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ntietz.com blog - technically a blog

ntietz.com blog -...
Feel, don't think I started playing clarinet in fourth grade, and dabbled in other instruments.. I never stopped...
3 months ago
67
3 months ago
I started playing clarinet in fourth grade, and dabbled in other instruments.. I never stopped entirely, but I took years-long breaks from playing music. Earlier this year, I picked up a new instrument while I was very sick. I got a wind synth, the Roland AE-20. It was a somewhat...
ntietz.com blog -...
Great things about Rust that aren't just performance Nearly every line of code I write for fun is in Rust. It's not because I need great performance,...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Nearly every line of code I write for fun is in Rust. It's not because I need great performance, though that's a nice benefit. I write a lot of Rust because it's a joy to write code in. There is so much else to love about Rust beyond going fast without segfaults. Here are a few...
ntietz.com blog -...
Reflecting on 2024, preparing for 2025 If you do things a few times, they're a tradition. This is the third time I'm writing one of these,...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
If you do things a few times, they're a tradition. This is the third time I'm writing one of these, so I guess it's an annual tradition now! This is where I reflect on the year that's been, and talk some about my hopes and goals for the next year. Reflecting on 2024 This year has...
ntietz.com blog -...
Beginning of a MIDI GUI in Rust A project I'm working on (which is definitely not my SIGBOVIK submission for this year, and...
2 months ago
48
2 months ago
A project I'm working on (which is definitely not my SIGBOVIK submission for this year, and definitely not about computer ergonomics) requires me to use MIDI. And to do custom handling of it. So I need something that receives those MIDI events and handles them. But... I'm going...
ntietz.com blog -...
Estimating projects sells them short (and that's okay) Recently, I read a blog post about doing software project estimates. It's a reasonable post with a...
3 months ago
48
3 months ago
Recently, I read a blog post about doing software project estimates. It's a reasonable post with a reasonable method. But it does what all estimates do: it sells projects short. I don't mean in the sense of underestimating a young promising project's potential, relegating it to...
ntietz.com blog -...
My writing process, and how I keep it sustainable Recently, a reader wrote to me and asked about my writing process and burnout. They had an image in...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Recently, a reader wrote to me and asked about my writing process and burnout. They had an image in their head that I could sit down at a computer and type up a full post on a given topic, but were unsure if that's the right approach when they start blogging. And they were...
ntietz.com blog -...
Parsing MIDI messages in Rust I'm working on a terrible idea of a project, and this project uses MIDI. That means I need a MIDI...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
I'm working on a terrible idea of a project, and this project uses MIDI. That means I need a MIDI implementation! I chose to use an existing library, midir, to connect to devices and receive messages. But the reason I was interested in this not-yet-announced project is because I...
ntietz.com blog -...
Using Talon in a game jam I use Talon to control my computer some of the time. It's mostly voice control, but it has so many...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
I use Talon to control my computer some of the time. It's mostly voice control, but it has so many other controls built in! One lets you use an eye tracker as a mouse. I thought this sounded like a neat interaction for other situations too. When I mentioned this to a friend, he...
ntietz.com blog -...
Evolving my ergonomic setup (or, my laptop with extra steps) My computer setup attracts attention when I'm out and about. This has two effects: engineers1 ask me...
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
My computer setup attracts attention when I'm out and about. This has two effects: engineers1 ask me about it, and everyone else ignores me. These effects are not undesirable, but further testing is required. The main reason I have such an unusual setup, though, is more...
ntietz.com blog -...
Terminology isn't universal A little while back, I wrote that we shouldn't say "auth" but should use other terms instead. I...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
A little while back, I wrote that we shouldn't say "auth" but should use other terms instead. I stand by my argument in general, but it also has another side to it: my suggested terminology makes sense in some domains, but not in all domains. And that's because terminology...
ntietz.com blog -...
Parsing arguments in Rust with no dependencies When pairing with my friend Emily, we had a choice of what to implement in her project: start a new...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
When pairing with my friend Emily, we had a choice of what to implement in her project: start a new feature, or add a command line argument parser? We opted for the latter, because it had to happen eventually and it was more well bounded. It ended up having a lot of depth! We...
ntietz.com blog -...
Summarizing our recommendations for software documentation Last year, my coworker Suzanne and I got a case study accepted into an ethnography conference! She's...
a month ago
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a month ago
Last year, my coworker Suzanne and I got a case study accepted into an ethnography conference! She's an anthropologist by training, and I'm a software engineer. How'd we wind up there? The short version is I asked her what I thought was an interesting question, and she thought it...
ntietz.com blog -...
