Steven R. Baker @srbaker Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@pesSlip_de_bain

@infinity8io

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@sorrysight

@renzerotwoyuno

@KatieMining

@nucleoxiao

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@IrvingISD

@un6251771752318

@rocks1883

@hilly237

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@paiNGamingCS2

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@hmnt

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@adrockroc

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@unlocklevels

@vehasrez

@lysmarieetv

@domfifield

@FunderProfx

@FredNietzky

@reMirth

Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

A database consulting company where I just tell people "Postgres already does this" and they pay me $10k.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Unpopular opinion: everyone doing a web application (yes, that's you) should go fullstack monolith, and avoid stepping outside of it. Rails, Django, Phoenix are the best choices for this, but good ones exist in all reasonable environments*. *: anything but JavaScript

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

Kubernetes is an Ancient Greek word meaning "More containers than customers."

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 months

I ordered breakfast at a French restaurant here in Paris. It came with orange juice. I asked for a coke as well. Waiter asked a nearby waitress, who confirmed I wanted a coke. Waiter said “No. No coke. It’s breakfast.”

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Splitting web applications into two: front-end and back-end allows companies to hire twice as many people to get the same amount of work done. Nothing more. This was important when VC money was flowing. But now we're belt tightening, we need to be sensible.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

A bad monolith will beat bad micro-services any day of the week. A good monolith will beat good micro-services every day. There is some overlap there, but it's a lot easier to clean up a bad monolith than bad micro-services, and it's harder to get micro-services right.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 months

A friend told me tonight “Steven, you don’t realise that you are in a very slim minority in the software industry because you understand what a web server is and how to set one up.” He’s not wrong. But christ that’s depressing.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

Thanks to @johncutlefish . "12 Signs You're Working in a Feature Factory" got passed around the office to developers who understood. Then it landed on a manager's desk. Not joking: we're now being told we're going to "adopt the feature factory model."

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

@bestofnextdoor That’s one of 30-50.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

An important point of maturity as a developer is realizing that writing code is a relatively insignificant part of software development.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

11 years

In 2005 I drunkenly released a dumb hack. It was called RSpec. You are victims on one of the biggest trolls ever committed. You’re welcome.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

I'm seeing a lot of folks who don’t understand OOP running around telling people they’d be better off using FP, which they also don’t understand.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 years

I did a ReactNative app earlier this year and I have to say the claims are a bit overblown. I was promised _reasonable_ iOS, and _good_ Android for free. What I got was a shitty iOS app and mediocre Android app for free. I’d have been happier with _good_ iOS and no Android.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

Now that everyone has 280 we can use the second half for license dis-agreements. h/t @doctorow BY READING THIS TWEET YOU AGREE TO RELEASE THE AUTHOR FROM ANY AND ALL LICENSE AGREEMENTS MADE TO DATE.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

@fuckyouiquit Funny. No mention of wage theft. Perhaps it's on the other side because they ran out of space?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@davegray @gdinwiddie My previous employer would pick up the bar tab pretty readily, but wouldn't let us expense chairs that were more expensive than a pack of crisps. So I counted how many Aerons I drank on the company dime: more than two for everyone in my office.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

I find JIRA completely impossible to work with. It must be that the UI is poor, because I find other tools like it to be just fine. It's completely foreign to me in any configuration: I have a hard time getting the answers I'm looking for, it's cumbersome. It can't be just me?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

10 months

My style wouldn't include an if statement.

Michał Zakrzewski

@the_mzakrzewski

10 months

What is your style of coding?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Wide use of micro-services isn't for productivity gains, system design, other good. It enables hiring n times as many devs to get the same amount of work done. Micro-services are great when applied where they're useful, but most orgs can't manage the overhead well, so net loss.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

@rudermensch The "This laptop is brought to you by" sticker is not sending the message he thinks it is.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

There’s so much talk of “deadlines” and urgency in software that it’s as if people don’t realise they’re nearly always fabricated and arbitrary.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

The factory where my Dad worked in the late 90s went through a lot of instability. Constant layoffs and hiring binges. Years after he'd moved on, it was bought from the corporate overlords by a co-op of the employees. Suddenly, the instability disappeared.

