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JON AQUINO'S MENTAL GARDEN
Engineering beautiful software jon aquino labs | personal blog
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE MICROSOFT EDGE BROWSER
I'm really liking the Microsoft Edge browser on Mac:
1. The Read Aloud feature is really good. The voice quality is as good as
Speechify
2. I like the vertical tabs. The only thing I don't like is the vertical tabs
snap shut after you click X on one of them, so it's tedious if you want to
close a bunch of them.
3. I like the Split Screen feature. You can right-click a link and choose Open
Link In Right Split Screen
posted by Jonathan at 3/30/2024 12:12:00 a.m. | 0 comments
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2024
WORKAROUND FOR AI HALLUCINATION: MAKE THEM SOUND LESS SURE
At work I asked our Confluence (wiki) AI, "What does BADF stand for?" It
answered
> BAMDF stands for Bidder Advertiser Metadata Framework
But I couldn't find “Bidder Advertiser” anywhere in our wiki.
It turns out this was completely wrong. My coworkers told me it actually stands
for "Binary Augmented MDF".
To work around the hallucination problem, maybe AIs should prefix everything
they say with “I think that...” or “It seems to me that…” instead of sounding
100% certain all the time.
posted by Jonathan at 2/10/2024 02:38:00 p.m. | 0 comments
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024
MYERS-BRIGGS CODE: ISTJ
Apparently, my Myers-Briggs code is ISTJ. 9 years ago, I thought I was an INFJ.
posted by Jonathan at 1/24/2024 10:34:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2023
MY HOLLAND CODE
My Holland code is still CIA, as it was in 2020. In 2004, it was different: IAR.
C = Conventional. I like to work with data and numbers, am detail-oriented, and
am good at following instructions.
I = Investigative. I like to learn, figure out how things work, and solve
problems.
A = Artistic. I have a bit of an artistic bent, using intuition and imagination.
I'm a visual person.
posted by Jonathan at 12/31/2023 08:53:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2023
FAVOURITE THINGS
Here is a list of some of my favourite things.
1. Chocolate chip mint ice cream
2. Trying new technological devices and apps
3. Audiobooks, like Jane Austen novels
4. Podcasts, like Called to Communion or The Journey Home
5. Wrestling with my son
6. Assisting at Mass
7. Eating out with my wife
8. Harrison Hot Springs
9. Fettuccini Alfredo
10. Computer programming, especially UI projects or small backend projects
11. Reading tech news
12. Producing quick data visualizations
13. Comparison shopping, researching products, reading reviews
14. Conversion stories
15. Tools and books for self-improvement
16. Being a great dad
17. Personal finance
18. Lord of the Rings, Narnia, other imaginative fiction
19. Watching tech documentaries
20. Visiting the beach with my family
21. ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot
22. Computer programming tools
23. Smart home devices
24. Lex Fridman podcast - interviews remarkable people
posted by Jonathan at 12/03/2023 10:02:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 2022
ONE MOUSE
One mouse, two mice.
One house, two hice.
One louse, two lice.
One blouse, two blice.
One nouse, two nice.
One rouse, two rice.
One twouse, two twice.
One ouse, two ice.
posted by Jonathan at 8/14/2022 04:51:00 p.m. | 0 comments
THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2022
"GRUG BRAINED DEVELOPER" IN A YODA VOICE
A couple of days ago, The Grug Brained Developer was posted to Hacker News. It
is a collection of programming wisdom written in a caveman style, like:
> Instead grug try to limit damage of big brain developer early in project by
> giving them thing like UML diagram (not hurt code, probably throw away anyway)
> or by demanding working demo tomorrow
When I shared the link at work, one of my co-workers said, in her head, she was
reading it in a Yoda voice.
Well it turns out I actually do have a speech synthesizer app with a Yoda voice!
It's a pricey app called Proloquo4Text and it has a voice called Little Creature
which sounds like Yoda.
