
SQLite developer must have received a lot of phone calls - DaGardner
https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/3cf493d4018042c70a4db733dd38f96896cd825f/src/os.h#L52
======
morganvachon
I met the SQLite architect's parents a few years ago. My wife was a member of
their church many years ago, and they had invited us to a function at their
house right before we married. I didn't know who they were at the time, but in
a conversation over dinner the father was asked what his son did for a living,
and he said something like "You know that cellphone you carry? My son wrote an
important program that manages the databases it runs on." I asked if he was
talking about SQLite and he said that yes, that was the program. Turned out
there were a few other people there who knew about SQLite so we had a bit of a
geek out for the rest of the night, discussing FOSS, SQL, mobile development,
and so on.

~~~
johnx123-up
OT: Which church? Just curious.

~~~
morganvachon
To be honest, I don't remember. She had gone there many years before we met,
and had since moved on to another church, maintaining friendships from there
through Facebook (which is how we got the invitation). I know it was in
Gwinnett County, Georgia, near Stone Mountain.

------
chrisdotcode
Does anybody else have any stories similar to this they could share? I always
find this sort of thing fascinating.

Here's one[0] about when Facebook changed something about their login, and
someone wrote a blog post about it. The blog post ended up being top Google
result for "facebook login". A lot of people, it seems, were getting to
facebook not by the address bar, but by typing "facebook login" into Google,
and clicking whatever the first result was. Hence, they found the site, then
proceeded to leave _tons_ of comments, complaining that they couldn't log in
to FB.

[0]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120201181225/http://www.readwr...](https://web.archive.org/web/20120201181225/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php)

EDIT: This was similar to what happened to rapgenius a bit back. Google
blacklisted their site, and people thought the site was deleted, and were
complaining to rapgenius on twitter. It blows my mind that there are a lot of
people that don't know how to use an address bar properly.

~~~
thaumaturgy
> _A lot of people, it seems, were getting to facebook not by the address bar,
> but by typing "facebook login" into Google_

Pretty much all computer novices I've worked with do this, and not just for
Google. They also type "gmail" into google to sign in to their gmail, "yahoo"
into google, "email", etc.

Every once in a while we have to do a support phone call and point someone to
the address bar in their browser, and usually that's the first time they've
noticed it's even there.

~~~
Someone1234
I definitely don't consider myself a "computer novice" and I myself also do
this.

Since Chrome merged the address bar and search bar, when I type in e.g. gmail,
I can hit enter and click once, or I can type in gmail.com, however while the
typing and clicking may take the same period of time, the clicking is more
efficient for other sites where the login isn't on the root page, or if I
typo.

I think somewhat ironically Hacker News is a great example of where this
pattern is a time saver. Typing in "news.ycombinator.com" is first off a
mountful (typeful?) and secondly easy to typo.

As strange as this sounds, I also consider searching a "security feature." If
you typo near popular sites, you'll find a lot of phishing sites with
identical layouts which could be mistaken for the original sites (you did
think you typed in "gmail" after all, not "mgail" or something). Search
engines save you from this.

~~~
mattdotc
In addition to the CTRL/CMD + Enter shortcut mentioned in a sibling comment,
you could also use your arrow keys to select a choice from your recent
history.

I personally disagree with you that searching and moving a hand to the mouse
or trackpad in order to click a result is faster than using only the keyboard
and the appropriate shortcuts, bypassing a search engine.

This is a matter of understanding the features of your application and
operating system. If you choose to only learn the features at the surface,
that's your prerogative, but I don't think you can claim a particular strategy
is faster or more efficient if you don't really grok the alternatives (I don't
think you do judging by your various claims).

With your hacker news example, you would have to simply type news.y and if you
visit frequently enough or have the site bookmarked, getting to the site
should only be a matter of hitting down-arrow and then enter.

~~~
Someone1234
> This is a matter of understanding the features of your application and
> operating system.

I've written OS drivers on two operating systems. Clearly my ignorance of how
computers work is my limitation...

> If you choose to only learn the features at the surface, that's your
> prerogative, but I don't think you can claim a particular strategy is faster
> or more efficient if you don't really grok the alternatives (I don't think
> you do judging by your various claims).

The alternative I suggest is more consistent across sites, solves typos,
provides security advantages, and is certainly faster than type + arrow +
arrow + arrow + enter (in particular as that list is inconsistent with entries
shifting places often, plus there is lag between typing and the auto-complete
list populating, Google loads almost as fast).

As soon as you get to your destination you're using the mouse anyway, so
moving over to the mouse one click earlier is hardly a cost.