Black Socialists in America

@BlackSocialists

6 years

We’re going to be honest: Too many Leftists lack an understanding for what Capitalism is, not as an abstract socioeconomic system, but as a MODE OF PRODUCTION. Move past LABELS and watch @profwolff break down Capitalism as a MODE OF PRODUCTION using simple arithmetic. (1/6)

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

Installed Devuan. Immediately all of the network and resolution issues I was having are gone. Fuck systemd.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 month

The recent resurgence of Functional Programming is basically all of the people who didn't understand Object-Oriented Programming misunderstanding FP with each other.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

I’m going to live stream adding subscriptions via stripe to a Rails 7 app tomorrow and/or Friday. If anyone is interested. I’ll be practising TDD, answering questions in the comments, and using @rubymine . After that I’ll live stream adding @AppSignal to the same app.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 months

Hey @dhh , I would like you to clear up a misconception, and apologies if you've described this already. Can you please tell the pitchfork army how many times you (or your employees) have physically touched hardware you own, and whether you even have physical access to it today?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 months

I said a few times at EuRuKo that I thought Rails should have authentication built in. Looks like we're getting it in Rails 8!

Add basic authentication generator · Issue #50446 · rails/rails

Rails now include all the key building blocks needed to do basic authentication, but many new developers are still uncertain of how to put them together, so they end up leaning on all-in-one gems t...

github.com

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@danmayer @bphogan I don't remember the origin of the quote (please provide if you know, Weinberg?) "Change your company, or change your company."

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

Electron apps are not "cross-platform native" applications. They are "captive web browsers." Can we stop calling things what they're not?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

For those who don't know: we have been granted permanent residency in Sweden.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

It’s really strange to see Americans talking about “registering” to vote. In this years election in Sweden I received a letter telling me which elections I was eligible to vote in, where to do it, and instructions on how to fill a ballot. I didn’t ask: it showed up in the mail.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

@elchefe Have done. Much easier than doing the same in some supposed micro-services arch.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

I wrote about the history (and pre-history) of RSpec. If you use RSpec, or similar tools, you might be interested. History of RSpec

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

I wish I had spent my 20s playing music and smoking dope. Instead I banged on keyboards. Parents, teach your kids the virtues of playing music and smoking dope.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

@courtneymilan Since moving to Sweden, I’ve noticed a difference in how freedom and privacy are treated. In the US (and Canada to a lesser extent) freedom and privacy are things to be taken. In Sweden, they’re things we give each other.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

9 months

I'm hearing both "I can't find experienced developers" from people hiring, and "I can't find a job" from experienced developers. I wonder why...

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

@bonsai There are many kinds of databases. Postgres outperforms all of them at their own specialty.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

@_JayTheDev Here’s a freebie: Postgres is the best document database!

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

12 years

The person who adds the most code to your code base is often the least valuable. Look for the person who deletes the most code.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

10 years

I used to IM Jim Weirich questions. He wouldn’t answer them. He’d reply with a failing test case.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

11 years

Wow. This is a great description of sexism, and how it works in practice. Very eye opening: http://t.co/g1DL2eQOB2

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 months

I just started using DocuSeal and I am in love with it: It's not only a well needed tool for many, it's AGPLv3 licensed, and it's an amazing example of what you can do with Rails 7 and Hotwire. Please take a look!

DocuSeal | Open Source Document Signing

Free and Open source tool to streamline document filling and signing. Create custom PDF forms to complete and sign with an easy to use online tool. Automatic digital signature.

www.docuseal.co

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

@amiridis A thousand times this. I treat every dependency as code that I may some day wind up being responsible for.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

Being the dude on the left is how I feel about my career. I should talk about what I’m doing more I guess.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

I had the pleasure of kicking off @euruko this year. Absolutely fantastic crowd. I forgot to take the opportunity to tell everyone that I have some availability for new gigs and would love to work in Rails land again. Please contact me if you’d like to work together!

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

@GermHunterMD @ajlburke Oh this sounds like how Sweden handled the whole pandemic. :( My son’s school had to get shut down for like two months because the virus had run so wild through it they didn’t have enough healthy people to turn on the lights.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

This applies to non-web, as well. Use the tools that match your target audience devices. If you're doing mobile, your choices are Apple Defaults and Android Defaults. You'll be rewarded for this. Even when the vendor is sometimes shitty.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 months

@ffaebi No, he was French.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

@hilaryagro Lada 4x4. Also known as a Niva. It’s my wife’s and my favourite car, we’re getting a matching pair next year for our birthdays. They’re amazing.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

I have had the shittiest of shit weeks, so it’s hard to celebrate. But: on 1 July 2021 I made my last housing payment for the rest of my life.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

Son wants Rocket League for PS4. He is insisting that we pay 30% more to get it on disc, because he's been burned by DRM too much. He's 9.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

11 years

Everyone’s doing this thing called Dependency Injection. It looks just like what I call “Passing shit in to the constructor.”

