egroat's comments

I was going to disagree with you; and I was going to use a very simple function to do it `randString(length, alphabet)` where alphabet is defaulted - as azAZ09 is a good default.

However, on many non-trivial projects I've worked on we ended up making the default explicit and then creating wrappers for specific use cases (i.e. randFileName, randFilePath not being case sensitive on some platforms and randTestFilePath including additional characters for tests but production variants sticking to portable sets).

Its further worth noting that rarely do I allow the default global random to be used and instead dependency inject it via params/factories.

For those of us not quite so old, who are the BSA?

I presume you don't mean the Birmingham Small Arms Company

Thank you

In many ways this is a solidification of a lot of what I have been thinking

Well here is the answer from the guy who is still maintaining it:

https://github.com/strongloop/express/issues/2827

The link is from the fifth comment.

When developing in node it makes a lot of sense to use lots of different modules for the one project. At work I have a good dozen or so, it really helps with iteration and testing.

> when I was 20 or so

Ok. "20 or so" describes me. And things aren't going so well.

Out of uni, and life feels pretty empty. Family has fallen apart, friends are friends of convenience, work is very intense - perhaps too much - and everything is going into keeping going. The brave face, making sure I eat, making sure I run, cycle, climb.

The dreams I had even six months ago, feeling ever more impossible. The lure of things I found rewarding in the past - computer games, novels, reddit, hacker news, debating - proving substanceless, insufficient.

The games and the websites are addictive.

> is this how I want to be spending my time?

No. But the truth is I do not know how else to spend my time.

I feel like I should find another job. Move to a different city or country. But I don't know how to do these things. I do not know if these things will help. I have a feeling the problem is me.

So when I am trapped in an empty bed, in a house of people who 'get on', in a city that is ok. I read the novels, I play the games, and I click the links. I try and forget I am here, living in bullshit.

Competence in JS is very different from most languages the average dev is exposed to, and decent Android is very far down the Java Super-OO rabbit hole.

So I'm not surprised!

I'm British and have always funded phones through an outright purchase and some sort of pay as you go plan / month by month sim only contract.

Most of my friends do the same, and wherever I've checked this has been cheaper and safer than a contract (stop whenever, no hidden fees, upgrade later)

Can you not do pay as you go or rolling monthly sim in the States?

---

As for the comments about teenagers... the kids ignorant and inconsiderate sure, but as are most people, it has little to do with his age.

It is a shame Hollywood has a tendency to portray the successes of the Allies in general as being conducted purely by American citizens.

Of course it doesn't help that the other nations don't actively promote their forces in the same manner the Americans do - perhaps good, perhaps bad.

I'm just really happy about the allowing of update when inserts conflict. This will tidy a lot of code up for me and make writing in the future that much neater.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/sql-insert.html

UNIX based.

I would presume that most DB's are installed on UNIX based systems so most of the people who are developing tools for them are going to already be on such systems.

That is genious.

Absolute genious. There are likely to be less problems on a smaller codebase and when there are its much easier to recommend a rewrite of 1k than 10k

agpl-3.0

This may provide more clarity: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960802/can-i-use-librari...

Essentially - if you have modified openalpr then you are probably violating, if you haven't you probably aren't.

Unless you are a small company with a business model tied tightly around using a modified openalpr to generate revenue then there is plenty of scope for complying with the license without damaging the business. If you are then the company is stealing and I would advise leaving.

Either way you are under a moral, and potentially legal, obligation to bring the company towards compliance. Advice for you is not to massively rock the boat - do not use it as a means to hurt your employer (even after leaving) do not focus too much on it.

IANAL; The way I would approach this:

- forward the this news article (not the hacker news post) and the openalpr license page http://www.openalpr.com/license.html to your legal contact (and manager?). Attach a simple and professional message along the lines of "Saw an article about some software we use and I am concerned we may be accidentally violating the license"

- Do not act like you really care. You were just exercising due diligence in your job and forwarding on to people that deal with it. Don't rock the boat, don't defend yourself, don't threaten.

