@pbx@fosstodon.org
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

pbx

@pbx@fosstodon.org

I'm a senior web application engineer, dad, husband, mountain biker, writer, teacher.

I co-wrote one of the first books on #Django. I created the https://dpaste.com pastebin.

Previous careers: Teacher, writer of tech commentary/reviews (Wired, Salon, Chicago Tribune), graphic designer for newspapers and magazines.

I live in western Massachusetts, USA. Grew up in #Vermont. Rivers I've lived near: #Winooski, #Hudson, #Willamette, #Connecticut, #Deerfield.

Pronouns: he/him

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anze3db, to random
@anze3db@fosstodon.org avatar

Any idea why PostgreSQL is this much slower compared to SQLite and MySQL?

This is on Ubuntu 24.04, connecting through Django and I've tried both psycopg and psycopg2, but the result is the same: ~200 requests per second with Postgres compared to ~2000 with SQLite or MySQL.

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@anze3db interesting, that's definitely unexpected. Any significant differences in DB setup across the three (e.g. index creation)? Do you have an APM tool like New Relic or Datadog that you could use to get detailed profiling?

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

Just hit an innovative — a ZIP code field that, while it allowed you to type into it, only accepted preset values selected from a menu accessed by a tiny expansion triangle on the right-hand edge. Even if what you typed was identical to one of the menu selections, it was rejected.

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

This is a great rapid-fire intro to #HTMX. Too fast for good retention of course, but a great way to survey HTMX capabilities and style in 8 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT7SV-bAZyA

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

#Vermont

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@wsvincent You got it! Looking due west from my childhood home in Plainfield.

hugovk, to python
@hugovk@mastodon.social avatar

Two recent changes I've made to the Python docs I'm happy about:

📘 Links are underlined, which is important for accessibility.
https://adrianroselli.com/2016/06/on-link-underlines.html

📗 The dated Lucida Grande was the Mac system font a decade ago and used for the docs on Mac (and only Mac). We now use the system font stack, to get a similar result to Linux, Windows, Android and iOS.
https://systemfontstack.com

Before: https://docs.python.org/3.10/tutorial/index.html

After: https://docs.python.org/3.12/tutorial/index.html

The Python tutorial, shown on macOS with Arial and prose, non-navigational links are underlined.

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@hugovk Nice work. I'd say the increased line spacing on the new version (that's what I'm seeing on my Android phone anyway) is also a nice readability improvement.

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

#Glassdoor is sounding a bit lost.

I've gotten one or two good bits of intel from the site in the past, but never felt comfortable with the just-trust-us anonymity. And now this. Buh bye.

https://cellio.dreamwidth.org/2024/03/12/glassdoor-violates-privacy.html

pbx, to emacs
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

#emacs is my org-mode editor, not my coding editor, but I've always liked the sound of #magit and have wanted to learn it for a long time. I came up with a silly hack this week to support that effort: a keybinding in VS Code that opens the current file in Emacs!

From there it's 'C-x g' and off to the races.

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I used to post #SadQuora items but I've lost my sense of humor about it. I'm afraid that the bulk of my actions on that site these days are downvoting questions and/or reporting them as poorly written. (I'm not being persnickety either, I'm talking about context-free inscrutable stuff like "How is the map being made?")

It's really too bad because there's some good community there, and a lot of writers who know their shit and are great at communicating.

But the product is in trouble.

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I have a new rule when I'm looking at Quora: After my first downvote or report, I close the tab. It's too often a downward spiral otherwise.

Cmastication, to random
@Cmastication@mastodon.social avatar

fwiw, today I got first hand experience with trying to dump too much into S3 too quickly.

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@Cmastication The fact that they throw a 503 instead of returning a 429 is kind of funny. I don't think "slow down" is a good gloss for that; should be something like "She cannae take anymore, captain!"

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I think every #Git user owes it to themselves to understand alternative use cases like SQLite's.

Git is very useful and powerful, but it's not the only way. Part of being an engineer for me is being aware of the tradeoffs that come with my technology choices.

https://sqlite.org/whynotgit.html

(A favorite bit: working directory, index/staging, local head, local copy of the remote head, actual remote head... Git's design compels you to mentally track all of these.)

mariyadelano, to internet
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.io avatar

Friends who are older than me: do you have any good stories of encountering spam on the early internet? (PLEASE BOOST FOR REACH)

90s or pre-2005 please!

