If I had one minute to evaluate a job interviewee, I’d put a piece of writing in front of them (either code for a developer or prose for a less technical person) and watch them type it into an editor in real-time. If they are able to do so quickly and with few errors (for some values of quick and few), they pass.
This is completely unfair, and heavily biased towards certain privileges; many otherwise excellent candidates would be missed. But as a first-order approximation, I’d be willing to wager it works more often than not.
Over the weekend my daughter’s Chromebook stopped turning on. We’ve gotten our money’s worth, having bought it right before the pandemic (fortunate timing, that), but I suspected the issue was only with the battery, having experienced a similar failure mode with other Chromebooks. Fifty bucks, overnight shipping, and fifteen minutes at the kitchen table, and it’s back up and running. Yay!
I usually enjoy trying to repair things. I don’t always succeed (especially if it’s car-related, I leave that to the professionals after a disastrous attempt to patch a radiator leak in an ’87 Honda Civic back in the summer of 2005), but stuff like electronics or minor carpentry things I can usually figure out (not to mention identifying and working around website bugs). There’s something imminently satisfying about learning something new and immediately applying it to bring a tiny bit of order to the entropy.
You may think you don’t know how. And you may be right. But finish the sentence: you don’t know how yet. More than ever before there’s a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. Engage your curiosity and give it a try. The risk is (usually) minimal and the rewards many.
In the past several months I’ve been making efforts to do more networking with technologists. One avenue to do that has been joining a couple Slack workspaces (Rands Leadership and All Tech Is Human, specifically). A few days back a conversation topic was the difference between unit tests and integration tests; a topic on which I definitely have opinions.
As part of the discussion I came up with the following distinction, which I liked enough to codify here for posterity:
Unit Test: Tests one “thing” (function, module, service, system) in isolation
Inherent to this definition is some ambiguity, because a single “thing” at one level is multiple “things” at another level. What matters definitionally is the spirit of a test: is it trying to test one thing or multiple things. If the former, it’s a unit test. Otherwise it’s an integration test.
For what it’s worth, I’m a much bigger fan of the test diamond than the test pyramid. The ratio of “amount of stuff tested” to “effort required to write tests” is so much higher when writing integration tests. And they (typically) test at the “actual business functionality” level, vs at the “does this code do the thing” level. And value is all that matters.
On a tangential note, I developed another type of test diamond a couple years back. It was initially designed when evaluating taco shops along Poway Road in San Diego, but it’s applicable to just about anything you want to rate. I leave the interpretation of the diagram as an exercise for the reader (the ambiguity is a feature, not a bug).
Can we all agree that “drinking from a fire hose” is a terrible metaphor for the feeling of starting a new job? It’s overused, cliched, and kinda gross.
What I find most funny is that it’s usually stated as a humble brag about the amount of information you can ingest in short order, or to indicate that your new company is some kind of special unicorn doing work so incredibly complex that it overwhelms all who dare join it.
Reality is that the feeling of being overwhelmed in a new role is totally normal, even if the work is banal or the company is pedestrian. Sure, it takes time, but don’t make it sound harder than it is.
Decent lighting is essential when wanting to exude professionalism in a video call. But sometimes you either don’t have equipment at hand or don’t want to mess with it. As a stopgap, I’ve discovered that if I open up a few browser windows with light backgrounds they can help illuminate my face, but the results are a bit bluer than I’d otherwise prefer.
It got me thinking if I could build a simple website that would be nothing but an adjustable color background. Behold, the webcam light tool. Not only is the color adjustable via HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) sliders, there’s also a slider in Kelvin if you want to pick a color temperature instead. Color values are saved to browser local storage and remembered on subsequent visits, and automatically synchronize in real-time if you open multiple windows.
With a pair of tall and narrow windows, one on either edge of my ultrawide monitor, the results are pretty good. Chalk one up for creative solutions!
$ sqlite3 air.db ".import airtravel.csv air --csv"
$ sqlite3 air.db "SELECT * FROM air WHERE air.Month = 'JAN'"
JAN| 340| 360| 417
Neato! Admittedly the handling of headers and column names isn’t great, but that can be solved with a bit more script-fu (which I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader).
First, if you haven’t noticed, there’s now a little orange icon down in the lower right of this blog. If you’ve benefited from my writings here, and are feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee using that icon. No pressure, though!
Second, I wanted a permanent reference repo for doing a basic Lambda deployment with CDK, and now I have one.