- Do care. If your company does not respond to you within a few weeks, threatens you in any way (interrogation), or says they are deliberately ignoring the license then you need to work on getting a new job. This is because your employers act exploitatively and without respect to the work of others (such as yourself). When you come into legal dispute (which happens more often with these kinds) they are not the ones you want to be fighting. So find another job (take your time) and leave, do not cite the license as a reason. Once you are safe notify the developers.

If you are careful, not disruptive, and don't use it to create gossip or push other agendas most employers will engage legal advice and work towards resolution thanking you in the process (its way better than being sued!) and you need not suddenly leave your job over an honest mistake.

Unless of course the program contributes to causing those attacks in the first place. Now? Probably not. 20 years time? Perhaps.

So I've spent the last few months trawling through camera datasheets, evaluating OCR solutions, and building and comparing custom image transformations so that we can have a good idea of the quality and limitations of the ANPR solution we intend to deploy.

As of today only the framework of the final solution has been written, and we are finally interviewing for developers to write up the system for production (I will manage them, but am moving on to our radio code now).

Is what I've been doing engineering? If I was doing the final writing myself is it ?

You certainly have a point, but it can also be said there is a lot that can be done to increase the ability to work on what matters to an individual by reducing outgoings and cutting working hours.

The truth however is that many people don't have a "what matters", a single burning passion or idea. Most want a comfortable life in which they can convince themselves that they are ahead of their peers and they don't lack for anything important. It is incredibly sad to see how much crap some people deal with at work to have these lifestyles.

What matters to me? A very small number of people, a lot of solitude and a lot of learning and playing with my mind. To do this I have a job at a very small company with a custom contract to work just four days a week - for this I have taken a cut in pay of course. As a by-product there are lots of things I can't afford that my "peers" can but the funny thing is they are insistent they can't afford the time to learn the piano or take the long weekend to see their dying parents, they haven't visited the local national parks or escaped the intensive weekend shopping.

> The pervasive uncertainty of Browne’s writing offers a respite from the stifling certainties of today. We have religious zealots, just as the seventeenth century did—but we also have zealots of so many more varieties. We have had the end of history and the death of faith. Civilizations clashed, everything is post-something. Cassandras say we are digital drones; Panglosses say the Internet is freedom. We believe in St. Paul Krugman or St. Paul Gigot. Anyone who says we are a society lacking belief is not paying attention. If anything, we are lacking doubt.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2939

This is the summary of the article and an smbc comic I was exposed to today, the combination of which have brought me back to my repeated question of how exactly have we improved the communication of important ideas over the last few centuries? Have we improved it at all?

Or perhaps I should be asking what the important ideas are.

I find twice to be relatively outrageous, but both my mother and I having the same car (Toyota Yaris) from the same year with mine being a diesel and hers petrol the following is noticeable:

* I get about 1.25x the mpg in the diesel to her in the petrol. 1.5x compared to myself in the petrol (no mpg quotes because it depends on the type of driving)

* The torque is useful. I drive a 30 minute commute, mainly motorway. If I drive hers it is a noticably worse drive.

* For in town driving hers feels better every time. Easier to handle with no load (hauling something? Use the diesel), the diesel tricks me into speeding.

* Wet weather? Never had weather problems in either car.

So whilst I am definitely a less efficient driver than her I save a significant amount on fuel by having a diesel, and my calculation shows its several hundred a year better than if I had bought the petrol when I had the chance - more than covering the increased cost of the initial purchase.

> Certainly, since I don't need the money, I'd much rather earn $3 an hour on Mechanical Turk, sitting at home and picking and choosing what I feel like doing, than $7.25 an hour in a minimum-wage job.

You don't need the money, so the money doesn't come into it. It could read:

> I'd much rather -- sit-- at home and pick-- and choose-- what I feel like doing, than -work- a minimum-wage job.

The important piece here is not what the people who have time to waste are doing with job gamification, but the reasons why some people are investing significant amounts of time in a sub minimum wage system and presumably why this group has a large crossover with those using it as a primary income source.

Complete speculation suggests to me that this group contains a non-trivial amount of people who are somehow "locked in" by transport, mental illness, or caring requirements yet need to earn money and are more than willing to work.

I am very concerned that there are people cornered into living like this at sub-societal standards. This is not ok yet I am unsure as to how to find out if this is the case.