I might end up quoting your example in an article 😊

#AskFedi #AskMastodon #internet #request #recommendations

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@mariyadelano Here's a column I wrote about spam in 1997. It talks about legislation (pre-CAN-SPAM) and super spammer Sanford Wallace. https://www.alternet.org/2000/04/bissex_second_thoughts_on_spam

You said you were interested in chains too — in 1996 I wrote about the first "victim of its own success" chain email I had seen: https://people.well.com/user/biscuit/cyb/24.html

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

TFW you control-click in an app you didn't realize was built in Electron, and instead of a useful context menu you get "Inspect Element" :blobcatcry:

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I'm looking for a way to test #USB and lightning cables, and since my searches have not been very fruitful I thought I'd #askfedi.

What I want is a box that I plug both ends of a cable into, and it tells me whether the cable is transmitting power.

I don't care about data particularly. And I don't want to have to put adapters on cable ends.

Cable end types I'd like it to handle: A, C, micro B, Lightning.

I'd like it to cost less than $30 and am not picky about vendors.

Does it exist?

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

In Edge, I asked Bing Chat for directions. Next to the resulting mini-map there was a "See more directions from Bing Maps" link. Clicked on it. A Google maps URL appeared in the location bar. But instead of a map, I saw:

www.google.com is blocked
www.google.com refused to connect.
ERR_BLOCKED_BY_RESPONSE

Well then.

#multifail

codinghorror, to random

The use of the word “interesting” here is .. novel https://sites.tufts.edu/articles/article-57/

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@mattdm @brentsleeper @codinghorror Yeah. There are four links in the story. Three go to media outlets (Forbes, US News & World Report, Business Insider) but one goes to a site that sells $100,000+ watches.

That's "interesting."

nyquildotorg, to random
@nyquildotorg@fedia.social avatar

I've been talking about how AI will directly lead to an Idiocracy (2006) scenario for some time, but today's update to the "can you melt eggs?" saga is as clear an illustration of how as I think it's possible to ever have.

Quora's AI answers made up the melting point of eggs, and then Google picked it up and responded affirmatively that you can indeed melt eggs.

Then people wrote articles about how stupid it is that Google says eggs can melt. The Google fixes the answer.

Then Google ingests an article about how stupid it is that Google says you can melt eggs, and suddenly Google starts answering affirmatively again that you can melt eggs, citing the article about how stupid Google is for thinking you can melt eggs.

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@chrisabides @nyquildotorg And I thought Google-bombing was dead!

pbx, to python
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

#xkcd compatible one-line #Python #password generator:

import secrets; "-".join(secrets.choice(open("/usr/share/dict/words").read().split()) for i in range(4))

My new password is "thoracoacromial-subapprobation-pyritohedral-autoconverter" and none of y'all will ever guess it.

Not sure how I'm going to come up with a mnemonic though...

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

Today I decided not to pursue a job opportunity whose description included, "Reverse engineer legacy production systems and re-write existing applications."

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I wished for a CLI internet , and hey look, of course, it exists. https://pypi.org/project/speedtest-cli/

Alternatively, Netflix offers a Node-based CLI that uses their fast.com speedtest service.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

Suddenly realized I don’t have business cards anymore. Do people use business cards? Should I have them? Can I just print ones that say “werd.io” in big letters? What do you do?

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@ben I'm devoted to business cards, possibly a side effect of working in graphic design for many years. When I run out it's fun to change up the design for the next batch. I got some printed up last year. I love having them.

I used Vistaprint, but also like Moo.

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

Who could have predicted that this 11-year-old laser printer (that I got for $50 at a going-out-of-business sale) would have an outdated TLS version?

CodenameTim, to django
@CodenameTim@fosstodon.org avatar

Last night I was up writing up a "syllabus" for what I would cover in a professional #Django course. This morning it turned into a quick blog post with a bunch of links.

I'm curious what folks think:
https://www.better-simple.com/django/2023/08/18/pro-djangonaut-skills/

pbx,
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

@CodenameTim Good stuff, keep going!

Here are some thoughts informed by my Django work, including what I like to see when hiring.

I'd add mypy to dev tools, and maybe ruff instead of flake8.

Caching should be on the list somewhere, and maybe working with CDNs as well.

And finally, general Python chops are a good thing. Knowing the standard library (so you don't reinvent it) and key third party packages (e.g. requests).

Thanks for sharing and asking for feedback.

pbx, to random
@pbx@fosstodon.org avatar

I can't believe this "annual website domain listing" #scam is still running. Paper! So retro. I think I got my first one over 20 years ago.

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