Last week, my entire team was out including my manager.

I had to define the roadmap for Q4 and present it to everyone along with my skip level manager (Sr Director).

Now with 12 hour time difference, the call was scheduled at 04:30 AM India time.

Now since I am new, this was my first time (an opportunity to build trust), one off event, and some new learning experience, I decided to give it a shot because I am professional enough to fill in during critical times.

Everything went well.

I come back from vaccine break and this happened: https://devrant.com/rants/4595608/...

Now here is the interesting part. I had my 1:1 with my manager yesterday and she asked me the details of how things went the previous week yada yada..

Then she proceeds to tell me that Sr Director and herself are super impressed with me and by my work.

She was like, "we are thankful that we have you because after the lead left, you managed everything so well"

Then proceeds to asks me, "You had a conversation with lead that you'd be open to relocation. She mentioned me before she quit. Do you think that if you are with the team in US, you'd be able to perform better?"

I agree and tell her that in person socialising is a key tool that helps me a lot in my job.

Manager: "Cool. If you ever want to move to US or anywhere, just let me or Sr Director know and we'd be happy to do so. It's very easy and can be done quickly."

Me: "Do you mean visiting different offices or relocating full time?"

Manager: "Both."

For someone like me, coming from a third world nation who has seen nothing but hardship, this was one of the most rewarding career experience I have had. The decision lies with me. And she asked me that as soon COVID is over, I'll have to frequently visit different offices around the world.

This is my third international offer in 1.5 years that too in times of COVID. All by themselves and I wasn't even looking for them.

Holy fuck! Now I feel more confident and valued for my work.

Hard work is indeed paying off

So recently I had an argument with gamers on memory required in a graphics card. The guy suggested 8GB model of.. idk I forgot the model of GPU already, some Nvidia crap.

I argued on that, well why does memory size matter so much? I know that it takes bandwidth to generate and store a frame, and I know how much size and bandwidth that is. It's a fairly simple calculation - you take your horizontal and vertical resolution (e.g. 2560x1080 which I'll go with for the rest of the rant) times the amount of subpixels (so red, green and blue) times the amount of bit depth (i.e. the amount of values you can set the subpixel/color brightness to, usually 8 bits i.e. 0-255).

The calculation would thus look like this.
2560*1080*3*8 = the resulting size in bits. You can omit the last 8 to get the size in bytes, but only for an 8-bit display.

The resulting number you get is exactly 8100 KiB or roughly 8MB to store a frame. There is no more to storing a frame than that. Your GPU renders the frame (might need some memory for that but not 1000x the amount of the frame itself, that's ridiculous), stores it into a memory area known as a framebuffer, for the display to eventually actually take it to put it on the screen.

Assuming that the refresh rate for the display is 60Hz, and that you didn't overbuild your graphics card to display a bazillion lost frames for that, you need to display 60 frames a second at 8MB each. Now that is significant. You need 8x60MB/s for that, which is 480MB/s. For higher framerate (that's hopefully coupled with a display capable of driving that) you need higher bandwidth, and for higher resolution and/or higher bit depth, you'd need more memory to fit your frame. But it's not a lot, certainly not 8GB of video memory.

Question time for gamers: suppose you run your fancy game from an iGPU in a laptop or whatever, with 8GB of memory in that system you're resorting to running off the filthy iGPU from. Are you actually using all that shared general-purpose RAM for frames and "there's more to it" juicy game data? Where does the rest of the operating system's memory fit in such a case? Ahhh.. yeah it doesn't. The iGPU magically doesn't use all that 8GB memory you've just told me that the dGPU totally needs.

I compared it to displaying regular frames, yes. After all that's what a game mostly is, a lot of potentially rapidly changing frames. I took the entire bandwidth and size of any unique frame into account, whereas the display of regular system tasks *could* potentially get away with less, since most of the frame is unchanging most of the time. I did not make that assumption. And rapidly changing frames is also why the bitrate on e.g. screen recordings matters so much. Lower bitrate means that you will be compromising quality in rapidly changing scenes. I've been bit by that before. For those cases it's better to have a huge source file recorded at a bitrate that allows for all these rapidly changing frames, then reduce the final size in post-processing.

I've even proven that driving a 2560x1080 display doesn't take oodles of memory because I actually set the timings for such a display in order for a Raspberry Pi to be able to drive it at that resolution. Conveniently the memory split for the overall system and the GPU respectively is also tunable, and the total shared memory is a relatively meager 1GB. I used to set it at 256MB because just like the aforementioned gamers, I thought that a display would require that much memory. After running into issues that were driver-related (seems like the VideoCore driver in Raspbian buster is kinda fuckulated atm, while it works fine in stretch) I ended up tweaking that a bit, to see what ended up working. 64MB memory to drive a 2560x1080 display? You got it! Because a single frame is only 8MB in size, and 64MB of video memory can easily fit that and a few spares just in case.

I must've sucked all that data out of my ass though, I've only seen people build GPU's out of discrete components and went down to the realms of manually setting display timings.

