BS Guru

Screenshot courtesy of bumblemeow.com Original article:   https://www.bumblemeow.com/techtalk/#desktop-dev-tools It is not a surprise for the company to pick Objective-C for their macOS development (~duh).  It definitely LMAO comparing a typical hello world app, Electron uses  120,000% more disk space and 400% more memory than using Objective-C 😂.   I agree with their engineer Electron is a beefy tool for any lightweight app development as if using a cleaver for spreading butter but it is still ... comical 🤣.  It reminds me of using Unity vs Godot developing mobile games.  The overhead from Unity is ridiculous but one may argue Unity is meant for desktop gaming.   As for engineers, would you dare not to learn and master Unity or pick Godot if you are serious about getting work?  Many engineers choose languages, tools, IDE, platforms ... etc. not based on what best meets their product requirements but what to put on their resume or what they ar...

Encoded a mp4 using OEDcoder For work Sometimes you may want to make your messages less obvious to be reviewed by others.  Exchanging images or 'not so friendly' messages can have deadly consequences.  They may accidentally show up on your screen or preview at the most inconvenience time such as someone is watching over your shoulder or when you are projecting your screen during meetings.   I always remember to turn on 'do not disturb' during meetings but email previews still get me from time to time when I need to dig through emails.  It is common for us exchanging emails and images with base64 encoding to prevent s* from happening.  It is not a password protected attachment but rather displaying a meaningless text string in preview without catching attention and discouraging any nosy people.  Would it be too obvious to know they are 'secret' messages?  Yes and No depends on your role.  My role is expected to send large files with base64 seg...

Most company email exchanges have file size limits and block sending or receiving zip files, media files or other 'unknown' file types within or outside the company network.  You may not necessarily realize any restrictions until you feel like a fool when you emailed your clients without the expected attachments.   Some companies may create file sharing with public endpoints allowing you to upload, download and share with your clients outside the company network.  However, this also assumes your recipients do not have the similar policies for uploading or downloading files outside their network given zip or unknown file types are always red-flagged.   Some may suggest changing the file extension to .txt or other known file extensions.  Does it work?  Sometimes but don't bet on it.   Even it may work the first couple times but will eventually get caught, it's just a matter of time.  Base64 encoding any file type to text is your best bet.  It i...

I got a chance to try the pre-release version of this base64 encoding/decoding macOS app, "OEDcoder" last week.  This company released 2 free mobile games last year.  I thought they were into mobile games and design but they surprised me with a high performance macOS app. Investigating production issues to decode those base64 encoded images from logs and databases manually was a pain.  We couldn't use online decoding services (obviously) while CLI was slow and clumsy.  Any decent developers could script it for simple decoding tasks but we ran into different problems when handling large file sizes or bulk processing.  I wish I could have this app when I used to get calls reviewing those damn base64 encoded production snapshots.  For $5, this app solves both image decoding and bulk processing for web development.   I would pay my entire team and PM, PdM, BA ... etc. a license out of my pocket so they could view any images themselves.  Using CLI is n...

 Image credit: CookieAMA mobile app IFC ("Independent Film Channel") used to joke about themselves that they present good 'artsy' movies that did not sell.  'IFC' mobile games/apps are those with good and original designs built by independent developers neither AAA companies nor funded by AAA companies, who often go against the trend (aka starving artists) providing unique designs and experiences.   How to define a good mobile game? I want to say a fun game with good design and story but let's be realistic, people jump into a mobile game not for fun but for a conversation, a bragging right and to feel superior in a digital world, the 'alternative' world they live in.  It is not about a game but 'I am in'.   While people continue to complain about micro-transactions and data privacy concerns, they continue to play those games and take a blind eye on how their personal data are being exploited everyday.  Some may consider it as a small 'p...

One of the cool features of iOS 17 is creating your own iMessage stickers using photos.  The edge detection is not perfect but good enough for adding a personal touch to spice things up.   It is a new feature so as always, typical confusion how things work, how to get started and somewhat ... buggy.  Apple claims it works on both iPad and iPhone; however, there is no option to create stickers on iPad 'yet'.  You may create stickers either from your photo album or accessing your photo album through iMessage directly but both have some issues. What we know so far:  1.  The edge detection seems to conflicting with its OCR especially with lower resolution photos.  Photos with text have issues to be recognized and added as a sticker (well, at least we know OCR works well 😅).  We tried to turn off live text under Language and Region but it does not solve the detection issue (higher resolution photos seem to be ok without turning off live text either wa...

