Look! It’s Momma or Daddy toad! 🥳
Our old California stomping grounds are gonna be fun leading up to and over the 4th.
This is not uncommon for the San Joaquin Valley of California.
Saturday Morning Coffee
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
It’s been an interesting week, it’s just felt off for some reason. I think part of it is having our new pup — Cocoa — in the house and part of it is work.
Ever since our layoff things haven’t felt the same, because frankly, they’re not. Our company structure has changed and we’re still adapting and moving thing around. It feels way more corporate than ever but I suppose that happens when you get beyond a couple hundred people. We’re near one thousand, even after the layoff.
After the project I’m working on comes to a close at the end of July I’m hoping to get a little bench time to work on my SwiftUI (worst technology name ever) skills and shake the cobwebs out of the old programmer brain. 🧠
We’re giving ourselves the weekend to rest, then Phase 2 kicks off Monday when we start working on paperwork and logistics to pack a few bags, our pup, and try our luck at spending the next few years abroad. (More on this later in the summer ☺️)
Ashur is a friend, all around great fella, and very talented web developer. He’s even contributed his amazing web talent to Stream and I’m forever grateful for it.
Anywho, I’m so excited for him and this new adventure. Doing it while you’re young is the right call. Do it while your body can take it. Get out, explore!
I still hope to convince Kim we need to go all in on the RV lifestyle. Still not there yet. Maybe someday.
Enjoy this new adventure Ashur! 🧳
Joel Clay • blog.meldstudio.co
It is also what backs a number of the Swift concurrency primitives – with a cross platform, open source implementation of CoreFoundation released as the backing implementation. That source code is invaluable in gaining a better understanding of how CFRunLoop works. At just under 5k lines of quite readable C code, one could grok it at a high level in a few hours.
If you know me you know I love browsing C and C++ code. The thing I find extremely interesting about this code is how many OS’es it is targeted to run on; macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Makes me wonder who’s writing code against those platforms and how the new all Swift based frameworks work on those platforms.
This article takes a deep dive into CFRunLoop and it’s a good read if you’re into C code. 😃
The Supreme Court issued a divided ruling on a pair of challenges to affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, with potential implications across higher education and beyond.
The Republican built court is doing its job dismantling years and years of progress. They’ve already set Women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and now affirmative action back. What’s next?
Here’s hoping most institutions of higher education don’t change their policies. Just leave that to the rich white racist institutions that take in dumbass rich white kids whose parents buy their way in.
Speaking of dumbass rich white kids…
My book exposed a grubby secret of American higher education: that the rich buy their under-achieving children’s way into elite universities with massive, tax-deductible donations.
Screw Harvard and the entire Ivy League. As a nation we need to get our belief that going to one of those schools magically makes you smarter or better than everyone else. They cater to the rich and powerful who can afford to buy their way in, like Jared Kishner’s dad did for him. It’s all about keeping the rich and powerful in power.
Sure, turn away the dark skinned people with great grades and SAT scores and let the idiots in.
I’m sure there are many other schools doing the same thing and they should all be shamed.
The question is how to stop it?
For almost the whole time I wrote at the old blog, the URL doc.searls.com took you there as a redirect. Now that URL goes here, directly. Put another way, this was a Harvard blog until yesterday (and again, everything until that day remains so: that’s its legacy). From now on, it’s mine alone. It has crossed from one state to another. I’m not sure yet how it will change, if at all. But I feel energized about what new things I might do with it.
Speaking of Harvard, it sounds like they’ve shut down and archived a bunch of blogs and their associated blogging tools. I’d venture to guess the tools they were using were long in the tooth, not well maintained, and a security risk, but I could be completely wrong about that! 😆
It’s nice to see Doc in his new home. I just need to remember to subscribe to the new site.
Instead, I think it’s safe to say it’s largely Apple’s fault. Or, maybe “fault” is the wrong word. We’ve moved on from the era of beautiful Mac software to the era of web-based apps, for better and for worse. There’s no one simple reason for this evolution, but it’s interesting to think through some of the factors.
This piece goes to all kinds of interesting places. I think the bottom line is Apple is running Microsoft’s playbook from the late 90’s when the web was taking off and they were desperately trying to keep folks tied into their OS and tools.
Eventually Microsoft got their act together and found their way into web technologies. Heck, they even went as far as scrapping their own home built browser for Chromium, but that’s another story I’m very opinionated about.
