Two new Youtube videos today!

First up, an interview with Naresh Jain about the real-world challenges enterprises face with modern systems, scaling microservices, keeping quality high, and moving fast without everything falling apart. https://youtu.be/xW9PfkRrr3A

Next up I "interviewed" ChatGPT. That one involved a lot more fiddly editing, and vibe coding a Ruby script to animate ChatGPT's video. https://youtu.be/ky37oCoyUdI

Read this.

Seriously. Quit scrolling, shut the hell up, and read this.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-robert-f-kennedy-jr-who-thinks-my-daughter-is-a-tragedy

@maaretp So happy to know that any words I wrote were useful. Yay! And 25 years from now you may hear unexpectedly that words you uttered today were that same kind of catalyst for someone else. You have good words, and good stories. Even on the days you feel inadequate I'm 100% sure you're making a big difference. You got this.

@maaretp Those seem like very good words to me. You appear to have found what you seek!

@RobeeShepherd The funny thing is that it didn't feel like apathy. It felt more like helplessness. But that's kind of absurd given that I'm my own boss and I know better...

When I wrote my simulation engine, I used a library for state management (AASM). Eventually realized it was overkill for my use case. (Cool library, just overkill for this.)

I knew it was costing me on performance, but I put off removing it because it was (whiny voice) going to be haaaard.

Tackled it today. 6 hours start to finish, including revamping perf tests.

Result:
* 10x benchmark improvement
* Tests run 2x faster
* Real $ savings on infra

WOOT! But...why did I wait so long? Sigh.

@tanquist I will never understand the appeal. I'm so sorry.

Those who equate kindness with weakness fail to recognize that it takes a great deal more strength to lift up than to punch down.

If you like music, and you also build software, check out our engineering roles. We've just posted roles for an SRE and a Data Engineer, and there will be frontend and platform engineering posted soon.

https://about.beatport.com/careers/

The roles are tagged with #Seattle but they're remote wfh - we're hiring anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, including #VictoriaBC (where we have a core team), BC, WA and OR.

#getFediHired #remotejobs #fedihired #workfromhome #edm

If you're looking to hire world class talent, I know some brilliant people looking for work now. I would love to connect you to them.

Carol Lee: https://www.carol-s-lee-phd.com/
John Flournoy: https://johnflournoy.science/

Find me at: https://www.drcathicks.com/

Three years ago, I pitched a moonshot idea: What if we did high-quality empirical science for software teams, in the open, and changed the landscape of how developers and organizations understand themselves? Pluralsight believed in me and my vision, and the adventure started.

Now, after a life-changing journey building the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight, the difficult decision was made that it's time to wind the lab down and part ways. Full post on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drcathicks_after-a-life-changing-journey-building-the-activity-7325894749117132801-BrXq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAjn_3gBYMxTplCF58uOpaCxt44s4lXzh0g

A sign of exactly how much I am procrastinating on this thing I am supposed to be doing: I am now caught up on invoicing. When I procrastinate on a thing by doing my *ACCOUNTING* you know I'm fighting hard against just doing the thing. Oh yeah, and I got a load of laundry in progress. And yesterday I ironed my shirts.

Fighting. My. Brain. So. Hard.

OTOH #procrastivity

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

Pouring one out for the Zoom DNS admins.

@RobeeShepherd first time for me, ever. But people in my replies are reporting it happened to them too. And a web search gave me more examples. (Plus Amazon vendors claiming purchasers fraudulently claiming they got an empty box.) so…🤷‍♀️ I guess it’s more common than I thought?

@ilikepi Oof. I'm sorry that happened to you. Guess I'm lucky this is my first seriously problematic experience. We'll see how this goes. The only good thing about Amazon acquiring Whole Foods is that there's one near me so I can take the empty box there & show an actual human. And in the meantime theoretically the replacement is coming tomorrow. Hoping I get the actual thing this time...

I ordered a thing online from Amazon. (Yes, I know. But the seller is theoretically the official direct-to-consumer storefront for the manufacturer.)

I got...an empty product box.

I'm surprised by how upset I am. It's partly because I was excited to get the thing and now I have to wait longer, partly because I (irrationally) fear they won't believe me that I never got the product, but mostly because WHO DOES THAT?!? Who steals a product & ships an empty box? Sigh.

So grateful to have had a chance to record this session with @nat. Fantastic advice on how to get out of the tech debt swamp. https://youtu.be/EgCaPBmBicw

I boosted several posts about this already, but since people keep asking if I've seen it....

MITRE has announced that its funding for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program and related programs, including the Common Weakness Enumeration Program, will expire on April 16. The CVE database is critical for anyone doing vulnerability management or security research, and for a whole lot of other uses. There isn't really anyone else left who does this, and it's typically been work that is paid for and supported by the US government, which is a major consumer of this information, btw.

I reached out to MITRE, and they confirmed it is for real. Here is the contract, which is through the Department of Homeland Security, and has been renewed annually on the 16th or 17th of April.

https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_70RCSJ23FR0000015_7001_70RSAT20D00000001_7001

MITRE's CVE database is likely going offline tomorrow. They have told me that for now, historical CVE records will be available at GitHub, https://github.com/CVEProject

Yosry Barsoum, vice president and director at MITRE's Center for Securing the Homeland, said:

“On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, funding for MITRE to develop, operate, and modernize the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®) Program and related programs, such as the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) Program, will expire. The government continues to make considerable efforts to support MITRE’s role in the program and MITRE remains committed to CVE as a global resource.”

OK that's enough internet for me today. Holy forking shirt balls I can't even.