Readit News logoReadit News
ilc commented on I forced every engineer to take sales calls and they rewrote our platform   old.reddit.com/r/Entrepre... · Posted by u/bilsbie
jacquesm · 8 days ago
Yes, god forbid that an engineer would be contacted directly to solve a problem they have. The thought alone.
ilc · 8 days ago
Yes, god forbid people escalate their issues properly so they go to the right people. The thought alone.
ilc commented on AI tooling must be disclosed for contributions   github.com/ghostty-org/gh... · Posted by u/freetonik
btown · 8 days ago
One of my mental models is that the notion of "effective engineer" used to mean "effective software developer" whether or not they were good at system design.

Now, an "effective engineer" can be a less battle-tested software developer, but they must be good at system design.

(And by system design, I don't just mean architecture diagrams: it's a personal culture of constantly questioning and innovating around "let's think critically to see what might go wrong when all these assumptions collide, and if one of them ends up being incorrect." Because AI will only suggest those things for cut-and-dry situations where a bug is apparent from a few files' context, and no ambitious idea is fully that cut-and-dry.)

The set of effective engineers is thus shifting - and it's not at all a valid assumption that every formerly good developer will see their productivity skyrocket.

ilc · 8 days ago
I suspect that truly battle tested engineers will go up in value.

I don't think that it lowers the bar there, if anything the bar is far harsher.

If I'm doing normal coding I make X choices per time period, with Y impacts.

With AI X will go up and the Y / X ratio may ALSO go up, so making more decisions of higher leverage!

ilc commented on I forced every engineer to take sales calls and they rewrote our platform   old.reddit.com/r/Entrepre... · Posted by u/bilsbie
ilc · 8 days ago
As an engineer, there's only one reason I don't want to be on customer calls:

Once a customer knows the person who actually builds the product, they will short cut:

- Customer Service

- Product Management

- Any other sane defenses you put in to protect a developer's time.

And just contact me directly.

Then what do I do to get them off of me without losing a customer?

... That is why engineers don't get on support calls.

If I could be "Anon E. Mouse" for the engagement, that'd be fine. But fact is, that's not what happens.

ilc commented on Zedless: Zed fork focused on privacy and being local-first   github.com/zedless-editor... · Posted by u/homebrewer
jen20 · 9 days ago
Are you suggesting the FSF has a copyright assignment for the purposes of “rug pulls”?
ilc · 9 days ago
Yes.

The FSF requires assignment so they can re-license the code to whatever new license THEY deem best.

Not the contributors.

A CLA should always be a warning.

ilc commented on Ergonomic keyboarding with the Svalboard: a half-year retrospective   twey.io/hci/svalboard/... · Posted by u/Twey
zamalek · a month ago
I'm not sure you understood me: it looks like the ergo mouse (form factor, ergonomics) but is most definitely not a mouse. As I said though, it seems more difficult to get a keyboard to fit a variety of hands in this form-factor.
ilc · a month ago
Without a hand in it, yeah you might think that. But it is easily 2x the length, and 2-3x the width of my Pulsar X2mini.

I don't think anyone would mistake it for a mouse.

ilc commented on Ergonomic keyboarding with the Svalboard: a half-year retrospective   twey.io/hci/svalboard/... · Posted by u/Twey
Fraterkes · a month ago
My big fear would be that the same thing would happen that happens with vim: you get so used to it that you resent its absence. With Vim I can at least enable some kind of mode in many typing environments, but if I started loving the Svalboard itd mean that I could never use laptops again without feeling at least a bit annoyed.
ilc · a month ago
Honestly, you can maintain laptop muscle memory if your hands are not so injured you can't tolerate the laptop.

I use a laptop keyboard every so often. It isn't my 1st choice, but for light work it's fine.

ilc commented on Ergonomic keyboarding with the Svalboard: a half-year retrospective   twey.io/hci/svalboard/... · Posted by u/Twey
donio · a month ago
I am a longtime (25+ years) Datahand user. I have converted my units to a USB capable controller long ago and I have some extra ones as spares/parts but it might be difficult to get another 25 years out of them.

