Blog – Page 8

Smug Interview Moment

I’ve been in a lot of interviews over the last two or three weeks. But there’s a moment that stands out and that I’ll remember forever as the most-smug I’ve ever felt during an interview.

This particular interview included a mixture of technical and non-technical questions, but a particular technical question stood out for reasons that will rapidly become apparent. It went kind-of like this:

Interviewer: How would you go about designing a backend cache that retains in memory some number of most-recently-accessed items?

Dan: It sounds like you’re talking about an LRU cache. Coincidentally, I implemented exactly that just the other week, for fun, in two of this role’s preferred programming languages (and four other languages). I wrote a blog post about my design choices: specifically, why I opted for a hashmap for quick reads and a doubly-linked-list for constant-time writes. I’m sending you the links to it now: may I talk you through the diagrams?

Interviewer:

That’s probably the most-overconfident thing I’ve said at an interview since before I started at the Bodleian, 13 years ago. In the interview for that position I spent some time explaining that for the role they were recruiting for they were asking the wrong questions! I provided some better questions that I felt they should ask to maximise their chance of getting the best candidate… and then answered them, effectively helping to write my own interview.

Anyway: even ignoring my cockiness, my interview the other week was informative and enjoyable throughout, and I’m pleased that I’ll soon be working alongside some of the people that I met: they seem smart, and driven, and focussed, and it looks like the kind of environment in which I could do well.

But more on that later.

#ShowYourStripes #Oxford

Not just a global issue but a local one too. A local one… almost everywhere.

#ShowYourStripes

Dan Q did not find GC81KDC Standardisation Roundabout

This checkin to GC81KDC Standardisation Roundabout reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Deciphered this puzzle when it was first published: so long ago that I’d forgotten the specifics of how exactly I did so (although I’m pretty confident I remember the gist of it). But I don’t find myself over this side of Oxford often, these days, and so it took until today that an errand brought me over here before I had a chance to actually try and log it.

Near the GZ I found an obvious trail around the nearby structure and undertook a thorough search of all the obvious hiding places before widening my explorations to the surrounding foliage. Eventually, after about 20 minutes of hunting, I had to give up for shortage of time.

With almost a year since a successful log here and evidence that this trail is now routinely used by a nearby group of non-geocachers, it’s very possible that the cache has been disturbed. I’ll be waiting until a CO checkin (or successful log) before I try again.

Dan Q found GC7ZA2Z My Friend Dotty

This checkin to GC7ZA2Z My Friend Dotty reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

In Marston on an errand, I found myself with enough free time to try to find another few local caches. This puzzle wasn’t as easy as Dotty’s other one, fir me, because for a while I was counting the wrong things, but I cracked it in the end. A slow walk past the GZ with my fingers in the obvious space soon put the cache in my hand. Log extraction required stone creative use of a naturally occurring tool, but before long it was signed and returned. TFTC!

If this man isn’t hired immediately, it’s a huge loss

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

When I posted to LinkedIn about my recent redundancy, I saw a tidal wave of reposts and well-wishes. But there’s one that I’ve come back to whenever I need a pick-me-up before I, y’know, trawl the job boards: a comment-repost by my big-hearted, sharp-minded former co-worker Kyle. I’m posting it here because I want to keep a copy forever¹:

Bad news: I’m among the sixth of Automattic that’s been laid-off this week.

Good news: I’m #OpenToWork, and excited about the opportunity to bring my unique skillset to a new role. Could I be the Senior Software Engineer, Full-Stack Web Developer, or Technical Lead that you’re looking for?

Here’s what makes me special:

🕸️ 26+ years experience of backend and frontend development, with a focus on standards, accessibility, performance, security, and the open Web
🌎 20+ years experience of working in and leading remote/distributed teams in a diversity of sectors
👨‍💻 Professional experience of many of the technologies you’ve heard of (PHP, Ruby, Java, Perl, SQL, Go, DevOps, JS, jamstacks, headless…), and probably some you haven’t…
👨‍🎓 Degrees and other qualifications spanning computer science and software engineering, psychotherapy, ethical hacking, and digital forensics (I don’t believe there’s a career in the world that makes use of all of these, but if you know differently, tell me!)

Dan Q

If this man isn’t hired immediately, it’s a huge loss. Dan is easily one of the most talented engineers I’ve ever met. His skills are endless, his personal culture is delightful, and I don’t think I went a day working with him where I didn’t learn something. Let him build you beautiful things. I dare you.

Kyle Nel

Incidentally, Kyle’s looking for a new role too. If you’re in need of a WordPress/PHP/React pro with a focus on delivering the MVP fast and keeping the customer’s needs front-and-centre, you should look him up. He’s based in Cape Town but he’s a remote/distributed veteran that you could slot into your Web team anywhere.

Footnotes

¹ My blog was already 5 years old when LinkedIn was founded: my general thinking is that I can’t trust any free service younger than my blog to retain information for perpetuity longer than my blog, which is why so much of my content from around the web gets PESOS‘d or POSSE‘d here.