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

Holy shit. I just did Refactor->Rename on an Obj-C class in Xcode and it worked. First time. Updated all references correctly, too (and this was a weird one.) First time for everything, I guess.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 months

I've had some tough years, but 2023 was the worst for me yet. For a bunch of reasons. Almost zero redeeming qualities in fact. Here's to 2024 being an improvement, and really setting the tone for the second half of my life. Happy New Year old friends and new.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

As agilists, we need to stop using the word "customer" when we mean "end-user." And we need to understand that people paying for the software are very rarely the people who use it day-to-day. A lot of things start to make sense when you split the customer from the user.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 months

RSpec has `context`. It's the only thing that I sometimes miss when I'm being a sensible person who doesn't use RSpec. I joked about possibly releasing my hack to implement it, and was encouraged. Y'all are nuts. You've been warned. I ❤️❤️❤️ Ruby.

A demonstration of how you might implement a `context` helper for sharing state between tests when...

A demonstration of how you might implement a `context` helper for sharing state between tests when using the declarative `test` helper in ActiveSupport. - context_test.rb

gist.github.com

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

"I have also taken steps to address the root cause of my mistake, which is to say I took a nap." @avdi 's terrific problem solving skills.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 months

Zoom was very nearly perfect for its purpose. In the last update, I've got a bunch of icons for shit I never want. The same thing happened with Slack. Every product reaches perfection, and then just gets worse every day. :(

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

When optimising, instead of asking "How do we make this faster?", try "What if we don't do this at all?"

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 months

@dhh Exactly. Please sing it. This is what most of the detractors don't understand. They don't know what services a DC offers. :)

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

Anyone who says you _can’t_ collaborate while working remotely is just outing themselves as being narrow minded about collaboration. It’s different, certainly. But some of us don’t need to be able to smell you to collaborate with you.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 months

I said a lot of curse words on a stage in front of people today. It was a good day.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

I'm amused by "agile ruined software"/"agile didn't improve anything" going around right now. Misunderstanding agile, poorly applying that misunderstanding, and calling what you did agile, is hardly the fault of agile. Or maybe it is? Maybe that's what we got wrong.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

The PEI government is doing a "study" about the implementation of a rental registry. Let me make it easy for you: the rental registry can be implemented, for free, in six months. I'll do it. It's a cakewalk for any competent person with experience.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@porges @GeePawHill There is a limit to the number of arguments a constructor can have on the JVM. At my last job, we found out the hard way.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@bphogan The only reason to disallow remote is if you want your employees to smell each other. They can see each other on video, they can hear on audio calls. They can’t touch each other because of HR. So what’s left?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 months

A dude on here just lamented the state of the software industry, and asked for suggestions of "good, native" applications. Suggestions were nearly all garbage fire Electron apps that are exactly the problem. Nobody even knows how good computering could be anymore.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 year

For many years, I've said "I've never seen a company fail due to technology problems. It's always people problems." In recent times, though, I seeing companies collapsing under the weight of their idiotic technical decisions. I never thought I'd see the day.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

Ordered pizza on the phone in Swedish—in Skåne—and they didn’t switch to English. It’s the small things, folks.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 years

@kvlly Love it. Not that many years back, I worked on an app where one regular user visited with Sony WebTV. And reported bugs when it didn't work. The people who cared about the analytics were driven absolutely nuts by this.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

Look. You idiots are buying a microphone, connecting it to the internet, and then acting surprised when strangers can listen to what you spoke _in to the goddamned microphone_. There is no other possible way for this to go.

Mental Floss

@mental_floss

5 years

How to Prevent Your Alexa Device From Recording Your Private Conversations—

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 months

I will soon be announcing discounted pre-orders for a product that I’m releasing under the ONCE licence in May. I love the model, and I’m glad @37signals has led the charge on this. It’s an app for organising cards on a wall, XP or Kanban style.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

@JuhanaBrotherus I’m with the Finns. I was told that Swedes like to keep distance when I moved here in 2015. But I’ve never been somewhere where people queue to far up your arse you can’t turn around. Also weird that Swedes said the restrictions were difficult: there basically aren’t any here.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

Junior colleague started ReSharper's code cleanup on a ~40kloc C# *file* and went for lunch. The progress bar hasn't moved yet, so he's using the remaining time to read @mfeathers ' WEWLC book.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

2 months

I didn't realise it was controversial to think that perhaps people who work in software should have a basic understanding of how computers work.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

Current gig: every new feature treated as an emergency. "OMG COMPANY WILL DIE IF NOT DONE YESTERDAY" Result: there is an actual emergency right now, and nobody knows how to deal with it because we're all emergencied out. When everything is an emergency, nothing is an emergency.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 months

The Shitshow 3 (with special guest!): Build a Multiplayer Game in Ruby on Rails 7.1 Join us live tomorrow at 22:00 Central European, 4pm Eastern, where @chrisdmacrae and I will start building a simple multiplayer game in Ruby on Rails 7.1!