This is very sad. HRD Coffee Shop (521A Third Street), which has seen two generations of owners in SoMa/South Beach and became so well known for its fusion-style burritos and Mongolian beef cheesesteak a decade ago that they were paid a visit by Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives in 2010, closed for good on Friday, June 23. The restaurant had just celebrated its 70th birthday this year.
This was one of the places on my “need to eat there someday” list and it’s a real shame to see it close down. I really wanted to try their spicy pork and kimchi burrito. Guess that ain’t gonna happen now. 😔
It’s one of my interview questions: “what is Good Code?” Surprisingly, almost no-one gets it right. It’s not about speed, elegance, language, or style. Good Code is code that solves real problems for real people, in an effective way. Let me list the top 10 rules for writing good code.
I enjoy reading how others approach coding. I’m constantly hearing the term “best practices” and makes me cringe a little.
I don’t agree with Pieter’s number zero rule: Use Git and Github. I know git is super popular and I use it and GitHub every day, but it’s not the only version control system on the planet and there are others that work just fine. The advice I’ve always given folks is pick a version control system and use it.
GitHub is, of course, a very good choice. 😃
[David Pierce • The Verge](<https://www.theverge.com/23778253/google-reader-death-2013-rss-social)
To executives, Google Reader may have seemed like a humble feed aggregator built on boring technology. But for users, it was a way of organizing the internet, for making sense of the web, for collecting all the things you care about no matter its location or type, and helping you make the most of it.
I remember how down my brother was when Google shut down Reader. He had a really nice workflow and could navigate Reader with his keyboard. It also had some very unique to Reader features he made good use of. I don’t remember what they were but I should ask him. If they’re unique perhaps Stream could benefit from implementing some? 🤔
When you write some code and put it on a spacecraft headed into the far reaches of space, you need to it work, no matter what. Mistakes can mean loss of mission or even loss of life. In 2006, Gerard Holzmann of the NASA/JPL Laboratory for Reliable Software wrote a paper called The Power of 10: Rules for Developing Safety-Critical Code. The rules focus on testability, readability, and predictability:
I’ve heard about these rules before and they’re no bad at all, especially for smaller, self contained programs. Anything mission critical should be extra safe in its implementation.
Remember when the Mars Lander crashed because the teams used different measurement systems? It only cost $125 million to build. Good times. 💥
Jack Gutzler • beyondtheflag.com
As NASCAR descends upon the streets of Chicago for the inaugural race at the new Chicago Street Course, a new chapter in the sport’s 75-year history will be written.
Since getting into NASCAR I’ve had this one marked on my calendar and wish I could’ve attended it. I’ve never been to Chicago or a NASCAR race, why not get a twofer?
I’ll be watching it from the safety of my own living room this time around. 🛋️
Meta adopting ActivityPub has the potential to fast-forward the progress of the social web by years. Ever since I grew disillusioned with Twitter a decade ago and started pushing for indie microblogs, then writing a book about social networks and founding Micro.blog, I could only dream of a moment where a massive tech company embraced such a fundamental open API.
I’ve been trying to keep my nose out of the discussions around this on Mastodon. Opinions vary, of course, and some folks are very angry about the whole thing. It mostly boils down to folks in marginalized and discriminated against groups who made their homes on Mastodon being afraid. They don’t want to have to deal with the hate that will come along with an extremely popular, large, instance. I can’t say that I blame them.
I’m hopeful this will all work out and won’t divide the community.🕊️
Just found this little feller in our yard. Hoppy little booger. Took a while to catch ‘em.
RIP Apollo🪦😔
Kim’s gardenias are starting to pop open and they smell amazing. I don’t remember them smelling this sweet.
The next set of daylillies have come in and they’re amazing. They’re so beautiful and it’s nice to see them even if it’s only for a day or so.
Last year after the first flower burst open a deer came by and wiped out everything else. 🤣
This year we’ve hit three without a deer incident. The thunderstorms are probably helping.
Having a beer with my girls.
Saturday Morning Coffee
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
We’ve been home for a week now and it’s been really nice to sleep in our own bed!
Now, if we could get Cocoa to sleep past 5:30AM I’d be thrilled. 😃
I hope you have a nice cup of coffee or tea ready and I hope you enjoy the links.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has refused to surrender, and called Vladimir Putin “deeply mistaken” following the Russian president’s address describing his actions as betrayal.
I heard about this as I was crawling in bed. I hope the Wagner Group is able to destabilize Putin and end the war in Ukraine.
Probably too much to hope for. 🙁
I wanted to address Reddit’s continued, provably false statements, as well as answer some questions from the community, and also just say thanks.
