ThreeMachines's recent activity
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Comment on Apple reveals new AirPods Pro, available October 30 in ~tech
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Comment on Mastodon 3.0 has been released in ~tech
ThreeMachines Link ParentI tried Mastodon and I think one of the reasons it didn’t work for me is that I don’t have a primary hobby interest that I want to define my social networking relationships. One of the things I...I tried Mastodon and I think one of the reasons it didn’t work for me is that I don’t have a primary hobby interest that I want to define my social networking relationships. One of the things I like about Twitter is the way that you get to see the cross-section of people’s tastes and interests.
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Comment on Nintendo Direct - September 4, 2019 in ~games
ThreeMachines LinkTokyo Mirage Sessions was a remarkably good and original game; I’d go so far as to say it was my favorite Wii U exclusive. Unfortunately I think about a dozen people played it at the time, so I’m...Tokyo Mirage Sessions was a remarkably good and original game; I’d go so far as to say it was my favorite Wii U exclusive. Unfortunately I think about a dozen people played it at the time, so I’m ecstatic that it’ll have a second chance and be available to a wider audience.
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Comment on Overwatch - Introducing the Role Queue system in ~games
ThreeMachines Link ParentI can see you’re still pretty salty about it, but I really don’t agree with your assertion that tanks and healers were unfun. (I mostly played tanks for the several years that I played, and had...I can see you’re still pretty salty about it, but I really don’t agree with your assertion that tanks and healers were unfun. (I mostly played tanks for the several years that I played, and had fun throughout.)
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Comment on Overwatch - Introducing the Role Queue system in ~games
ThreeMachines Link ParentHeroes Of The Storm had such a role queue, briefly, before they killed HGC and started winding down development. For a hot minute, Quick Match had stronger rules about forcing real team comps; it...Heroes Of The Storm had such a role queue, briefly, before they killed HGC and started winding down development. For a hot minute, Quick Match had stronger rules about forcing real team comps; it dramatically increased queue times for DPS players (because nobody soloqueues as support), and Blizzard rolled it back amid the hue and cry from assassin-only players.
(I stopped playing when they rolled it back.)
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Comment on Deploying containerized Docker instances in production? in ~comp
ThreeMachines Link ParentReasonable questions! I was pretty loose on some details, partly for lack of clarity on what you already knew, partly for plain laziness. Pretty much; I was imagining the --publish flag to docker...Reasonable questions! I was pretty loose on some details, partly for lack of clarity on what you already knew, partly for plain laziness.
Except with this systemd solution, you're not using docker-compose right? Management is at the container level with the docker CLI? So effectively you'd be mapping say 80 inside your container to 8080 on the VPS?
Pretty much; I was imagining the
--publishflag todocker runand assuming you'd only run single containers in production. I usually see docker-compose files used to orchestrate environments (your backing Postgres and backing Elasticsearch and etc) for local development, and then all the equivalent production services are managed with something else, because they're not running in Docker outside of development. (docker-compose can be used in production environments – I've seen it done – but I don't know if it's actually a good idea.)Say that webserver is nginx, is that reverse proxy also in a container, or is it deployed directly to the host?
Eh. I would (and do) deploy it directly to the host, but I'm an ops guy and I have tooling for managing an nginx install. It might be fine to run nginx in a container, although I don't suggest baking your SSL certs into an image, and that means you have to do local disk mounts and at that point I don't know how much complexity Docker is saving you.
docker pull, to my knowledge, only updates the image associated with the container, right? It doesn't update your application inside the container, so I'd still need a step to git pull the repository into the container?
This question confuses me and makes me think we might have different ideas of what a Docker build workflow looks like. Yes,
pullupdates the image associated with the container (and you'd still need todocker restartthe container to get the container to use the newer image), but the updated image should have your updated application; that's the reason there's an update.I guess I'm assuming that you're building images for your application (probably by using a Dockerfile that defines an upstream base image for whatever language your application needs, mounts your local git repo with the release version, and builds it, and then you'd push that image to a private registry). But maybe that's not what you're doing, in which case... what are you doing? What image would you pull to production, if not the image of your app?
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Comment on Nintendo Switch Lite announced - $199 on September 20th in ~games
ThreeMachines Link ParentWhat else would they have called it? The “Nintendo GameBoy Neo, Compatible With The Nintendo Switch Game Library”?What else would they have called it? The “Nintendo GameBoy Neo, Compatible With The Nintendo Switch Game Library”?
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Comment on Nintendo Switch Lite announced - $199 on September 20th in ~games
ThreeMachines Link ParentHow does Nintendo Online save syncing work? Is it automagical whenever you’re connected to the internet, or do you have to manually push and pull saves?How does Nintendo Online save syncing work? Is it automagical whenever you’re connected to the internet, or do you have to manually push and pull saves?
