Lectures were all over the place for me - some useful, some awful. Professors really vary a lot in skill here. Same with tests - some helped me learn, some were rote memorization.
Labs were incredibly, incredibly useful. 4 years of practice doing coding problems made me a way better programmer.
I feel I got value out of the degree, even if there were some silly games to play.
Friendly reminder the US government is using it's legal authority to compel people to show their social media posts. At some point, hacker news is bound to get on their "to check" list.
Post nothing here you would not mind showing to a border guard.
Like seriously, I get this is very impactful, but don't risk your livelihood to argue with internet strangers.
Skype was written without exception handling and RTTI, although using a lot of C++ features. You can write good C++ code without these dependencies. You don't use STL but with cautious use of hand-built classes you go far.
Today I wouldn't recommnend Skype built in any language except Rust. But the Skype founders Ahti Heinla, Jaan Tallinn and Priit Kasesalu found exactly the right balance of C and C++ for the time.
I also wrote a few lines of code in that dialect of C++ (no exceptions). And it didn't feel much different from modern C++ (exception are really fatal errors)
And regarding to embedded, the same codebase was embedded in literally all the ubiquitous TVs of the time, even DECT phones. I bet there are only a few (if any) application codebases of significant size to have been deployed at that scale.
Apple's IO Kit (all kernel drivers on macOS/iphoneOS/ipadOS/watchOS) is a great example of what you're talking about. Billions of devices deployed with code built on this pattern.
That said, in the embedded world, when you get down to little 32-bit or 16-bit microcontrollers, not amd64 or aarm64 systems with lots of RAM, pure C is very prevelant. Many people don't find much value from classes when they are writing bare-metal code that primarily is twiddling bits in registers, and they also can't or don't want to pay the overhead for things like vtables when they are very RAM constrained (e.x. 64kbyte of RAM is not that uncommon in embedded).
So, I disagree with the idea that "actual uses of C are esoteric" from the post - it's very prevelant in the embedded space still. Just want people to think about it from another use case :).
The classic example of a big pure-C project at scale is the Linux kernel.
Ask Linus what he thinks of C++. His opinions are his own (EDIT: I actually like C++ a lot, please don't come at me with pitchforks! :)), I merely repost for entertainment value (from a while back):
Maybe a simpler example: go find a BSP (board support package) for the mirco of your choice. It's almost certain that all of the example code will be in C, not C++. They may or may not support building with g++, but C is the lingua franca of embedded devs.
I feel like real estate markets have way to much variance country to country, city to city, or even neighborhood to neighborhood, to make generalizations like this.
- There are times when in-person collaboration is invaluable.
- There are times when having quiet focus time alone is invaluable.
- Every team and job is different. Sitting on Zoom all day in an open office full of strangers doesn't make sense. Getting blocked because I bricked my proto board and I need a tech to rework it but I'm wfh and the tech is wfh and now we have to do a mail dance and burn a week for something that used to take a 5 min walk down the hall to deal with doesn't make sense. YMMV.
- The industry seems to be converging to hybrid. I feel like this is kind of like the debates over being mandated to use AI in dev - love it or hate it, it's happening, and there's no point trying to swim against a rip current.
It may be better for you. For example, you may want to cover the rest of the tax bill by selling other shares and doing tax lost harvesting. You may think your company is going to the moon and decide to cover the rest of your tax bill with cash and keep your shares (this is usually a bad idea). The way they do it gives you flexibility.
Aunt Jennifer is the person iPads were made for. YMMV but it just seems to click for non tech people in a way a desktop OS (windows, Linux, or Mac) never does.
A few years ago I'd have agreed with you, but between (a) Apple giving in to landscape orientation on their tablets as the default and risking the rise of angry zombie Steve Jobs from the grave in the process and (b) the increasing availability of desktop-like UI features in iPadOS--something I welcome for my use cases but that might be confusing for Aunt Jennifer--I have to wonder if that's still the case. Of course, some people insist they want a computer, so even if an iPad is a better option, it might not be a choice they're happy with.
* A sticker or luggage tag to make your bag stand out
* A dedicated set of travel-sized toiletries. Never unpack them, they live in the bag. Replenish after each trip. Huge time saver when packing and unpacking.
