Join devRant
Do all the things like
++ or -- rants, post your own rants, comment on others' rants and build your customized dev avatar
Sign Up
Pipeless API

From the creators of devRant, Pipeless lets you power real-time personalized recommendations and activity feeds using a simple API
Learn More
Search - "networking"
-
Biggest challenge I overcame as dev? One of many.
Avoiding a life sentence when the 'powers that be' targeted one of my libraries for the root cause of system performance issues and I didn't correct that accusation with a flame thrower.
What the accusation? What I named the library. Yep. The *name* was causing every single problem in the system.
Panorama (very, very expensive APM system at the time) identified my library in it's analysis, the calls to/from SQLServer was the bottleneck
We had one of Panorama's engineers on-site and he asked what (not the actual name) MyLibrary was and (I'll preface I did not know or involved in any of the so-called 'research') a crack team of developers+managers researched the system thoroughly and found MyLibrary was used in just about every project. I wrote the .Net 1.1 MyLibrary as a mini-ORM to simplify the execution of database code (stored procs, etc) and gracefully handle+log database exceptions (auto-logged details such as the target db, stored procedure name, parameter values, etc, everything you'd need to troubleshoot database errors). This was before Dapper and the other fancy tools used by kids these days.
By the time the news got to me, there was a team cobbled together who's only focus was to remove any/every trace of MyLibrary from the code base. Using Waterfall, they calculated it would take at least a year to remove+replace MyLibrary with the equivalent ADO.Net plumbing.
In a department wide meeting:
DeptMgr: "This day forward, no one is to use MyLibrary to access the database! It's slow, unprofessionally named, and the root cause of all the database issues."
Me: "What about MyLibrary is slow? It's excecuting standard the ADO.Net code. Only extra bit of code is the exception handling to capture the details when the exception is logged."
DeptMgr: "We've spent the last 6 weeks with the Panorama engineer and he's identified MyLibrary as the cause. Company has spent over $100,000 on this software and we have to make fact based decisions. Look at this slide ... "
<DeptMgr shows a histogram of the stacktrace, showing MyLibrary as the slowest>
Me: "You do realize that the execution time is the database call itself, not the code. In that example, the invoice call, it's the stored procedure that taking 5 seconds, not MyLibrary."
<at this point, DeptMgr is getting red-face mad>
AreaMgr: "Yes...yes...but if we stopped using MyLibrary, removing the unnecessary layers, will make the code run faster."
<typical headknodd-ers knod their heads in agreement>
Dev01: "The loading of MyLibrary takes CPU cycles away from code that supports our customers. Every CPU cycle counts."
<headknod-ding continues>
Me: "I'm really confused. Maybe I'm looking at the data wrong. On the slide where you highlighted all the bottlenecks, the histogram shows the latency is the database, I mean...it's right there, in red. Am I looking at it wrong?"
<this was meeting with 20+ other devs, mgrs, a VP, the Panorama engineer>
DeptMgr: "Yes you are! I know MyLibrary is your baby. You need to check your ego at the door and face the facts. Your MyLibrary is a failed experiment and needs to be exterminated from this system!"
Fast forward 9 months, maybe 50% of the projects updated, come across the documentation left from the Panorama. Even after the removal of MyLibrary, there was zero increases in performance. The engineer recommended DBAs start optimizing their indexes and other N+1 problems discovered. I decide to ask the developer who lead the re-write.
Me: "I see that removing MyLibrary did nothing to improve performance."
Dev: "Yes, DeptMgr was pissed. He was ready to throw the Panorama engineer out a window when he said the problems were in the database all along. Didn't you say that?"
Me: "Um, so is this re-write project dead?"
Dev: "No. Removing MyLibrary introduced all kinds of bugs. All the boilerplate ADO.Net code caused a lot of unhandled exceptions, then we had to go back and write exception handling code."
Me: "What a failure. What dipshit would think writing more code leads to less bugs?"
Dev: "I know, I know. We're so far behind schedule. We had to come up with something. I ended up writing a library to make replacing MyLibrary easier. I called it KnightRider. Like the TV show. Everyone is excited to speed up their code with KnightRider. Same method names, same exception handling. All we have to do is replace MyLibrary with KnightRider and we're done."
Me: "Won't the bottlenecks then point to KnightRider?"
Dev: "Meh, not my problem. Panorama meets primarily with the DBAs and the networking team now. I doubt we ever use Panorama to look at our C# code."