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Comment on Deploying containerized Docker instances in production? in ~comp
ThreeMachines LinkIt sounds like this is a one-person show, you've only got one or maybe two apps, and those apps have pretty static deployments? If I'm off the mark on any of those, my advice may be poor. First...It sounds like this is a one-person show, you've only got one or maybe two apps, and those apps have pretty static deployments? If I'm off the mark on any of those, my advice may be poor.
First and foremost: you don't need a container orchestration solution (Kubernetes, Openshift, Nomad, ECS, etc) at that scale. Container orchestration solutions come with learning curves, operation and maintenance overhead, and/or lock-in problems, and they solve issues you really don't have yet. You may not need an orchestration platform until you can also hire somebody else to manage it.
Here's a pretty simple, sustainable, vendor-agnostic way to run containers on a production server. Write a system service (systemd or whatever you have) that runs an arbitrary container; you can find some examples of this sort of thing easily and modify to purpose. Map whatever port your container uses to some high port on localhost. Then run a webserver with a reverse proxy to terminate TLS and forward to that container's port. If you put a
docker pullin the start behavior of the service (like with aExecStartPrefor systemd), you can "deploy" your app by just restarting the service!It's inevitable that your production and staging environments will be different from each other; you minimize the differences you can, and then just try to be aware of the rest. Docker is especially good at running dependency services for local development, so it's pretty normal to use a Docker-hosted Postgres for local development, and then a managed high-performance Postgres in production. Again, it's about minimizing differences – if you use MySQL locally but Postgres in production you will be sad, and you can even pin your development Postgres version to whatever you have in production, but you're not going to get a production performance profile unless you're duplicating your production environment.
I don't know that much about CI, but I would advise against Jenkins; although it's very easy to get set up, my experience is that it's a real time bomb (unless you really know how to manage it, which mostly comes from having previously shot yourself in the foot repeatedly). I believe there are several Docker-optimized CI systems out there, but I can't personally vouch for any of them.
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Comment on Elvis Costello created a mammoth list of the 500 most essential albums in music history in ~music
ThreeMachines LinkIt feels like cheating that so many of these “albums” are best-of compilations. Might as well just call it a 400 essential artists list.It feels like cheating that so many of these “albums” are best-of compilations. Might as well just call it a 400 essential artists list.
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Comment on Neon Genesis Evangelion is out on Netflix. Discussion Megathread. in ~anime
ThreeMachines Link ParentIt was “must-watch” fifteen years ago, but at this point I think it’s only essential viewing if you’re concerned about the history and development of anime as a medium and an industry. The work...It was “must-watch” fifteen years ago, but at this point I think it’s only essential viewing if you’re concerned about the history and development of anime as a medium and an industry. The work itself is complicated, uneven, and has some really wild transitions in tone. I’m fond of Evangelion, but it’s absolutely one of these franchises where its flaws are as beloved as its strengths by its fans.
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Comment on Neon Genesis Evangelion is out on Netflix. Discussion Megathread. in ~anime
ThreeMachines Link ParentI never watched Death & Rebirth back in the day, and since I was curious about the new dub cast and wanted to hear everybody, it seemed worth a try. It’s spectacularly unsuitable for anybody who...I never watched Death & Rebirth back in the day, and since I was curious about the new dub cast and wanted to hear everybody, it seemed worth a try.
It’s spectacularly unsuitable for anybody who hasn’t seen Evangelion before, but it’s surprisingly functional and watchable as a refresher on the plot. I particularly appreciate the way that it rearranged some content for narrative structure reasons, instead of keeping every scene in original TV ordering; it does a lot for pacing.
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Comment on Neon Genesis Evangelion is out on Netflix. Discussion Megathread. in ~anime
ThreeMachines LinkDEATH (TRUE)²DEATH (TRUE)²
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Comment on Neon Genesis Evangelion is out on Netflix. Discussion Megathread. in ~anime
ThreeMachines Link ParentMy understanding is that the “straightwashing” is overblown – there was some (probably very intentional, knowing the character) ambiguity in the Japanese line, and the prior English translation...My understanding is that the “straightwashing” is overblown – there was some (probably very intentional, knowing the character) ambiguity in the Japanese line, and the prior English translation may have been more at fault than the new one.
In any case, my honest advice to you: watching it on Netflix is probably fine. Evangelion is, for people who like it, a show with a lot of rewatchability, but it’s also polarizing. (Also, there’s a zillion subtly different releases to navigate.) Try it the easy way, and then if it grabs you, do the research on other versions for your inevitable rewatch.
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Comment on What are the main considerations/downsides to make before adding an index to a column in ~comp
ThreeMachines Link ParentOh, interesting; I wouldn’t have thought of clustering as being part of the index, since it’s a separate statement (which is also why I was unaware of the CLUSTER command until now). Unless...Oh, interesting; I wouldn’t have thought of clustering as being part of the index, since it’s a separate statement (which is also why I was unaware of the CLUSTER command until now). Unless clustering works differently outside of Postgres?