* A few bandaids, and blister-pack single doses of Sudafed and Ibuprofen in your toiletries bag
* Wrinkle release spray
* Dress clothes packed in dry cleaner plastic bags to minimize wrinkles
* Travel packs of disinfecting wipes
* Packing cubes
* Dedicated indoor hotel slippers
* Noise canceling headphones or earbuds
* A power bank
* A dedicated set of chargers and cables for travel. Never unpack them, they live in the bag.
* An extra-long charging cable. Hotel outlets are in weird places sometimes.
* Airline loyalty membership. Have a strategy - favor one airline alliance (e.x. Star, OneWorld, SkyTeam) for status perks and miles, or favor direct flights, or cost.
* Hotel loyalty membership. Have a strategy - favor one hotel chain (e.x. Hilton, Marriott, IHG) for status perks and points, or favor location, or cost.
* Car rental loyalty membership. Skip the checkin line!
* Some combination of a travel credit card, an airline credit card, and a hotel credit card. Make a spending plan to maximize the rewards you care about (e.x. airline status, points, cash back, free hotel nights at resorts).
* At least one backup credit card incase your primary is lost or stolen. Keep it separate from your wallet or purse.
* For work trips: your work’s travel agency number saved in contacts.
* An international roaming plan, Google Fi, or a pre-paid international eSIM (e.x. Airalo)
* A water bottle
* Your entertainment of choice for flights: An iPad, Kindle, paper book, Nintendo Switch, laptop, melatonin gummies, etc.
* Apps: Airline, hotel, rental car company. TripAdvisor. FlightAware24, Loungebuddy, Terminal Buddy, At Your Gate. Microsoft Translate with offline language downloaded. Kindle, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, etc. with offline downloads. Google Maps with offline maps downloaded.
* At least two devices logged in to your accounts (your phone, and then a laptop, iPad, backup old phone, etc). Also, give a travel buddy Account Recovery permissions. Don’t get locked out of your accounts if your phone is lost, broken, or stolen.
* A pop socket or kickstand case for your phone
* Photos of your drivers license and passport saved offline
Do:
* Charge all of your devices the day before you trip
* Download offline maps, books, movies, trip itinerary, tickets, reservations to at least two devices before your trip
* Fill your water bottle as soon as you’re through security
* Drink lots of water on flights. Airplanes have very dry air. The dehydration can give you headaches on long flights.
* Minimize or avoid alcohol on flights, especially long flights. You will get dehydrated. Save the drinking for when you land.
* Switch clocks to your destination time zone as soon as you get on the plane
* Get up and stretch every few hours on planes. Don’t get DVT.
* Unpack as soon as you get to the hotel room. Hang clothes and spray with wrinkle release immediately.
* Sleep and wake on your home time zone if possible (especially for domestic travel).
* Plan a list of restaurants to try. Especially for work travel: You won’t have time or energy once you’re there to research, and will fall back to junk food or the hotel bar if you don’t have a better option.
* Have a plan for laundry. For short trips, I bring enough stuff not to do laundry. For longer trips, I avoid cotton, bring detergent and a clothes line, and wash in sinks daily.
Other tips:
* Earlier flights are on time more often than later flights.
* If an early flight gets canceled, you have a lot more rebooking options than if it’s late in the day.
* Booking direct means direct help. Expedia/Priceline/etc don’t have a help desk in the airport. Sitting on hold on the phone after your flight is canceled while other people scoop up all of the open seats is a bummer.
* If your flight for work travel is canceled, your work travel agent can easily book you on other airlines. The airline’s help desk might not be as willing to do this.
* Don’t check bags, if possible. If you have to change flights after going through security, it gives you way more options. Also, no risk of bag being lost and it saves a bunch of time on arrival.
* Many travel credit cards have rental car insurance. If you rent often, get one.
I like the idea of moving away from the big companies, and the privacy it brings, but security is a huge show stopper for me.
e.x. For self hosting photos, am I gonna do something dumb that exposes the NAS on my network? Immich is not encrypted at rest, so what if someone just breaks in and steals my NAS? I could try and set up whole disk encryption, but what if I’m an idiot and end up losing all my photos because I make a mistake?
Philosophically I applaud articles like this, but I find iCloud with Advanced Data Protection to be way less scary than dealing with the weakest link: me (as a sys admin).
Lectures were all over the place for me - some useful, some awful. Professors really vary a lot in skill here. Same with tests - some helped me learn, some were rote memorization.
Labs were incredibly, incredibly useful. 4 years of practice doing coding problems made me a way better programmer.
I feel I got value out of the degree, even if there were some silly games to play.
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