 Image credit: CookieAMA mobile app For whatever reasons hot sauce and chili cook-outs seem to always be a hit among tech teams.  Hot sauce, chills, chili cook-outs, hot sauce challenges ... etc.   It is funny to see those with reflective skin always brag about food in scoville units while the naturally sun protected skin group are always gobbling up without a sweat and back to their desk asap.   Our GM used to bring his own blend of chili mix to our lunch meetings and there were always people who couldn't wait to kiss up how special and spicy it was.  I arrived late due to a production issue at one of the lunch meetings and was seated next to my GM and crap! there it was his special blend of chili peppers.  As always people kept asking for it to keep my GM happy but when he gave it to me, I passed it on to my colleague and he was not pleased.  I was known to have rare allergy issues so it was easy for me to say 'I can't take any chance not showing up ...

It 'only' took Google seven years to take Google Domains out of beta in March this year.  Given their forever beta reputation, it was great news we could finally get comfortable with Google Domains for domain registration.  The service is relatively easy to set up especially for small businesses or personal sites which all you need is a custom domain name with blogger service or static web hosting.   Guess what? It was out of beta just so they could hand it to Squarespace as a 'final' product.  Seriously, W.T.F.     The sketchy part in the email is 'After this migration period Squarespace will be solely responsible for providing domain services to you.'.  Damn! the classic 'you are dead to me'.  Squarespace is a web site hosting company not a domain or web services providers.  We can't find any information whether they will start charging domain hosting as a separate service or all domain hosting will be part of the web site hosting (i.e. $23...

Image Credit: CookieAMA mobile app Ideally, you don't want to come to me for this type of advice 😓 Developers usually went online and found mostly depressing comments such as less than 1% would appeal, never heard from apple, have been waiting for weeks without any replies ... etc. You should know better by now those comments did not have any merit.    I had helped a company to appeal their app which was rejected by the app store initially.  The company filed an appeal and was approved successfully in 3 days in 2023.  The developer was very upset when he saw the email and already accepted his fate that nothing could be done especially after reading things online, reddit ... etc.   If your app was rejected by the app store, sounds corny but seriously, do not freak out.  Most developers jumped to the conclusion thinking their apps were perfect and WT#.  Unless you don't want to or don't care to solve the problem, you need to calm down and start looking ...

Image credit: CookieAMA mobile app A software company decided to merge two failed CRMs and marketed it as a new product.  It is not algebra where multiplying two negatives becomes a positive.  This is no different than expecting a couple sets of horribly bad genes produces a genius miraculously.  Of course we knew it was an attempt at salvaging two failures but it was still piles of s* when you were assigned to work on it.  There are always causalities, just a matter of how many if not all. Salvaging projects/products is a common practice but very few succeed and more often result in sacking those hardworking employees who were assigned to the impossible.  Some may jump the ship before its sunk (you are a d* but I can understand).  When more people left, the remaining ones worked half ass looking for their lifesavers while all H-1Bs got all the 'thoughts and prayers'.  The probability of salvaging two failures at this point was doomed.   Tasks sta...

  "We don't even care whether or not we care" It sums up those who have been working in tech for years witnessing never ending re-orgs becoming emotionless.  New boss, new policies, new directions with more responsibilities, oh ... I mean extra mile(s).    The definition of extra mile is all the work you are 'willing' to take on outside your role and responsibilities unwillingly (in many cases) in addition to your personal goals, team goals, company goals, stretch goals ... etc.  It is a pyramid scheme in tech.  The CEO wants x, your GM wants y+x, a pool of managers/directors want z*+x+y, and everyone gets the x,y,z* plus whatever you signed yourself up for. You are so passionated about accomplishing something at the beginning of the year but half way or a few months later, WHAM! a re-org hits then either all your existing goals become irrelevant or worse, a double whammy mounting with twice, triple, quadruple of the x,y,z* until the year end.  Your se...

Image credit: CookieAMA mobile app   The deadline is approaching, all mobile apps in google play must target api level 33 by 8/31 or they will not be allowed to ship updates.  Godot is aware of the drop dead date yet there is no commitment to have an update for the 3.5 stable export templates in time.   'That's what open source is all about', we are all free to contribute. They have the fix  implemented in version 3.6 and 'cherry picked' for version 3.5.3 but are not yet committing to release either before the deadline. In case Godot doesn't release the fix in time, the workaround seems relatively simple by setting the target SDK to 33 in the android export dialog.  It will give you a warning 'target sdk 33 is higher than the default 32.  This may work, but wasn't tested and maybe unstable.'   We tested it and our apps work fine, phew~  There are only a handful devices in the market with Android 13 installed and more difficult and expensive to fin...