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Comment on What are the main considerations/downsides to make before adding an index to a column in ~comp
ThreeMachines LinkDBA isn’t my bread-and-butter, but I don’t think there’s usually much downside to think about for indexing; if there were major tradeoffs, DBs would be a lot harder to work with. Having said that,...DBA isn’t my bread-and-butter, but I don’t think there’s usually much downside to think about for indexing; if there were major tradeoffs, DBs would be a lot harder to work with. Having said that, they’re not literally free.
- There’s a nominal memory and disk cost, as you addressed. But if the resource cost for a single index was nontrivial, it’d be because the dataset was large enough that the index would be really important.
- Indexes can be slow, as your friend said, although not “days”. If you need to query across a dataset that would take days to index, then you need, like, a columnar data warehouse, not Postgres.
- If you’re indexing across a small enough dataset, the query planner might ignore your index. But that seems harmless; when the data grows you’ll be glad you had the index already there.
- If rows will be frequently deleted, you might have to reindex frequently, I guess?
- You don’t need to make an index if one already exists?
Honestly, this seems like a weird question, and it would be a little bit of a yellow flag to me in an interview. The performance impacts of surprise table scans are so, so much worse than any of the costs of having an index that I don’t know why you’d ever want your engineers intentionally not add indexes for their queries.
(There is the question of how you remove indexes that are no longer needed by any queries, but that feels to me like something you need to address at an organizational level as part of your software development lifecycle controls.)
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Comment on Favorite kaiju movies? in ~movies
ThreeMachines Link“Shin Godzilla” is a great kaiju film, and well worth your time. Be aware that the American home release strips a bunch of on-screen text in a way that really spoils the intended composition of...“Shin Godzilla” is a great kaiju film, and well worth your time. Be aware that the American home release strips a bunch of on-screen text in a way that really spoils the intended composition of some shots. (Weirdly, the limited theatrical release from Funimation had all the big text – and it was great – so for some reason they went out of their way to remove it afterwards.)
The idea of American kaiju films is a little bit of a sticky one, but to the extent that any movie has successfully captured the essence of the genre in a truly American way, “Skull Island” is it. (And it’s also just a fun movie.)
If you want to go back to a more classic era, the 90s Gamera trilogy (“Guardian Of The Universe”, “Attack Of Legion”, “Revenge Of Iris”) are basically the epitome of the 80s-90s style of kaiju film. I think everyone I’ve met with an earnest love of the genre admires those movies. Availability of them is a little spotty, but you can buy them on blu-ray for like $10 each on Amazon.
The classic Godzilla movies have a pretty wild range of quality and style, even within an era, so it’s hard to make suggestions there without knowing personally tastes. But speaking personally, I have a great affection for the 2002 “Godzilla X MechaGodzilla” and its sequel “Tokyo S.O.S”. If you prefer the campier and more ridiculous style, I think the 1991 “Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah” is as good as that gets.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~news
ThreeMachines Link ParentI think Tom Nichols has the right of it: There has been a fundamental shift in this country’s cultural expectations about who laws really apply to, and although there’s still a possibility of...I think Tom Nichols has the right of it:
At some point, not impeaching means that nothing matters in our constitutional life, and that nothing ever will matter. Impeachment, if it follows a careful rollout and debate, can negate that legacy.
And maybe, years from now, what we need is an asterisk in the history books that says: "There was a penalty for violating the oath of office, and engaging in these high crimes. And President Trump survived due only to the corruption of a single party."There has been a fundamental shift in this country’s cultural expectations about who laws really apply to, and although there’s still a possibility of walking that back in coming decades, I think that possibility dwindles if we only try to apply the law when we expect it to stick.
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Comment on How do you find new books to read? in ~books
ThreeMachines LinkI rely heavily on recommendations from people I know, either from personal conversations or via Twitter. I've also had great success in finding authors I like by reading about authors I already...I rely heavily on recommendations from people I know, either from personal conversations or via Twitter. I've also had great success in finding authors I like by reading about authors I already like and seeing who they claim as influences. (This was my introduction to Borges.)
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Comment on Should harder games have "easy modes"? in ~games
ThreeMachines Link ParentI think it's weird that you thought I was making an argument at all, much less a general case argument about long-term boss design trends.I think it's weird that you thought I was making an argument at all, much less a general case argument about long-term boss design trends.
John Gruber has been using “iPhones 6” etc for a while, which I doubt he’d do if there were a style guide to the contrary.
How else would they pluralize them here, though? AirPod Pros? That would be terrible for the brand identity; you’d have both “AirPods” (classic) and “AirPod” as promoted brand words, but then the whole product family would still be referred to as “AirPods”. Plus you’d have to deal with people actually using the word “pros” out loud.