Finally, and most interestingly, my first draft of this code (both the CDK and the function itself) was written by ChatGPT.
As I’ve been reflecting on what artificial intelligence means for the future software engineering, I doubt it’s going to obviate the need for understanding code. What I do think it will be able to do is produce workable drafts, getting maybe half-way to a workable solution, with developers making revisions to get it across the finish line.
If I’m right about that, software professionals are going to need to tweak their skill sets to be less like writers and more like editors. Few developers I know are particularly adept at reading code, though it’s a shortcut for leveling up coding skill. Software is an oddball in that respect: in most other creative domains, one must study the work of the geniuses who came before, but we don’t typically train coders that way. Now it might not even matter, because the machines can do the studying for us.
What will be important, then? Formulating problems, and then tweaking resultant autogenerated code. So code fluency will still be needed. Just not for the boilerplate; for that, we’ll have tools like ChatGPT and AlphaCode.
I’ve been working primarily from home since early 2019, and over time have carefully crafted a space that suits my needs pretty well. Here’s what I’ve put together, roughly from left to right as pictured:
Tuft and Needle California King mattress: Sleep is critical to success at work (and life in general). Upgrading to a big bed was a game changer, I can’t believe it took 21 years of marriage to take that plunge. Worth every penny.
Washburn 12 string acoustic guitar: My wife bought this for me for our first Christmas together in 1998. I’m not much of an acoustic player, but I can strum a few chords now and then.
Gallien-Krueger MB 112 combo amp: For a couple years I played through a hand-made German tube amp paired with a classic Ampeg 8×10 refrigerator-sized speaker cabinet that I refurbished myself. It was loud as heck and cool to look at, but weighed over 200 pounds and barely fit in my largest car. The tube amp was also finicky and I once shocked myself on its 220V power input (not fun). I’ve never regretted selling it and picking up this lightweight combo and its companion extension cab (not pictured). Just as powerful, better sounding, 20% the weight and volume, and more reliable. A no-brainer.
Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano: In 2010 I was on a short-term assignment 2500 miles from home, and needed something productive to do during my downtime. Bought this instrument and had it shipped to my extended stay hotel; it was just what the doctor ordered. The assignment ended up becoming a full-time gig, the one that led me to relocate from Ohio to San Diego. One of my better life decisions.
Picasso’s The Old Guitarist (not pictured): The art in the photo is some generic thing we bought when relocated, I don’t even remember where from. So I’d rather talk about the artwork you can’t see here, but will see in the background if you’re on a video call with me. It’s a print of my wife’s favorite painting. Also in the room are a pencil drawing of a character from the Wingfeather Saga that I commissioned the author’s son to make, and handwritten lyrics from one of my favorite Andy Gullahorn songs.
Jarvis Standing Desk from Fully: I’ll never willingly go back to a regular desk after enjoying the benefits of an adjustable height desk. I stand about 80% of the time now. And this desk was the perfect size, don’t really need a lot of space beyond what’s needed for my computer workstation.
Varier Variable Balens kneeling chair: Definitely overpriced given I stand most of the time, but given how unhealthy sitting is, when I’m not standing, I quite like kneeling. It also functions well on carpet, and tucks away nicely, both of which matter in a bedroom-based workspace.
Macbook Pro 16″ 2019: Haven’t used a Windows PC since 2012, and won’t ever go back. Would prefer native Linux, but I can still do enough terminal-based things to make it feel Unix-like. Upgrading to 32GB of RAM and going back to physical function keys would be nice but I’m fine for now.
Dell UltraSharp 34 Curved USB-C Monitor: Absolutely love only needing to plug in a single cable into my laptop for data and power, and the integrated USB ports mean no additional docking station is needing. Five years ago I would have wished for more resolution (and likely a second monitor), but training myself to organize my active work across multiple desktops obviated that need, and the screen itself is plenty wide for two windows side-by-side. As an aside, anyone who still insists on 80 character limits for code line length needs to be sent back to 1998; silliest linter default setting ever.
Logitech MX Mechanical Mini keyboard: The loud clickity-clack would get annoying in an office, but I’m by myself all day, so I’m loving it. The layout isn’t quite the same as the keyboard on the laptop itself, which is a tiny bit annoying, but I’ve adjusted.
Logitech MX Master 3S mouse: Lots of buttons and scroll doohickeys, fully programmable, feels great in the hand. Especially love that I can activate mission control with one press; really helps keep my windows organized.
