paphillips

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3 ay öncediscuss

This article does not make convincing arguments to match the strong criticism. Engineering decisions are difficult, especially in high-growth orgs, where one must balance many constraints and risks including opportunity cost. Handling payments is part of Uber's core product.

The financial criticism ('napkin math') appears to estimate DynamoDB costs of USD $8 million for 2017 to 2020. Uber revenue for the same period is roughly USD $42.5 billion, thus this cost weighs in at about 0.02%, or 1/50th of one percent. This is a rounding error for a high growth company, and not something that warrants a witch-hunt and firing. It's easy to blow more than $2 million per year on software engineers in pursuit of an alternative high-scalability solution.

I'm also not on board with the 'resume driven development' criticism as the explanation for solution churn. Perhaps that is actually what happened. I wasn't there and don't know, but if that is being asserted I expect to see evidence presented to support it.

10 ay öncediscuss

Ahh yes, nothing brings out the strong opinions like formatting. Let's do SQL next!

geçen yıldiscuss

The main site was replaced with a mostly empty blank page earlier today.

The bizarre thing was that the page source at that time had almost nothing except some odd javascript to build a "508 Daily Report" table of Jira tickets or some nonsense.

That view appears to still be up here: https://www.census.gov/main/

I can't really blame someone for a bad deployment given the raging government dumpster fires at the moment.

geçen yıldiscuss

I didn't expect to see javascript about Jira tickets in the source!

2 yıl öncediscuss

The svg infographic on page 'Life Cycle of an Order' > 'Overview' is outstanding. Source indicates Adobe Illustrator as the generator.

Oddly, the direct hyperlink to this page doesn't seem to work properly though: https://primer.prooftrading.com/lifecycle-of-order/

3 yıl öncediscuss

Taking this concept further one could model in RAML [0] to define both the types (flat or nested) and api definitions. It's based on YAML 1.2 with enough maturity to provide capabilities such as union types, extensions, includes, user-defined facets, etc.

The AMF project [1] can be used to parse and transform to/from RAML, OpenAPI, GraphQL, and json schema. Code generation to languages of choice can be bolted on from there.

I'm using this approach to define canonical data models. Subsequent code generation scaffolds internal application integration apis, master data management (MDM) entities, and SQL/OLAP artifacts for ETL / BI purposes.

This approach keeps overall end-to-end data architecture consistent, in sync, and versioned under source control. Additionally, flat types as required by relational systems are re-used and composed into nested complex types more appropriate for apis. Metadata is layered on as needed to refine the models for system-specific needs, for example to add user-facing field groups, descriptions, and formats for BI datasets, sensitivity levels and other data security controls, business rule definitions for MDM, etc.

[0] https://github.com/raml-org/raml-spec/blob/master/versions/r... [1] https://a.ml/docs/

3 yıl öncediscuss

I miss electronics retail, even with its issues. Radio Shack had the Forrest Mims engineer's notebooks for learning electronics, and it was great to be able to drive down to a Fry's to pick up a component that you needed in a hurry on a weekend.

Shout out to Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara, San Mateo Electronics Supply, and of course Jameco, which are still alive.

I'm also lamenting the loss of SF Bay area electronics surplus: Weird Stuff, Halted/HSC, and the latest casualty, Excess Solutions. Is there any place left around here to find used/surplus electronics?

3 yıl öncediscuss

Hey, you know what they say.

3 yıl öncediscuss

One of my favorite economics professors called the second one 'OBSCENE PROFITS!'. His vocal delivery of those two words in front of the class was always highly animated and packed full of energy.

It is intuitive that, as soon as enterprising individuals catch wind of high profits being made somewhere, there will be an inrush of competitors looking to seize their share, which then continues until until some type of equilibrium is reached.

The fundamental breakdown in this type of efficient market mechanism is that it requires a reasonably level playing field: referees and rules. Complex systems without adequate regulation may result in local optima one or a few participants, who achieve regulatory capture, externalize costs, or achieve monopoly, oligopoly, or similar advantage to the disadvantage of all others. Regulation is required to achieve the global optimum for the wider group (i.e. society).