I love this openness from Christian Selig. If folks don’t know, Christian tapes his conversations with Reddit folks. It’s been very interesting to read bit the transcript he’s shared. It’s clear they have lied.
I just wish Christian had posted this all to a weblog so it would have a more permanent home. Who knows what’s going to happen with his subreddit.
After a bruising week of protests and locked-down forums, things started to get back to normal Tuesday on Reddit, as — oh wait, what’s this?
Subreddit moderators are doing all they can to screw things up on Reddit. I applaud their effort.
If you want to watch pop culture eat itself, go see The Flash, a movie that starts out as a sprightly superhero adventure, then dissolves into a self-referential requiem for the DC Universe.
I’m torn about seeing this movie given all the hubbub surrounding Ezra Miller but I really want to see Michael Keatons older Batman!
These days, distributed version control systems like Git have “won the war” of version control. One of the arguments I used to hear when DVCSs were gaining traction was around how easy it is to branch and merge with a VCS like Git. However, I’m a big fan of Trunk-Based Development (TBD), and I want to tell you why.
I’d imagine most folks I work with today have no clue how we used to work. I didn’t use git for version control full time until around 2014 I’d imagine? I found it terribly frustrating to work with at first but know I’m fine with it.
Anywho, up until 2014 I’d worked with so many different version control systems. I’d imagine I worked with CVS the longest and we had one main branch — trunk — and everyone committed directly to it. Yes, breaking the build was definitely frowned upon so you had to be very careful about your commits!
When North Carolina Gov. Patrick McCrory signed House Bill 2 into law, I wonder if he was thinking long-range about what the result might be. I can’t see him and his staff wondering out loud if their thick-skulled, cracker logic might result in Bruce Springsteen not only canceling his upcoming show in Greensboro, depriving the state of revenue and its residents of a Springsteen concert, but inspiring Mr. Boss to issue a press release that more people have read than will ever peruse House Bill 2.
Henry Rollins seems to be a really great dude. Part punk, part philosopher, always interesting to listen to or read.
Seven years after the Brexit referendum, the proportion of Britons who want to rejoin the EU has climbed to its highest levels since 2016, according to a new survey.
I mean, duh! The British version of MAGA didn’t work out so well. It’s been terrible for so many. I hope they rejoin the EU.
The NASCAR Next Gen Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was a hit from day one in Le Mans, among fans, media and even other competitors. And it was fast on track, consistently putting down lap times that bettered cars in the GT class. The car ran near the top of the GT field for more than 20 hours until a drive line issue sidelined the team for more than an hour. Overall, the car was running at the finish, completed 285 laps on the 8.4-mile circuit and finished 39th in the 62-car field.
This car is an absolute beast and looked out of place at Le Mans. It would also look out of place on a NASCAR track. It is a beautiful car with some really excellent engineering. Oh, yeah, and it is super fast! Good old American V8 horsepower under the hood.
I kind of wish I’d been more of a car guy when I was younger. My Dad certainly is and has built some beautiful cars in his time. His ‘37 Chevy Coup Street Rod is stunning and he used to drag race a 454 powered ‘51 Anglia.
I had the opportunity to learn a lot but didn’t. If I could do it today I’d love to be a mechanic or engineer for a NASCAR, IndyCar, or F1 team. I’d love to specialize in engines. I do find them fascinating and would love to rebuild one again. I rebuilt a Chevy small block in High School my senior year. Yeah, I took auto shop because I wanted to do something “easy.” 😃
After 21 years, Cadillac Racing marked our return to the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 10—11 with our highest finish ever in front of a record audience of 325,000 spectators. Our No. 2 V-Series.R led laps for the first time in Cadillac history and finished on the podium in 3rd, with the No. 3 just behind in 4th, and the No. 311 fighting back for 10th in class.
There’s an article on Jalopnik that includes a video of one of these cars doing a bump start and it sounds mean. It instantly made me think of the Batmobile for some reason.
Now, let’s get more American manufacturers back in NASCAR. Cadillac would be a super interesting entry! I think Dodge is an obvious entry for NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series given their history of legendary cars like the Challenger and their RAM trucks.
Cadillac would be super cool to see in NASCAR Cup racing but it may be too lowbrow for them? 🤣
Renting an RV and embarking on a road trip across America can seem like more of a fantasy trip than a real thing you actually do. But you can truly make it a reality. And if you do, it can turn into a thrilling and liberating experience that will leave you with unforgettable memories. Here’s why you should take the plunge.
This is something I dream about all the time but I can’t quite get Kim convinced we need to sell everything and go all in on the RV lifestyle.
