I hope, with the velocity unlocked by these tools, that more pure ports will become the norm. Before, migrations could be so costly that “improving” things “while I’m here” helped sell doing the migration at all, especially in business settings. Only to lead to more toil chasing those phantom bugs.
One of the biggest point of rewriting is you know better by then so you create something better.
This is a HUUUGE reason code written in rust tended to be so much better than the original (which was probably written in c++).
Human expertise is the single most important factor and is more important than language.
Copy pasting from one language to another is way worse than complete rewrite with actual idiomatic and useful code.
Best option after proper rewrite is binding. And copy-paste with LLM comes way below these options imo.
If you look at real world, basically all value is created by boring and hated languages. Because people spent so much effort on making those languages useful, and other people spent so much effort learning and using those languages.
Don’t think anyone would prefer to work in a rust codebase that an LLM copy-pasted from c++, compared to working on a c++ codebase written by actual people that they can interact with.
I've seen more than a few rewrite attempts fail throughout the years. However, I've never seen a direct language to language translation fail. I've done several of these personally: from perl to ruby, java to kotlin, etc.
Step 1 of any rewrite of a non-trivial codebase should should be parity. You can always refactor to make things more idiomatic in a later phase.
These are two different kinds of rewrites, for two different kinds of codebases, in two different situations. The important thing is to know which kind of rewrite you're doing, and have the whole team onboard.
The sort of rewrite you're talking about can work well at an early stage of a project, in the spirit of Fred Brooks's "plan to throw one away". But for a mature browser like Ladybird that's trying to not break the user experience, it's much better to have a pure translation step, and then try to improve or refactor it later.
I rewrote two times my personal tool, one to rust, and out of rust with LLM, I mainly "vibe code" for reasons but the tool is more complete and less buggy than most B2B and enterprise business or IT software that I have seen in 20years at different fortune 100.
I feel the effort and frustration to have parity with LLM is more than doing a full rewrite without.
The lone ranger donor route feels severely suboptimal, unless perhaps if the donor is a .001%er pledging a large share of their net worth.
Imagine if this anonymous person worked with a foundation pledging to match $3.5M if said amount was raise via crowdfund. Even if say $1M goes to the campaign and NGO bloat, that’s still way more pipe money.
> Imagine if this anonymous person worked with a foundation pledging to match $3.5M if said amount was raise via crowdfund.
Idk man. Thing is where i live we are already crowdfunding to maintain our pipes. It is called local taxes and water utility bills. So if anyone were to ask me for more money for the same task i’m already paying not insubstantial sums for I would be very cross with them. It is just not a good look.
Now i don’t know about Japan. Maybe they don’t pay taxes and utility bills. Somehow doubt it, but who knows.
The lone ranger may have actually done something optimal but indirect. There is a lot of press that went global pointing out real problems. Japanese are proud people, this might actually help direct public funds to solve the problems.
Pulled from IMDB, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox voices the consternation perfectly:
> Batman: [seeing the wall of monitors for the first time at the Applied Sciences division in Wayne Enterprises] Beautiful, isn't it?
> Lucius Fox: Beautiful... unethical... dangerous. You've turned every cellphone in Gotham into a microphone.
> Batman: And a high-frequency generator-receiver.
> Lucius Fox: You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham. This is wrong.
> Batman: I've gotta find this man, Lucius.
> Lucius Fox: At what cost?
> Batman: The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person.
> Lucius Fox: This is too much power for one person.
> Batman: That's why I gave it to you. Only you can use it.
> Lucius Fox: Spying on 30 million people isn't part of my job description.
That system is nothing compared to the geolocation databases curated by Apple and Google, with GPS sensors combined with Wi-Fi wardriving, IMEI tracking, cell tower handoffs, and the rest of the insane amount of telemetry they collect collect in real time. And that’s before even considering BLE and the Find My network. Imagine the “God mode” dashboards they could have in Cupertino (or more likely, in Mountain View).
Imagine a Google Maps / Google Earth where you can see everyone’s location and identity in real time, with tagging/targeting/following capabilities and quick links to thorough personal profiles.
Not only that: also nth-order interactions (Alice—Bob, Bob—Charlie, Charlie—Deborah, …), connectivity clustering, time spent in same location heatmaps, etc.