Cancer is an a example of a biological system exhibiting high growth with broken mechanisms of regulation. Similar outcomes can be observed when there is a disruption to a predator population, leading to an explosion of prey species, resulting in an ecosystem that is overrun and exhausted until balance returns.

3 yıl öncediscuss

One initial reaction to the prompting style is how similar it is to a human-to-human interaction. For example, a team lead communicating requirements to a wider team composed of less experienced engineers may also follow this type of iterative exchange, continuing until he or she is satisfied that the team understands the work to be done and has the guide rails to be successful.

I recently heard a description about the way this technology will change technical work that resonated: we will become more like the movie director, and less like the actors.

3 yıl öncediscuss

My understanding is that relocation assistance is not available for this position. I will double-check to be sure, and if it is now offered I will reply here.

3 yıl öncediscuss

Everyone's mileage varies - we found it to be the best among the major offerings, for our specific needs.

3 yıl öncediscuss

XL Construction | Mulesoft Integration Developer | Primarily ONSITE (Milpitas/San Jose, CA)

XL Construction is an award-winning Northern California general contractor/builder, consistently voted as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times / Silicon Valley Business Journal, and is ranked as the fourth largest GC in the Bay Area as of last month.

We are in the early stages of executing a long-term enterprise-wide data strategy and this role is key.

XL is seeking an individual with 5 years of application integration development experience with Mulesoft or similar, and a commitment to software engineering best practices in a team environment. We run a modern suite of applications so you won't have to fight crusty, antiquated, and temperamental APIs and can better enjoy the satisfaction of getting information flowing.

I am XL's interim data architect and look forward building great things together.

Please review the full job posting [0] and apply there if you are the one. Reply here if you'd like to give me a head's up.

[0] https://www.xlconstruction.com/careers/open-positions/ (under Business Technology > 'Integration Developer')

3 yıl öncediscuss

When I moved to SV from the Portland area about 20 years ago, the first thing I sought out was a surplus store like Wacky Willy's (closed), the Tektronix country store (maybe still open?), or Surplus Gizmos [0]. My friends and I used to frequent those places in high school and college when we needed electronics and electro-mechanical parts for our nerdly pursuits.

I had been making the SV surplus store rounds at least once a month - Halted (HSC), Weird Stuff, Excess Solutions, etc (plus the Fry's swap meet). Those nicely furnished my garage workspace with industrial-quality furniture, equipment, and other random bits, but sadly all have closed.

Nowadays I am down to one SV store on my short list that is still around, and they only sell office furniture and electronics workstations - neither of which I can use any more of. I'm hoping these types of stores are a trailing economic indicator and a fresh group will pop up soon.

Any there any other surplus/liquidation stores in the SF Bay Area still around (not the military surplus kind)?

[0] https://portlandrobotics.org/links_surplus.php?link_id=21

4 yıl öncediscuss

There are a few things to parse here.

1. In terms of software efficiency, engineers may lament the perceived waste, inefficiency, and imperfection in the produced code, but from a business standpoint it is a rational cost/benefit decision. It is useful to view software through the lens of economics. In economics there is a concept that Labor (e.g. a software engineer) and Capital (e.g. servers, infrastructure) are substitutable. Many sub-optimal programs and systems built with reduced labor cost are perfectly usable by substituting more hardware. Optimization only makes sense where there is a clear benefit that exceeds the cost.

Thus, as a contrived or extreme example, would a manager spend $200k in labor to produce a highly optimized program, hand-crafted in assembly, or spend $500 in labor to produce a program in a higher level language such as Java, that does the same thing but uses more compute resources? The spread in cost between those two choices allows one to throw a lot of hardware at the sub-optimal program. Thus it is frequently a better business decision to produce inefficient software and throw more hardware at it. It may make the engineer feel bad, but what they wish to optimize is not aligned with what the business wishes or needs to optimize.

2. In terms of the short 'shelf-life' of software, the same problem infects hardware, consumer electronics, and other products. I've purchased a number of IPads for my family over the years. After a few years and IOS versions, more and more apps stop being compatible, until it becomes effectively useless even though the hardware is the same as when I bought it.

