Etchings

I figure that there are 4 different types of development:

• Create something new
• Add features
• Maintenance
• Tie two programs together

Most of what I've done at work is 2, 3, and 4. Most of what I do at home is 1 and 2.

When I'm at home, I write programs from scratch or add to the ones I've already written. I get to be creative in what, when, why, and how. This is fun. If I need to maintain old software, generally I'll wipe it away and start from scratch with a new tech stack. I have a list of projects that would be interesting to work on, but most of the ideas that have been on the list for a while require me to interface with other programs - I can't just go and make something without any care about how it works with the rest of the world; I have to think about how other people have written their code and how I am constrained by that.

At work, I don't have the freedom to (completely) choose what, when, why, and how:

• The what is what PM/PO/etc. determine should be done
• The when is both "during work hours, generally", and "before so and so deadline"
• The why is because I'm getting paid
• The how is determined by the existing tech stack that the company/BU/Org/group/team uses

I don't have most of the freedom of working on my own projects at home, but I do generally have the ability to influence, question, and assist with the software that's around what I'm responsible for working on. If I have a question, I can ask. If I find a problem, I can either offer help to fix it, or just tell others to do so. If I need help, I can ask for it.

They're two very different environments, each with their pros and cons. Generally, the more programming I do at work, the less I do at home, and the opposite is also true.

I've played an additional 30 hours of Monster Hunter Rise since my last post. During this time, I've experimented with other weapons (hammer, dual blades, and bow), crafted several end-game meta armor sets, crafted many more decorations and talismen, and continued to train buddies. My hunter rank is 72.

The game is still fun, though I'm relying more on the online multiplayer interactions with random people to fuel spontaneity. Dual Blades is a fun weapon, and I'll probably focus on it after playing through Hammer more, which I am definitely enjoying. I expected to like Bow, but since I've played, almost exclusively, melee weapons in my time in Monster Hunter games, switching to ranged feels very weird.

Hunting for better talismen is annoying; I have a few that have a skill I want and a gem slot, and that's pretty much good enough. I've been able to farm monsters for decorations, which have gotten me most of the skills I want. When paired with following guides for end-game meta armor sets, I feel strong, but not overpowered. Monster Hunter is good about rewarding player skill increases, as well as character strength increases.

At this point, I think I've seen everything in the game - the additional post-story monsters, the apex variations, and the crimson something or other that has jet engines on its body (though I haven't fought it). I don't have another game to play right now, so I'm still going on hunts to get materials and have fun, but as I'm generally a very goal-oriented player, I'm starting to get blurry on what's next for me.

Monster Hunter Rise is the second Monster Hunter game I've played, the first being World. I've finished the "main" quests after 33 hours.

A massive list of articles that I found interesting this year.

For years, I've been using VirtualBox to run Linux virtual machines (currently using Arch [btw]), but I've gotten started with WSL, and it's fantastic. Microsoft is certainly trying to make the developer community like them, and here's another win for everyone.

In today's world, it's difficult to learn about cryptocurrencies without falling into deep pits of people absolutely screaming that it's the "next best thing" that will "revolutionize the way we live" and "disrupt the _______ market" or whatever. In trying to get into the space myself, I'm putting resources here that I found to be informative.

I've moved posts from my old blog over here. They can be found via the "old_blog" tag. Due to not having the information about when each article was posted any more precise than the year, I've just assigned each article the posting date of Jan 1 at midnight of the year I wrote it.

How fast could a group of mages make a chunk of steel move?

The SmarterEveryDay YouTube channel launches a Kickstarter for "4Privacy", an "app [that] helps you privately communicate and securely organize your important information". Sounds like a good win for privacy, right?

Can Amazon Games actually put out a game that works? Apparently so, though not without controversy and wounds along the way.