Needless to say, I was (still) pissed that they had used MyLibrary as dirty word and a scapegoat for months when they *knew* where the problems were. Pissed enough for a flamethrower? Maybe.10 -
BGP went down during new year and I had to endure the noise while reviving a dead switch from chassis.
Because a fucking intern decided it was fine to try broadcast internal shit.2 -
What is it with devs (not all, by any means!) who don't understand networks or basic computer operation? I'm not talking about anything complex, but things like the dev who asked if his IP address could be whitelisted so he could remote in from home. We asked what his public IP address is and he said 10.0.0.27.
Or the new dev who started and said her laptop camera didn't work and logged a ticket, only to be asked if she had the camera cover open or closed and said, "oh, that's what that lever is for."
Don't get me wrong - many devs and sysadmins and IT people of all fields are excellent. And there are some who are crap in every field. This is no rant about devs in general, just *these* crap devs that I can only throw my hands in the air and think, well, they scored ok in the SQL test.4 -
I've been in IT for a while now, maybe 15ish years. Was always into security, networking, programming. Worked my way up, so to speak, to field I wanted. A while back I got what I considered a "dream job" and now I am not so sure. Many parts of it are not what I expected: people, workflow, work quality. The thing is, I don't think I want to be in my specific field anymore, maybe not even tech. I have considered a career change but I'm unsure of what I'd want to do and feel like I'll be fumbling around and going backward.
Has anyone gotten out of a situation like this, changed careers or sub-career even?3 -
Alright boys.. calling in my networking friends for help..
Recently switched my ISP and got a fibre optic installed (100Mbps).
Thr ISP provided a new TP-Link router which supports 5GHz as well as 2.4GHz.
Some of my devices support 5GHz and connect to that network which works flawlessly.
However, my phone does not support 5GHz and hence, have to connect on 2.4GHz.
Somehow, the main router as well as the access point, are not functioning well for 2.4GHz. Whenever the connection is established, it would work fine for a minute or two before the networks starts disconnecting.
Restart the device Wi-Fi and it works for few moments and the cycle repeats.
I am not sure of what is causing this issue.
For the records, the access point is an old D-Link router. Why I mention this? Because funnily whenever the access point cable is plugged into the main router and I login to the router, the system logs me into the access point router (D-Link instead of TP-Link).
Can someone please help me resolve this issue?
Fun fact: The D-Link was a giveaway by one of my dR friends @Bigus-Dickus8 -
Theory should be minimal courses, just something to think about and not something that expands through the entire curriculum as if anyone was to use it. Theory and fundamentals are enough, after that have career paths over what students want to focus on depending on a class that takes them through each different field: web development, db development, micro controller programming, os programming networking programming etc etc etc.
Basically, not :hey! here are some shitty basic programming classes, ok now let us move into calculus 1, 2, 3 etc etc. Most people come out of schools with no knowledge of what happens in the real world.3 -
I'm a terrible adult. I convinced my dad to pay for a $30 network switch for me so I can waste $60 on 3D printer bolts and supplies 😅😅 oof
At 23 I should be more responsible than this. Oops2 -
the red haired girl and the blue haired girl.
there was this story about a programmer who spent years studying computer science before finally getting a job.
the dev studied only computer science and was put on blue team after a few days.
a few hours into one of the constant coding sessions, the boss told the devs that red team members and blue team members would be working in pairs.
the person from red team transferred the devs work to their data base without the dev knowing, then locked down the devs computer. the dev could not do anything. later, the dev got fired for not doing any work. after that, the company got millions of dollars, and the dev did not see any of it.
both the dev and the managers made a note not to hire any programmer who cannot secure their work.
it is not ethical to teach people programming without also teaching them cyber security.
computer networking, programming and security should all be the same major.
it is a bad idea to teach people how to build anything without telling them how to secure it.
the story above was just a scenario, but it probably happens way more often than people think.
Schools should teach both things in the same major.5 -
Networking boffins! I’m building a garden office at the end of my garden…garden about 30m long. For internet what do you guys advise on for cabling/any special router? Thanks!7
-
Best
- Started a blog, networking and public learning
- Got an Internship
Worst
- DSA and CP fcuked me hard and I started questioning my ability to write code
- Wasted first six months in academics and uni stuff
- Thought about quitting programming and start UI/UX at one point