That actually makes a lot of sense. Board revision was a lot more difficult back then.

I would have like to been in the meeting where they discussed putting the keyboard cable on the front of the keyboard.

Google is an advertising company. Something like 80% of their revenue comes from selling ads.

How would spending money on Gitlab support their primary business.

What industry do you work in? I would focus on that. The truth is that programing is somewhat of a commodity, and a lot of your value is going to come from industry knowledge.

Dude interviewed some people that did both software and other forms of engineering. Vast majority said software engineering is real engineering.

These are a few things that stood out to me.

In software engineering the gap between tradecraft and engineering is a lot smaller than the other engineering fields like electricians and electrical engineers.

Software engineering can iterate faster because it’s cheap. If civil engineers could iterate like software engineers they would. New modeling tools are allowing this.

A lot of physical engineering defects are being fixed with software. 737 Max was given as an example where the new engine configuration made the plane unstable and it was fixed in software.

A lot of things can be learned from the different fields. All the other engineering fields wish they had version control. Software engineering needs more very focused deep dive books like this the other engineering fields have. Ex: https://www.amazon.com/First-Snap-Fit-Handbook-3E-Attachments/dp/1569905959

Don’t worry about Linux, and don’t try to over complicate things. If you are set on going the Linux route, get a Raspberry Pi. It will give him something really flexible and cheap to experiment with later on.

Look into modded Minecraft. There is a mod called Computer Craft where you can write programs in Lua. One of the things that makes scratch so good for kids is that the results are instantly visible. This is important for kids.

https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/cc-tweaked

There are programs to control your reactor > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9fC3khXuj8

Unmodded Minecraft has Redstone where you can build logic gates.

Outside of what you already have check into a maker space or a computer club at school. Here in Atlanta there is https://www.codeninjas.com. Maybe there is something similar in your area.

Maybe this is helpful. https://imgur.com/a/TNpqz

If you find any additional information please share it with the rest of us. I have a really yellowed AppleVision 850 in the project pile. It’s too big to redrobright and get an even result.

I’m on a team of 5 and we don’t have an on call rotation since developers are not prod ops. But in a sense we are all on call all the time. The NOC has our phone numbers and if we are needed for something urgent we will get a call or a text for things like helping prod ops troubleshoot an issue if they get stuck. My boss has texted me while I was on vacation before. Usually it’s a quick question for something obscure. Once it was an escalation from a senior executive. I don’t have to respond if I’m on vacation, but if I’m getting a call they really need help with something. It also is a good opportunity to lay a guilt trip on your boss that results in a few reward points. Never had to actually log into anything though.

We also have BCP, business continuity plan, events. I work for a company that provides a lot of critical infrastructure. If the BCP event is really nasty, like a natural disaster, and our team needs 24/7 representation on the bridge, we take turns and will relieve each other. You won’t be expected to help out on a BCP event while on vacation.

Besides BCP we usually have to be available for certain production changes. Like a few months ago I had a DNS and load balancer change done. I wasn’t doing the work, but the team making the change wanted me available between 3 and 5 am to validate the change.

If I were paid hourly things would be more formal. I would get overtime(1.5 x hourly rate) + comp time. Since I’m salaried I just sleep in the next day. Our schedules are really flexible. We basically need to be mostly available for meetings for around 4 hours a weekday from late morning to late afternoon, and complete our projects on time. It was like this in the before times. Back then I would go into the office around 11 am for our daily standup. Get lunch with some team mates. Do some afternoon meetings then go home, and do my more focused work at home after dinner time. Most of my team mates did something similar.

Rest of the compensation is your typical American senior software engineer salary with a 10% to 20% bonus, 7 weeks pto, health insurance, life insurance, short term and long term disability insurance, 401k with 6% match, pension, retirement health insurance, pet health insurance, can use the corporate travel agent for personal travel. I actually like this perk a lot. You still pay for personal travel but it means a lot of discounts and upgrades. We also get to keep our various travel points.

About twice a week we would go to the computer lab filled with Apple IIes. Usually we had to play Number Munchers, Word Munchers, or some other game to reenforce whatever we learned in class. After we finished the game in the lesson plan, we could then play whatever educational game we wanted. Oregon Trail was a popular choice because nothing was funnier than having the game say a classmate had died or broke a leg. And the hunting and rafting mini games were the closest to arcade games.

