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#clojure-uk
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2020-03-14
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seancorfield04:03:51

Plans for the weekend @dominicm?

seancorfield04:03:16

(our plans for the next several weekends have been disrupted by COVID-19)

dominicm05:03:32

@seancorfield I was going to go and get pancakes, hit up the gym, but not a lot. Now I'll probably make some pancakes and hack on my website builder :)

dominicm05:03:39

@seancorfield are you making lemonade? (metaphorically speaking)

seancorfield05:03:14

We are binge-watching a lot more TV than we had planned.

seancorfield05:03:20

And the "cancellation" of the big family funeral in Denver in two weeks means that Jay & I get to be the only two folks there to see mom'n'dad off... which means we don't have to deal with the crazy sister and a bunch of other family so that's a silver lining.

seancorfield05:03:28

So we can have some nice, relaxing dinners out, just the two of us. And our 19 year old cat who has to come along for the ride, because her medication regime is too complicated for the cat sitter!

seancorfield05:03:45

We're eating at home more, too. Which meant a nice grilled ribeye for Jay tonight and a grilled salmon fillet for me. Homemade pizza tomorrow. Ribeye for both of us on Sunday I expect.

seancorfield05:03:17

How's things going in the UK? Seems like the UK govt isn't taking many steps... unlike most of the EU?

dominicm05:03:23

I suppose that is a silver lining, ah family. I'm still not on speaking terms with Katie's sister. I did learn recently that Katie's sister doesn't know that yet though. Katie keeps making excuses for me. πŸ˜‚

dominicm05:03:50

I need to pop out and get some food in I think. Yesterday we polished off the last pittas by putting them in the oven with some cheese and tomato paste on top and calling it a pizza...

dominicm05:03:44

I'll be honest, I've not been closely following it. I probably should be given how sensitive Katie is to it. I know there's no plans to shut schools to avoid kids ending up with grandparents. But that's about it.

seancorfield05:03:01

We just canceled the cat show we normally put on every year in the Spring. But I see the TICA cat show in Reading the same weekend is still happening the same weekend (next weekend at the Rivermead Leisure Center).

seancorfield05:03:56

In California, they've mandated that there be no gatherings with 250+ people and all other gatherings may only proceed if they can guarantee six feet between all participants! πŸ‘€

dominicm05:03:18

I wonder if Britons are just too unruly to listen, so they're handling reality. No idea.

seancorfield05:03:32

(a friend of ours, from just down the road, is judging the show in England)

dominicm05:03:58

Is Trump a big fan of Cat Shows? Maybe that's why the UK is the only country not on the US travel ban? 😁

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seancorfield05:03:09

One of our friends is in self-quarantine after being exposed at his gym. We haven't really done much to change our routine. We have still gone shopping and eaten out in restaurants a few times. But we're not very social, to be honest. I mean, I work from home 100% and Jay's home with me too. She goes to the gym almost every day but otherwise we only go out once or twice a week.

seancorfield05:03:17

I have no life πŸ™‚

seancorfield05:03:25

Ah, yeah, everywhere here is closing schools for two weeks. Heck, even all the sports leagues have suspended their games for a month! That's incredible in a sports-mad nation like the US!

dominicm05:03:15

JUXT have shut the office down, but Katie is still supposed to be in the office on monday. She's started showing symptoms today though (a cough). So she's not going in for a week, and I'm going to keep my distance. Generally my immune system is pretty strong from spending my youth eating dirt, but Katie's got a compromised immune system so I'm worried about her.

seancorfield05:03:20

I have to say, I've been pretty surprised by how little the UK seems to be doing. I'll be interested to hear what mum says on Monday when I call her (every week, 5pm her time, like clockwork!).

dominicm05:03:43

My Mum isn't worried at all, despite the fact she has a cold. I was trying to urge her to call 111.

dominicm05:03:08

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/health-expert-brands-uks-coronavirus-response-pathetic haven't read, but "Ministers β€˜behaving like 19th-century colonialists playing a five-day game of cricket’, says Prof John Ashton" made me giggle, regardless of whether I've decided it's true yet.