Honestly this entire discussion reminds me a lot of the "UI Vs. terminal"
debate. It has nothing to do with actual efficiency in what you're trying to
accomplish, and has everything to do with a feeling of superiority over the
ignorant masses.

Personally I'm always going to take efficiency over smug superiority, and
consistency is a key part of that. My method works for every site I visit,
they're always No.1 on Google/Bing and the URL is always correct/without typos
(even if I typo-ed them).

~~~
thaumaturgy
FWIW I think the time spent arguing over which method is fastest is probably
greater than the time savings either way. I'm just surprised, I hadn't seen
more experienced computer users with that usage pattern before. Some of what
you're saying makes perfect sense.

I have a bit of a reluctance over sending unnecessary network traffic to
Google (not really privacy-related in this case), but that's just a personal
idiosyncracy.

------
peterjmag
For those that don't already know, GitHub has a cool little feature that
allows you to link directly to line ranges, i.e.
[https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/3cf493d4018042c70a4db...](https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/3cf493d4018042c70a4db733dd38f96896cd825f/src/os.h#L52-L66)

See the awesome GitHub Cheat Sheet for details:
[https://github.com/tiimgreen/github-cheat-sheet#line-
highlig...](https://github.com/tiimgreen/github-cheat-sheet#line-highlighting-
in-repositories)

(Forgive the tangent—I only discovered this recently myself, and I figure I'm
not the only one.)

~~~
evilotto
So does fossil, the canonical repository for sqlite:
[https://www.sqlite.org/src/artifact/3e57a24e2794a94d?ln=52,6...](https://www.sqlite.org/src/artifact/3e57a24e2794a94d?ln=52,66)

------
edward
"Question: What are etilqs files?"

[http://answers.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/forum/windows_7-f...](http://answers.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/what-are-etilqs-
files/fbab1341-acf2-4013-8394-324f2679aa89)

~~~
raverbashing
Question: what kind of crappy AV software can't identify sqlite files?

~~~
jlebrech
it's not identifying the files, it's using the db engine.

It's probably using it as a quarantine, so then the virus scanner picks up
virus data from it's own temp files.

~~~
raverbashing
Does it have an binary header (.exe/.dll)?

Or better, does it match a sqlite signature? "The header string: "SQLite
format 3\000" for example
[http://www.sqlite.org/fileformat.html](http://www.sqlite.org/fileformat.html)

~~~
chris_wot
I wonder if the issue I found sometime ago that segfaulted Firefox fixed
stability problems for McAfee?

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581946](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581946)

------
alextingle
The proper solution would have been to switch to a premium rate line, and
profit from it!

~~~
wongarsu
I would not give up my uninterrupted sleep for a few dollars on the side. I
don't think I would even want to be interrupted for the small profit of
premium lines. I have better things to do than personal support for this type
of customer, and I imagine the SQLite devs think similarly.

~~~
pbowyer
If one wanted to be very mean, and using a premium rate UK number as an
example:

At £1.50/minute, you can put them into a holding queue with "All developers
are currently occupied, please wait and your call will be answered shortly"
played every 45 seconds. If the developer wakes up they can choose to answer,
otherwise most people will hang up after a few minutes.

Assuming the average person kept on the line for 3-4 minutes, and 100 calls a
month, that's £450/month revenue...

~~~
isp
This would fall afoul of the UK regulator for premium rate numbers
(PhonepayPlus) [http://code.phonepayplus.org.uk/the-avoidance-of-undue-
delay...](http://code.phonepayplus.org.uk/the-avoidance-of-undue-delay.html)

(See also: [https://www.xkcd.com/1494/](https://www.xkcd.com/1494/))

~~~
pbowyer
It definitely would now, but back pre-2006..?

------
mpeg
The solution reminds me of the story of why Facebook calls their advertising
tags "muffin" tags (up to this day)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SinsSahmjl4&t=870](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SinsSahmjl4&t=870)

~~~
danielweber
I wonder if this is related to the old MUFFIN program for the Apple II, to
migrate disks from DOS 3.2 to DOS 3.3.

------
steipete
Somebody didn't give credit here when posting on HN.
[https://twitter.com/mplappert/status/575957042466320384](https://twitter.com/mplappert/status/575957042466320384)

~~~
michaelmior
Or somebody actually managed to find this on their own.

~~~
tjbiddle
The commit was made in September - that tweet, yesterday. Chances that they
both got recognition within 24 hours of each other: pretty slim.

Personally, I saw this on /r/programmerhumor yesterday.

------
Kiro
Who is doing this kind of stuff? I can't imagine a single one of the people I
know do it. It's just unimaginable and I would really love to know what's
going on inside their head.