For your enjoyment, here is the app reading “The Eternal Enemy: Complexity” from
The Grug Brained Developer, in a Yoda voice.
posted by Jonathan at 6/23/2022 05:49:00 p.m. | 0 comments
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021
WORDBLENDER
Maybe I'm the only one in the world who needs this tool, but I made a webpage
called Wordblender. You paste in a bunch of text and it will chunk it up into
chunks of 3 consecutive words. It then shuffles the chunks and outputs it.
Use this if you have a long piece of text and you don't want to understand the
overall meaning, but you do want to scan it for small runs of local meaning that
might be interesting to you.
Like I said, pretty unique use case. Leave a comment if you find this useful for
some reason.
http://jonathanaquino.com/wordblender.php
posted by Jonathan at 5/13/2021 12:10:00 a.m. | 2 comments
FRIDAY, MARCH 05, 2021
LOVE STATIC TYPING
I'm currently working in an all-TypeScript codebase, and have also recently been
working in Go, and I must say I'm really loving static typing, especially
compared to huge JavaScript and Python codebases. Why? Simply because it adds
some checks to make sure that the connections between pieces of my code are
still sound when I move code around. It doesn't check that everything is
correct, but checking connections is an essential sanity check.
posted by Jonathan at 3/05/2021 09:48:00 a.m. | 0 comments
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 2021
DON'T FOLLOW MARIE KONDO'S ADVICE TO GIVE YOUR BOOKS AWAY - YOU'LL REGRET IT
A couple of years ago, I read Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying
Up and one of its recommendations was to part with a bunch of books you don't
use. I dutifully followed it and gave 1 bookshelf of books to Value Village
(keeping 1 bookshelf of books for myself).
How I regret that decision.
Years of accumulated books, books I wanted to read someday, books I want to read
today – gone, just like that. I warn my fellow bookophiles to not follow Marie
Kondo's advice. Do not part with your books. Or if you must part with some, part
with the ones you hate. Keep the ones you haven't read yet but plan to read
someday, or the ones you plan to re-read someday.
Some books I regret throwing out:
* My undergraduate physics textbook (Halliday and Resnick). In fact, all of my
university textbooks. Engineering Physics was my major and I just threw out
everything I'd learned. Fortunately bookfinder.com lists an old edition of
Halliday and Resnick for $20 so I will at least recoup that.
* A great undergraduate biology textbook – I think it was by Mader.
* Dialogues of St. Catherine of Siena. Never got around to reading much of it,
but I'd like to sometime.
posted by Jonathan at 1/24/2021 02:40:00 p.m. | 1 comments
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2020
WHAT TO SAY DURING 1:1S
My old manager challenged me to do 1:1s with all 22 engineers in my business
unit (RollWorks), and out of that came the following three topics that I would
enjoy sharing in any 1:1, whether with someone above me or someone below me.
1. Anything fun done recently or any hobbies. For them and for you. This helps
to connect on a personal level, which is always good.
2. Main worries or priorities (or what is currently being worked on). For them
and for you. It's good to know someone's top concerns or what they are
working on.
3. Anything learned recently or new tools. For them and for you. It's fun to
share something you learned recently.
I'm going to try this with 1:1s with my manager.
posted by Jonathan at 12/29/2020 11:42:00 p.m. | 0 comments
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2020
ANNOYING BASIC THINGS THAT GOLANG LACKS
Go lacks some basic features that I am going to document here:
* abs() for integers
* min() and max() for integers
* sets
posted by Jonathan at 12/23/2020 11:06:00 a.m. | 2 comments
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020
LEGO CITY PIECE COUNT VS PRICE
It is interesting to look at a chart of Lego piece counts vs. price. The higher
the set is, the better the value. Here is a spreadsheet of Lego City piece
counts vs. price for November 18, 2020:
posted by Jonathan at 11/18/2020 09:28:00 a.m. | 0 comments
FRIDAY, JUNE 05, 2020
WHY INTELLIJ IS BETTER THAN VSCODE
I've been trying to use VSCode as my main text editor for several months, for
Python/Java/JavaScript. But there are important things that VSCode can't do that
a dedicated IDE can do with ease. For example, I just got this Java exception
when running my code in VSCode:
But will VSCode let me click the line to jump to the code? No it won't
unfortunately. IntelliJ will. In fact, IntelliJ will even let me set a
breakpoint in the code so I can stop and look around.
