Blog – Page 16

Dan Q wrote note for GC3PP3Q LOL #2 – Swimming

This checkin to GC3PP3Q LOL #2 – Swimming reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Kids playing in the garden overlooking the GZ were watching, so I opted to give this one a miss. Maybe on the way back.

Dan Q found GC3PP1Z LOL #1 – Athletics

This checkin to GC3PP1Z LOL #1 - Athletics reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Being between jobs, I decided to offer the geohound a longer then usual walk this morning and clear my head before an application form I need to fill out. We opted for the first leg of this series: let’s see how far the little pooch’s legs will carry her! Cache found easily, SL, TFTC.

Reply to: Rant about claims that LLMs will make you lose your programming skills

This is a reply to a post published elsewhere. Its content might be duplicated as a traditional comment at the original source.

Sérgio Isidoro said:

Ok, I’m NOT an immediate fan of “vibe coding” and overusing LLMs in programming. I have a healthy amount of skepticism about the use of these tools, mostly related to the maintainability of the code, security, privacy, and a dozen other more factors.

But some arguments I’ve seen from developers about not using the tools because it means they “will lose their coding skills” its just bonkers. Especially in a professional context.

Imagine you go to a carpenter, and they say “this will take 2x the time because I don’t use power tools, they make me feel like I’m losing my competence in manual skills”. It’s your job to deliver software using the most efficient and accurate methods possible.

Sure, it is essential that you keep your skills sharp, but being purposfully less effective in your job to keep them sharp is a red flag. And in an industry made of abstractions to increase productivity (we’re no longer coding in Assembly last time I checked), this makes even less sense.

/rant

Sérgio Isidoro

I’m in two minds on this (as I’ve hinted before). The carpenter analogy doesn’t really hold, because the underlying skill of carpentry is agnostic to whether or not you use power tools: it’s about understanding the material properties of woods, the shapes of joins, the ways structures are strong and where they are weak, the mathematics and geometry that make design possible… none of which are taken over by power tools.

25+ years ago I wrote most of my Perl/PHP code without an Internet connection. When you wanted to deploy you’d “dial up”, FTP some files around, then check it had worked. In that environment, I memorised a lot more. Take PHP’s date formatting strings, for example: I used to have them down by heart! And even when I didn’t, I knew approximately the right spot to flip the right book open to that I’d be able to look it up quickly.

“Always-on” broadband Internet gradually stole that skill from me. It’s so easy for me to just go to the right page on php.net and have the answer I need right in front of me! Nowadays, I depend on that Internet connection (I don’t even have the book any more!).

A power tool targets a carpenter’s production speed, not their knowledge-recovery speed.

Will I experience the same thing from my LLM usage, someday?

LayoffBot – eliminating the human in human resources

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

LayoffBot

It was a bit… gallows humour… for a friend to share this website with me, but it’s pretty funny.

And also: a robot that “schedules a chat” to eject you from your job and then “delivers the news with the emotional depth of a toaster” might still have been preferable to an after-hours email to my personal address to let me know that I’d just had my last day! Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but there’s some news that email isn’t the medium for, right?

Reposts of spicy takes on Automattic leadership and silly jokes about redundancy will cease soon and normal bloggy content will resume, I’m sure.

The call is coming from inside the house

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

A master class in how not to lead through crisis is continuing at Automattic and it’s rough to watch.

After Matt Mullenweg sets off a firestorm by going “scorched earth” on WP Engine in September 2024 (if you don’t know the story) there’s been one dodgy decision after another but through it all Mullenweg and his executive leadership team continue to blame the lack of success and growth on staffers.

October 2024: Make two “alignment offers” to root out anyone willing to speak sense to the madness of all the wpdrama. 159 walk in the first and 25-30 in the second. Allege that the people who chose to leave were low performers and now that everyone left is aligned things should be better.

January 10: Matt Mullenweg states “There are no layoffs plans at Automattic, in fact we’re hiring fairly aggressively and have done a number of acquisitions since this whole thing started, and have several more in the pipeline.”

April 2: Automattic decimates its engineering staff in a 280 person layoff with a paltry severance compared to alignment offers. Leaving many feeling like suckers for showing loyalty.

April 8: The engineering lead admits that just this week they are beginning to see the gaps in engineering due to the layoffs.

April 9: CFO accidentally sends a Slack message to the entire company that not only do engineers need to, but all of Automattic needs to “Get aligned, get productive, deliver or move on”.