Supporting coworkers, employees, and friends in this time We should always be supporting each other, but it feels particularly important right now. An...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
We should always be supporting each other, but it feels particularly important right now. An election just finished in the US, which means that half the country lost and has to face the coming changes. In particular, this is a scary time for many folks who have been targets in...
ntietz.com blog -...
They want your ethics for $105 If you have a blog, you've probably gotten those emails that want to "collaborate" on a guest...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
If you have a blog, you've probably gotten those emails that want to "collaborate" on a guest post—which often means "let us post sketchy links for SEO purposes." Recently, I got one which was a little different flavor than the usual spam, so I bit and replies. The end result was...
ntietz.com blog -...
Can I ethically use LLMs? The title is not a rhetorical question, and I'm not going to bury an answer. I don't have an...
a month ago
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a month ago
The title is not a rhetorical question, and I'm not going to bury an answer. I don't have an answer. This post is my exploration of the question, and why I think it is a question1. Important things up front: what's my relationship with LLMs today? I don't use any LLMs regularly....
ntietz.com blog -...
Bright lights in dark times It's kind of dark times right now. And I'm definitely only talking about the days being short. It's...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
It's kind of dark times right now. And I'm definitely only talking about the days being short. It's pretty dark out right now, since it's the winter in the northern hemisphere. Every year, I start to realize somewhere around January that I'm tired, really tired, and don't want to...
ntietz.com blog -...
Debugging my wife's alarm clock My wife's alarm clock has been acting up lately. Sporadic at first but then every day, it wouldn't...
5 months ago
22
5 months ago
My wife's alarm clock has been acting up lately. Sporadic at first but then every day, it wouldn't blare in the morning at the set time. Instead, when it was supposed to go off it would... reset itself. The time would start flashing in that "I'm confused because the power went...
ntietz.com blog -...
Making Rust builds fail from YAML config mistakes I was talking to a friend recently, and zie1 lamented that a Rust web framework uses YAML for its...
5 months ago
22
5 months ago
I was talking to a friend recently, and zie1 lamented that a Rust web framework uses YAML for its configuration. I'm far from one to defend YAML2, but dug in a little to understand zir issues with it: is it the trauma here, or is it something else? Ultimately, zie wanted...
ntietz.com blog -...
Your product shouldn't require showing my legal name Last week, I finally got verified on LinkedIn. Now there's a little badge next to my name that says...
a month ago
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a month ago
Last week, I finally got verified on LinkedIn. Now there's a little badge next to my name that says "yes, she's a human who is legally named Nicole." Their marketing for verification says that I should now expect 60% more profile views and 50% more comments and reactions. For a...
ntietz.com blog -...
What's in a ring buffer? And using them in Rust Working on my cursed MIDI project, I needed a way to store the most recent messages without risking...
a month ago
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a month ago
Working on my cursed MIDI project, I needed a way to store the most recent messages without risking an unbounded amount of memory usage. I turned to the trusty ring buffer for this! I started by writing a very simple one myself in Rust, then I looked and what do you know, of...
ntietz.com blog -...
Some things that make Rust lifetimes hard to learn After I wrote YARR (Yet Another Rust Resource, with requisite pirate mentions), one of my friends...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
After I wrote YARR (Yet Another Rust Resource, with requisite pirate mentions), one of my friends tried it out. He gave me some really useful insights as he went through it, letting me see what was hard about learning Rust from a newcomer's perspective. Unsurprisingly, lifetimes...
ntietz.com blog -...
Stewardship over ownership Code ownership is a popular concept, but it emphasizes the wrong thing. It can bring out the worst...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Code ownership is a popular concept, but it emphasizes the wrong thing. It can bring out the worst in a person or a team: defensiveness, control-seeking, power struggles. Instead, we should be focusing on stewardship. How code ownership manifests Code ownership as a concept means...
ntietz.com blog -...
Who are your teammates? If you manage a team, who are your teammates? If you're a staff software engineer embedded in a...
a week ago
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a week ago
If you manage a team, who are your teammates? If you're a staff software engineer embedded in a product team, who are your teammates? The answer to the question comes down to who your main responsibility lies with. That's not the folks you're managing and leading. Your...
ntietz.com blog -...
Big endian and little endian Every time I run into endianness, I have to look it up. Which way do the bytes go, and what does...
4 days ago
5
4 days ago
Every time I run into endianness, I have to look it up. Which way do the bytes go, and what does that mean? Something about it breaks my brain, and makes me feel like I can't tell which way is up and down, left and right. This is the blog post I've needed every time I run into...