akosma

akosma, 2 months ago to random

bon appétit

akosma, 1 month ago to random

"Pretty much every C and C++ programmer understands that accessing a null pointer and dividing by zero are erroneous actions. On the other hand, the full implications of undefined behavior and its interactions with aggressive compilers are not well-appreciated. This post explores these topics."

https://blog.regehr.org/archives/213

akosma, 8 months ago to random

"However, the net-net is that the single-node performance of a NoSQL, disk-based, non-ACID, multithreaded system is limited to be a modest factor faster than a well-designed stored-procedure SQL OLTP engine. In essence, ACID transactions are jettisoned for a modest performance boost, and this performance boost has nothing to do with SQL."

Michael Stonebreaker (Turing Award 2014) about the NoSQL hype back in 2011. Turns out, and unsurprisingly enough, he was right.

https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/csep544/10au/resources/p10-stonebraker.pdf

akosma, 5 months ago to random

"When IBM withdrew its support for OS/2, many were outraged. OS/2 users, remember, had been partly motivated by a distrust of Microsoft and Apple, and, then, suddenly, IBM, which had been providing a refuge, was proving unworthy of trust as well.

Edwin Black, the editor of OS/2 Professional, was so furious that he went on to write several well-researched books detailing IBM's dealings with Nazi Germany and its involvement in the Holocaust."

https://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Off-the-Beat-Bruce-Byfield-s-Blog/OS-2-The-Forerunner-of-Linux

akosma, 5 months ago to random

BTW I don't know who needs to know this, but here's a gift to all of us. https://standardebooks.org/

akosma, 2 months ago to random

Ghosting hurts. Don't ghost people.

https://akos.ma/blog/radio-silence/

akosma, 1 year ago to Software

Hi! 👋 #Introduction

I'm a #Software developer born in #Argentina and living in #Switzerland.

These days I publish a new article every Friday on my #Blog, and every first Monday of each month on @deprogrammaticaipsum a monthly #Magazine about #Programming and society.

Thanks for following and see you around!

akosma, 23 days ago to random

The contrast was brutal back then

Screenshot of Microsoft Word 5.1a for Mac OS 7.5 running on Basilisk II for Linux

akosma, 8 months ago to random

"It is unfortunate that people dealing with computers often have little interest in the history of their subject. As a result, many concepts and ideas are propagated and advertised as being new, which existed decades ago, perhaps under a different terminology."

Niklaus Wirth, "A Brief History of Software Engineering" (2008)

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4617912

akosma, 6 months ago to random

Dear US people,
We care about Halloween as much as you care about the metric system.
#okthxbye

akosma, 6 months ago to random

Just published a new blog post: "Expecting People to Work for Free" https://akos.ma/blog/expecting-people-to-work-for-free/

akosma, 8 months ago to random

Just published a new blog post: "Opening Microsoft Access Databases on Linux" https://akos.ma/blog/opening-microsoft-access-databases-on-linux/

akosma, 1 month ago to random

"Recuerdo una entrevista de trabajo hace unos meses. El tipo me preguntó ¿“para usted, que es lo más importante en un proyecto de software?”; y mi respuesta fue simple: “la gente”. El tipo no estuvo para nada de acuerdo, me interrumpió y me dijo “No. Lo importante es la metodología. La gente puede ser reemplazada”. Así nomás, sin vergüenza y sin mayor reflexión. Como correspondía a semejante cortesía, me levanté, le di la mano y me fui."

https://akos.ma/blog/gracias-y-feliz-vida-no-solo-para-el-2006/

akosma, 1 month ago to random

Be Objective.

akosma, 28 days ago to random

I've recently come across two socially responsible French conglomerates of software developers, organized as either a cooperative or some other egalitarian business forms, and I wanted to make a huge shoutout to them.

Please visit their websites and, if you want and can, hire them for your next projects.

(Disclaimer: I'm not associated with either, I just find these organizations not only remarkable, but also necessary and fundamental.)

• https://les-tilleuls.coop/en
• https://www.codeursenliberte.fr/

akosma, 9 months ago to random

My wife has been trying for 40 minutes to subscribe to a non-Netflix streaming platform without success, in a literal moment of “take my money.”

The reason so many of those platforms are going to disappear soon and why Netflix will be the only one standing has nothing to do with competition or shows. It’s all about shitty versus decent UX.

akosma, 7 months ago to random

It’s time to leave the birdsite behind. All organizations should at least consider the option. At least. https://social.edu.nl/@Bibliothecaris/111266431246596275

akosma, 18 days ago to random

“Our industry cannot afford to suck a little less; we need paradigm shifts.”

James Coplien (minute 29:49)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBQmIDdls4

akosma, 17 days ago to random

The main effect of Stack Overflow selling data to ChatGPT is that from now on, the chatbot will reply to any and every programming question with a passive-aggressive RTFM.

akosma, 8 days ago to random

"Tax policy groups have been lobbying to close this loophole for years, and Congress nearly did it in 2022, but Senator Kyrsten Sinema took $2 million from the private equity industry (aka Owners) and saved their $14 billion loophole. It’s well known that our leaders are whores. What’s more surprising, and disappointing, is what cheap whores they are ($2 million for $14 billion)."

https://www.profgalloway.com/earners-vs-owners/

akosma, 6 days ago to random

TIL that Ventoy is an open-source tool to create a bootable USB drive for ISO/IMG files. No need to format the disk over and over, just copy the image files to the USB drive and boot it. You can copy many image files at a time, and Ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them. x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI and MIPS64EL UEFI supported. MBR and GPT partition style supported. OS supported: Win/Linux/Unix/ChromeOS/Vmware/Xen. 1200+ ISO files tested.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

akosma, 3 days ago to random

Some ideas https://akos.ma/blog/running-programming-workshops/

akosma, 11 hours ago to random

"Luckily we have the Wayback Machine"

Just a week after publishing this, the @internetarchive is down.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/webpages_vanish_decade/

akosma, 18 days ago to random

“In religion and politics, on the contrary, though there is as yet nothing approaching scientific knowledge, everybody considers it de rigueur to have a dogmatic opinion, to be backed up by inflicting starvation, prison, and war, and to be carefully guarded from argumentative competition with any different opinion.”

Bertrand Russell, “Free Thought and Official Propaganda”, March 24th, 1922.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Thought_and_Official_Propaganda