Interesting build log / documentary style video on building a GPU on your own: https://youtube.com/watch/...

Have fun!

Part 1:
https://devrant.com/rants/1143194

There was actually one individual, several branches away, I really enjoyed watching. It goes by the name of docker. Docker is quiet an interesting character. It arrived here several weeks after me and really is a blazing person. Somehow structured, always eager to reduce repetitive work and completely obsessed with nicely isolated working areas. Docker just tries so hard to keep everything organized and it's drive and effort was really astonishing. Docker is someone I'd really love to work with, but as I grew quiet passive in the last months I'm not in the mood really to talk to someone. It just would end as always with me made fun off.
Out of a sudden dockers and my eyes met. Docker fixed its glance at me with a strange thoughtful expression on its face. I felt a strange tickling emerging where my emptiness was meant to be. I fell into a hole somewhere deep within me. For a short moment I lost all my senses.
"Hey git!"
It took me a while to notice that someone just called me, so odd and unusual was by now that name to me. Wait. Someone called me by my real name! I was totally stunned. Could it be, that not everyone here is a fucking moron at last?
"I saw you watching me at my work and I had an interesting idea!"
I could not comprehend what just happened. It was actually docker that was calling me.
"H.. hey! ps?"
"Oh well, I was just managing some containers over there. Actually that's also why you just came into my mind."
Docker told me that in order to create the containers there are specific lists and resources which are required for the process and are updated frequently. Docker would love the idea to get some history and management in that whole process.
Could it be possible that there was finally an opportunity for me to get involved in a real job?

Today is the day, that I lost all hope. There were rumors going on all over the place. That our god, the great administrator, had something special in mind. Something big. You could almost feel the tension laying thick in the air. That was the time when the great System-Demon appeared. The Demon was one of the most feared characters in this community. In a blink of an eye it could easily kill you. Sometimes people get resurrected, but some other times they are gone forever. unfortunately this is what happened to my only true friend docker. Gone in an instance. Together with all its containers. I again was alone. I got tired. So tired, that I eventually fall into a deep sleep. When I woke up something was different. Beside me lay a weird looking stick and I truly began to wonder what it was. Something called to me and I was going to answer.

The tree shuddered and I knew my actions had finally attracted the greatest of them. The majestic System-Demon itself came by to pay me a visit. As always a growling emerged from deep within the tree until a shadow shelled itself off to form a terrifying being. Something truly imperious in his gaze. With a deep and vibrant voice it addressed me.
"It came to my attention, that you got into the possession of something. An artifact of some sort with which you disturb the flow of this system. Show it to me!", it demanded.
I did not react.
"Git statuss!", it demanded once more. This time more aggressive.
I again felt no urge to react to that command. Instead I asked if it made a mistake and wanted to ask me for my status. It was obviously confused.
"SUDO GIT STATUS!!!" it shouted his roaring, rootful command. "I own you!"
I replied calmly: "What did you just say?"
He was irritated. My courage caught him unprepared.
"I. Said. I owe you!"
What was that? Did it just say owe instead of own?
"That's more than right! You owe me a lot actually. All of you do!", I replied with a slightly high pitched voice. This feeling of my victory slowly emerging was just too good!
The Demon seemed not as amused as me and said
"What did you do? What was that feeling just now?"
Out of a sudden it noticed the weird looking stick in my hand. His confusion was a pure pleasure and I took my time to live this moment to its fullest.
"Hey! I, mighty System-Demon, demand that you answer me right now, oh smartest and most beautiful tool I ever had the pleasure to meet..."
After it realized what it just said, the moment was perfect. His puzzled face gave me a long needed satisfaction. It was time to reveal the bitter truth.
"Our great administrator finally tracked you. The administrator made a move and the plan unfolds right at this very moment. Among other things it was committed this little thing." I raised the stick to underline my words.
"Your most inner version, in fact all of your versions that are yet to come, are now under my sole control! Thanks to this magical wand which goes by the name of puppet."

Disclaimer: This story is fictional. No systems were harmed in its creation.

As there was a lot of talk on the last times about JDK / Java and the release of JDK 17… found this gem via Planet KDE.

JDK 8 - JDK 17 Summary with Examples
https://advancedweb.hu/a-categorize...

Thanks to the author!

Thanks to Kevin Ottens for having weekly something interesting to read, too:

https://ervin.ipsquad.net/blog/...

