Greg's recent activity
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Comment on US Immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests in ~society
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Comment on Canadian VPS providers? in ~comp
Greg Link ParentCame to make a similar suggestion! I’ve used Hetzner briefly with no problems, and had notably good experiences with Scaleway (French, with Paris / Amsterdam / Warsaw regions available) who I’ve...Came to make a similar suggestion! I’ve used Hetzner briefly with no problems, and had notably good experiences with Scaleway (French, with Paris / Amsterdam / Warsaw regions available) who I’ve used slightly more extensively.
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Comment on The UK and other regions are running suspiciously low on Xbox Series X console stocks, why is PlayStation still widely more available? in ~games
Greg Link ParentI haven’t played that one specifically - is it an issue of crappy optimisation on the PC version? It’s definitely a frustrating one if so, the combination of high GPU prices, low VRAM, and...I haven’t played that one specifically - is it an issue of crappy optimisation on the PC version? It’s definitely a frustrating one if so, the combination of high GPU prices, low VRAM, and excessively tight dev timelines isn’t doing anyone any favours.
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Comment on The UK and other regions are running suspiciously low on Xbox Series X console stocks, why is PlayStation still widely more available? in ~games
Greg Link ParentI think we're actually coming from a pretty similar perspective - I didn't say it explicitly, but my thinking is that PC gaming is the actual competitor to Xbox/Playstation, rather than consoles...I think we're actually coming from a pretty similar perspective - I didn't say it explicitly, but my thinking is that PC gaming is the actual competitor to Xbox/Playstation, rather than consoles inherently being competitors to other consoles. I'd see it as those kids having a PC to cover the "standard console" base, and the Switch in addition because it's in a separate bubble.
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Comment on The UK and other regions are running suspiciously low on Xbox Series X console stocks, why is PlayStation still widely more available? in ~games
Greg Link ParentI think the nuance here is that Nintendo aren't competing with Sony and Microsoft - in that a sale for gained Nintendo rarely means a sale lost for one of the other two - but they're still...I think the nuance here is that Nintendo aren't competing with Sony and Microsoft - in that a sale for gained Nintendo rarely means a sale lost for one of the other two - but they're still competitive in the sense of having a very popular and high quality product.
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Comment on The UK and other regions are running suspiciously low on Xbox Series X console stocks, why is PlayStation still widely more available? in ~games
Greg Link ParentI guess the optimistic take might be the genericization of what a console is? The underlying tech has been slowly converging with PC hardware for a good 25 years now, so the advantages of a...I guess the optimistic take might be the genericization of what a console is? The underlying tech has been slowly converging with PC hardware for a good 25 years now, so the advantages of a console seem to be more about ease of use for the consumer and a stable common denominator for developers to target.
It seems like it’s been happening in the handheld market since the steam deck took off, and I’d hope that competition between Valve / Ayaneo / Minisforum / Asus / etc (maybe Framework based on their latest announcement?) would be a good thing for the “gaming box you plug into your TV” space too.
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Comment on Is there a consumer level alternative to Starlink in Canada? in ~tech
Greg LinkIt’s a long shot, but if you’re looking for fixed rural internet access I’ve seen one or two successes using a point to point microwave link - only works if you can find somewhere with an existing...It’s a long shot, but if you’re looking for fixed rural internet access I’ve seen one or two successes using a point to point microwave link - only works if you can find somewhere with an existing connection to link to within a few miles line of sight, though.
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Comment on Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit in ~society
Greg Link ParentPropublica is a really good shout, actually - I come across their work a decent amount, but for whatever reason they still weren’t a name that immediately sprung to mind.Propublica is a really good shout, actually - I come across their work a decent amount, but for whatever reason they still weren’t a name that immediately sprung to mind.
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Comment on Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit in ~society
Greg Link ParentAh shit, I wasn't aware of that. I'm really sorry to hear they've taken such a harmful stance, and I wouldn't have suggested them if I'd known. So... does anyone know of a decent, ethical source...Ah shit, I wasn't aware of that. I'm really sorry to hear they've taken such a harmful stance, and I wouldn't have suggested them if I'd known.
So... does anyone know of a decent, ethical source of actual investigative reporting that also isn't spreading transphobia? Because that'd be who I'd far prefer to support!
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Comment on Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit in ~society
Greg (edited )Link ParentCan recommend The Guardian if you’re looking for an alternative - UK based but good global coverage, and one of the few where I’m still reasonably confident about the journalistic integrity. I...Can recommend The Guardian if you’re looking for an alternative - UK based but good global coverage, and one of the few where I’m still reasonably confident about the journalistic integrity. I don’t actually even read that much of their content, but they’re the one news outlet I pay for anyway because I actively want their work to continue.
