!rant

Long time no rant..

Although work is way too much and stressful, things are actually not too bad at all..back to the office (voluntary), got back into to a routine, got a raise way below what it should be, lots of "off the books" overtime that I'll never be able to compensate, but.. still not to bad at all.. feeling better than I have for the last couple of years.. 👌

Oh man.. only once. Don't even wanna think about it 😂

Got that old mid 2011 MBA and just put Ubuntu 20.04 on it. Tried 18 on it before but didn't really feel right. 20 works great though.

I love it when I can reuse old hardware I have laying around and it works out of the box.😁

Will use it for entertainment purposes, movies, music etc.

Ok ok.. I used a German keyboard so Y and Z are switched. Ive never seen a picture of Jason Mraz but I really like his music so I wanted to YouTube him.. and my muscle memory did this.

There is that meme "I've no idea what I'm doing" and there's the meme "it's fine *in a fire*". Currently I feel like a combination of those two. I'm in unexplored waters and nobody knows what's going on anyway, so I just make sure my part is technically correct according to specifications and when everything comes together I'm ready to respond to the expected disaster..

I tried to spread awareness of the coming disaster but nobody listens so I'll just wait and see what happens..

Just compleeeetteellyy messed up a technical interview.. stupid theory.. I can apply all that stuff but when I get asked to explain then . Well.. I messed up.

And the coding part, I had the right approach but had one big brainfart in it making the whole thing useless (pseudo code so couldnt test it). I realized just after the interview was finished..

I hate the feeling of failure.
Was a really nice position which is why I applied. Ah well, tonight is whiskey night I guess.

Regex...

Any swiss devs here?

What'd you say is a realistic annual salary in zurich at the moment for a senior backend (java) engineer with 10+ years of experience?

My online research shows somewhere between 110k-135k for bigger companies, is that realistic?

I don't know man.. I know it's !dev, I just wanna share with ye how beautiful my first Tomahawk steak turned out..

Relatively stressful week with requirements doing U-turns and 5 requirements all becoming first priority, I had my first feckup in a while (nothing bad, just wasted a couple people's time) and now I started off into the weekend with this beauty..

100% Irish grassfed beef with a glass of Redbreast 12. Now I wanna sleep and digest.. OR drink much more whiskey. Not sure yet.

Enjoy the long weekend guys 😬

Does anyone else feel like HackerRank questions are trick questions?
Without a textfield to explain the answer It highly depends on how deeply you think about it..

Can you do x with technology y?
Yes.
Can you do x with technology y alone?
Well yeah but no, you still need something to process it. What does "alone" mean? Without electricity you sure can't do anything.
Extreme example but you get my point..

I feel like contractor companies are crazy overfunded at the moment..

They keep hiring more people to put on the invoices but everyone seems to be working at 50 capacity at most...

I understand that clients rather overpay contractors than hiring people themselves that they don't need anymore in a few months and can't easily get rid of but dude.. I'd gladly do the job of 3 contractors for twice my salary in this current climate.

Not to mention that the amount of hiring brings lots of underqualified engineers with it.

German gov contractor interview.
1 interview went fine, test project went fine, then they told me all looks good and they'll fly me in so I can meet HR in person.

Flew up to Germany and there are solution architects and project managers in the room questioning me about C++ although it was about a java position.

Then told me that I'm no fit for them as their java devs need to be rock solid in C++ to make communication between departments easier. What the...

Way off topic but maybe someone has experience here..

I've over 11years experience as software engineer, mostly in Fintech with a couple of years in Telecom all in Europe (German passport)
I'm 100% self-taught, straight outta high school, no college or other degrees.

Is here anyone who managed to get in to the US without a degree and if so, how did that work?

I held a limited visa before but that was bound to my dad's visa and my brother recently got his work visa approved. Don't know it that might help..

Is it possible to have a midlife crisis at 27?
The "software biz" swallowed me up and except for money and a career I don't have anything.

Turned down multiple management positions because I dont wanna deal with other people, I just wanna be challenged while being let alone

I know I said this before but once again I'm thinking about buying a small house with lots of land.. get some cows, maybe chickens, work remotely and make my own life on my little property.

Ok, im officially at the point where I can say this and I don’t say it lightly.. I’m really unhappy..
It’s hard for me to be happy anyway but being unhappy is not the same as not being happy IMO..

I’m so angry, especially at the western governments but also at the western society for making everything down that we’ve built over hundreds of years..

I’m socially pretty conservative I’d say. I have my values and manners which are very important to me. I try to be kind, diplomatically correct, hard working and honest but people sh!t all over that. Almost on a daily basis people tell me to “just lie”, it’ll solve the problem or to blame someone else.

What happened to work for what you want? And to “Be honest and loyal and it will pay off”? It’s more like the opposite nowadays..

Lie to everyone you can, cheat your way through every conflict and try as hard as you can to be a victim and all will work out…?

My boss had an interview ihr a grad student and she caught him googling stuff, trying to hide it. I told her to not even consider him but she thought he “deserves” another chance..
someone who applies and lies “deserves”??? You don’t DESERVE anything, you EARN it.. if you can’t earn it then sorry but this job is probably not for you.. not to mention that this guys CV was full of crap..