Scarecrows

As time has gone by, a great many rural English villages have been consumed by their nearest towns, or else become little more than dormitory villages: a place where people do little more than eat and sleep in-between their commutes to-and-from their distant workplaces¹.

And so it pleases me at least a little that the tiny village I’ve lived in for five years this week still shows great success in how well it clings on to its individual identity.

Panoramic view of a village green, flanked by houses, around which several decorative boards have been erected: made to look like old-fashioned televisions, each shows a photograph of an event in the village's past. — Right now our village green is surrounded by flags, bunting, and thematic decorations.

Every summer since time immemorial, for example, it’s hosted a Village Festival, and this year it feels like the community’s gone all-out. The theme this year is A Century in Television, and most of the festivities seem to tie-in to the theme.

Human-sized scarecrows of classic childrens' TV characters Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men and their friend Little Weed, constructed mostly out of plant pots, standing at the corner of a road by a wood-panelled outbuilding. — If you recognise these characters from their first time around on British television, you’re probably older than I am. If you recognise them from their 2001 “reboot”, then you’re probably younger.

I’ve been particularly impressed this year by entrants into the (themed) scarecrow competition: some cracking scarecrows (and related decorations) have started popping up around the village in advance of festival week!

A lifesize mannequin of kids' TV character Bob the Builder stands on scaffolding that's being used by an actual builder who's constructing hip-roof dormer windows. — Bob the Builder’s helping out with the reconstruction of the roof of one of the houses down towards the end of my hamlet, just outside the village proper.

There’s a clear bias towards characters from childrens’ television programmes, but that only adds to the charm. Not only does it amuse the kids when we walk by them, but it feeds into the feeling of nostalgia that the festival theme seems to evoke (as well, perhaps, as a connection to the importance of this strange village tradition).

A scarecrow of Postman Man, alongside a cardboard cutout of Jess (his black-and-white cat), sits atop a stone wall. The wall contains an in-wall Royal Mail postbox, and the thatched house behind is called Letterbox Cottage, contributing to the theme for this scarecrow. — Well-played, Letterbox Cottage. Well-played.

If you took a wrong turning and found your way through our village when you meant to be somewhere else, you’d certainly be amused, bemused, or both by the plethora of figures standing on street corners, atop hedgerows, and just generally around the place².

Large scarecrows of two anthropomorphic sheep, the smaller one holding a teddy bear, stood atop a hedgerow. — Shaun the Sheep and what I believe must be his cousin Timmy stand atop a hedge looking down on a route used by many children on their way to school.

The festival, like other events in the local calendar, represents a collective effort by the “institutions” of the village – the parish council, the church, the primary school, etc.

But the level of time and emotional investment from individual households (whether they’re making scarecrows for the Summer festival… decorating windows as a Christmas advent calendar… turning out for a dog show last week, I hear³…) shows the heart of a collective that really engage with this kind of community. Which is really sweet.

Red-headed 'thing-on-a-spring' Zebedee, from The Magic Roundabout, in scarecrow form. — An imaginative use of a coloured lampshade plus some excellent tinfoil work makes Zebedee here come to life. He could only have been more-thematic if he’d been installed on the village’s (only) roundabout!

Anyway, the short of it is that I feel privileged to live in a village that punches above its weight class when it comes to retaining its distinctive personality. And seeing so many of my neighbours, near and far, putting these strange scarecrows out, reminded me of that fact.

Composite photograph showing 11 more scarecrows, including a BBC newscaster, a Casualty surgeon, Spongebob Squarepants, and the bar at the Rovers Return. — I’m sure I’m barely scraping the surface – there are definitely a few I *know* of that I’ve not managed to photograph yet – but there are a *lot* of scarecrows around my way, right now.

Footnotes

¹ The “village” in which our old house resided certainly had the characteristic feel of “this used to be a place of its own, but now it’s only-barely not just a residential estate on the outskirts of Oxford, for example. Kidlington had other features, of course, like Oxford’s short-lived zoological gardens… but it didn’t really feel like it had an identity in its own right.

² Depending on exactly which wrong turn you took, the first scarecrow you saw might well be the one dressed as a police officer – from some nonspecific police procedural drama, one guesses? – that’s stood guard shortly after the first of the signs to advertise our new 20mph speed limit. Holding what I guess is supposed to be a radar gun (but is clearly actually a mini handheld vacuum cleaner), this scarecrow might well be having a meaningful effect on reducing speeding through our village, and for that alone it might be my favourite.

³ I didn’t enter our silly little furball into the village dog show, for a variety of reasons: mostly because I had other things to do at the time, but also because she’s a truculent little troublemaker who – especially in the heat of a Summer’s day – would probably just try to boss-around the other dogs.