seancorfield05:03:25

I have a low-grade sinus infection that I haven't been able to shake for weeks (but it's clearly not COVID-19). I guess we just dodged a bullet because Jay was supposed to be out in Shanghai in January twice judging cat shows and they got canceled due to cat show politics (not the virus!).

dominicm05:03:54

That's extremely lucky. Wow.

seancorfield05:03:26

How much WFH does JUXT normally have?

dominicm05:03:42

The article above seems to be talking about people doing shopping for old people to protect them and stuff. I'm not sure we have that kind of function in the UK. Are other countries doing this?!

dominicm05:03:51

Most people WFH at least 1 day a week. All of our clients are remote anyway. We do optimize for "office time" though. High bandwidth in-office conversation over most other things.

dominicm05:03:05

Personally, I can't manage the dog and spend a whole day in the office, so I spend the middle 4 hours in the office to go in and help out as part of the team, then use morning/afternoons to have focus time. Works reasonably well for me, except when commuting becomes a pain (e.g. parking, bad knee so no cycling, trains missed by me, etc.)

seancorfield05:03:05

It's been over ten years since I went to an office. Technically, when I joined WSN, we still had an office in So. Cal. but only two or three people ever used it so we stopped renting it a few years after I joined.

dominicm05:03:23

Our MK office is pretty active, ~10 people on a given day.

seancorfield05:03:26

The dev team is split between SF Bay Area (me), Seattle (two folks, on opposite sides of the city), Minneapolis, Silver Springs (Maryland), and our UI/UX guy bounces between Tehran, Istanbul, and Paris.

dominicm05:03:34

Do you ever meet?

seancorfield05:03:06

We haven't met f2f for two years I think. I see my backend teammate briefly at Clojure/conj once a year.

seancorfield05:03:04

A few years ago, the whole dev team met at a hotel in So. Cal. for a long weekend. That was really productive. I wish we'd meet more often -- maybe twice a year -- but we do fine without it, really.

seancorfield05:03:37

At the last Clojure/conj, I think I spent more time chatting to one of my ex-WSN colleagues than my current teammate... I saw him for about 30 seconds when he checked in, because I happened to be in the bar in the lobby, and then again at lunchtime on the last day, again for about 30 seconds. It was a bit weird really.

dominicm05:03:20

That is a bit strange πŸ˜‚ How does WSN handle social stuff remotely?

seancorfield05:03:23

As he said, it sort of feels like you should be all "Hi! How are you doing? What's been going on since I last saw you?" but in reality we all chat every day in a Zoom call...

seancorfield05:03:43

Slack, Zoom. I can't remember the last time we sent each other email.

seancorfield05:03:06

Confluence for sharing information. JIRA for work tracking. BitBucket for code reviews.

dominicm05:03:10

I mean, do you just talk $WORK, or do you all hang out on a zoom call and order a pizza and just chat, or anything in the middle. :)

seancorfield05:03:58

We have a company-wide "happy hour" Zoom call at 1 pm on Friday that's free form (but often mostly work stuff) -- and we can all knock off early after that.

seancorfield05:03:26

We have a company-wide work meeting every Tuesday morning. Otherwise we just have a daily stand up for dev at 11 am.

dominicm05:03:50

Ah, well happy hour probably covered it all I guess :)

seancorfield05:03:17

It's definitely missing the "watercooler" aspect of a real office. And shared lunches etc.

seancorfield05:03:31

But I was never one for going out together after work.

dominicm05:03:47

Yeah. Shared lunches are great. Although the best ones are definitely the lunches where someone almost gives a lecture on some topic.

seancorfield05:03:58

(over here, at least... back in the UK, yeah, there was a lot of pub time with colleagues)

dominicm05:03:25

I do try and avoid regular after-hours stuff. We don't have a lot. Evenings are for Katie :).

dominicm05:03:04

I've started googling for other EU responses to coronavirus. It feels like everyone is being criticised for something or other...

seancorfield05:03:59

As some posts on Twitter have said: You want to over-react in a way that controls the virus so that everyone thinks you're over-reacting -- and that should be OK.

dominicm05:03:14

πŸ˜‚ I like that.

seancorfield05:03:01

Over here, each state is deciding for itself what to do. So far Washington and California have been the worst affected, but Maryland has 90+ cases and 77 of those came from just one corporate meeting (Biogen).