~~~
mseebach
Around 10 years ago, I heard about Facebook for the first time and bought
facebook.[cTLD] on a whim, not having the faintest idea what to do with it.

After Facebook took off in my country, I'd get a few calls a week from people
who wanted me to take down other peoples posts as well as from friendly but
clueless law enforcement officers investigating Facebook-related complaints.

(I handed over the domain to Facebook for a bit of swag, it wasn't like I had
anything meaningful to do with it)

~~~
danielweber
I know someone who had his Javascript library, hosted on his site, imported
into Facebook's layout by some Facebook dev.

He put a redirect into the Javascript to his own website, and Facebook
employees started calling him about 5 minutes later.

------
Navarr
The commit:
[https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/commit/70b2e37d42971a61cc2...](https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/commit/70b2e37d42971a61cc221742445d5740a0eb03c7)

------
emilburzo
Unbelievable.

Looks like it's worth it to just have a different phone # for anything that
isn't personal.

~~~
teach
This is why I only post my Google voice number. And I never pick up if the
number isn't already in my contacts.

------
sspiff
Why does Microsoft still store temporary files on disk? (as opposed to a RAM-
backed temporary file system as used in most other operating systems)

Is there a reason for this? It just seems like it would cause clutter and
garbage to pile up for eternity.

~~~
rwmj
Because using a RAM-backed temporary fs is a dumb idea. If your disk caching
is implemented properly, then most temporary files _are_ stored in RAM, but
larger ones can be spilled to disk, and the OS gets to decide what's best
based on a global view of the system. By using a RAM-backed tmpfs you are
forced to use RAM and spill to a swap partition that is inflexible and
hard/impossible to resize.

~~~
icebraining
Well, it's not only larger files that spill to disk; using a normal directory
forces the OS to write them all to disk (even if with a delay thanks to
buffers).

A RAM-backed tmpfs, on the other hand, would avoid writing to disk if the size
of your files doesn't cross the threshold of free memory.

~~~
rwmj
This is incorrect. Linux doesn't write small files to disk if they are deleted
within a certain time. And if that's true for Windows NT, then it's a problem
with Windows.

~~~
hueving
Seriously? So if you write a key file or something small to disk and
immediately pull the plug on your computer, it will be gone? That is
incredibly stupid for a file system that people expect to actually write the
file when it says it did.

~~~
ygra
When creating a file handle you can usually specify how buffering will work.
You can also say that everything should be written immediately. But even then
there can be buffering inside the disk and cause you to lose the data. That's
not the file system's fault. And sure, get rid of all those caches in between
if you don't care about performance. You _can_ do that.

And "write to the file" usually says "write to the file at a point convenient
for you". Heck, it's an asynchronous call most of the time anyway so it cannot
complete immediately for obvious reasons.

~~~
cnvogel
> But even then there can be buffering inside the disk

this, the system accounts for. If you tell the OS to sync data to disk, it has
to make sure that the disk committed the data to the durable media.

One aspect of this is: As the disk, as long as it has unwritten cached data in
its internal RAM cache, is free to write that data basically in any order, the
OS will have to send a write barrier to the disk. Wouldn't this been accounted
for by the OS, all filesystems would basically be completely broken on most
power outages. Or one would have to flush the disk cache completely on every
single and small change, which would severely degrade performance.

~~~
icebraining
On the other hand:
[http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2367378](http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2367378)

------
negus
If John McAfee can see this himself
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg)

------
castell
Please add "(2006)" to the headline. I remember there was also a related
mailing list post about that issue.

Edit: What's the reason for the downvotes?

------
shubhamjain
Just curious, why did SQLite developer publicly listed his telephone number.
Was it common around that time?

~~~
teach
Yes, it was. Most vanity websites had a "contact" page with mailing address
and phone number. In fact, my blog* still has a phone number because I keep
forgetting to take it down.

* My site isn't really a blog, just a personal web page. And since I've had the page since 1994 and the term "blog" wasn't coined until 1999....

------
aabdocker
[https://www.google.com/search?q=etilqs](https://www.google.com/search?q=etilqs)

------
pricechild
I wager 2 would be enough.

------
chatman
They should sue the AV company.

~~~
apetresc
... for what?

------
mandeepj
This is epic.

It deserves a video meme, something like this -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZ8ek-6ccc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZ8ek-6ccc)

~~~
agumonkey
"Life, finds a way.."

[http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/02/life.gif](http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/02/life.gif)

