Links and Notes for the day - June 29th 2018

I did my first true DIY project (no photos sorry)

My First True DIY

My PC stopped working recently and I had to send the computer in for repairs. Since it was going to take a few days for them to diagnose the issuse I took the opportunity to clean up my desk and the clutter around it. I have wires lying everywhere on the ground and more on the desk. It's actually pretty hard to clean up so there's a lot of dust build up there as well. The floor is even worse because I can't handle picking up each cable and sweeping under it.

It's pretty disgusting really.

So when the PC was back I wanted to rewire things but this time, no cables would run on the floor or just lie on the table. Everything should be underneath the table and I should be able to move the table and the workstation together. The only problem was how? I needed to mount the extension cord and a USB hub under the table.

Initially I tried to duct tape things but that turned out to be a bad idea. Everything kept falling off. So yesterday I finally caved and bought a drill. Something I have no idea how to use. Turns out it was pretty easy. A few 'L' brackets and screws later and I have officially rewired my entire desk to not have any cables lying on the floor.

Doing this myself was so much fun. And it's really liberating to think "hmm.. I wish I had a way to arrange something like this on a table or a bookshelf" and be able to just pick up a drill, some nails and call it a day. I always wanted to do this work, especially with wood, but never could find the courage to get myself to do it. Which is a little strange but whatever.

Now I have a drill and I want to go make all kinds of things. The first thing being a hacked out cardboard box drilled to the table that will act as a thing to route cables through so that there's minimal dust collection on the cables themselves.

Here's to a new hobby :D.

Getting an organization the size of Facebook to move from Python 2 to Python 3

in order to get his code running, he had to fix everything else; he rebuilt hundreds of third-party wheels so that they would work with both Python versions and he had to make any internal libraries be 2/3 compatible. Every day, though, someone would commit a Python 2-only change into one of his dependencies. Not surprisingly, he got tired of fixing regressions. One solution would be to force Python 3 compliance within the organization, but Facebook is not a place where that is possible. But, if you act like you have some authority, people will start to believe that you do, indeed, have that authority.

This was a pretty incredible read/watch. To effect a change of this magnitude is hard enough in a company of even 30 people. To do it in a company the size of Facebook? That's the equivalent of the cleaning of the aegan stables. At least I assume it is. I'd love to think more deeply on this to understand how I could emulate this kind of work if I ever need to.

Posted on June 29 2018 by Adnan Issadeen