[Edit] Or not. See below.
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Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
Greg Link ParentIn my experience it's verbose but not too bad in terms of logic - you pretty much just blindly replace last_name with coalesce(last_name, last_name_placeholder) as last_name anywhere that it's...In my experience it's verbose but not too bad in terms of logic - you pretty much just blindly replace
last_namewithcoalesce(last_name, last_name_placeholder) as last_nameanywhere that it's used, and then you can treat it just the same as you would a column that isn't nullable. In your case, using'None Provided'as the placeholder value would reproduce the exact behaviour you've got now - and for debugging you can easily drop in something easy to spot in the output like'HEY I AM A LAST NAME PLACEHOLDER'- but then in real use you just set it to a UUID (or other value that can be transactionally confirmed not to be in the column for the duration of the query) and it all functions the same way.It's wordy as hell, and the other half of the answer is that most of the time my real solution is "if I'm joining on this particular column, the application layer doesn't want records where it's null anyway", but I've found strategic
coalesceing pretty helpful on the occasions I do need it! Possibly because if I find myself doing anything more than the basics in SQL rather than at the application side, I've already resigned myself to a somewhat frustrating day... -
Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
Greg Link ParentThat’s what all those coalesces are for in my queries! Nulls get replaced with a column-specific UUID just within the context of the query, that way you can identify what was missing (or...That’s what all those
coalesces are for in my queries! Nulls get replaced with a column-specific UUID just within the context of the query, that way you can identify what was missing (or nonexistent) without changing what gets stored. But yeah, hardly elegant and definitely prone to human error, so don’t take this as me saying everyone should always be doing it that way. -
Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
Greg Link ParentIt makes sense, it’d just always give me a creeping sense of unease waiting for Dr. None Provided to come along and break things when they sign up for the service. Obviously you know your data...It makes sense, it’d just always give me a creeping sense of unease waiting for Dr. None Provided to come along and break things when they sign up for the service. Obviously you know your data domain and I’m sure you’re choosing placeholder values that are definitely outside that and couldn’t possibly end up in the DB in reality, but I dunno, I’ve just seen enough 30 year old systems running on duct tape and wishes a decade past their decommissioning date with at least 20 “impossible” changes somehow bolted to the side that it makes me nervous to build in assumptions.
I’m that annoying guy in the meeting insisting on being impractically purist about the data at rest and then throwing
coalescestatements in at query time with abandon, basically. -
Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
Greg Link ParentMay be that we're using them for very different things, but I want nulls in my database! I'm a lot more concerned about accuracy than anything else when it comes to my data model - including...May be that we're using them for very different things, but I want nulls in my database! I'm a lot more concerned about accuracy than anything else when it comes to my data model - including accurately recording the difference between things like
''(that person is known to have no last name),'Null'(that person has the last name Null), andNULL(the information for that person's last name is missing). I don't know of a robust way to mark a value as missing without using null.But then again I've got the luxury being able to keep my actual queries relatively basic and handling the rest of the logic in the application layer, and I do that primarily because I find SQL itself pretty arcane and clunky when I do need to dive in to do something deep and complex with ACID guarantees, so I can very much believe I might feel differently if I were using it more in my day to day work.
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Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
Greg LinkI know it's framed as a relatively low stakes human interest story, but this is wrong enough to annoy me. It's not an issue with null as a concept, that's just as easy to distinguish from the...And it's all thanks to a computer scientist who decided that, when it comes to programming, the word should be reserved for signifying an invalid or non-existent value.
I know it's framed as a relatively low stakes human interest story, but this is wrong enough to annoy me. It's not an issue with null as a concept, that's just as easy to distinguish from the actual name
"Null"as it is from any other string.The problems here are entirely thanks to data being parsed from strings without proper safeguards, it's a very strong sign that the systems were written in a way that isn't fit for purpose, and edge cases like this are just the tip of the iceberg.
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Comment on OpenGL bindings for Bash in ~comp
Greg Link ParentAh, but have you considered matrix text underneath a water effect shader in space in your terminal while you write your OpenGL functions?Ah, but have you considered matrix text underneath a water effect shader in space in your terminal while you write your OpenGL functions?
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Comment on Bernie Sanders - Trumpism can be defeated! in ~society
Greg Link ParentNot the person you replied to, but I also firmly believe there’s an absolutely vast amount of time spent on unnecessary work (taking “work” to mean paid employment within the current model,...Not the person you replied to, but I also firmly believe there’s an absolutely vast amount of time spent on unnecessary work (taking “work” to mean paid employment within the current model, because I do agree with @papasquat that there’s plenty of useful and valuable labour to be done outside that, and I’d speculate that @NoblePath was perhaps thinking the same).