Again let's view this through the lens of economics. A cynic will look at the IPad situation and and think 'What better way to separate me from my money than to force me to buy a new product every few years, solely by software shenanigans?' Of course businesses enjoy selling more product, but they also have cost constraints in order to be viable (ignoring those who are perhaps making 'obscene profits' before competitors take notice, as my econ professor used to shout so passionately).

We might consider as an alternative that it is simply too expensive to maintain many versions of an app, on multiple platforms, with backwards compatibility and security concerns. The business instead is making a rational decision to only support their application on the OS versions and platforms that the majority of their customers are running at any point in time, similar to how a web developer at some point has to stop bothering to ensure their site works in IE 5.0.

None of that reduces my frustration at planned obsolescence but maybe this is just the reality of things.

3. I'm on the fence about the labor-exploitation part: this seems like a different and very complex issue. Some may argue that more hardware manufacturing provides good jobs without extended education or training requirements, while others may argue that those jobs are exploitative because the working conditions are poorly regulated or the position does not pay enough by their standard.

At a macro level, global poverty levels have significantly decreased over the past 30 years [1], so humanity seems to be doing something right. An optimist may say that as regions of the world move out of poverty, the regulatory environment will inevitably follow to reduce abuse, pollution, and safety risks. Time will tell but it requires patience - human systems are slow to change, in contrast to software and hardware.

[1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/april-2022-global-pover...

4 yıl öncediscuss

New technology taking my job is the least of my concerns here. In my opinion there is simply a bifurcation of software underway: traditional programming on one side, and training/learning-based technologies on the other.

Traditional software will continue to be chosen when we want predictable, unbiased, mechanical execution of instructions. There are many areas where this is preferred, and I don't see that changing. Mechanical and later silicon calculation devices are invaluable for their speed, but the greatest benefit is that they are predictable and consistent: they do not make errors unless the design is in error.

AI, machine learning, and other training/learning-based technologies also have many useful and tantalizing applications. For applications such as those that enhance productivity, provide entertainment (e.g. art and music), or autonomously perform tasks where mistakes can be tolerated, these training/learning-based technologies will reap great things.

However, for many applications we don't want a complex device, whose behavior, while it can be ostensibly tested, cannot be completely understood and examined to be provably correct. Or, whose faulty action cannot be definitively reproduced and root-caused after a mishap. Or, whose 'black-box' can be infected or influenced by bad actors in a manner that is undetectable.

I don't ever want to see a radiation dosing machine that is clever, an industrial control process that is expected to be trained to infer its own decisions where injury or life is at stake, nor do I wish to argue with a machine to open my pod bay door.

Alternatively, perhaps legal precedent will just establish the degree to which machines are allowed to make mistakes, and if they make fewer than a human, we will just accept the cost/benefit of injury, loss of life, or evil as 'practical', and move on. 'Actuary Shrugged'?

The most ominous prospect is if humanity fails to evolve past war and conflict faster than this technology's destructive capability. Maybe Fermi will get his answer.

4 yıl öncediscuss

It was intended as both actually: a sloppy imitation Australian accent, as well as a nod to Mr. Noyce. There are very few occasions where the two intersect so nicely.

4 yıl öncediscuss

Noyce! This is 21st century if I ever saw it, and I tip my hat to thee.

4 yıl öncediscuss

I vividly remember when they took away the cereal at work. Working long hours, at times 3 weeks on, one day off - I couldn't understand how a cost/benefit analysis could arrive at that decision. The cereal may have returned later but I can't seem to remember one way or the other...

4 yıl öncediscuss

Related to this, for anyone not fully up to date on recent C# features there is also the CallerArgumentExpression [1], [2] feature introduced in C# 10. While it is not a pretty printer for an expression, it does allow the full expression passed from the call site as an argument value to be captured and used within the method. This can be useful for custom assert extensions.

For example:

    public void CheckIsTrue(bool value, [CallerArgumentExpression("value")] string? expression = null)
    {
        if (!value) 
        { 
            Debug.WriteLine($"Failed: '{expression}'"); 
        }
    }

So if you call like this: CheckIsTrue(foo != bar && baz == true), when the value is false it prints "Failed: 'foo != bar && baz == true'".

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-ref... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-ref...