Haven't tried the Svalboard yet but it's the only obvious way forward that I know of so happy to see any new information about it. I'd be especially interested in the opinion of other Datahand users regarding the Svalboard, specifically the hardware, the switches and overall feel.

ilc · a month ago
Ex-Datahand user, current Svalboard user: (Disclaimer, I work on their firmware as a volunteer, they send me hardware.)

The designer was 100% dependent on his Datahand, now he uses a Svalboard.

When I got sent my first Svalboard, it was so close feel wise that my old muscle memory came back instantly and I started complaining that the layout wasn't the same as the old Datahand Dvorak layout. I ended up doing a faithful port of that layout, then ever time evolved it to the layout I use today.

If you doubt, order a test cluster. You'll see how close it comes.

On the discord some users are willing to meet-up with people to let them try a board in real life.

ilc commented on Atlassian terminates 150 staff   cyberdaily.au/digital-tra... · Posted by u/speckx
geodel · a month ago
> If you don't have the balls to tell an employee to his or her face that they don't...

This is just bullshit. Managers don't have to do any such thing as it may become unnecessarily confrontational. Similarly lot of people resign via email. There is no need to have "guts" to tell manager in their face.

ilc · a month ago
You can do both. You should ALWAYS write a formal resignation letter that's about 3 lines at most, before talking to the manager.

It just stops a ton of confusion, hope, etc. It allows that discussion to focus on "Do you want the two weeks?" and "What do you want me to do with those two weeks if you want them."

Part of being a good employee is making things clear to your manager.

ilc commented on Ergonomic keyboarding with the Svalboard: a half-year retrospective   twey.io/hci/svalboard/... · Posted by u/Twey
zamalek · a month ago
The think the premium that these devices suffer from is how niche they are. Mechanical is relatively niche to begin with (programmers and gamers, mostly). Then you add the idea of making a single large investment for the good of your health, and the pool gets even thinner. Just think of all the garbage chairs that people sit on in front of their computer; let alone keyboards, which they barely think of (until they get RSI, that is).

I'm currently designing one that is a crossover between the characorder and a Logitech vertical mouse (but not actually a mouse), and I hope to make it cheap. It has been going poorly, to say the least. The biggest problem so far is smaller hands, multiple designs scrapped when put in front of such a person. Maybe I should take inspiration from Svalboard instead? Furthermore, Average Joe is not going to tolerate the massive dependency on layers that these keyboards often have, so I'm still fighting in my head with an approach for that.

ilc · a month ago
The Datahand / Svalboard branch is even more niche than a standard mech board. They are really designed for people who are facing injury, injured, or have been injured.

I'd encourage you to look at the Svalboard, I think it solves many of the issues you are running into. In the end, moving a large mouse is not good for someone with shoulder issues, the "Svalmouse" has been tried and solidly rejected. (Using a Svalboard hand as a mouse.)

If you want to discuss things, I'm sure you can find me on the Svalboard discord. :)

ilc commented on Ergonomic keyboarding with the Svalboard: a half-year retrospective   twey.io/hci/svalboard/... · Posted by u/Twey
eviks · a month ago
The progression from unergonomic garbage default to splits and ~glovey form makes sense (with the future more sensitive per-finger sensors allowing for more gestures?), though it's a pity the health issues were involved, and that the resulting niche is small and expensive. Where are all the cheep rubber dome splits? Those would already offer health advantage without the mechanical premium...

By the way, the layout might better use physical direction mnemonics, so backspace could be a finger move to the left, and delete - move to the right (either by the same finger or maybe by its mirrored counterpart on another hand). Similar thing for <> and -+-+

> north keys are much harder to hit than its south keys, > find the inward lateral keys much easier to hit than the north keys

So, basically, "grabbing" movements are more natural?

ilc · a month ago
Disclaimer: Volunteer Svalboard Firmware Dev.

For most people the south keys and center are easier to press and more importantly hold. I don't care much about directions anymore, except for holding down keys.

Layout is a personal thing, we use Vial, so different people have different layouts, mine has a ton of mnemonics in it. It's really up to the user what they want, I'd be surprised if there are 2 Svalboards with the same layout. (Maybe stock when they are starting out, but people develop their own opinions pretty quickly.)

u/ilc

KarmaCake day1009December 8, 2020View Original