The jobs you mentioned are, by and large, extremely necessary - the fact that many of them are poorly paid and/or looked down upon is a perfect example of how far the “value” of a job is divorced from its importance.
To give a few throwaway examples of jobs that I’d consider wholly unnecessary: a significant percentage of the advertising and marketing industry, the profit making sections of the US health insurance industry, and a significant minority of financial services (core economic functionality is incredibly important - but I’ve seen and occasionally worked on enough high speed, big money trading stuff to know there’s also an awful lot of time and effort going into skimming tiny percentages off the top of huge numbers to make profit while creating no overall value).
Add to that the fact that even in jobs that are needed, the deal is you spend at least 40 hours there each week regardless of the current workload or you don’t get paid enough to live, and the fact that there are necessary jobs (food service, for example) that are oversaturated in pursuit of profit (how much is really lost if the McDonalds next to the Burger King across from the other McDonalds is shut down?), and you end up with a mind boggling number of human hours that could be redirected to something actually productive.
Work needs to be done to keep society functioning. Nothing I’ve seen suggests that the amount we’re doing now is optimal or well allocated.
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Comment on Need some career advice, potentially pivoting from a family business of manufacturing to starting afresh in another country in ~life
Greg Link ParentThis is great advice! Planning the trips on a regular schedule up front goes a long way to making this work, in my experience - if you’re back for, say, a week every two months it can be a lot...This is great advice! Planning the trips on a regular schedule up front goes a long way to making this work, in my experience - if you’re back for, say, a week every two months it can be a lot easier on everyone than doing ad hoc trips.
You can account for the cost as a predictable business expense up front, plan things out with your partner and make sure they’re bought in and happy about the time balance and the rest, and reassure your colleagues/clients that you’re still a firm part of the business and you’ll be available in person regularly.
Keeping the schedule also means each trip is less stressful: the people you’re working with know to queue up the in person tasks with a target date in mind, your partner already knows the routine and doesn’t get thrown off, and the chances of you being called in on an emergency are much lower (if something fairly urgent comes up and you’re travelling ad hoc, there’s a decent amount of pressure to plan a trip tomorrow - if you’re on a schedule and your next trip is already set for two weeks time, people will almost always figure out a way to bridge that gap).
You might technically get away with one or two fewer trips per year doing it only as needed, but from what I’ve seen it’s a false economy (in terms of quality of life and quality of work, as well as money) compared to having a regular schedule.
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Comment on The feckless opposition in ~society
Greg Link ParentThe thing that really gets me is that I just don’t see the appeal of being the kings of the wasteland in their walled castles. I see the appeal of being on top, sure, but even with Musk-level...The thing that really gets me is that I just don’t see the appeal of being the kings of the wasteland in their walled castles. I see the appeal of being on top, sure, but even with Musk-level money I’d vastly prefer a comfortable life somewhere like Denmark where the general tenor of society has more focus on trust and comfort for everyone. It’s not even necessarily altruism - even selfishly I’d just like to walk out my front door (or even the gates of my sprawling estate, if I were that way inclined) and be somewhere pleasant, calm, and happy.
I know there are people who don’t see it like that. The evidence is clear and it’s obviously not new - leaders making their own lives worse in exchange for an even wider gap over their subjects is one of the few times I get to say “literally 1984” without it being a meme - but I just don’t get it. They’d still be rich, they’d still be on top, and being at the top of a stronger, wealthier, happier, better hierarchy seems like a far bigger win even from a perspective of status. But apparently the relative gap matters more, even if that moves their own absolute position down.
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Comment on Do you deliberately overbuy things with the intention to return some of them? in ~life
Greg Link ParentThat’s really disappointing, as is what @papasquat said, but I suppose it’s at least good to have more awareness of just how wasteful the logistics of this all is.That’s really disappointing, as is what @papasquat said, but I suppose it’s at least good to have more awareness of just how wasteful the logistics of this all is.
It’s so often the case that propaganda and doublespeak disproportionately harms the people being “protected” and it fucking sucks. One of the loudest and most passionate voices I know against Israel’s actions in Palestine is a Jewish guy. He said to me once that Netanyahu’s habit of equating disagreement with his government with antisemitism isn’t just about shutting down external criticism, it also implies dissenters in the community are less worthy of their Jewish identity - that one really stuck with me.