Matthew Martin

Software developer in Washington, DC (Herndon, VA specifically)

Doing #govtech, #cybersecurity python, dotnet, aws, mostly Infrastructure as Code and cloud apps.

I tweet about software, programming, #python, dad jokes, DC, Fed government tech contracting

Emoji Code:
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My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw1p2a3LW1VG7DTZQaT8Oaw
Blog: https://blog.wakayos.com/
Github: https://github.com/matthewdeanmartin/
Pypi identity: https://pypi.org/user/matthewdeanmartin/

Public Key

npub1d3u7t3fcdmsuhedcqvpugrud0qvrrmmckc7wwmrjds7qk3lkyt0qesr8n4

NIP-05 Address

mistersql_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqsxc709c5uxacwtukuqxq7yp7xhsxp3aautv088d3exc0qtglmz9hspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds4qe9w4

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1d3u7t3fcdmsuhedcqvpugrud0qvrrmmckc7wwmrjds7qk3lkyt0qesr8n4

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Last Notes

2026-04-03 12:15:15 UTC

Ha, I just like what I'm used to seeing. I prefer Jetbrains Mono and Fira Code.
Find out which coding font you like best
https://www.codingfont.com/

2026-04-02 11:53:53 UTC

I've got nine 9's of uptime. 66.999999999%

2026-03-02 01:19:47 UTC

Whales hardly get cancer at all. Kind of makes sense. If you have that many cells, if any of those cells is cancerous, then the whole whale dies, so the bigger the creature, the more important anti-cancer mechanisms are or you get to a size where immediate cancer becomes inevitable.
So turning people into building sized sauropods would cure cancer.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/156/940/948/800/906/original/8106053375daf59b.jpeg

2026-01-04 17:52:54 UTC

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flipboard's main feed is flooded with spam.
I'm going to guess you got caught up in a spam sweep.
https://flipboard.social/public/local

2025-11-25 03:24:50 UTC

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1/2gb ec2 machine is $36 a year
64GB ec2 machine is ~$4800 a year
A 64gb home server is $500 for a 5-7 year old machine.

2025-11-25 03:24:49 UTC

Me shopping for a home server: It has to have 64GB
Me picking a ec2 instance type for my personal account: 500mb and 1/2 a cpu is plenty.

2025-11-03 00:50:42 UTC

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It kills people.

2025-10-30 22:36:40 UTC

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mkdocs, but sphinx still exists for people who like sphinx.

2025-09-18 17:42:37 UTC

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1 jillion kazillion

2025-05-24 23:13:33 UTC

Who ordered this much coffee
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/565/341/576/272/167/original/591cc03281e17335.jpg

2025-05-23 22:40:13 UTC

The 3 kinds of queues are:
- FIFO
- LIFO
- FAFO

2025-03-29 15:43:16 UTC

Your periodic reminder that old #COBOL isn't only old COBOL. It is IBM assembler with some COBOL for the easier parts. Business apps written in assembler because the COBOL wasn't fast enough.
I can get the gist of code in most languages, but when I look at edin (assembler!) I can't figure out what is going on despite profuse comments.

2024-12-28 03:21:54 UTC

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Wow, this is huge. As a code racoon that has spent time digging through US Federal Agencies' public Github code & innersource code while doing contracting work, this has a lot of promise, like the shared web design but not possibly for everything
e.g. https://designsystem.digital.gov/

2024-12-27 23:01:58 UTC

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why not both, jetbrains SKUs all feel the same.

2024-12-27 22:18:39 UTC

#atuin wrapped
My commands were mostly `just`, `make` and `cd` and `poetry` - and they failed 1/2 of the time.
I should branch out I guess.

2024-12-27 21:36:26 UTC

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If you need to stop and google it, you're doing it wrong

2024-12-27 16:44:35 UTC

Find out how many of your AWS identifiers and stuff leaked
(if an ARN isn't publically accessible, should I care?)
https://awseye.com/

2024-12-27 14:42:14 UTC

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just the easy stuff, like adding `command || true` to the terminal command so the window doesn't close on crash (or a process exit command somewhere)

2024-12-26 14:50:40 UTC

Family separation policies resume. Many children are still orphaned from the first time this policy was tried.
https://wapo.st/3VTkEol

2024-12-26 00:11:41 UTC

Minecraft Server in #cobol
https://github.com/meyfa/CobolCraft
Surprisingly readable and stays in COBOL most of the time, not too much resorting to C.
#gnucobol
I think it deserves more stars.

