Karl on code

Engineering director @ High-performance computing, quantitative / numerical coding, reflections on how the field has changed over 25 years.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

Multi-line f-strings in #python always struck me as nice-to-have syntactic sugar, but I'm automating an ETL workflow and find they're a great code readability tool - multiple flavours of SQL row terminators, field separators etc handled without a mess of if/else spaghetti. Nice.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

If you're working with spot-price-discounted VMs in Azure, don't forget to check all your machines are actually running before spending hours debugging odd error conditions in your code.

Imagine how embarrassed you'd be if you forgot to do that *ahem*

[Karl on code @karloncode]

TIL that BULK INSERT from a UNC share on SQL Server requires read/write access to the CSV file being inserted.

My intuitions around how file permissions work on Windows always seem slightly out of sync with how it actually works...

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@CMastication I own a 2011 Audi A3 and while I viscerally hate everything about VW/Audi after Dieselgate my mind is still blown by the fact that 110k miles in, my 2L diesel engine still gets about 50 mpg. Sorcery compared to the carburettor + timing chain tech we used to have.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@CMastication Constant regulatory pressure on fuel efficiency from the EPA clearly worked. As a result it's now more or less impossible for the ordinary tinkerer to repair a modern engine, but the efficiency gains are just incredible.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@GoneCaving YES, thank you! That's exactly the concept - I'll use that term next time and hopefully more people will understand what I mean.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

What do you call an dev env for experiment / prototyping? I recently discovered that some find it misleading if this is called DEV, as that can be mistaken with an environment that is deployed to exclusively via a CI/CD pipeline. What do we call our prototyping environments?

[Karl on code @karloncode]

My process usually involves prototyping, which sometimes can just be done on my desktop, but sometimes I need other resources to work on. Is that called DEV or something else? (PROTO? SCRATCH? EXP?)

[Karl on code @karloncode]

No points for saying "production" :)

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@loige It looks 8-bit, but it's not a ZX Spectrum or C64 (the 'r' is too fancy for either of those). BBC Micro maybe?

[Karl on code @karloncode]

Hey @eoins and @loige this article on the work you are doing with RenaissanceRe is brilliant - it's great to see your discoveries about Fargate scaling and S3 partitioning out in the wild. Nice work!
https://t.co/K7zcaImCha

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@mwbcrawford OK will check this out too - thanks Michael (and everyone else in the twitter hivemind for taking the time to help me out)

[Karl on code @karloncode]

I needed to draw a circle in an image. I did it with GIMP but there must be an easier way (GIMP has no shape drawing tools, instead you make a circular selection in a layer and cut it out, it's a hassle) - can anyone recommend an idiot proof drawing tool for the mac?

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@hughsheehy Fair point - for simple stuff like boxes and arrows (which is 90% of what I need) I can probably get a long way in PowerPoint...good shout!

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@GerrikoM2M Oh, I hadn't heard of Krita, will try it out. Thanks!

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@killianobrien Thanks Killian, I'll have a look at this (it's new to me).

Trying to avoid the dreadful feeling I had earlier of using a sledgehammer when what I needed was a flyswatter.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

Bear in mind that my experience with digital art peaked with DPaint II on the Amiga sometime around 1991.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

I appear to have set up a kubernetes cluster by accident. I may live to regret it.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

@conorwinkle I like your thinking.

[Karl on code @karloncode]

I learned to program in long Irish winters. Now that we have climate changed ourselves into 28-degree weather in August and I don't know if my internal logic unit operates in these conditions.