I just wanna find a woman, buy a farm an go off grid for a couple of years 😅 oh wait.. that’s legally not possible in pretty much any European country.

After working form home for over 18 months now, I start reprioritising things.
I relocated to Ireland almost 3 years ago and I love the people, and country.. but..
The government is a new level of incompetent, selfish (politicians) and clueless. Unlike any other EU government I’ve ever seen.
To this day I’m not allowed to leave the country to see my family. I don’t know many people here because most of them already left so that sucks.

Although my company is great, we got a new female CEO which (just my impression) feels like she gotta prove herself to the world and the company is falling apart since she took over. Seniors leaving on a weekly basis and new managers and grads get hired.

I could go back to the country I grew up in and make my 110k a year (which is a lot in Europe) and I could be close to my fam during covid shit. But I told myself to never go back there because I hate that place..

I’m seriously considering leaving the country I love to go back to the country I hate, make good money for 2-3 years and then come back.. but when thinking about going back there I could cry..

It’s fucked up but COVID makes me consider it..

If I could I would buy a cheap farm somewhere and go off grid 😅

3rd party APIs..
Do I need to say anything more?..

The problem is that everyone first blames the consumer, not even thinking that the issue might be somewhere else..

Happy birthday to me 🎉
That was the most boring year of my life so far.. I actually forgot how old I am, I’m a year younger than I thought so that’s good 😅

Bought a cheap coffee maker a few weeks ago (only 22 bucks). Worked just fine.
Now it stopped working and I debugged it, the thermal fuse is blown and the warranty is gone too..

A small price to pay for knowing what the problem is though 😅

Depends.. in the Office? Someone watching over my shoulder like a creep.

Home office? Hot chicks walking around outside my window 😅

DELETE FROM Invoices;

I am on test, right? OH SH!T

had a recent backup tho and no data were lost.

Happened once and never again. I was still pretty much junior in a senior position to be fair 😅

“One of the biggest mistakes engineers make is spending time on optimising something (a component) that shouldn’t exist in the first place” - Elon

I’ve been guilty of this a few times 😅

Told my scrum master that I got a new job today..

Forgot to tell her that it was a joke 😬

Does anyone else sometimes feel like quitting, selling everything, move to a small town in e.g. Texas, become a brick layer or carpenter and just start from scratch and build a honest working class day-to-day life? Or is it just me?...

In tech I always focus on what’s gonna happen next year, where will I be in 5 years etc.
I feel like by pursuing a good life I’m missing out on life 😅

Would be nice to do some honest, physical work and leave tomorrow behind for a while..

I really start to lose motivation to work when working from home..
I find myself watching YouTube videos for 4-5h a day instead of working..

Still get my sprint work done but man, it’s so boring after a year at home..

Is it gay to like Ed Sheerans music?

He’s one of the few new people with actual talent in my opinion.

Many people say men listening to Lana del Rey are gay so I don’t give a shit anyway.
But I’m still wondering.
How many of the guys without a life (like me) here listen to and actually enjoy listening to Ed Sheraan?

Gaaaaaaaaalway Girl, nananannananannaa gaaaaaalway Girl, nananannananananananananna
That shits is stuck in my head now..

!dev

It’s sooo weird.
I’m generally not feeling happy or good or “okay”, I’m almost always rather shitty but just keep going through my day without complaining too much because that’s what most of us do..

Today, for the first time in at least one (very lonely, cold and boring) year, I went outside for a smoke and felt good. No idea why.
Everything was orangy/yellowish outside because of the clouds after the first sunny day in weeks.
Its raining slightly but not so much that you actually get wet.

I just had this feeling of “yea, that’s good enough” which I haven’t had in probably 4-5 years or so.

Maybe it’s because I got a little bit of sun for once and saw other people walking 2m around me, I don’t know..
But it felt good.

Does that feeling sound familiar to anyone or am I just finally going crazy?

I also apologise for my last 50 rants not being about dev or rant but I’m lucky to not have much to rant about in my current job 😅

Don’t miss it 😬

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Passing by value SUCKS!

Thank you for making a small change huge, java.

!dev

I come from a small shitty valley where all that people want to achieve is getting approved for loans to buy more cows and shit.. My only friend comes from there as well but he’s different, more like me.. build a life, get out and pursuit something better and bigger..
We grew up smoking everything we could and drinking everything we got because what else are we gonna do, put shit on fire? Been there, done that.. it sucks growing up on the poop hole of the world.
We both left that shithole and started careers but he’s throwing it all out the window.. he’s getting caught with weed, DUI and shit. just a few years ago he got off of more serious drugs.. He built a career and shit for about 10 years but right now he’s just throwing it all away because drugs are in his comfort zone. But he has to go give Pias samples for a while now and if he doesn’t stop he is not getting his license back and the unemployment insurance won’t even pay him because (although he lost the job because of Covid) they said it’s because he smokes weed.
Without the license goes his career as he’s a service electrician.

So fucking hurtful to see, man.
And so hard to accept that he won’t listen and than I’m not his dad who can tell him what to do..

90% of the kids I grew up with who managed to leave that shit hole ended up as homeless junkies.. I guess I’m happy to have the mindset to not end up like them.. and that’s really all it is, the mindset is the only difference (which is complex in itself of course like parenting and stuff)