2024-12-25 15:41:40 UTC

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- Influencers: This does seem to work, but the main job is creating content and growing your fanbase. The side project 3/4 of the time is selling more content, 1/4 the time an app that is nothing special but can sell because you have an audience, thing Sabine Hossenfelder's quiz app. Downside: you can't become famous quick, nor on purpose.

2024-12-25 15:39:35 UTC

I just reviewed my side projects for money making potential and it is so grim.
- Developer tools: worthless
- Enterprise tools: Worth a lot, no way to monetize without enterprise sales staff, minimal scope is huge
- Consumer apps: Hard to find anything that hasn't already been done, willingness to pay is low so you need so many customers.
- Cyber begging: Works for large cultural phenomena with corporate backers, think PyPA. Not so much for individuals

2024-12-25 13:01:04 UTC

Coding Kata: You are Ebenezer Scrooge the morning of what could be Christmas. It is too cold to open the window to shout at passer-bys. Write a python script to get the date, check the obituaries for Tiny Tim and use stripe to transfer a proper salary to your office staff.

2024-12-25 03:22:50 UTC

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I wanna see the results on bsky

2024-12-25 03:20:14 UTC

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What is cool about this is that you can run many compiled programming languages as a script using this shebang:
`///usr/bin/true; exec cobc -xj -fmfcomment "$0" "$@"`
- The target language has to tolerate comments starting with # or /
- The "script" has to be single file
Works for golang, I haven't tried it for rust.
For gnucobol for it to work, you have to also set a bunch of environment variables because that is how gnucobol rollls.

2024-12-25 03:13:51 UTC

testing
https://carbon.now.sh/CslPglWEUtKBv7faQMjd

2024-12-24 16:29:50 UTC

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AI as a real and potentially real thing for some reason generates emotional reactions from people unlike all the other things people could react to. I bet sociologists could nail down what the root issue is. My arm chair theory is that people are tribal and they don't like people (or people like things) that aren't in their tribe. The dozen anti-AI cliches are rationalizations for this automatic emotional reaction.

2024-12-23 22:56:59 UTC

Recruiter: "Quick we need a Junior developer from 2010 who spent 2005-2010 getting experience with .NET. We'd like to pay them 2010 salary, not adjusted for inflation"
Me: "That young, optimistic, uncynical man, he just isn't here anymore. You are 15 years too late. All that is left is this guy who knows .NET but has a 2025 mortgage. And python! Let me convert it all to Django-Postgres on AWS for you."

2024-12-22 19:35:24 UTC

The emperor god king habit is habit tracking.

2024-12-22 15:22:08 UTC

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These tools exist for the same reason low-code programming languages like UIPath exist... your department needs a bug fix or feature in an app, but the team ignores you, has a delivery time horizon of years, the team was all fired 10 years ago. And all you need is a bulk export or some fix that is possible if only you could script the app, even if only via the GUI.

2024-12-22 15:20:10 UTC

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Workflow products are for solving large **bureaucracy** problems. It is a **social** problem. You have 3 huge apps and you need code to call all three of them in a long running script/application. None of the teams want to help you with this feature, maybe none of these 3 teams can call each other directly. So you hack together a visual code "script" that glues together these three *teams*

2024-12-22 15:18:06 UTC

I'm thinking about AWS Step Functions. (Also so many similar workflow things, like .NET 3.5 Workflows). They store state in what in python would be a pickle. They seem to be for programs that take months to run. But why not be stateless and store the workflow steps in a regular database?
Epiphany....

2024-12-21 22:56:39 UTC

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1 order of pizza
- no crust
- no sauce
- no cheese
- pineapple left
- pineapple right

2024-12-21 21:04:46 UTC

Is your python code full of `):` ?
Go search for it and add the annotation for the return type.

2024-12-21 18:35:58 UTC

The future of computing is counting my fingers, which can bend into many good or even super positions. When the technology improves enough, I will be able to crack all codes, simulate atomic bombs, all in seconds. Right now, it would take quadrillions of years. But as soon as I can fix error correction, speed, a lack of applications other than typing on a keyboard, the random wiggling of my fingers will revolutionize computing.

2024-12-20 23:21:59 UTC

End that shutdown playlist and time to play the work as usual playlist.

2024-12-20 20:23:35 UTC

You got 7 matchsticks arranged to make an 8. Make one move to get a null reference.
(set them on fire! It is a matchstick, why do these problems with matchsticks if you don't set them on fire?)