And I was really hoping that VSCode could serve my editor needs for any
language.
posted by Jonathan at 6/05/2020 10:49:00 p.m. | 2 comments
SATURDAY, MARCH 07, 2020
FAVOURITE AUTHORS AND INFLUENCES
The following authors and people have had a big influence on my life.
* Kent Beck
* Dave Thomas
* Marshall Rosenberg
* Stephen Covey
* Richard Bolles
* Edward Feser
* St. Joseph
* Fr. Jacques Philippe
* John Gottman
* Gordon Neufeld
* Jane Austen
* St. Francis de Sales
* Josef Pieper
posted by Jonathan at 3/07/2020 12:28:00 a.m. | 0 comments
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020
CONTEXTS VS WITCH
I'm evaluating a couple of Mac task-switcher tools: Witch by ManyTricks and
Contexts. I think I'm going to go with Contexts for the following reasons:
Advantages of Witch:
* Can switch to a specific tab in Chrome and some other apps
Advantages of Contexts:
* Faster than Witch. Sometimes Witch takes a few seconds to open for some
reason.
* Reliably binds to Command+Tab. When Witch is bound to Command+Tab, sometimes
the old switcher opens on Command+Tab, for example, when the Google login
screen is being shown. Contexts doesn't have this problem.
posted by Jonathan at 2/10/2020 07:55:00 p.m. | 1 comments
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2020
MY HOLLAND CODE
My Holland Code is CIA/CIR. This code is one way of summing up your interests.
My main ones are Conventional and Investigative. Conventional folks are people
who like working with data and math and who are detail-oriented. Investigative
people love to learn, analyze, and evaluate things. Yes I am detail-oriented and
yes I like researching stuff (especially when shopping 🙂).
My secondary ones are Artistic and Realistic. Artistic people like to use their
creativity and have artistic abilities. Realistic people like to work with
machines and tools. I have a bit of both although they aren't my primary
strengths. I am a visual person and I like to show data visually. I also like to
use my tools to do minor household repairs.
posted by Jonathan at 1/19/2020 04:20:00 p.m. | 0 comments
GREAT SOFTWARE ENGINEERS I LOVE WORKING WITH
This is a list of some good software engineers I have really enjoyed working
with closely. I love how they code and the depth of their knowledge.
* Andrey Sukhachev - Ning
* Thomas Dudziak - Ning
* Jon Hartlaub - Ning
* Henning Schmiedehausen - Ning
* David Sklar - Ning
* Martin Traverso - Ning
* Miguel Lara Encabo - AdRoll
* Emmanuel Garcia - AdRoll
* Piyush Srivastava - AdRoll
* Kushagra Verma - AdRoll
* Nathan Clegg - AdRoll/Ning
* (to be continued)
posted by Jonathan at 1/19/2020 12:43:00 a.m. | 0 comments
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018
MELD: A GOOD DIFF FOR OSX
Aside from the very expensive Araxis Merge, I think Meld is the best diff for
OSX, at least for me, because:
* It has the option to start with two blank textareas that you can paste text
into.
* It allows you to edit the textareas.
* It gets the diff right almost all of the time.
* It has optional line wrapping. Some other tools do not have this (such as
Beyond Compare).
* It can compare directories.
Check out this example of Sublimerge getting the diff wrong:
It fails to recognize that what is happening is that there were four removals.
Meld gets it right:
Beyond Compare I just don't get. I know a lot of people praise it, but it seems
buggy to me. For example, when I want to paste in the above example, I paste the
code on the left:
And then to paste the code on the right, I click in the middle of the right
textarea and press ⌘V, and now things are messed up:
So then I press ⌘A, ⌘V, thinking that will fix it, but it's still messed up:
Only when I press ⌘A, ⌘V on the left side are things finally fixed:
I don't know – there is something funny about the way Beyond Compare handles
alignment. Like if the right side is blank, why is it letting me paste on
different lines present on the left side, instead of pasting on the first line
like a normal empty textarea?
