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w/e 2020-12-20

Greetings from lucky Tier One of this clown-run shit show where we’re frolicking, maskless and carefree, among the virus-free crowds, constantly visiting friends and strangers just because we can. No, obviously our behaviour hasn’t changed at all, we’re not mad.

§ So far this year my favourite new-to-me Christmas tune is the ten-years-old Card From A Multipack by The Just Joans, whose sentiment is as mopey as you’d hope an indie pop Christmas song to be:

My current favourite seasonal album is The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom’s Holy Hullabaloo

We’ve, so far, watched half of The Burning Hell’s live Last Night Of Hanukkah stream on YouTube from a couple of nights ago. It’s as lovely and cosy and funny as three nice Canadians in winter jumpers playing instruments in a living room can be, which is very.

§ This week my reputation score on Stack Overflow passed 10,000. Consider me reputable. This score is mostly recognition of quite how much I’ve asked strangers to help me do my job and hobby.

To celebrate this milestone in a career full of finally giving up and asking for help, let’s look at my three most highly-voted questions:

  1. 120 votes: Can’t type in React input text field
    In 2015, during my one attempt to use React, I couldn’t make a text input field work. As some comfort to my ego it looks like many other people since have had the same dumb, basic problem.

  2. 68 votes: Using Ansible set_fact to create a dictionary from register results
    “Asked and answered,” as a Stack Overflow attorney might say. I initially couldn’t work out how to save some data for future use when using Ansible but later the same day answered my own question with what is now my highest-voted answer (127 votes).

  3. 43 votes: How to mock python’s datetime.now() in a class method for unit testing?
    Way back in 2012 I hadn’t yet heard of the invaluable freezegun module. Recently I posted what I thought was a helpful update answer summarising three different options that are now available. It’s an answer so helpful that it now has -1 votes.

I must admit, I don’t often answer other people’s questions on Stack Overflow. The few times I glance at a list of unanswered questions there aren’t any I can answer, especially without a bunch of work setting up an environment like the questioner’s, in order to investigate. I do often try to help people on the r/django subreddit though, so I hope that re-balances the developer karma.

§ After seeing Nat’s lovely pics I planned to get back to Red Dead Redemption 2, after a year away, and so had to download three hours of updates, and that’s enough fun for this week.

§ That’s all. I am now on holiday. Have as merry a Christmas-type week as you are able to or want to.