2024-12-20 19:50:28 UTC

I got an Orcid. Unemployed arm chair philosopher. Not yet published in a Peer Reviewed Journal, but I got peer reviewed Pull Requests.
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0893-7539

2024-12-20 15:24:02 UTC

Hire me or fire me with a single click directly on my resume!
https://matthewdeanmartin.github.io/resume/browser/

2024-12-20 13:02:53 UTC

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And my LinkedIn page
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewdeanmartin/

2024-12-20 13:02:08 UTC

I'm on the job market again, anyone need an Python/AWS developer for an IC or Tech Lead role?
- For remote, my jurisdiction is Virginia, USA
- In person in Norther VA, DC
Resumes, portfolio, contact info here:
https://github.com/matthewdeanmartin
#fedijob #fedijobs #hiring #hiringnow #jobsearch #hireme #fedihire #fedihired #getfedihired #layoff #lookingforwork #opentowork
#forhire #techjobs #techishiring

2024-12-19 02:42:19 UTC

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I'd add to this list some more high cost big guns for squashing/preventing bugs
- typeguard (I got frustrated and stop using this)
- hypothesis (This is hit or miss if it adds value)
- mutatest/mutmut (I haven't used these)
- 100% coverage
- pyta (pre/post condition checking)
- mypy for None safety (not sure this is achievable like in other languages with null safety)

2024-12-19 02:34:32 UTC

Railroad programming with `returns`.
I think this makes sense for that chunk of code in your app that is
- super complicated
- flaky
- lots of code paths
- and has to work or the whole app & project fails
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkxf583t4Vc&ab_channel=ArjanCodes

2024-12-17 00:22:25 UTC

People, you're killing me
```python
class FatalConversationError(Exception):
```

2024-12-16 20:20:33 UTC

TODO: Write MATTLAB, which just sends me emails with your math problems and I reply that I don't know, it's over my head.

2024-12-16 20:19:36 UTC

Why don't people who like minimalist code editors use here strings in the terminal? Too high level? Maybe a byte stream editor. Too high level? Toggle switches? Go used toggle switches, show us how macho you are.

2024-12-16 01:58:10 UTC

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Yes. Traditional cooking styles in many places have similar characteristics without being tied to a confusing recommendation. (American 2020 Italian food, full of veal, cheese and so on? How they ate in Crete in 1880? The Mediterranean diet's research was based on the later.)
Naming is hard. DASH diet has 0 mindshare, probably because of the name.

2024-12-16 01:51:44 UTC

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Yes. The transitive dependency problem happens in all ecosystems. Conda attempts to deal with this by giving people a great big collection of packages that should work together (in their case, because they all depend on the same version of numpy and the like).
It used to be worse before lock files & nice tools to show the dependency graph.

2024-12-16 01:48:09 UTC

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He can sneak in to leave the merch, he can sneak in to get the cash to pay for it.

2024-12-15 22:18:07 UTC

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COTS? That is the idea that no Service company can write code for another company, it's just impossible. I think the world isn't so pessimistic, but still, the Service model of writing code is inherently risky and suboptimal.
And we blame it on SAFe or Waterfall or Federal SDLC, but that imho, is what you get when a nontech org is Board, Prez, VP all the way down except the code monkey, who doesn't understand the pain but see the SDLC or SAFe cattle prod that he's constantly poked with.

2024-12-15 22:14:39 UTC

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There are roughly 2 models for selling software
- Tech companies (e.g. Google makes Chrome), (ex)-developers are the Board, Prez, VP all the way down the org chart.
- Big Org hires a "Service" company (GM or US Gov't hires Booze Allen)
The 2nd is managed by the non-technical bureaucracy. Prolly no one else can be the customer, but the project quality & risks suffers for the seam between a non-technical org and a technical org.

2024-12-15 22:11:25 UTC

me reacting to another "SAFe-like Agile is bad" video
- tuning the amount of process a team needs is hard. Intra-team & the teams customers are not going to agree on what level of process creates value. So it will always be wrong.
- the bureaucracy isn't for the ICs, it is for giving the nontechnical chain of command warm fuzzies. What gives me warm fuzzies? Unit tests & build scripts. The chain of command can't evaluate that.

2024-12-14 21:53:12 UTC

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The shelf fungus? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypore
Too blurry to see if there are lichens there. The green bits are probably moss.