I have also noticed that DeltaWalker gets diffs wrong too - I don't have an
example at present, but will provide one when I can.
posted by Jonathan at 11/29/2018 10:44:00 p.m. | 0 comments
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2018
SLACK: GREEN Z VS GRAY Z
Today I learned the difference between the green z icon and the gray z icon in
Slack:
From Slack support: "Green means they are currently online. The "z" indicates
they have Do Not Disturb turned on which prevents notifications popping up on
their screen."
posted by Jonathan at 11/09/2018 03:28:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
COMPARISON OF SURREY BC MUNICIPAL POLITICAL PARTIES
This is a comparison of the Surrey BC municipal political parties, drawn from
articles in the Surrey Now-Leader newspaper.
LRT (Light Rail Transit) Municipal police force instead of RCMP Surrey First Go
ahead with LRT Hold a referendum Safe Surrey Coalition SkyTrain instead of LRT
Change to municipal police force Surrey Integrity Now Go ahead with LRT for
Guildford-to-Newton. More consultation for Phase 2. Weigh options first. Leaning
toward keeping RCMP. Proudly Surrey Go ahead with LRT + cross-border US bus
network Progressive Sustainable Surrey Interurban over LRT or SkyTrain People
First Surrey SkyTrain instead of LRT
posted by Jonathan at 9/22/2018 10:35:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018
COMPARISON OF SMART WATER BOTTLES
Hidrate Spark Thermos Smart Lid Ozmo H2OPal Price 60 CAD 90 CAD 133 CAD
CamelCamelCamel reasonable price 60 CAD 90 CAD 133 CAD Fakespot grade/adjusted
rating F/ B/3 F A/3.5 Pros - alert: app, glow - rechargeable
- alert: app
- easy setup - rechargeable
- alert: LED, vibration
- easy setup - alert: app Cons - paint peels off
- quality issues
- sync issues
- coin battery
- complex setup
- corny notifications - quality issues
- sync issues
- skips sips - quality issues
- sync issues
- don't need coffee detection
- quality issues
- coin battery Other reviews PCMag PCMag
posted by Jonathan at 2/24/2018 12:47:00 a.m. | 0 comments
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2018
HANDY PRIORITIZATION CATEGORIES
I was googling for some tips on prioritizing home-improvement projects, when I
came across a great list of prioritized categories for such projects. It
occurred to me that the same list of categories could help to prioritize any
to-do list, not just home maintenance:
1. Safety
2. Urgent damage
3. Prevent long-term health hazards
4. Maintenance / Prevent long-term damage
5. Money-saving upgrades
6. Low cost, high impact improvements
7. Big nuisance factor
8. Cosmetic improvements
Simply categorize your to-do list into the above categories, then work through
them in approximately that order.
See the original post for more details on each of those priorities.
posted by Jonathan at 2/08/2018 08:11:00 p.m. | 0 comments
SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2017
BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION RESOURCES
Voters who are unsure of who to vote for should check out these two resources:
* https://votecompass.cbc.ca/ A long questionnaire that helps you to figure out
which party your beliefs align with.
* http://www.icanparty.ca/en/bc-may-9th-2017/ A table comparing the platforms
of the three major parties.
posted by Jonathan at 4/29/2017 08:54:00 a.m. | 0 comments
SATURDAY, APRIL 01, 2017
PARACHUTE RANDOMIZED PRIORITIZING GRID
This tool helps you to rank a list of your preferences by comparing them a pair
at a time. The idea is based on Richard Bolles' Prioritizing Grid (as
implemented by Beverly Ryle). But one think I don't like about it is that the
pairs aren't randomized, which makes the exercise a bit more boring than it has
to be. Also once you start getting as high as 30 items, the grid becomes hard to
use (the online version scrolls off-screen on my laptop).
So this version presents random pairs to you. It still uses the same sorting
scheme (by number of wins). I basically took my Elo Preference Ranker UI and
modified/simplified it.
Simply paste in a list of items to rank, one per line (e.g., your favorite
skills). Then press "Start ranking!". You will then be presented with a pair of
items at a time, and you are asked to choose which is better or more important.