As a compromise we’d like to acquire a smaller RV and do some two week to one month excursions to see if we like it. It would also be great for week long camping trips with the entire family.
Maybe someday it’ll be a reality? 🤞🏼
When former NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino was named Twitter’s next CEO last month, advertisers breathed a sigh of relief.
I don’t expect Ms. Yaccarino to last very long at Twitter. I think my original quesstimate was six months but I could see it lasting as long as a year.
Musk is too much of a control freak. The kind of boss I’d hate working for.
The best piece of advice I ever got from my VP of Engineering and CTO at Pelco was “You have to convince people your vision is the right way to go so they follow. You won’t get their best work if you’re a tyrant.” It was something like that. Basically be a leader, not a bully.
This blog post is meant to be read in order. Later answers are shorter because they rely on the information presented in the earlier answers.
This is a really nice piece if you’re following along with the TFG Top Secret documents prosecution. Dude is such a knucklehead and honestly believes he has magical powers to declassify things with his mind. Dumbass.
The engineers reminded him of their commutes. The working parents reminded him of school pickup times. Mr. Medina replied with arguments he has delineated so often that they have come to feel like personal mantras: Being near each other makes the work better. Mr. Medina approached three years of mushy remote-plus-office work as an experiment. His takeaway was that ideas bubble up more organically in the clamor of the office.
I believe with all my heart CEO’s like this are real control freaks and must have the adoration of their people surrounding them at all times. I can have these ah-ha moments, Slack someone, and fire up a zoom call to have the same conversations. It’s just not face to face in a building I have to commute to.
If our company demanded everyone come to the office, of course I’d comply, but I really don’t believe it’s necessary.
Just my horrible opinion.
A federal court heard both sides during a trial where trans youth, their parents, and their doctors challenged a law banning gender affirming care in Arkansas. The court found that the law violated the right to due process and to equal treatment under the constitution, and ordered the law struck down because Arkansas failed to demonstrate a compelling state interest justifying the unequal treatment.
We really need the courts to continue overturning these idiotic and dangerous laws.
You cannot force people to be someone they are not and denying them healthcare because they’re different than you is barbaric.
Apparently Meta’s Project 92 is going to federate with a limited set of Mastodon instances, pay them, and allow them to display Meta ads in exchange for a cut.
Embrace and extend. Amirite?
Let’s see how this plays out.
Most of the Fahrni clan.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
A shot from Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Me, Kim, and Addi! 🏖️
I’m not really into trucker hats but I really love this one. It’s from the 15 year celebration swag with Agrian team got while I was there. I love the colors — gray and black — and the logo is really sweet.
All those sweat rings give it that lived in look.
The food will be simple but it’s the view we’re here for. That and the walk on the beach afterward.
Saturday Morning Coffee
Good morning from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! ☕️
Kim and I rented a place for a week to share with our kids, grandkids, and our dogs! We arrived around 7PM Friday evening, got setup, had some pizza, and pretty much passed out.
We haven’t had time to do any real recon of the are but I did manage to find a decent pizza joint and a Food Lion so we could pick up odds and ends to stock the fridge for the week.
From Friday to Tuesday it’s all about our kids and grandkids. Tuesday forward it’ll just be Kim and I and our oldest grandchild until next Saturday.
I was hoping to get some extra bunk time but that ain’t gonna happen with a puppy who thinks 5:30AM is play time. 🤣
We’re going to have a great time at the beach and whatever else we can drum up.
Enjoy the links.
But even just a small taste of VisionOS made me feel confident that it is going to be the next major platform for Apple and Apple developers, alongside MacOS and iOS/iPadOS.
I wasn’t too excited about any new AR/VR headset Apple was set to release, then I saw it in the keynote.
At first I was disappointed because they were showing someone in an office using it to replace their monitor(s) and that’s kind of boring.
The we see someone celebrating a child’s birthday wearing the headset. Really? What a complete douchebag. No, seriously, that’s a really bad move.
But, when I saw them demonstrate watching movies with it, I was excited! That is what I’d use it for!
Am I spending $3,500 anytime soon on one? Hell no! It’s still to early for me, especially at that price. It’s hard to justify it.
Donald Trump himself broke the news this evening that he’s been indicted—making him the first former president to ever be charged with a federal crime.
King ding dong himself is finally being indicted for his retention of government documents. It’s not about him accidentally having a few mixed in with his other papers, it’s about boxes of them, not returning them on request, and lying that he did return them.
The right like to say “What about Biden and Pence?” Indeed, what about them. They self reported having documents and turned them over right away.