Note #26759

Happy Stone Circle Sunday! The youngest and I went out to Avebury Henge, the world’s largest neolithic standing stone circle and henge.

git diff –name-only –diff-filter=M

Note to future self: when you want git to tell you all the files you’ve modified, but not those you’ve deleted (e.g. to pipe through xargs and feed to your linter for bulk-linting), the command you’re looking for is –

git diff –name-only –diff-filter=M

Dan Q found GCAPFH3 Cherry Blossom

This checkin to GCAPFH3 Cherry Blossom reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Third time’s the charm. I don’t live too far away and I’m often found cycling to, from, or through Eynsham. As a result, I’ve on two previous occasions come to this GZ with a view to finding this cache… and both times have been glorious summer weekend days when the adjacent café has been brim full of guests, and I’ve declared it “too muggley” and backed off.

Today, though, is a gloomy and overcast day, with rain on the way and a threat of thunderstorms. So as I cycled by, on my way home from the dentist, I stopped by. I quickly found and retrieved the cache, signed the log, and returned it to its spot.

Now I’d better see if I can pedal all the way home before the clouds burst! TFTC.

Dan Q did not find GC74Z2R Metal bridge cache

This checkin to GC74Z2R Metal bridge cache reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Stopped by while cycling back from Witney. Made a moderately thorough search above and below the titular bridge, without success. Might benefit from a checkin/note from the CO.

Maybe I’m just not seeing it, or else maybe it’s vanished in the six months since its last successful find. Great place for a cache, though!

Dan Q found GCAWNQH Light me up

This checkin to GCAWNQH Light me up reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

QEF while cycling into Witney for an appointment. Cache lid is absent (missing?): risk of becoming waterlogged later in the year, I suspect. TFTC.

Note #26746

In case you weren’t already a little nervous or uneasy going in to the dental clinic, the doorstop at my dentist’s front door will fix that for you.

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

What can I possibly say about Bored Gay Werewolf, which caught my attention with the garish colours of its front cover when I saw it in Waterstones and whose blurb suggested that it might, perhaps, be a queer fantasy romp with a Buffy-esque sense of humour.

Werewolf? Sure, it’s got a few of those. There’s even a bit of fun, offbeat humour each time the protagonist reflects on their curious monthly cycle and tries to work out whether they attacked or even killed anybody this time around. But mostly it’s not a story about werewolf: it’s a story about a slacker who gets suckered into a pyramid scheme, with just a hint of lycanthropy around the fringes.

Gay? I mean: the protagonist’s gay, and many of their friends are queer… and while the representation is good, sexuality doesn’t feel like it’s a particularly significant issue to the storyline. I enjoyed the parallels that were drawn between Brian’s coming-out as gay versus his (for most of the story) closeted werewolf nature – which even though I saw them coming from the first chapter onwards were still well-presented – but apart from that it almost felt like gayness wasn’t a central theme to the story. A smidge of homophobia, some queer culture references, and a throwaway Grindr hookup with a closeted MSM dude do not contribute enough homosexuality to justify “gay” being the largest, pinkest word on a novel’s cover, if you ask me.

Bored? I was, at some points in the book, but I’m not convinced that’s what was intended. The pacing’s a little inconsistent: a long and drawn-out description of an exercise routines overshadows an exploration of the impact of werewolf super-senses, for example. And a long-foreshadowed fight scene finale feels like it’s over in an instant (with a Van Helsing ex Machina twist that felt simultaneously like the brakes being slammed on and a set-up for an inevitable sequel).

I sound pretty negative about it, I’m sure. But it’s not actually bad. It’s just not actually good, either. It’s a passable, middle-of-the-road time-filler with an interesting hook, a few funny set pieces (I laughed out loud a couple of times, for sure), and a set of misfit characters who spend most of the book feeling a little… incomplete? Though it’s possible that latter point’s at-least partially deliberate, as this is without a doubt a “Gen-Z Grows Up” story. Maybe if I were younger and didn’t yet have my shit together the story would appeal better.

Dan Q did not find GC9M1WJ Village Hall series 1179 – Mortimer Hall Marston

This checkin to GC9M1WJ Village Hall series 1179 - Mortimer Hall Marston reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Had to give up on this one for now. Found the plaque without difficulty and soon had a believable set of coordinates (though I briefly struggled with what was meant by the D & E description). Soon I was at the GZ and, after a brief hunt through the multitude of possible hosts, tried the hint. No use, though: I’m no wiser what I should be looking for. Sadly this is only a flying visit to Marston and I’ve got to go wrangle the kids now, but maybe I’ll revisit next time I’m in the area.

Dan Q found GC9GJZH Dotty writes letters

This checkin to GC9GJZH Dotty writes letters reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

I’m in Marston on an errand and figured I’d pick up a couple of local caches that weren’t around when I was last in the vicinity: which I guess was way back when I lived near here! The puzzle didn’t leave me stumped for long, but I always used to score highly at Dotty’s kind of game! TFTC.