pwaring

pwaring, 11 months ago to random

If vaccines really did contain computer chips someone would have ported Doom to them by now and posted to Hacker News about it.

pwaring, 11 months ago to random

Somebody really needs to start a clothing shop for men that guarantees to keep items in stock indefinitely. None of this 'item is discontinued', 'oh red isn't in fashion this year', 'we continually update our range' etc. I just want to buy the same item when the current one wears out without having to think about whether the alternatives will fit, look right etc.

pwaring, 4 months ago to books

I've read 117 books this year, reply with a number from 1 to 117 and I'll tell you something about that book.

(this is a personal reading challenge, not a brag or competition)

#books #reading #bookstodon

pwaring, 1 year ago to random

Seen a few posts today about the upcoming (2025) switch-off of PSTN (the 'landline' network for voice calls) and I was wondering how many non-tech/telecomms people know about this. I've seen no advertising and the only reason I'm aware is because I have friends who work in the industry.

(I'm also unconvinced that there is much benefit for end users, and there is a cost in replacing equipment)

pwaring, 1 year ago to random

TIL: If you use the NHS app on a rooted or jail-broken device, the NHS considers that a prohibited use, may be a criminal offence(!) and will report it to the relevant authorities, including passing on your details.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/nhs-app-legal-and-cookies/nhs-app-terms-of-use/

pwaring, 7 months ago to random

Public sector: Gosh it's really hard to find good developers.

Devs: What's the salary?

PS: 20% below market rates.

Devs: Can we work remotely?

PS: Min 2 days/week in the office.

Devs: Any cool interesting technology?

PS: Does an ageing AIX mainframe count?

pwaring, 1 year ago to random

Telecoms followers: is there a technical reason why mobile phones can’t connect to any cell tower in range, instead of only ones belonging to my provider? For example, if I’m on EE but have no signal, why can’t I be routed through Vodafone? I’m thinking of something like LINK, where I can use my bank A card in a bank B cash machine transparently and free (to me).

pwaring, 10 months ago to random

Google Chrome reminds me more and more of Internet Explorer in the early 2000s. Everyone ends up using the same software because initially it's better in some way, but eventually it becomes stale due to lack of competition. Same thing was the case to a lesser extent with GCC until LLVM came along. I wish we had a more vibrant ecosystem without dominance by a single vendor.

pwaring, 1 month ago to random

Don't think I'll ever buy something that needs assembly from Argos again. Part was missing when I opened the box.

1. Online order of spare parts: Not available for this item (it doesn't have a part number).

2. Online chat: We can't do anything, call the store.

3. Call store: Always busy so you get redirected to the overflow call centre... who can't do anything.

4. Visit store: TODO

IKEA OTOH: 6 digit code for each part, order online, posted immediately free of charge, no quibble.

pwaring, 9 months ago to random

In some ways, I would quite like to self-host my own Mastodon server (I self-host my websites and email, as well as some other services). I'd need to find a PHP implementation of the server software though as I have no desire to run Ruby on Rails / Node.js (I find them a nightmare to deploy and I don't know enough to keep them secure).

pwaring, 1 month ago to Bread

People who make their own bread or soup: is it possible to do this without using a lot of salt but still have an acceptable taste? I really like both bread and soup but anything pre-made has huge amounts of salt in (2g for a tin of soup, 0.5-0.8g for every couple of slices of bread or a roll, so a serving of soup + bread is often >50% of the RDA for salt).

#bread #soup

pwaring, 5 months ago to golang

Solved Advent of Code Day 5 Part 1 in Go. Took a while due to being busy at work and also accidentally creating an infinite loop if a source was used that didn't match any of the mappings (e.g. 'seeds' instead of 'seed').