Also keep in mind that the only exposure most of the teachers had to a computer were the mainframe terminals in the school’s office or the computer lab. MECC put together a lot of software and training for teachers. A school building out an Apple II based computer lab with a bunch of MECC software was as close to turnkey as they could get at the time. The documentation for Oregon Trail or Odell Lake gives you an idea of what it was like.

http://www.mecc.co/history/the-oregon-trail---a-157/mecc_a-157_oregon_trail.pdf

http://www.mecc.co/science/odell-lake---a-192/mecc_a-192_odell_lake.pdf

I’m in that weird group that’s between Gen-X and Millennial. I’ve seen us called Xennials or the Oregon Trail Generation.

The way we do it on my team is debate and discussion. Debate can be tricky in a professional environment. Some people go into thinking they need to dominate their opponent and make it personal. Personally, I would try to avoid hiring people like that in the first place, but sometimes you got to make do. The thing to remember is that you all are on the same side and have the same goal.

I heard this on the radio yesterday. Secretly ruthless is a good way to describe Google.

SHAPIRO: OK. So big picture on this anniversary, 25 years in, if you could describe Google’s legacy in a sentence, what would that be?

PATEL: Secretly ruthless.

SHAPIRO: Oh, that’s rough. Wow. Secretly ruthless - that’s even less than a sentence. Give me a little bit more. Why do you say secretly ruthless?

PATEL: Google has convinced everyone that it is this incredibly sincere and earnest company - that it’s just a bunch of goofballs making cool things. That is true. But I think if we just paid a little more attention to where Google’s money comes from - and it is almost entirely advertising - I think we would be able to see the company and its influence a little bit more clearly. But the truth is, it is an utterly ruthless advertising company that is very, very, very successful at delivering results to its clients.

SHAPIRO: But Nilay, you didn’t mention how cute the Google doodles are.

PATEL: Yeah, the - I understand. They’re very cute.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/1197548359/the-verges-nilay-patel-talks-googles-legacy-and-its-future-on-its-25th-anniversa

A lot of programmers need to work on their soft skills.

Electroshock. I that is too “harsh” or “inhumane” then a cheat sheet.

At the end of the day the command line is a tool that you are using to do something. If I have to google “how to commit file changes to bitbucket using the command line”, I’m probably just going to use whatever GUI tool is available. Or I may do something really silly like manually copy the changes into bitbucket’s web interface. If I had a cheat sheet easily available, then I would just look at that. The rest is just practice and repetition.

Just throwing this out there. It really helps if everyone on the team is comfortable enough to ask for help. If you are a manager, it’s your job to create this kind of environment. And if you see some newbie data analyst that just learned python and is intimidated by a bunch of software engineers copying a bunch of changes into bitbucket’s web interface. Don’t tell them that they are doing it wrong or they don’t know what they are doing. Just say “hey, there is a much easier way to do that” and then show them. If a tool makes somebody’s job easier then they will use it.

See a doctor in sports medicine, physical therapist, or occupational therapist. Basically someone with a medial background specializing in the musculoskeletal system.

I while back I had an issue with tennis elbow and numbness in my hand. I went to a doctor specializing in orthopedics and sports medicine. First visit was an exam and ultrasound of my elbow. He also asked things like how I slept, and if I was sleeping on my arm. There was some swelling and inflammation, but noting too major. He referred me to a physical therapist.

I saw the physical therapist for a few weeks. It was mostly teaching me how to do certain stretching exercises and strengthening the muscles in the area. There were some massages with a muscle scraper. That was weird and not pleasant at first, but did help.

I dislike having to disrupt my computer activities every hour

Nobody likes being taken out of the zen that is being in a flow state, but humans evolved to walk and move around a lot. Take breaks and go for short walks. If I were to give advice to my younger self, it would be to take up running. Humans and a few of our domesticated species are the only ones that can run for long distances. Some members of the species enjoy running for long distances and do it recreationally. They often say they enter a flow state while running.

Do you mean this?

https://www.columbia.edu/~ng2573/zuggybuggy_is_2scale4ios.pdf

There really isn’t anything like it now. It’s from a time when there were not a lot of applications out there any people had to DIY their own tools. Like a database for a repair shop. Now people have spreadsheets with tons of features or small niche apps. Then there are the big cloud apps like SaleForce and Quickbooks.

I don’t remember the details, but I read a comment somewhere that a small business, like a repair shop, created a custom application and has been using it for years.

I tried to google but only found this from 2002.

https://www.wired.com/2002/08/hypercard-forgotten-but-not-gone/

The TelePort Gold II came in at a speedy 14.4 Kbps. It came with my Macintosh Performa.

Maybe they are chunks of some kind of ceramic like material.