As you go, the sorted list will appear at the bottom.
INPUT STRINGS
Enter the strings to rank, one per line. Then press "Start ranking!". You will
be presented with pairs of strings - click the button corresponding to which
item is more important or better.
BMW Cadillac Chevrolet Fiat Ford Honda Infiniti Jeep Land Rover Lexus Mazda
Mercedes-Benz Mercury Mini Mitsubishi Saab Suzuki Tesla Toyota Volvo
SORTING
Click the button corresponding to which item is more important or better. You
can also press "J" for the left item and "L" for the right.
Something. Something else.
0 remaining
You have finished comparing all items!
SORTED OUTPUT STRINGS
The sorted strings are:
posted by Jonathan at 4/01/2017 01:25:00 p.m. | 1 comments
SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017
SLIDES FROM "PRAYER AND SCRIPTURE" TALK
I gave a half-hour talk on Prayer and Scripture for Couples For Christ, Our Lady
of Good Counsel Parish, Surrey BC on March 11, 2017.
The slides are here (38 MB), but won't make sense without the accompanying talk.
posted by Jonathan at 3/11/2017 10:03:00 p.m. | 0 comments
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2017
HACKER NEWS FAVOURITE CATEGORIES
It can be instructive and fun to figure out what your interests are by looking
at what kind of Hacker News articles you link.
I am going to tabulate my interests here - try the same if you like.
* 2 - Work: How to make it better
* 3 - Work: How to make it worse
* 1 - Improvements to software engineering
* 13 - Promising new coding practices or tools
* 4 - Product successes
* 13 - Product failures
* 3 - Promising new technology
* 3 - Retro tech
* 4 - Low tech
* 4 - Personal self-improvement
posted by Jonathan at 1/30/2017 07:37:00 p.m. | 0 comments
PRESSURE-MOUNTED BABY GATE COMPARISON
After spending way too many hours on researching this topic, I have come to the
conclusion that when looking for a pressure-mounted baby gate, you have the
following options:
Price Example Comfortably wide door Latch is easy to open Gate auto-closes
behind you $40 Regalo Easy Step Walk Thru $60 Evenflo Easy Walk-Through
Yes $80 Brica/Munchkin Wood & Steel Designer Yes Yes $100 Munchkin Auto
Close Designer Yes Yes Yes
posted by Jonathan at 1/30/2017 07:31:00 p.m. | 0 comments
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2016
AN OBJECTIVE DEFINITION OF BEAUTIFUL SOFTWARE
Beautiful software is code that you can add features to while only needing to
modify a few lines to allow the change to come in.
So the most beautiful software is code that requires 0 line changes before
adding a feature.
But if it requires a handful of line changes, it's still beautiful to me.
Ugly software needs shotgun surgery when a feature needs to be added - changes
in a bazillion places.
posted by Jonathan at 12/29/2016 12:53:00 a.m. | 0 comments
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2016
5-MINUTE JOURNAL
I'm trying out a cool thing called the 5-Minute Journal. It is a journal that
you buy for $25 CAD (there is also a $5 app, but I think I prefer pen and
paper). Basically it is a guided journal that asks you the same set of questions
each day (with some variations: inspirational quote, weekly challenge). I have
always had trouble keeping a journal, but I think this will really help.
posted by Jonathan at 7/12/2016 12:51:00 a.m. | 0 comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT ME
Name: Jonathan Location: Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
View my complete profile
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MY LIFETIME
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[LifeTime]
RECENT PHOTOS
JON'S BOOKSHELF
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Random books from my library
Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life by David Allen
Fretboard Logic SE: The Reasoning Behind the Guitar's Unique Tuning Chords
Scales and Arpeggios Complete (The Fretboard Logic Guitar Method Volumes I and
II) (Fretboard Logic Guitar Method Ser) by Bill Edwards
Combinatorial Optimization: Algorithms and Complexity by Christos H.
Papadimitriou
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work From Tennyson to Plath
(Book w/ Audio CD) by Elise Paschen
Data Structures and Algorithms in Java (2nd Edition) by Robert Lafore
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