These devices are very few in reality. One reason why I keep investing in almost every company that makes a Linux based smartphone. Still need the 2FA and digital magazine for the loo.
Even large retails install bluetooth tracking in their buildings now. Was interviewing for one of them and they ask what you would use that style of tracking for to support the consumer. Giving the consumer a reason to use it helps validate and maximize the meta data.
I'm sorry but I just don't think that's the threat at all. I think these companies actually realize the existential risk and harm this data has, and do a lot to anonymize it quickly & effectively. If the government was actively backdooring Apple or Google to get realtime data like this, it would be found, and it would be a shitstorm that would greatly impact these companies.
We really need to get a little more discerning in our hatred. Apple especially I think is a real piece of work. But there are so many worse hideous monsters out there. Clearview AI just signed with DHS for access to a facial tracking database. Flock is out here basically giving playbooks to law enforcement to tell them to use only the most vague indirect reason when asking for data. There's so many other even less visible but incredibly dangerous data-broker foes to society, doing such harm.
Google and Apple have a level of caring far far far far far far above the vile anti-human campaign happening now. I just think you are off by a million miles, that you're not even on the right planet, for where the actual real harm is coming from.
But that seems far different to me than directly making their own products whose express purpose is to send data to the feds / local law enforcement.
Google is not a huge data broker selling your data to the world. They keep that inside, & sell ads based in data they have. But if they started trying to be a data seller or data provider, like Amazon has been, I think they realize that would almost surely be a huge crisis.
There's many good reasons for all the big tech hate. But I do think that Google and Apple have extremely strong incentives to not become a go-to everyday source for law enforcement, I think the person I was responding to has a level of suspicion that is wildly over critical & hyper rampant, and I think we would know if stuff was that bad, and I think we would all be a lot more pissed & many people would have found the door out by now.
The past gives a lot of lessons, all negative ones. Power people are endlessly greedy for more power, there is no end in that spiral. All top folks are like that, if you look for the signs you can see it in their behaviors outside PR rooms. Sociopaths to the last one, all big names and then some more.
So, when in doubt, feel free to have good faith in these behemoths. I don't. Secret court orders for example can force any company into anything, and it can be pro bono for some gov contract later. Why would they disclose this, ever? We had Snowden and others.
Come on lets be realistic here, all that data is a wet dream and ultimate goal of any 3 letter agency all around the world.
Go back a little bit further to another Morgan Freeman movie - Se7en (1995) and a big plot point was that it is unthinkable for big brother to be keeping records of what library books people are checking out. Times sure have changed...
I'm going off memory, but I thought the library books led them to John Doe's apartment, something he was not planning for, and required him to change his plans somewhat. He did want to be caught, but not that soon, before he had finished his work, and required a hurried escape.
Unfortunately a very realistic depiction of how many of the brands advertising their security the strongest often have the most ridiculously broken security (flock)
There are performance concerns with base64. Hardware-assisted null-key encryption offers security that's a non-strict superset of base64 encryption and with superior performance.
Hah. People absolutely took them seriously and still do. They are pitched as if they're serious important art about issues. People discussed it like it was King Lear.
I mean, one actor took their role so seriously they locked themselves up in hotel room for a month in isolation to prepare for their role as Joker. Many people in film took it seriously.
Just because a piece is fictional or imaginative doesn't mean it can't be taken seriously
Excellent series, I've been reading for a few years now!
Q for OP: looking back at your 8 posts, I don't see you ever reflecting on loneliness (or lack thereof) as part of your founder journey. Yet both founder friends and anecdotes always emphasize this as a big weight.
Is it a significant factor for you, compared to your past life at FAANG? Do you you ever think about spending your time differently to optimize for more social fulfillment (vs. fulfillment from building or becoming profitable)?
> Q for OP: looking back at your 8 posts, I don't see you ever reflecting on loneliness (or lack thereof) as part of your founder journey. Yet both founder friends and anecdotes always emphasize this as a big weight.
Honestly, it hasn't been a problem for me.
I'm atypical in that I enjoy solitude more than the average person. I had a mild illness once when I was living in NYC so I stayed home from work and had groceries delivered, and when I went outside again, I realized it had been a week since I'd seen another person, and I hadn't noticed until then.
