matdevdug / is on Nostr

Security/Devops engineer. Moved from Chicago to Denmark. I’m an expert on nothing but I’m trying.

Blog: https://matduggan.com

Last Notes

2024-07-04 01:00:19

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Is the HPA4 worth the cost? Been curious about buying one for awhile. I was debating between it and the Topping Pre90.

2024-06-09 11:44:39

Very funny nerd misunderstanding today. So I buy a lot of knock-off old SNES carts, PS1 games and other expensive retro stuff from Aliexpress. I mostly just want to have the box to put up on a wall.
A friends wife who likes old games came over while I was getting my hair cut and told my wife “Mat must have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this collection.” My wife, concerned, is then shown the value of Earthbound new in box. She is (understandably) shocked that I have $15,000 worth of retro gaming on the shelf.
Sheepishly I have to explain they’re just knockoffs and cost $20 each. #retrogaming
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/112/586/488/260/963/324/original/8a9bd79538ad2691.jpeg

2024-05-19 20:04:44

One thing that’s funny about #ai and #programming is I keep hearing the same thing. “Oh I use it for generic snippets, just common tasks and functions”.
The amusing thing about that is when I first started working with a #php app years ago there was already a solution to that problem. It was called “the PHP Cookbook” published by O’Reilly. I was told “oh we buy you a PDF copy and you just search for whatever you are trying to do and use that code. It saves a ton of time for junior programmers.”
Not only was it true, it did save me a ton of time and headaches, but we didn’t need to steal anything. The authors got paid, it worked offline, it didn’t require scraping the entirety of human knowledge to write or nuclear power plants worth of energy to distribute.
It also helped me learn. Since I would have a solid foundation to the solution, I felt more confident experimenting. I always had a known-functioning standard library solution as my base. So when something broke I knew where to start debugging.
Just an incredible thought that instead of paying $20 for a pdf once we decided this was the way to go.

2024-05-18 12:22:59

Hey #python experts, what’s the best way to make a single binary on Linux for Linux that I can deploy safely without needing a container? Is it PyInstaller? Nuitka? Bazel? Thanks!
#programming #help

2024-01-20 14:04:36

A lot of #americans are nervous when traveling to #europe. They’re worried about being judged or whatever. As someone who just waited in line with a ton of American tourists, here’s the number 1 thing you can do to stand out less in Europe.
Stop scream talking. The volume Americans talk at is frightening. Try whispering, then go like one step above that. That’s normal talking. If I can hear your entire conversation from 10 feet away, that’s too loud.
Need to make a phone call? Put the phone up to your ear and talk into it at that one step above whisper volume. Never ever ever put the person on speaker and then scream into the bottom of your phone. My jaw dropped as not one but two people coming to Denmark from California started doing this inside of a coffee shop. Not old people, people in their 20s.
Never fucking do this anywhere. For any reason. Unless your hands are like trapped by a car wreck and it is the only way to talk to emergency services. It’s not just rude it’s downright offensive. I cannot have a normal volume conversation with an employee because you are screaming about what bar you are going to.
#travel #tips #vacation

2024-01-05 12:13:39

I wrote about my time as an #Apple dispatch repair tech going door to door in Chicago fixing #Macs https://matduggan.com/fixing-macs-door-to-door/