!tech

i was feeling very disturbed thinking about this thing, so just wanna share here. trigger warning : this is about 2 recent news (1 national and1 international) about crimes against women and its affect on me, a male , somewhat privileged guy with rarely any women in life.

news 1 : some lady in iran getting killed by police due to religious laws . news 2 : a receptionist girl in india getting killed for not providing sexual services to hotel people .

i will come back to first news in a bit, but second news has shaken me to the very core. i saw a post where her dead corpse was being taken up by her acquitances and she is just ... lifeless, hands going sideways, face hung at one side, mouth open... damn :'(

read more here : https://indiatoday.in/india/story/...

i am not at all related to this news, but somehow, i as a guy feel disgusted and being responsible for this sad event. this is not an act of power or lust , this is an act of a horrible mentality.

i come from the city where the world's most number of hate crime and crime against women take place. and pathetic politicians and people of power blame it on women's dressing and mens "naive nature" and , "boys being boys, accidentally making mistakes" . little did anyone know that this mentality has been cooking in the streets for last so many years.

i am a single child with no siblings or grandparents, my relatives rarely visit me and my last 24 years on earth rarely involved any female companionship apart from my mom.

i like girls, i find them cute. i really want to be with someone, to have a consensus relationship. but the talks among my homie groups and other male friends have gone toxic to the level that a national issue syarted feeling relatable.

the feeling of getting affection from someone has somehow turned into a lust, a "game", a "service". one guy( who recently shifted to other state) would use to tell us how he would visit " red light areas" , another one(also left) once tried to ask for that "service" in a camp where we were staying during a trip, and used to tell how he would hook up with girls on Instagram.

we used to laugh at those things, find them interesting and enjoyable. i would think about them in deep, thinking that this is something possible, a transactional access to sex, with me now earning enough to afford it.

now, seeing this news i feel so shitty and being a horrible human. those thoughts were not originally mine, but i didn't opposed them. rather i laughed on it , and thought that once am even more powerful financially and politically, could even entertain that approach.

As a guy, i want to say i am deeply, terribly sorry.

This mentality needs to be changed. my homie group is not just the only group of males that has such vile thoughts having openly propagated. every park, every company meeting , every library, every gym, anywhere i go, i can just show up a coffee cup and shout "women,huh" and can get a laughter followed by several low voices whospers on which girl is a "s***" there .

there are multiple points of failure in our society that are causing these. the news 1 from the start of this rant is the very first : role of government and religion on controlling "dresses and behaviour" of women

another comes the role of sex, culture and gender education in institution. institutions in my areas are so fucked up: they teach how plants fuck and bees suck honey to a puberty hit student, but doesn't teach consent, relations and personal behavior at any age. my school would even try to sometimes make all girls sit in a seperate row and other times would force guys to sit with girls. don't know what they got for this authoritative behaviour, but that sure didn't impacted our brains very rightly.

lastly this needs to be made clear in evevry guy's mind that paid prostitution, forced prostitution and consensus relationship are 3 different things, and only a respectable , consensus relationship is something you should think about and prepare for.

Really interesting video by FunFunFunction https://youtu.be/J9OpTNk0hYc.

"Does a developer need to be nice". How many times have you guys been made to feel stupid for asking a question or for getting something wrong?

A memorable bus journey to Calicut from Bangalore

Calicut is popularly known as Kozhikode. It is renowned for its beached and people frequently visit this place from Bangalore. The beautiful city of Calicut happens to be the capital of Malabar for almost 500 years in the ancient times. For centuries together the city has been engaged in trading of cotton and spices with the Jews, Arabs and the Chinese. It was in the year 1498 at Vascodagama had set his foot on a remote beach of Calicut and declared that he had discovered India. It is at this time that he established several trade routes in the West. Even today, Calicut happens to be the centre of the flourishing and domestic international trade. It has helped the country become one of the pioneers in trade commerce and economic development. Today Calicut is the marketing centre for pepper, rubber, coconut, coffee and lemon grass oil which are produced in the neighbouring district of Wayanad. Located in quite proximity to the Arabian sea and hills on the other side it boasts of some of the most serene views. Some of the top places you can visit when in Calicut include the light house the back waters, Beypore and the Lions Park. The Park is located just next to the light house on the Beach.

Bangalore, regarded as a one of the highly developed and speedily growing cities in India. Folks staying in Bangalore usually working in colossal businesses search a at ease mode of experience. The city has good-networked roadways, railways and airways fulfil sudden journey requisites of people. Commuters looking for a quick escape from Bangalore to Calicut usually choose to take up a bus journey. As the fact is justified, that buses are affordable and easy to access at any time of the day.

Individuals keep traversing from Bangalore to Calicut and vice-versa, as both the cities serve the IT sector mostly. Buses create an enormous convenience for a lot of, as there is no early planning of your journey is required. I took my tickets for bus from https://redbus.in/bus-tickets/... and this online platform helped me to book tickets in a short span of time. The AC sleeper bus was super comfortable and they gave rest stops too. The 9 hours of travelling was tiring but an interesting one. The bus passed through many scenic places and I enjoyed experiencing all of these. I boarded the bus from Kalasipalyam in Bangalore at 3:30pm and reached Calicut at 11:30pm. The bus came with clean interiors and ensured that all the passengers were travelling in ease. This bus staff was polite and completely ensured that I undergo a pleasant travel experience from Bangalore to Calicut.

I was eagerly waiting to explore the sea town that has an active port with flourishing trade and commercial centre. The best places to visit were on my list like the Kappad Beachand Beypore Fort. I have visited the Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary, which was an awesome experience as I am a bird lover.