I do like working with a dev team, but I don't necessarily need to be in person to do that. I enjoyed working with other remote devs for TinyPilot and getting to teach and learn from them.
I host an indie founders meetup in my area every other month. That's been a fun way to meet other founders and swap ideas.
(Funny how I can remember this comment from many months ago after never implementing the bowls, but I currently can’t remember where my car keys are. Should have implemented the bowls…)
Oh God, Yes. Now, in my favorited posts and comments.
For keys, there is only one place: the Keyholder wall-mounted near the main door, while still visible from the main Hall. Not easy to pick and go by “guests” without being seen by someone, but easy for residents to just walk out with one. I got the exact same ones from Amazon and wall-mounted them in all the homes where I serve as Printer-Repair Guy. 10+ years, I kinda have trained every family member’s muscle memory, “Keys go there and only there.” ;-)
Add/Edit: I also have a sticker I printed stuck to the Keyholder, in Monica’s words from Friends, “Got the Keys?”
For electronic keyfobs you may want to put them in some sort of "faraday cage" if you leave them near the entrance, it's one of the way car theft happens on some models by relaying or duplicating the fob proximity signal so that they can get in.
2"! I found a matching reference to it but this is not where I bought it (and also sold for waaay more than I paid, which was something like $130 IIRC) https://www.ebay.com/itm/136814704435. The pictures and details in all of the listings are often very mismatched (there are several variations of different lengths and sizes) but that's the model number of the one I ordered.
Here's a funny picture comparing it to a 2 liter https://i.imgur.com/UIzpDMO.jpeg. As far as the matching bolt... I never did find one to order in time so I gave that as a challenge to figure out before next year! So far he has been using it as a doorstop, mostly to cause people to do a double take when they walk through.
If anyone knows of a good pair of comically large pliers that actually function well enough please let me know.
Yeah, it's funny that they list how many cups this coffee maker could theoretically make if it were functional (and if you had a stove big enough, and were willing to risk damaging the no doubt hand painted artwork on your $3000 coffee maker).
I would have to check the size, I think its like 50 cups, but its a commercial coffee maker targeted towards caterers and offices. So 50 cups isn't that unbelievable, its 5 normal coffee pots. But for a moka pot its pretty large.
Well I dunno, if you need to attach a car to the roof of your garage to work on the transmission and you've run out of duct tape this seems like the perfect solution.
I vaguely remember reading that Rowan Atkinson stuck to three gags for objects in Mr. Bean skits: something's the wrong size, Mr. Bean uses it the wrong way, or the wrong thing happens when it's used.
(Half of the point of this comment is a hope of being corrected with the actual quote.)
I didn’t know it was called crosswordese! I wonder what the most common term used is. As a very occasional player, for some reason ARIA, IBIS, and VENI/VIDI/VICI stick out, but I’m sure it’s actually one with an E.
VENI/VIDI/VICI are easy for anyone who studied Latin (as indeed used to be common), and ARIA is similarly easy for anyone who knows about opera. Basically, the crossword is for snobs.
I agree that crosswords often include cultural references that lean towards certain demographics / assuming particular education, and that can feel exclusionary if you don’t share that background - and there's even an argument to suggest snobbery might be behind those choices.
But I disagree that that makes it for snobs. Snobbery is more about an attitude of looking down on others or their tastes, whereas knowing Latin or being a fan of opera is really just about exposure.
Sure, there exist some (too many) opera fans who would say something like "it's real art compared to pop or hip hop being low class trash", but that's not a defining part of liking opera and plenty of people who like opera aren't snobs. Ironically it's a different form of snobbery (sometimes called reverse snobbery though personally I hate that term), to dismiss anyone who learned Latin or who likes opera as being a snob!
The middle 4 are all fairly common words. "Ode" isn't super common, but I hear it in "An ode to..." phrases. And "err" I've only ever heard in 1 phrase: "To err is human."
That's not really the concept. People know what an orca is.
But if you see a crossword clue that says "black and white animal", you know that the answer is ORCA without even needing to look at the number of letters in the answer. (Could it be "skunk"? Could it be "panda"? No, those are stupid questions.) Same thing if the clue is "marine predator". (Could that be "shark"? No.) The words I listed are incredibly likely to appear in crossword puzzles. That's what's weird about them.
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