David Edgar's website

Sunday, 05 May 2024

đź”– Your Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time

Being better about asking for the right thing to the right person at the right time

đź”– The unwritten laws of engineering at Stedi

đź”– The 37signals Guide to Internal Communication

At the risk of it including a line like "Being a massive sook arsehole is a-ok."

đź”– GitLab Handbook: How to embrace asynchronous communication for remote work

Saturday, 04 May 2024

Am I a thief? No, it’s ethics that is wrong.

How do other people stop their brain yelling at them all the time?

đź”– Why you need a "WTF Notebook"

As someone who struggles with focus control this would a really valuable thing to do. Parking things but having a record of them being parked, rather than forgetting until the next time, would alleviate stress and also make me more effective in the moment.

It is the slowing down, not reacting, and writing it down that I also struggle with though.

Thursday, 02 May 2024

Employer had a bunch of old Apple equipment around that we can’t really hand to new employees any longer, even if we were hiring. So I arranged with the org to just give it to any employees that wanted it. No charge, just take it away so I don’t need to pack it up in a fortnight when we move offices. Took names and then handed it out.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any chargers to give with the laptops nor keyboards/mice to give with the desktops. Bemused at how multiple people managed to make it seem like I was ripping them off 🥴

Thursday, 25 April 2024

đź”– The Cloud Under The Sea

Another look at the intercontinental cable laying industry, 28 years after Neal Stephenson's Mother Earth Motherboard

đź”– Mother Earth Motherboard

Neal Stephenson's epic article from 1996 on the trans-continental cable laying industry.

Wednesday, 24 April 2024

Never mind not going to make it. I’m unconvinced we as a species deserve to make it through the Great Filter.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2019411

Monday, 22 April 2024

Look. I am going to read the first Jack Reacher book now.

But only because Max Gladstone referred to it as "Murderbot for Dads", the kind of juxtaposition I am here for.

Guy at work said he and his fiancee are house hunting and having to decide between having a dog and location of the house because they can't afford both. Is time-sharing of dogs a service being offered to millennials? For $25 you can take a dog for a walk for an hour and play with it, throw a ball for it, and clean up its shits. I have two dogs and there are days I would pay someone to take one or both for $25 for an hour.

Friday, 12 April 2024

Colleagues were posting their pictures of the eclipse earlier this week and I thought to have a laugh by posting one as well, taken from Sydney.

So I googled “Sydney Moon” for some images I could use. I needed something like the bridge or the opera house in the image to make the joke obvious because it’s mostly Americans I’m dealing with here, they still have trouble with seasons.

Anyway, that’s how I learned there is an adult entertainer with that name.

Sunday, 07 April 2024

đź”– Airfoil

Fantastically detailed examination and explanation of how airfoils work.

Friday, 05 April 2024

I think I had this on tape at one point. triplej used to trot it out every now and then and I reckon I must have taped a Kingsmill presentation of it once. Such a fantastic show. Wish I’d been there instead of (checks notes) in high school two thousand kms north of Melbourne.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/live-at-the-wireless-on-double-j/nirvana-live-at-the-palace-melbourne-1992/103666970

Tuesday, 02 April 2024

Watching Laura Kampf sawing planks. Clearly too lazy to go get some saw horses, she’s just bracing them on her thigh and running the saw across her measured line. I couldn’t watch even though I can assume she never actually sawed her leg off.

Wednesday, 27 March 2024

I Have Bad Praxis part one million: just yelled at a bus driver because he’d pulled up at the wrong stand, down the far end of the station, and I almost missed him pulling out because I was at the correct stand. Driver made a simple mistake.

Sigh.

Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Gruber says:

The whole point of the DMA is the EC asserting that they know better than Apple (and Google) how phones should work

You know, for better or worse, that reckon the DMA might just be the EC asserting they know better than Apple and Google how civil society should work.

I know who I’m more likely to place my faith in.

Tuesday, 12 March 2024

đź”– Gen Z Beowulf

< >