2024-12-14 15:23:28 UTC

On mastodon the truth that left/right policy bundling is based on irrational (neo)tribalism is more obvious that usual because it is an even mix of Europe and US & the left & right of each don't bundle issues the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYoA1R38cuc

2024-12-13 03:02:57 UTC

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```python
from pathlib import Path
from tempfile import mkstemp, mkdtemp, gettempdir
Path.mkstemp = classmethod(lambda cls, **kw: (fd := mkstemp(**kw), (fd[0], cls(fd[1])))[1])
Path.mkdtemp = classmethod(lambda cls, **kw: cls(mkdtemp(**kw)))
Path.gettempdir = classmethod(lambda cls: cls(gettempdir()))
```

2024-12-12 23:35:17 UTC

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Oh yeah. One big pain point is the task definitions. If you want to update them in a ci pipeline say to push image:v2, you have to fetch the task definition, edit the doc and put it again. If terraform owns the task definition, it will revert to image:v1. You can't tell terraform to ignore just the image in `container_definitions`
https://stackoverflow.com/a/75062076/33264
So I think it is painful for all approaches.

2024-12-11 22:51:16 UTC

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Who does DSTP?! What would that even mean?

2024-12-11 14:24:54 UTC

I think the first challenge of running a sprint or agile retro meeting is over coming everyone contempt for the exercise give past experiences with it.

2024-12-11 14:19:37 UTC

Days since bash punched me in the face: 0.

2024-12-10 16:18:07 UTC

Terraform: "Still destroying..."
Never give up Terraform! Something better will come up out of the ashes!

2024-12-10 02:34:48 UTC

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2015 - track pad shows up as mouse *
2024 - track pad shows up as mouse **
When mac sees a mouse you get arrow motion, click and double click. That's it. Like a mouse without a scrollwheel
* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7297989?sortBy=rank
** https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/1gpcf68/bought_a_magic_trackpad_is_recognized_as_mouse/

2024-12-10 02:01:42 UTC

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And they can't be repaired.

2024-12-10 02:00:46 UTC

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I honestly am astonished that Apple, who designed their computer to be incompatible with all trackpads except Apple trackpads can't coordinate with themselves to distribute drivers to Macbooks.

2024-12-10 01:58:08 UTC

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They run cool to the touch. That is about all I can say good about them.

2024-12-10 01:57:49 UTC

Been using mac for a month again and OMG I hate it.
- Magic Trackpad acts like a mouse w/o scroll
- The keyboard is the dvorack of keyboards, about as pleasant as accidentally setting the a windows keyboard to Icelandic
- The keys are so flat and cramped.
- mac terminal and iterm2 are both a step down from windows Terminal

2024-12-09 22:36:22 UTC

I've had #unitedhealthcare as an insurer before, I didn't know there was a 30% chance they won't pay out. That's like scam level. If a life insurance company didn't payout on 30% of deaths, it would be considered a scam.
We shouldn't be asking why the shooter shot them, we should be asking why we aren't all shooting UNH, legally-like, by passing laws with capital punishment for finance crimes involving customer deaths.

2024-12-09 13:40:31 UTC

When the same person does implementation and design, design documents will be completed after implementation.
Design is governance. The best way to design code is to use code. If you want design to be governance, it needs to be a different person.

2024-12-09 12:43:16 UTC

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You don't need AWS Certification. But what are the 5 Pillars of WAF? Ah, wrong answer, we can't consider you for any positions.

2024-12-09 03:48:27 UTC

Health and Transit savings accounts are likely scams. The whole employee benefit system is mostly a scam. The employers are giving so much money to benefits management companies and employees get crumbs.

2024-12-09 02:18:34 UTC

A nuanced take on Ghost Developers.
And look, you can't both believe that bullshit jobs exist and that there are no ghost developers. Also it is possible these people aren't bad people, but they still aren't doing any work.
https://wapo.st/3Vv8NfQ

2024-12-08 18:05:18 UTC

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My recent experience with my current job makes me think knowing all the services is a prerequisite to setting up a secure account. You can't secure the things if you don't know they're there. Also I think new accounts should have multiple speedbumps to using a service for the first time, which AWS doesn't.

2024-12-08 18:01:28 UTC

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"For each of AWS's 200 services, please indicate a skill rating 1-5 and years of experience."

2024-12-08 16:52:51 UTC

Don't hire rabbits as software developers. They're always going down rabbit holes, can't stay on task.

2024-12-08 16:07:34 UTC

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lipu linja li nasa lukin.