The call is coming from inside the house. The C-suite is failing to get real alignment because “leadership” at WordPress.com, Automattic, et al. is not, and have not, been leading. They haven’t come up with an executable commercial plan for the company in nearly a decade. Any time they get close to doing so a shiny object appears and **poof** on to something else.

Kellie Peterson

A scathing take from Kellie Peterson, who was Head of Domains at Automattic until 2023. There’s lots more/similar spiciness from her on Bluesky, for those inclined to such things.

I’m not sure whether I agree with everything Kellie asserts, but I’ve certainly been concerned about the direction of management for the last year or more. Obviously I’d be biased, speaking as one of the “suckers” who showed loyalty in October only to get axed in April…

But for a while now it had felt like my reasons for staying were entirely about my love for (a) my team, a full half of whom got laid off at the same time as me anyway, and (b) WordPress and the open source space it represents, which of course Automattic’s been distancing itself from.

(Incidentally – and speaking of open source – I’m quite enjoying the freedom to contribute to ClassicPress, which previously might have been frowned-upon by my employers. I’ve not got a first PR out yet, but I’m hoping to soon.)

So yeah… while I might not agree with all of Kellie’s sentiments (here and elsewhere)… I increasingly find I have the clarity to agree with many of them. Automattic seems to be a ship on fire, right now, and I really feel for my friends and former colleagues still aboard what must be an increasingly polarised environment, seemingly steering hard towards profits over principles.

Daily Brushing

8-year-old, looking like a haystack: “Why do I have to brush my hair? I did it yesterday!”

Why is there a “small house” in IBM’s Code page 437?

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

There’s a small house ( ⌂ ) in the middle of IBM’s infamous character set Code Page 437. “Small house”—that’s the official IBM name given to the glyph at code position 0x7F, where a control character for “Delete” (DEL) should logically exist. It’s cute, but a little strange. I wonder, how did it get there? Why did IBM represent DEL as a house, of all things?

…

Glyph Drawing Club Blog

It probably ought to be no surprise that I, somebody who’s written about the beauty and elegance of the ASCII table, would love this deep dive into the specifics of the unusual graphical representation of the DEL character in IBM Code Page 437.

It’s highly accessible, so even if you’ve only got a passing interest in, I don’t know, text encoding or typography or the history of computing, it’s a great read.

Dan Q did not find GC2WTXD JOIN UP THE NUDDSY’S~Pumping Station

This checkin to GC2WTXD JOIN UP THE NUDDSY'S~Pumping Station reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Might be here, or quite possibly was shaken loose by last season’s trimming and pollarding and it’s now who knows where. Too many disappointing DNFs in this series which, coupled with the increasing rain, feels like the Universe’s way of telling me to give up and go eat some breakfast.

Such a beautiful landscape with such caching potential. Hope it gets the love and attention it deserves.

Dan Q found GC2WTZE JOIN UP THE NUDDSY’S~Forest View

This checkin to GC2WTZE JOIN UP THE NUDDSY'S~Forest View reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Huge thanks (and a big thumbs up) to Saintsalive1 for the replacement cache container; what a great hiding spot. Rain is starting, I’d better pick up the pace if I’m going to stay dry. TFTC!

Dan Q did not find GC2WTZK JOIN UP THE NUDDSY’S~Oak Gate

This checkin to GC2WTZK JOIN UP THE NUDDSY'S~Oak Gate reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

As others have observed, container (previously destroyed) is now completely absent. Needs replacement or archiving. Such a lovely area for a series; a shame to have so many spots made unavailable by the 0.1M circles of unmaintained and absent caches.

Dan Q did not find GC2WV01 JOIN UP THE NUDDSY’S~Field of Dreams

This checkin to GC2WV01 JOIN UP THE NUDDSY'S~Field of Dreams reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Made a search around the hint area but this one is nowhere to be seen. Based on the string of recent DNFs, it’s probably gone or else so deeply buried that it’ll never be seen again. Shame, it’s a nice spot, and the snowdrop-carpeted woods beyond are delightful. Flagged for attention.

Dan Q found GC3110V JOIN UP THE NUDDSY’S~I ‘OAK’ THIS

This checkin to GC3110V JOIN UP THE NUDDSY'S~I 'OAK' THIS reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Woke early and unrested, grumpy and tired, after staying nearby, and figured a pre-breakfast walk through these fields might nice my mood. Coordinates pointed right to a candidate hiding spot that set my geosense tingling and soon had the logbook signed. Those nettles are fierce! One snuck up my trouser leg and got my ankle. Waved good morning to the noisy nearby sheep as I pressed on.