TFG is a real garbage human wrapped in a suit. My hope is, at a minimum, he’s banned from running for any federal office ever again.
Easy question – hard answer, how to I convert a hex string to hex byte string in C?
Go along for the ride. I haven’t taken the time to think through how to solve this and I only have nits to pick with Colin’s solution.
Richmond’s post-graduation mass shooting reflects America’s gun violence epidemic
This is so sickening. The shooting is absolutely horrific but to do it at a graduation? It’s heartbreaking how callous our nation has become.😔
This document is the reference guide describing how to mix Swift and C++
Since this was done as an official way to use C++ from Swift there was all kinds of thought out into safety. That’s fine, but if you have a great hunk of C++ that has been thoroughly tested and you feel good about it you probably don’t need the training wheels provided by this support.
Just wrap your C++ in a thin layer of Objective-C++ and call it from your Swift code without penalty. 🤷🏻♂️
Goodbye, CNN’s Chris Licht. But what’s the lesson?
I know he screwed the pooch with that TFG interview thing but man, that was pretty quick.
The number of 2019 Mac Pros sold cannot be huge, but the new one’s numbers are going to be even smaller. As a Mac Pro fan that worries me. Yes, there are users who are reliant on PCI solutions and I’m sure those folks will upgrade to this new machine at some point.
Who is this computer for? That’s the question on most folks minds. When I heard it wasn’t nearly as expandable as the 2019 version it made me wonder why they bothered? Beyond the awesome SOC it doesn’t have more to offer than its 2019 counterpart.
Then again, I’ve never been the target of this computer. I’m still using a 2019 MacBook Pro and I’m fine with it. Heck, I have a brand new M2 based MacBook Pro sitting in a box waiting for me to set it up. 🤣
But as Adams scanned the bustling crowd of King Penguins, elephant seals, and Antarctic fur seals, he spotted something bizarre in the distance.
Go check out the post. This bird is gorgeous and I want it.
Could The NASCAR Garage 56 Camaro Beat Every GTE Car At Le Mans?
I’d love to watch this all the way through but that’s not gonna happen. I hope NASCAR has partnered with someone to do a full documentary on it. The process from concept to reality to running the race. I hope it makes it the full 24 hours. That alone would be a huge victory.
Nah, she’s not cute. 🥺
Sacked out.
We’re in Nashville, no not that one, the one in Illinois. We’ve picked up our new pup, Cocoa, and head back home tomorrow. Kolby is gonna hate us for a while but he’s a sweet boy and will teach her the ropes. 🐶🚙
Say hi Cocoa.
Working From Home
I put together some tips for folks at work back in early 2020 as COVID was starting to spread like wild fire here in the States.
–
I thought I’d throw some work from home tips in a doc. I’ve been working from home off and on for the past 20+ years, give or take.
- Keep your routine - get up at the same time, prepare for the day the same way you always do.
- Get dressed for work - Dress how you’d dress for work. I need this one otherwise I’d lay about all day in my PJ’s. It’s so easy to get lazy, at least for me it is.
- Create a dedicated workspace - This one can be tough, but if you’re able, do it. This allows for a bit of separation mentally between work and home life. If I don’t do this everything starts to blur together.
- Take breaks - Since you’re home it’s easy to skip these. Take a few minutes, get up, stretch, and walk around. Go outside, take a walk. If you have a pet, take them for a walk. They’ll love you for it! Chill during lunch. I like to eat away from my workspace and on occasion I’ll watch a bit of TV.
- Work outside - I love doing this on nice days. I’ll work outside for a bit. It kind of goes against having a dedicated space but it’s a nice change. I tend to do this in the morning while sipping coffee. It’s so beautiful here. I’m really looking forward to trying it.
Everyone has to find a rhythm that works for them. These are the things that work for me.
When I initially started working from home I would get up, get dressed, eat breakfast (not always), and drive my kids to school. When I got home I was at work. I’d walk into my office, close the door, and go to work. It may sound silly but I needed it to get me in the proper frame of mind. If it would help you, take a quick drive to emulate driving to work.
I plan on getting out a bit. Going to the store for the usual stuff; milk, coffee, etc. The daily necessities. I’ll batch them up but I need a bit of time away from the house to preserve my sanity.
My friends know how much I love contrails — as in condensation trail.
More stuff blooming!
Yesterday and today. What a difference a day makes.
Kim’s roses are happy and just starting to put off blooms.
There have been some critters gnawing on the leaves.
I hear folks say “Stop calling the GOP Nazis.” Fine. I’ll stop when they stop behaving like Nazis.
Love that little tongue sticking out. 👅