Solution:

https://github.com/pwaring/advent-of-code/blob/master/2023/05/a/5a.go

Test suite:

https://github.com/pwaring/advent-of-code/blob/master/2023/05/a/5a_test.go

#AdventOfCode #golang

pwaring, 4 months ago to random

Wow, I'd somehow missed these changes coming in for UK companies, including a requirement to file accounts using software (which will probably mean proprietary software, as I can't see how open source projects could get access). Although if it's anything like Making Tax Digital from HMRC, it will be delivered incomplete and late.

https://changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk/changes-to-accounts/

pwaring, 1 month ago to random

Is there an authoritative way of finding out whether the public has access to a road (or part of) in England? I've just walked past a business unit on the continuation of what I'm pretty sure is a public highway and a speaker told me to 'leave the site immediately or response will be deployed'.

pwaring, 2 months ago to random

HMRC logic: Our helplines have long wait times. To fix this, we are closing the helplines.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68606722

pwaring, 6 months ago to random

In the market for a new tablet, mostly for watching videos and conference calls. Is there a decent Android version available or should I stick with an iPad?

Also, I wish companies would let me trade-in my existing device after I've got my new one. Forcing me to do it before means I'd be without a device for 2-4 weeks (not practical as I use it daily).

pwaring, 8 months ago to php

Working on a legacy PHP codebase this afternoon and 90% of my changes are replacing:

$x = $_POST['x'];

with:

$x = isset($_POST['x']) ? $_POST['x'] : '';

I can't use:

$x = $_POST['x'] ?? '';

as this is still on PHP 5.x.

#php

pwaring, 1 year ago to random

Writing a bit of Go today and once again getting bitten by the fact that the strings package includes most of what I want but not reverse.

#golang

pwaring, 1 day ago to random

Today has made me realise how reliant I am on a decent search engine to do my job effectively. DuckDuckGo is down and Google results are full of garbage articles nowadays (DDG often highlights a StackOverflow question in the type of things I search for, which is super-useful).

I have toyed with the idea of running my own search engine based on a hand-picked list of computing sites - maybe it's time to push that forward...

pwaring, 7 months ago to random

Struggling to understand the advantage of token authentication in web apps today. I have to make a username+password request to gain a time-limited token, which I then use in other requests. So if someone intercepts my token-based requests there's a limited time in which they can use the token.

But I still have to send the username + password repeatedly to the same API to get a token. If someone is intercepting my requests they'll still get the credentials.

pwaring, 9 months ago to random

Is there an alternative to the Kindle in the UK for buying and reading ebooks where I can support authors and local firms who treat their employees well and pay tax? This is the one thing I still use Amazon for and I have yet to find anything quite as convenient or slick.

(looking for recommendations that people have actually used)

pwaring, 6 months ago to random

Currently pondering which language to use to solve this year's Advent of Code challenges in. Options are: PHP, C, Go, Lua, Assembly, Rust or a functional language.

Full thoughts on my blog:

https://www.phpdeveloper.org.uk/advent-of-code-2023-programming-language-options/

#AdventOfCode #AdventOfCode2023

pwaring, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Just spent over an hour on a call with another developer trying to work around Excel's weird way of managing dates - they're represented as a 64 bit floating point value representing the number of days since 1st January 1900 (yes, days - not seconds like sensible systems)

There is a library which does some of this but it comes unstuck with formatting, e.g. 01/06/2020 gets converted to 06/01/2020.

pwaring, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to books

One of my goals this year is to improve my C knowledge, and as part of this I'm reading and reviewing a bunch of books (edit: I learn best from books, which is why I'm looking at them specifically).

Are there any I've missed on this spreadsheet? Only looking for books, not online tutorials etc. Happy to read paid or free books (I've bought or been given all the ones marked 'own').

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1enspgpBYQBEI3cTIh9atqMrP0k73V0jPXd-ZwmkyRl4/edit?usp=sharing

#C #books

pwaring, 8 months ago to DoctorWho

Mixed feelings about the 60th anniversary trailer. Tennant is probably my favourite new series Doctor but I absolutely cannot stand Donna - she’s the Adric of New Who.

#DoctorWho