Some time ago, I came across Kidlin’s law – a problem written down is a problem halved. This tracks well with my own experience, but why is that the case? In a nutshell, in order to write something down, you must understand it well enough to write it down. I often find that, when describing a problem in writing, I add details that I knew – but weren’t conscious of.
(more…)Category: Opinion
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State of the Blog 2023
True to tradition, I’m writing a summer retrospective post. Meant to be the summer counterpart to my end-of-year roundup series, some information will naturally be duplicated across the two series of posts.
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Pride once more
It is June, which means that Pride month is here again. My post last year soon took another turn as a terrorist attacked a pair of pubs in downtown Oslo. Two people were killed, and a further twenty-one were wounded. As a result, Oslo Pride was largely cancelled. More recently, the organization Save the Children cancelled a Pride-event due to threats and harassment.
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the Hacker attitude
Guiding principles for IT work
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Tradition!
In the opening act of Fiddler on the roof, Tevye and the other characters sing about the importance of tradition in their daily lives. While more than a hundred years have gone by since its setting in 1905, tradition remains important. It’s important to all of us, for so many reasons. Traditions are one of the many ways in which we pass on our joint knowledge of who we are as people. This week, I’d like to share some of my traditions.
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More recruitment spamming
As much as I maintain that showing the world how these spammy folks operate, they still keep trying. Here’s another example which is a mixed bag of good and bad:
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Unpacking an extortion scam
I have zero patience or compassion for people who spend their time scamming others. I usually ignore the multiple scam attempts that find their way to my inbox (or more usually spam folder), but I wanted to highlight this one to show just how inept it often is, and just how many red flags it has:
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The trifecta of recruitment hucksters
Posting about recruitment hucksters doing recruitment has a number of purposes. First and foremost, I believe raising awareness about these things is important, and this is a good way to do so. Secondly, I think it’s also important to showcase how I evaluate (and how I’d suggest others evaluate) recruiting overtures. Thirdly, it’s proven to be an effective way to keep them quiet for a little while.
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Anatomy of an apology
We are human, and we will make mistakes. We can hope that they don’t have disastrous consequences, but sooner or later mistakes will be made. There’s just no way around it. Sometimes we’re unlucky, sometimes we’re lazy, and sometimes we’re simply negligent. Whatever the case might be, the end result is the same; a mistake has been made. That, however, is only part of the picture.
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Favorite things in 2022
As has become my habit over the past few years, I’m once more looking back at the year that has past, and the things that have made that year. Your mileage may vary, but these have all become very useful to me.
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2022 roundup
It is the end of the year, and I am once again writing my end of the year post, and what a year it has been. This time last year, the biggest of my worries was electricity prices (which are still bad, though nowhere near as bad as last year). Since then, my entire family has had Covid, Russia has invaded Ukraine (and, for the most part, been soundly beaten back), and I’ve successfully reorganized my union local.
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