dominicm05:03:01

Germany is having a similar situation it seems. Govt can't close schools, only the regions themselves.

seancorfield05:03:45

I wouldn't be surprised if the US hits 100,000 cases before things calm down... Trump is downplaying the seriousness but several industry sectors are already being seriously hit -- because Americans panic in situations like these and cancel everything on their own.

dominicm05:03:31

I don't really read twitter. I don't really follow news at all tbh. I often think that many people are confident in their opinion about what to do, but most of the time when I dig in, I find information to suggest it's been considered (e.g. don't close schools in the UK, because parents are still working and kids will end up with grandparents possibly increasing the spread) and I decide that I don't have enough data to actually dig in and decide to just trust. I just know tech. I'm good at that. I'll weigh in on that.

seancorfield05:03:45

When 9/11 happened, my mum was due out on the 12th and she was incensed that they grounded all the planes for several days. I had colleagues coming to work with gas masks(!) and the office was mostly a ghost town for days... even tho' it all happened over 3,000 miles away on the other coast!

dominicm05:03:23

Having said that, I did read about a bias recently in which experts know that news in their industry is a load of nonsense. But news in other industries they'll follow somewhat blindly :).

seancorfield05:03:33

The British "keep calm and carry on" attitude has a lot to recommend it πŸ™‚

dominicm05:03:58

Something interesting is that the collectivist nature of the east means there's more of a focus on "Let's band together and get this fixed". In south korea everyone was wearing masks, and there's a feeling of solidarity they get from that. In the west we're more individualistic, so it's more about protecting yourself. Get all the toilet roll before anyone else...

dominicm05:03:17

But yeah, we're just keeping calm here. Everyone is thinking they are safe it seems.

dominicm06:03:48

Apparently the US is now going for a national emergency :) Is that panic mode yet?

dominicm06:03:06

Good morning @dharrigan I was wondering when you'd appear :D

seancorfield06:03:11

The phrase "national emergency" just means "enhanced government powers" -- it doesn't mean they're actually doing anything πŸ™‚

dominicm06:03:33

It sounds important at least I guess :D

seancorfield06:03:39

He initiated a travel "ban" on Wednesday, blocking all entry to most EU countries (except for returning US folks and a few others). It was weird that the UK was exempt from that.

seancorfield06:03:29

He's pretty f'ing random so we really never know what to expect, nor do most agencies know what his pronouncements actually mean in terms of policy.

seancorfield06:03:08

He thinks the whole of the US will only need 5 million testing kits -- probably far fewer, he says. Idiot.

seancorfield06:03:20

His biggest proposal yet for dealing with the virus is to cut payroll taxes... πŸ‘€

dharrigan06:03:41

I listened to a bit of his announcement yesterday about the national emergency - I found it very confusing what he said. Not what was being announced, just they way he spoke and seemed to muddle up things whilst trying to get the message across.

seancorfield06:03:35

No one ever knows what he means. He's unintelligible. And he changes his mind more often than the weather changes.

dharrigan06:03:25

Yeah, it's probably an unintentional tactic, so that he can rollback/deny/affirm-how-great-he-is no matter what he says since what he said previously can be reinterpreted in multitude of ways.

seancorfield06:03:10

He really only cares how he seems to be perceived, so he'll do and say anything to make himself look better. He blames everyone else for whatever goes wrong. He claims credit for anything that goes well (even if he's not responsible for it). He's... just... awful...

seancorfield06:03:17

And he'll probably get re-elected and we'll have four more years of this f'ing awful circus. So I'll apologize to the rest of the world in advance for all the terrible things he's likely to do 😞

seancorfield06:03:50

He actually makes BoJo look good πŸ™‚

dominicm06:03:40

As Katie says when receiving criticism of her driving, "but did you die?" πŸ˜‚

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seancorfield06:03:05

If I ever criticize my wife's driving, she just threatens to "do all the driving for the next six months" πŸ™‚

seancorfield06:03:26

(I'm a terrible passenger and I almost never let anyone drive me anywhere)

dominicm06:03:56

Katie is also a terrible passenger. I also know she intentionally winds me up by braking differently to me.