Razer Kiyo Pro webcam: I spend a good portion of my day on video calls, including ones with customers with whom I need to earn trust. Every bit of quality matters when trying to communicate, thus a high-quality webcam that works in a variety of lighting conditions (I’m often on calls early in the morning before the sun is up). Sadly their software doesn’t work on Mac, but I can still tweak the settings with CameraController.
Blue Yeti X microphone: Audio quality probably matters even more than video quality when it comes to projecting trustworthiness and authority, thus I didn’t scrimp. With the boom arm I’m able to position the mic so it’s just out of the frame of the webcam. I’m not going for streamer or podcast vibes, I want the focus on my message, not the gear.
Shokz OpenRun Pro mini headphones (not pictured): Having a mic like the Yeti X means I can’t play call audio through speakers or listeners will hear feedback. That means using headphones. But I don’t want something bulky or that draws attention to itself. These are barely visible, sound sufficiently good for voice, have a battery that lasts darn near forever, and the open design means I can go between taking calls and hearing what’s going on around me at will. As the name implies, they’re also great for exercise. For music, and when I need isolation, my Sony WH1000XM4 headphones are vastly better, but they’re not nearly as convenient for every day wear.
Timbuk2 San Francisco backpack: I’m due for an upgrade here, but for now this gets the job done. What’s more important is what I keep in it at all times:
One each of a black, blue, and red pen, a 0.5mm mechanical pencil, and a small tablet of paper
Dual-ended whiteboard markers (blue, red, black, and orange)
USB-C to video adapter (includes HDMI, DVI, and VGA because you never know)
Nekteck 107W USB-C Charger with a 10 ft power cord (love this thing and its 4 ports)
Anker portable battery, and various USB power cables, enough to adapt between C, A, and micro-B as needed
USB-A to Apple lightning cord (I don’t have an iPhone, but I want to be helpful if others need one)
Extra charging cable for my watch and my headset (both of which are proprietary)
Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, breath mints, deodorant, moist hand wipes, napkins, and a couple masks
Advil, Aleve, cold medicine of some kind, sunscreen, chapstick, and earplugs
Small stack of business cards
Travel umbrella
Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this monster post. Happy New Year to ya!
Frederick Brooks died last week. He was a giant of the software industry, and deserves wider recognition for his contributions. Start by reading the New York Times article linked above, then grab a copy of The Mythical Man-Month. Few works have moved me so profoundly, at least if you measure by number of times I reference them (which, incidentally, is roughly how Google’s PageRank works).
Rest in peace, Mr Brooks. I’m thankful for you, and I’m sure you won’t be forgotten by those who build our castles in the air.
I’ve written before about the advantages of knowing how to dig around in DevTools to reverse engineer website interfaces. This week I’ve had three further instances of doing this work to good effect.
The Friendly Skies
Firstly, I travel a lot, enough that I now have Executive Platinum status on American Airlines. This means I’m first in line for complimentary upgrades, but only if there are seats available. So I wanted an easy way to go straight to a complete seat map to look at availability without needing to go through a full search on the website. Turns out there’s a magic URL that does just that, and all you need to do is pass it some parameters. So I present to you, a quick and dirty seat map lookup form. Give it a try!
While that’s cool, I wondered if I could make it simpler by leveraging a flight data API like the one from FlightLabs. That was pretty straightforward as well. Though I couldn’t embed it in WordPress, I did script it up in Python for your enjoyment. Just pass it a flight number, and it’ll do the rest. Neat!
Shake It Off
This week Taylor Swift tour tickets went on sale, and needless to say it broke Ticketmaster, despite their best attempts to add friction via pre-registration to enter a lottery to win a code to join a queue to enter a room to maybe get lucky enough to click fast enough to buy tickets. Sadly I was unsuccessful at securing seats despite dozens attempts across several days. But I did learn something about the API Ticketmaster used to check queue status, so all was not lost.
When I first joined the queue, the following was displayed:
Of course I was curious: how many more than 2000 people were there… 5000? 25000? A million? So I opened up DevTools, and took a look at the calls coming back from the server to check status. Lo and behold, there was a wealth of info in an easily digested JSON block:
Wouldn’t it have been helpful to display that information to the user? At least the exact users in line, and the expected service time value. No idea why it wasn’t shown, other than Ticketmaster not being known as a terribly customer obsessed company.
Automating ******** Across ****
The final example can’t speak of publicly other to say my penchant for automation will save my employer a sizable amount of money. In these uncertain economic times, that’s always a good thing.
