duncanfwalker (u/duncanfwalker)

duncanfwalker commented on Demand for UK Food Bank Up 15% Year on Year theguardian.com/society/2... · Posted by u/rcarr

ukrefugee · 3 months ago

24 million people receiving benefits (aka cash) in uk

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statis...

in addition to the usual free everything

free health care free roads free housing (often) free education

free riding and on top of it you get to complain about the rich!

Spending is paid for out of tax and all those people will have paid tax. Paying less tax than someone else doesn't make a free rider. Deliberately opting out of an obligation while taking from the group makes a free rider.

duncanfwalker commented on Blending SQL and Python with Sqlorm hyperflask.dev/blog/2025/... · Posted by u/emixam

tcdent · 3 months ago

Kudos for making the leap.

Your pattern of re-interpreting __doc__ is kinda weird though. Why not just add a `return` statement?

duncanfwalker · 3 months ago

I guess it's more clear that it should be a to statically readable value? eg you shouldn't do things like use arguments to build the str

duncanfwalker commented on QGIS is a free, open-source, cross platform geographical information system github.com/qgis/QGIS... · Posted by u/rcarmo

n8cpdx · 5 months ago

That’s an important point. The collaboration model is more complex in GIS because it’s not just documents (maps and map projects) but the underlying data is coming from databases that are independently editable.

The comparison still works in some ways though, because ArcGIS is selling you both the software (ArcGIS Pro, Map Viewer, Field Maps, etc) and the backing services (hosted feature services, basemaps, locators, etc), similar to how Office is selling you data hosting, sharing, and mobile + web app integration.

You can accomplish the same things with QGIS, GeoServer, QField, etc, but then you’re in the position of building a GIS from parts. Whereas with ArcGIS, setting up a new map and database (feature service) for data collection is a point-click workflow.

Of course you pay a premium for that level of integration.

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

This is spot on. I'd love it if it was possible to get the integration with the QGIS ecosystem. It could open source integrations or even a commercial offering that just joins things up in a cohesive way just something that enables a more smooth collaboration model.

duncanfwalker commented on QGIS is a free, open-source, cross platform geographical information system github.com/qgis/QGIS... · Posted by u/rcarmo

tomrod · 5 months ago

Geopandas and QGIS are my go to. QGIS for basic work, automate with Geopandas.

It makes the work a lot of fun!

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

Any tips on smoothing the transition between the two that mean work isn't duplicated?

duncanfwalker commented on QGIS is a free, open-source, cross platform geographical information system github.com/qgis/QGIS... · Posted by u/rcarmo

n8cpdx · 5 months ago

LibreOffice vs Office 365/Google Drive is probably the more relevant comparison.

I won’t comment on market share, but even if theoretically QGIS totally displaced ArcGIS Pro/ArcMap/ArcGIS on the desktop, the arena of competition has shifted to ArcGIS Online and its competitors. And once you’re in ArcGIS Online, Pro becomes the convenient choice for desktop editing.

LibreOffice could be miles better than Office on desktop, but the competition is lost because Office on desktop is just an accessory for Office 365 (which competes with Google Docs/Drive).

Disclosure: I work at Esri.

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

That's an insightful nuance. I've seen you just create divisions in organisations because while it is a really fully featured desktop application, it implies a way of working that doesn't play well with the cloud, which creates barriers between experimenting and production.

duncanfwalker commented on Using Claude Code SDK to reduce E2E test time jampauchoa.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/jampa

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

As other comments have said, I'd prefer other solutions to get by all the tests to run faster. It would be interesting to see if it could be used to prioritise tests - get the tests more likely to fail to run sooner.

duncanfwalker commented on No clicks, no content: The unsustainable future of AI search bradt.ca/blog/no-clicks-n... · Posted by u/bradt

p_ing · 5 months ago

Injecting ads into answers will be the next step for the search market. Reddit is doing it already. And unlike reddit post or comment ads, it may be very difficult to block.

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

Oh god, this has just made me reflect that we're in the golden age of generative AI - not in technology terms, in user experience terms. We're in the period where the major products are competing against each other before they switch into enshitfication mode. You're certainly right, there's going to be ads in the answers and probably worse. I'm imagining companies paying to introduce ideas as subtle subtexts to millions of unrelated answers or platforms deliberately engineering the ux to maximise understanding of our drives and preferences purely so it can be sold.

duncanfwalker commented on AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore praf.me/ai-coding... · Posted by u/_praf

zwnow · 5 months ago

> Absolutely—I feel like I can ship at a crazy velocity now, like I have a team of interns at my disposal to code up my every silly demand.

I also wonder what type of simple CRUD apps people build that have such a performance gain? They must be building well understood projects or be incredible slow developers for LLMs to have such an impact, as I cant relate to this at all.

duncanfwalker · 5 months ago

I wonder whether we'll be able to look back on this period in 10 years time and save definitively whether the wide spectrum of responses to LLMs was perception or real feature of our differing jobs.

duncanfwalker commented on The two versions of Parquet jeronimo.dev/the-two-vers... · Posted by u/tanelpoder

crmd · 6 months ago

So did I :-) but I think the concepts are related: Linus’ ability to shift into autocratic leadership mode when necessary seems to prevent issues like the 4 year indecisiveness on v2/core from compromising product quality to the point where Linux is trusted in a way that rivals commercial software.

duncanfwalker · 6 months ago

+1 you're paying for the governance as much as you're paying for the code.