seancorfield06:03:48

British driving style and American driving style are radically different. When I first started doing the driving here, Jay was terrified most of the time. But she's gotten used to it over twenty years. And when we travel abroad, she never wants to drive. Mostly when we're in England, she just keeps her eyes closed while I drive.

seancorfield06:03:13

I hate how most Americans drive 😐

dominicm06:03:46

What's different? I have to know.

seancorfield06:03:13

The roads here are wide and everyone keeps in their lane. They don't plan ahead. They don't have any consideration for any other drivers. If there's an obstacle in their lane, they just stop and then think about how to change lanes to get around it. Or they don't stop and just crash into it.

seancorfield06:03:35

I couldn't believe the number of rear-end accidents I saw in the first few months I was here!

seancorfield06:03:13

They can't merge (because they stay in their lane and don't plan ahead). Traffic on the freeways tends to either go 70 mph or zero. There's no middle ground.

seancorfield06:03:58

Stuff that is pounded into learner drivers in the UK is non-existent here (and the driving test here is a complete joke!).

dominicm06:03:32

That's quite funny. Especially as everyone drives those truck things, and they're presumably pretty good at handling lane switching because they can adjust speeds pretty fast.

seancorfield06:03:14

When I took my test here, I just went round the block a few times and never went over 25 mph. No maneuvers, like you have to do in the UK. Nothing beyond city streets.

dominicm06:03:33

What. That's crazy! Was that in CA?

seancorfield06:03:35

That's a Jeep Wrangler. I drove one of those in the UK as my company car.

seancorfield06:03:56

Four liter, straight six cylinder engine. It was awesome.

dominicm06:03:12

They seem to be the American kids' dream.

seancorfield06:03:22

Terrible handling. Try to brake or switch lanes and it just spins out.

dominicm06:03:36

I guess it's the perfect American car then πŸ˜‚

dominicm06:03:43

oh, except the braking thing.

dharrigan06:03:35

Gotta go - I am being summoned by the boss, and when I say boss, I mean my kid...ttfn!

seancorfield06:03:46

Heh, you should have seen the muscle car I bought when I moved here... five liter bright red Ford Mustang Cobra, lowered suspension, ground effects kit, double whale-tail spoiler, loads of engine mods. It was about 380hp I think.

dominicm06:03:16

You sound like the noisy buggers who hang out under Sainsbury's...

dominicm06:03:52

Most of those are older than me πŸ˜‚

dominicm06:03:43

I will never unsee you as a menace to the roads now :p

seancorfield06:03:23

My second car in the UK was an Opel Manta and I was a true menace. 100+ mph everywhere as a university student.

seancorfield06:03:05

Then I got a Volvo 480 ES and that did nearly 150 mph (up the M6 to a concert at the NEC).

seancorfield06:03:49

(for a short while I had three cars and a motorbike in the UK...)

seancorfield06:03:03

I was very disappointed when all the speed cameras started to appear and a lot of country roads started to get actual speed limits 😐

seancorfield06:03:50

But now I'm old and very sedate. We have a compressed natural gas Honda Civic πŸ™‚ but I'm hoping our next car will be a Tesla Model Y...

seancorfield06:03:33

Anyways, my beer is empty and my wife went to bed ages ago so I'm off. Have a good weekend!

dominicm06:03:02

And you @seancorfield :) Keep safe.

dominicm06:03:07

(and off my roads!)

πŸ˜‚ 4
seancorfield06:03:19

Caution: I'll be over in the UK in September -- for a cat show in Bracknell πŸ™‚

dominicm06:03:17

There's a green belt between us, I feel safe.

Ben Hammond17:03:16

I do enjoy Nicholas Taleb's curmudgeonly persona https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1238871548540456971

zyxmn18:03:43

It's too late now to change strategy isn't it

Ben Hammond22:03:31

its never too late

Ben Hammond22:03:18

> The beginning is now, > and will always be. > You say you lost your chance, > then fate brought you defeat. > But that means nothing, > you look so sad. > You've been listening to those, > who say you've missed your chance. > There's another train, > there always is. > Maybe the next, one is yours, > get up and climb aboard, > another train.

πŸ‘ 4