2024-12-08 15:09:46 UTC

AWS #AppConfig now has feature flags for your app. I could have used this a few years ago.
Sure beats trying to have your production app try to call back into on your onprem Gitlab server to get the flags. (Btw, I didn't do that)
https://aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/features/appconfig/?whats-new-cards.sort-by=item.additionalFields.postDateTime&whats-new-cards.sort-order=desc&blog-posts-cards.sort-by=item.additionalFields.createdDate&blog-posts-cards.sort-order=desc

2024-12-08 14:52:15 UTC

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I'm such a bad journalist. I confused MicroStrategy and Microfocus. D'oh! Deleted.

2024-12-08 14:37:36 UTC

Reminder, the Assad regime used the medical system to torture opponents. The new guys would have to try really hard to be worse.
https://www.newarab.com/news/syria-regime-used-hospital-torture-kill-opponents

2024-12-07 17:18:41 UTC

Despite high safety scores/crash ratings, Tesla is the deadliest car manufacturer with the Y doing the worst
https://jalopnik.com/these-are-the-deadliest-cars-on-the-road-1851713665/slides/11

2024-12-07 15:04:21 UTC

This winter, do the AOC programming challenge to write some code that will shift the overton window and political center of gravity to the left.

2024-12-07 14:09:12 UTC

What should I say when I need to fart out a vacuous, information free cliche?
"It depends"

2024-12-05 21:18:53 UTC

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There is literally nothing anyone in the US can do as an individual to address the unfairness in the system through the legal system. We are spitting in a hurricane and telling ourselves we can change the direction of the storm.

2024-12-05 19:17:50 UTC

Did the earth move for you?

2024-12-05 19:16:08 UTC

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Run the United Federation of Planets Marathon and you get one. If you can't, maybe you don't deserve one.

2024-12-05 18:43:54 UTC

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Also I think no types mean "mypy, make your best guess" and it think it is too conservative and makes to much implicit Any.

2024-12-05 18:42:39 UTC

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I want to start using this https://github.com/Instagram/MonkeyType so the machine can do it for me (non llm). LLMs can't do this reliably yet (maybe Aider can)

2024-12-05 15:46:51 UTC

Thursday CyberSecurity Tip:
DB doesn't encrypt at rest? Never let it stop working!
Lazy databases, really.

2024-12-05 01:44:19 UTC

#Hertz will attempt to put you in jail if you rent a car with them.
I just think it is problematic that this sort of thing only goes on for a single news cycle.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement

2024-12-05 01:37:13 UTC

guy on internet: bots don't know or reason anymore than a book
other guy: how do you know your brain can know or reason
guy on internet: I'm not a physicalist...
Ok, ghosts have entered the chat room. If you believe in souls, ghosts & nonphysical thinking thing, that's magic, go consult your preferred authority on magic. Before LLMs, we just never had to think about it (do others things know), other than animals and foreigners.

2024-12-05 01:04:22 UTC

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If they want to protect their shoulders they sure do. Dangerous universe put there

2024-12-04 16:55:52 UTC

Can't find the 1.25x speed option for this zoom.

2024-12-04 13:08:04 UTC

#timeshare s are unconscionable, they should be outlawed altogether.
https://wapo.st/3CTR1g7

2024-12-03 19:49:44 UTC

We shouldn't play god. It would be an unfair game & you'll lose.

2024-12-03 14:30:14 UTC

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This joke has prior art, but I thought of it independently.

2024-12-03 12:30:49 UTC

Celebrate the 25 days of Advent by assigning yourself 25 tickets from the jira backlog

2024-12-03 02:08:06 UTC

gnireenigne - That wasn't that hard, I didn't even use code. I don't know why everyone says it is so hard.

2024-12-03 00:44:47 UTC

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Just your BASIC gasoline

2024-12-02 20:14:13 UTC

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Indulgences. I guess like ice cream that you didn't really need.

2024-12-02 18:07:34 UTC

Using jira is easy, you just have to open 200 tabs and remember which of the 200 3-chevron symbols mean. Fortunately the tickets are all 5 digit numbers, so that is just 1000 meaningless digits to keep track of.

2024-12-02 14:07:32 UTC

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I'm copying her style by saying everything 3 times.

2024-12-02 14:06:52 UTC

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I think she did the nuance that "this guy (and his fictionalizing biographer) made himself out to be far worse than he actual was", but to get to the nuance, you have to watch past the 1st hour.
Her thesis is everything about Feynman is fictional except the physics and the stories reported by people *other than *Feynman & Leighton, so if anyone is judging something by a past standard, they're judging a fiction.
Do we care about the reputational harms to a fictional personage?