benburwell | 9 months ago | on: Falsehoods programmers believe about aviation
benburwell's comments
benburwell | 11 months ago | on: The Tcl Programming Language
benburwell | 3 years ago | on: Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections
Here's an example of one working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7BGg82uQ1U
I'm not sure whether similar equipment was a factor in the East Palestine incident.
benburwell | 3 years ago | on: tcpdump is amazing (2016)
It won't apply to every situation, but might provide some building blocks you can adapt to your environment.
benburwell | 3 years ago | on: Infosys leaked FullAdminAccess AWS keys on PyPI for over a year
benburwell | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: How to get developers and UI designers to work well together
I'd guess that far greater than 99% of the people using (most) products do not have perfectly color calibrated monitors. If it doesn't look good on the developer's "kinda close" monitors, that seems like a decent indication that the design needs to be updated to allow for "rougher tolerances" so to speak.
benburwell | 3 years ago | on: GitHub incident – now resolved
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: Real-Time Tokyo Subway Map
Mine doesn't show the routes. Originally it did, but it was too visually busy. I like the way you did it where the route shows up when you select a vehicle!
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: Go Replaces Interface{} with 'Any'
If you want to check for a specific error condition, then just define a value for that error and use `errors.Is` to check for it. This works as you'd expect with wrapping: https://go.dev/play/p/rJIlKKSYn9Q
> With the current go error handling, you need to add the informations yourself in the string, not as a real data structure.
This is completely false! If you want to provide a structured error, then you just need to define a type for it. In your example, a Go programmer might use errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) and errors.As if they wanted to retrieve the specific file path that does not exist in a strongly-typed way, something like https://go.dev/play/p/hdHPLAVbQuW.
> Delegating error handling to a try/catch block with a typed data structure allows the caller to care for certain type of errors and delegate the others to its own caller. With the current error type in Go, what would you do? parse the error message?
Certainly not! I think there is a misconception that "an error is a string" -- in Go, an error is actually any type that satisfies the error interface, i.e. has an `Error() string` method. It can be any type at all, and have as many other methods as you like in order to provide the functionality you need.
> what if the function is defined in a dependency you have no control over?
There's nothing stopping you from writing `throw new Exception(String.format("file not found: %s", filename))` in languages with exceptions either. In both cases, it would be recognized as poor API design.
Regarding stack traces, Go makes a strong distinction between errors (generally a deviation from the happy path) and panics (a true programming error, e.g. nil pointer dereference, where the program must exit). Errors do not provide stack traces since there is no need for them in a flow control context, panics do provide stack traces for useful debugging information.
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: Visualizing Struct Embedding in Go
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: Show HN: Live MBTA Map (Boston T)
Edit: Actually, it's probably due to the derailment: https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/px7zii/heads_up_t_i...
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: Show HN: Live MBTA Map (Boston T)
It shows the current position of each bus, train, and subway, including a little tail behind each vehicle to show where it's been.
There are plenty of rider-focused experiences built around this data but I'm more interested in the visual aspect of being able to look at the whole thing at once. It's probably not a very practical tool for riders!
benburwell | 4 years ago | on: 2021.06.08 Certificate Lifetime Incident
I think the desire here would be for a mechanism to alert clients to obtain a new certificate before their current certificate is revoked and becomes invalid.
edit: formatting
benburwell | 6 years ago | on: Fuchsia Programming Language Policy
benburwell | 6 years ago | on: I ordered a box of boxes from The Packaging Wholesalers via Amazon.ca
Suppose I order a watering can from the garden supply store. When I get home from work, I discover that instead of a watering can, they've delivered 2 tons of mulch in a giant pile in my driveway.
I'm not sure how you could make the argument that it's now my responsibility to get rid of the mulch that I didn't want or ask for?
benburwell | 6 years ago | on: Phone services disrupted across B.C., but emergency calls still working
It's probably best to just stick with 911. That's what calltakers are used to, and trying to route around 911 means you won't get the advantages built into that system (like priority handling, mapping, etc).
benburwell | 8 years ago | on: Slack IRC and XMPP Gateways Are Closing
benburwell | 8 years ago | on: Uber’s Secret Tool for Keeping the Cops in the Dark
benburwell | 10 years ago | on: A Sea Change in Treating Heart Attacks
benburwell | 10 years ago | on: Securing Email Communications from Facebook
- A private pilot who departs their local airport without filing a flight plan and flies around for a while.
- A charter jet that departs whenever the passengers show up.
- A medevac helicopter departs a hospital to return to its base. While en route, it is rerouted by dispatch to pick up a patient at a different hospital.