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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: January 28th, 2023

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  • If you don’t already, use version control (git or otherwise) and try to write useful messages for yourself. 99% of the time, you won’t need them, but you’ll be thankful that 1% of the time. I’ve seen database engineers hack something together without version control and, honestly, they’d have looked far more professional if we could see recent changes when something goes wrong. It’s also great to be able to revert back to a known good state.

    Also, consider writing unit tests to prove your code does what you think it does. This is sometimes more useful for code you’ll use over and over, but you might find it helpful in complicated sections where your understanding isn’t great. Does the function output what it should or not? Start from some trivial cases and go from there.

    Lastly, what’s the nature of the code? As a developer, I have to live with my decisions for years (unless I switch jobs.) I need it to be maintainable and reusable. I also need to demonstrate this consideration to colleagues. That makes classes and modules extremely useful. If you’re frequently writing throwaway code for one-off analyses, those concepts might not be useful for you at all. I’d then focus more on correctness (tests) and efficiency. You might find your analyses can be performed far quicker if you have good knowledge about data structures and algorithms and apply them well. I’ve personally reworked code written by coworkers to be 10x more efficient with clever usage of data structures. It might be a better use of your time than learning abstractions we use for large, long-term applications.


  • catacomb@beehaw.orgtoMemes@lemmy.mlCurious
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    4 months ago

    Good to know the name, I’ve seen it invoked a few times.

    In fact, I had this recently at work where I questioned a decision only for them to retort with one similar characteristic which a prior suggestion of mine shared. This was also a modal fallacy as they only used that one characteristic to come to a conclusion about both.

    You also see it all of the time in politics unfortunately, a lot of “yeah but you also…” where we should be hearing good justifications.


  • catacomb@beehaw.orgtoPrivacy@lemmy.mlHas anyone used briar ?
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    4 months ago

    I’ve used it for the exact same purpose, great minds think alike. It’s perfect for that scenario given there’s no internet.

    I just don’t use it much otherwise because apps like Signal are far easier to move my friends and family on to and they’re more than good enough. The metadata privacy Tor would provide would give me a lot of peace of mind but I know it’ll never happen.








  • I think you’re asking if it’s possible for your government to be a man-in-the-middle? Depending on which government you live under, the answer is likely no but more importantly the answer will always be; it’s not worth their effort to find out what you’re watching.

    YouTube’s public key is signed by a certificate authority whose public key (root) is likely installed on your device from the factory. When you connect to YouTube, they send you a certificate chain which your browser will verify against that known root. In effect, it’s information both you and YouTube already share and can’t be tampered with over the wire.

    Technically, those signatures can be forged by a well resourced adversary (i.e. a government) with access to the certificate authority through subversion, coercion, etc. At the same time, it’s probably easier to subvert or coerce you or YouTube to reveal what you watch.


  • obscure corporate jargon like KPIs (key performance indicators), KRIs (key risk indicators) which, after having thrown them at me during an interview for a college intern position, made the interviewer wonder why i got so flustered. i would hesitate to throw any acronyms around in any interview, let alone for a college student.

    by the way, i got the internship. the acronyms weren’t even used in my position.


  • The biggest issue most people have with it is the dynamic DNS feature, which is automatically enabled and contacts their server to create the record. If you turn this off before connecting the router to the internet, you’re probably good.

    The simplified DoH client also only allows either Cloudflare or NextDNS, which aren’t the most privacy-oriented options. Still, it’s possible to set up your own.

    Otherwise I’ve never heard of anything major; the devices are cheap and reliable. I’ve had one running constantly for years and only had to reboot it manually once.


  • Just wanted to add a bit about Proton since you mentioned it and I use it quite heavily.

    Pros:

    • All-in-one platform for storage, mail, VPN, password manager and calendar. Usually works out cheaper than multiple providers.
    • E-mail aliases built-in to the password manager makes it a breeze to manage. (Tutanota also supports aliases.)
    • Personally, I think the UI is more polished. Not important for privacy but it’s a plus for the non tech-savvy.

    Cons:

    • All-in-one platform. I’m acutely aware that I’m going to have a headache if Proton is enshittified.
    • If you’re not looking for all of the products they offer, it’s just expensive. Tutanota is cheaper for e-mail alone.
    • The Drive app needs improvement. Migrating my files was painful and I want automatic Camera uploads. You might be okay with the Windows desktop app.
    • The Calendar app has issues when not connected to the internet.
    • The password manager doesn’t have a desktop application and managing it through the browser extension or app isn’t great.
    • No subject-line encryption support (and other PGP interoperability issues on the free version) but… unfortunately, I don’t get many PGP encrypted e-mails anyway.

    Otherwise these two are largely like-for-like for e-mail. There’s no benefit to Proton being hosted in Switzerland and I didn’t move to be warrant-proof or anything silly. The idea is really just moving emails away from an advertising company and paying for a quality service.