developing software aren't as good at reducing common-mode failures as many people expect[1].
[1] J. C. Knight and N. G. Leveson, “An experimental evaluation of the assumption of independence in multiversion programming,” IIEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-12, no. 1, pp. 96–109, Jan. 1986, doi: 10.1109/TSE.1986.6312924.
- Yes. Synology introduced the requirement to use first-party drives earlier this year and it was such an unmitigated disaster for them that they rolled it back just a couple of days ago.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/synology-caves-walks...
- One feature I wish the Arch wiki had last time I used it was conditionally hiding sections. It presented various options throughout their guides and depending on which options you chose later sections weren't relevant. I often found I'd get partway through a step only to discover it wasn't relevant.
It would be great if, when presented with different options, you could indicate which one you'd selected and have it hide the irrelevant stuff further down the page
- It's a pain for even experienced users. Popping open the developer tools in the browser because you've done Ctrl-Shift-C is annoying, accidentally calling a group chat of 50 people in MS Teams for the same reason is really annoying.
- I've been doing a bunch of receuiting recently and I make a point at the beginning of each interview to explicitly tell them that we don't do trick questions. We also don't do leetcode at all.
My approach to interviewing is that I want candidates to do the best they possibly can.
- I was talking to one of the engineers at Daisy Lab[1] at a local hardware meetup a few months back. They are working on precision fermentation for dairyas described in the article. It's a really interesting technology and they seemed to be having really promising results.
- I believe you've got confused between the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) and NGO (Non-governmental Organisation). The NRO is very much part of the US government.
- Apparently System-scope custom fields have a significant performance hit in Jira. I think project-scope custom fields are better.
Sometimes it feels like Jira is so incredibly configurable but is really missing the "pit of success". There is a way to make it nice to use and reasonably performant, but you really need to go into it with a strong plan. And even then it's really easy to balls it all up in short order if you're not vigilant.
- There are a lot of bits and pieces that are clicking into place lately in the Python ecosystem. Recently I've been using the combination of Marimo and these uv script dependencies for building reproducible rwporting and diagnostic tooling for other teams.
- Beyond whatever design or production issues caused this particular anomaly there will also be the delays due to the fact they just blew up a lot of ground support equipment.
- For C++ on similar systems its becoming more and more "I hope you like LLVM with the serial numbers filed off". Lots of the tool vendors are sunsetting their bespoke compilers. Most of the vendor IDEs have always been Eclipse with a bunch of bundled plugins.
- My most common use is similar: when I'm working on problems in a somewhat unfamiliar domain finding out what their "terms of art" are. The chances that I've just come up with a completely new concept are pretty low so it's just a matter of helping me formulate my questions in the language of the existing body of knowledge.