The Shitshow 3 (with special guest!): Build a Multiplayer Game in...

Welcome to The Shitshow!Now with a special guest!Steven and Chris D. MacRae will start building a simple interactive multiplayer game using Ruby on Rails 7.1...

www.youtube.com

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

When I first moved to Sweden I relied on maps a lot. Google sent me to the wrong place 3 times in a week. OSM twice. OSM was fixed (by me) I'm sure Google is still wrong.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

@CubicleApril PostgreSQL is the default database. I still haven't seen a database which specialises in something that does a better job at its own specialty than Postgres can do at that specialty.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@shanselman I asked my ten year old what he’d like to do for a job. He said “something I don’t like that much, because I’m going to end up really hating it if it’s my job.” How’d you keep the optimism alive in yours?

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

Maybe I’m just weird, but I have never used a dynamic language and wished for static types. Contrarily, I have wished for dynamic typing every time I’ve use a static language.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

@TactiFail I love trolling the cast iron folks. The reality is: if your seasoning can’t hold up against some soap and water, it wasn’t seasoned well enough.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 months

My son said (as we’re leaving Poland): “The nice thing about living in Sweden is every time you travel you’re going somewhere better.” 😂

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 months

I can’t believe that this interaction took place on my YouTube, but it did. What is the point of this? I usually keep a “go fuck yourself” in the chamber for interactions like this. But it seemed more appropriate to snark instead.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@shanselman 1. Tap "Connect." 2. Play "Never Gonna Give You Up." 3. Enjoy.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Because we're both devs and users of massive systems, we like to think that all systems should mirror their decisions. I forget the exact number in the last study I read, but north of 90% of projects done in the software industry are basically CRUD for enterprises.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

The thing I care about most on my teams is that people are _happy_. Everything else fades into nothing. This is probably why Ruby speaks to me. Ruby has happiness built in, and it's optimised for the creation of more. Thanks @yukihiro_matz !

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

@jesslynnrose @geeksam You're right! My last day at my toxic workplace was yesterday! I start at the new place with some friends on 2 January!

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Had a great time at @euruko this weekend. A lot of really friendly folks, who were very nice to me. I needed it. I've been in a low place for a while, and the love and support I got was very welcome and timely. I love my Ruby friends, old and new.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

Going to stream while I work on a Rails application tonight. Super casual, no preparation. Let's see how it goes.

Steven Baker

www.youtube.com

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

I haven't heard an argument against remote work that doesn't boil down to "I want to be able to interrupt others whenever I feel like it."

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

5 years

Yesterday I told CTO what kinds of projects I wanted to work on. CTO asked colleague if he would enjoy working on that. His response: “I want to work with him on whatever he’s working on.” It warmed my heart. I’ll take that feeling with me to the darkest of projects.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

1 month

@eigenrobot Have lived in Sweden for a decade. Absolutely convinced that this was not lost, it never existed. You should see how Swedish spouses treat each other if you want to see cold and robotic.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

@roryreckons Now add being Canadian to that and you hardly ever say anything else.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

8 months

@IAmTheRightLane Keep doing that, then. Clean up projects are a great source of revenue for me.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

6 years

@jholyhead @davegray Absolutely. When you trust people to do the right thing, they do. When you don't trust people to do the right thing, they don't.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

7 years

@dhh I chased this for years, and it got me nowhere. Moved to Sweden, focused on a better balance. Massive improvement. Less money, more happy.

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

3 years

@willmanduffy I have two thoughts about this: first, it’s no worse coming from a CEO than anyone else. Second, I hear: ”You’re going to do this thing poorly, instead of doing that thing poorly.”

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 years

I just realized that I'm only six weeks away from qualifying for Swedish citizenship. 🇸🇪

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Steven R. Baker

@srbaker

4 months

Because of my work history, people assume I'm a database expert. I guess I am. And my expert opinion is that you should use Postgres.

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