akosma

akosma, 10 months ago to random

Just published a new blog post: "Serving in the Swiss Army" https://akos.ma/blog/serving-in-the-swiss-army/

akosma, 1 year ago to random

Dear German car drivers,

I understand how slow and frustrating it must feel to drive on Swiss 🇨🇭highways, but PLEASE don’t drive at 30 km/h less than the maximum speed allowed. It’s actually dangerous.

When you see a white panel with a black band across, it means “no more speed limits” and you can usually speed up to 130 km/h without problems.

Most importantly: if the maximum speed indicated is 120 km/h, don’t drive at 70 or 80. 🤨

Hint: your car GPS probably indicates max speeds. 💡

Thanks,

akosma, 13 days ago to random

current status

akosma, 1 month ago to random

"The industrial design of the HP-35 was unusual not only for Hewlett-Packard, but for the electronics industry in general. Usually, the mechanical and electrical components of a product are determined before the exterior is designed. The HP-35 took the opposite approach."

http://shiftleft.com/mirrors/www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/72jun/jun72a3.pdf

akosma, 7 months ago to random

I would love to buy a small computer with a chassis similar to the TRS-80 Model 100 (ok, maybe a bit thinner?) running FreeDOS, instant on, powered by four AAA batteries that would last weeks, with a grayscale LCD monitor. No Wi-Fi, just a USB port is enough, thankyousomuch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100

akosma, 20 days ago to random

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

akosma, 9 months ago to random

On the early afternoon of Saturday, January 3rd, 1981, my mother took the 7-year old me to the “Atlas Belgrano” cinema in Buenos Aires (near the corner of Cabildo Avenue and Juramento street) to watch the recently released “The Empire Strikes Back”.

How do I know? I kept the program.

Photo of an Argentine movie program (in Spanish)of January 1981 for the release of “The Empire Strikes Back”
Photo of an Argentine movie program (in Spanish)of January 1981 for the release of “The Empire Strikes Back”

akosma, 9 months ago to random

This is what I see in my head every time I see or hear the name AT&T

Every. Single. Time.

akosma, 10 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

“Production programming projects today are often staffed by relatively junior programmers with at most a few vears of experience. This condition is primarily the result of the rapid development of the computer and the burgeoning of its applications.”

F. T. Baker, “Chief Programmer Team Management of Production Programming”, IBM Systems Journal…

…1972.

akosma, 10 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, 14 days ago to random

I understand where acronyms like "BENELUX" and "EMEA" come from, but following that line of reasoning, shouldn't "DACH" be "DÖCH" or even "DÖS" or "GAS" instead?

akosma, 9 months ago to random

The same applies to blog posts. ADD A DATE TO YOUR BLOG POSTS. Thanks. https://scholar.social/@ashedryden/110968079516797935

akosma, 8 months ago to random

So… I have a petTracer for my cat. It's a Swiss-made GPS & radio emitting collar, whose buckle is designed to open automatically to avoid strangling the animal in case it gets stuck in branches or wires.

https://www.pettracer.com/ch/en/

akosma, 10 months ago to random

I have found the weirdest bug in an application using Express.js running under Deno:

In short, static files aren't returned. This works under Node.js but not under Deno.

Any experts among my followers who could help me understand what's going on?

I've created a sample project containing a "witness" project running the same code under Node.js without any problems.

I actually don't know if this is an Express.js issue or a Deno problem.

https://gitlab.com/akosma/express_node_deno/

akosma, 2 months ago to random

Watching the Associated Press live streaming of the eclipse, and one of the cameras is in a stadium in Cleveland (“Guardians”?) so here’s me wishing @dimsumthinking a great eclipse (if he’s around the area of course) and the same goes to all of you (lucky bastards!) in the path of this magnificent phenomenon (and there’s a lot of big cities in that path!)

https://www.youtube.com/live/H_aPG0AeG1s?si=eqMv6j9g5I0cTY_q

akosma, 1 year ago to random

"Objective-C is a wonderful thing. But I love it, for a very simple reason: it is not obnoxious.

Some people need their programming languages to be really obnoxious. “Oh this not an array of string, I will not compile this.”

I divide programming languages in two families. East Coast and West Coast."

https://akos.ma/blog/the-developer-guide-to-migrate-across-galaxies/#4-objective-c-aka-coolia

akosma, 1 year ago to random

So fighting against Google Slides I discovered that it does not support SVG files 😒

If you want nice vector images on your slides, you can do this:

1. Convert the SVG files into EMF (Enhanced Metafile) using Inkscape or LibreOffice Draw
2. Create a PPTX file with LibreOffice Impress and embed all those nice vector logos
3. Upload the PPTX to Google Drive, and open it on Google Slides
4. Copy the images from your PPTX file into your other slides
5. Profit!

akosma, 7 months ago to random

Today, both of my nationalities, Switzerland and Argentina, have major elections taking place on the same day.

In Switzerland, we vote to renew both chambers, and since they choose the executive power ("Federal Council" with 7 members), somehow indirectly we're choosing that, too. This happens every 4 years.

In Argentina, today's the presidential election. Every 4 years as well.

akosma, 7 months ago to random

TIL Christopher Reeve appeared in 1992 in a video of the Argentine pop duo Pimpinela.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAHddU_8M-Q

akosma, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to random

So, I found my late grandmother's maths diploma from the University of Geneva, dated July 1927, signed by William Rappard himself, and then I found her name in the archives of the university. I'm feeling a mix of pride and emotion that's hard to describe. She's my all-time hero.
https://www.unige.ch/archives/files/9115/3866/3096/Diplomes_1926-1927.pdf

akosma, 9 months ago to random

In the past few years, I've received a few requests about how to make a good impression when interviewing at @vshn . I do have a piece of advice: do not mispronounce the name of the company.

It's not pronounced "vee-ess-eitch-enn" but just "vision".

akosma, 10 months ago to random

It's really frustrating when project maintainers praying people not to open issues but to send merge or pull requests instead, are the same that wouldn't comment on your pull requests, not even to acknowledge a yes or a no, and leave them open forever.

I understand that maintaining a FOSS project is a lot of work, but if you receive an actual concrete contribution, at least have the decency to say "no thanks." I'm not even asking for the rationale behind the decision.

But don't ghost people.

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, 5 months ago to random

I’m celebrating 7 years of continuous @joplinapp use. I had never used the same note-taking app for that long previously. I can’t recommend it enough.

akosma, 1 month ago to random

An interesting, very Swiss perspective on the Humane AI pin: you won't be able to buy it in Switzerland, or even get it shipped here, since the purchase and ownership of lasers of Class 2 or higher (according to MKBHD, minute 03:07) is strictly forbidden (and you could be fined up to 40'000 Swiss Francs).

(BTW, didn't you know that? Check your presenter laser pointer if you live within the borders of Helvetia… you might want to recycle it asap.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitZV6k8zfA