Biggest scaling challenge I've faced?

Around 2006~2007 the business was in double-digit growth thanks to the eCommerce boom and we were struggling to keep up with the demand.

Upper IT management being more hardware focused and always threw more hardware at the problem. At its worst, we had over 25 web servers (back then, those physical tall-rectangle boxes..no rack system yet) and corresponding SQL server for each (replicated from our main sql server)

Then business boomed again and projected the need for 40 servers (20 web servers, 20 sql servers) over the next 5 years. Hardware+software costs (they were going to have to tear down a wall in order to expand the server room) were going to be in the $$ millions.

Even though we were making money, the folks spending it didn't seem to care, but I knew this trajectory was not sustainable, so I started utilizing (this was 2007) WCF services and Microsoft's caching framework Velocity. Started out small, product lookup data (description, price, the simple stuff) and within a month, I was able to demonstrate the web site could scale with less than half of our current hardware infrastructure.

After many political battles (I've ranted about a few of those), the $$ won and even with the current load, we were able to scale back to 5 web servers and 2 sql servers. When the business increased in the double-digits again, and again...we were still the same hardware for almost 5 years. We only had to add another service server when the international side of the business started taking off.

Challenge wasn't the scaling issue, the challenge was dealing with individuals who resisted change.

Finally did my first rectangle in opengl in an sfml window in c++

I started in the morning with just a rectangle drawn on the screen .fast forward +-12 hours and I made a little racetrack with a little sprite that moves with keyboard input around the track.c++ and sfml totally rocks.

I’m pretty terrible at soldiering and small electronics in general, but I’m kind of okay with how this turned out.

Back story:
That helmet is my sister-in-law’s, she drives a polaris slingshot. (It’s technically a motorcycle here in the US because it has three wheels.) and she hooked up some EL wire to her helmet and the larger black rectangle in the picture is what the battery pack looked like before. (It takes two AA batteries.) and doesn’t have anyway to recharge them natively.

I did some research and found a neat little charging board (TP4056) and got her a small single cell li-ion battery for it. Now it’s not only less than half the length of the original, but it has a rechargeable battery and a charging circuit built in. The battery is 500mAh and lasts about 65-70mins on a charge. Personally, I feel like that’s not a good enough battery life on a charge, but my sis-in-law says that her and her slingshot friends usually only run with the EL lights on for 30 minute stretches at time so they should be able to get two to three uses before needing a recharge. Which btw, only takes about 35-40 minutes from completely dead.

The box looks like shit cause I literally hacked away at the original casing with a pocket knife and then crammed all the pieces back in and hot-glued the casing together. But I took measurements of the final-ish design and will try to find a small electronics box that will be able to house everything internally. (L: 1-3/4” W: 1-1/4” H: 1-1/4”)

!rant

TFW your graphics ASM code works on the first try.

Yes, it just happened to me, and it's a relatively annoying rectangle drawing routine.

Writing complicated ASM code and making it work on the first try is definitely a new thing to me, I feel so powerful! >:D

Me: hey backend, I'd like you to make three external API calls and a system call, then based on the result can you sort out the output and add it to the data base
Backend: sure *goes and does its thing*

Me: hey html/css, can I please have a square in the middle of the screen and a rectangle ok the left that takes up the full height minus 6px of the border?
html/css: *starts loading*
Me: ok cool thanks *anticipation*
html/css: *displays something resembling a 5 year old who just found out about rulers*
Me: oh ffs is it that hard

!rant, TL;DR at the bottom

Holy fuck, Yesterday, I got absolutely schooled by a literal newbie.
And I mean, NEWBIE newbie, the dude just started a Computer Science degree, and has been learning Java only for a MONTH. He has 0 prior experience with code or anything of the like, and he's somewhat of an Ars(Israel's version of a Gopnik).
So I was helping him with some stuff he didn't understand, and lo and behold his code was probably the most aesthetically pleasing and organized code I have seen in my 8 years of programming(I know 8 is not much, but It's at least above beginner level). The dude's a perfectionist, so I was like, "Okay, very impressive, but makes sense for perfectionism"(I straight up told him: "Damn, I've seen people with years of programming experience who can't learn to write this well, and you do this by default? I envy whoever's going to work with you"), and then I saw the way he writes checks(as in, methods that return a boolean) and I think I came.
The code was:
[First method in the picture]

And I know, it doesn't look as ✨ WOW✨ as I make it sound, but in my personal opinion this both looks much better and is much more readable than what I normally write:
[Second method in the picture]

and whenever there are longer or more complicated checks it makes it look like a simple puzzle that just fits in all the pieces nicely, for example in a rectangle class we had to write an 'isIn' method, this is how I wrote it:
[Third method in the picture]

His way of writing the same thing was:
[Fourth method in the picture]

Which I think is soooooo much better and readable and organized,
It's enough just looking at the short return statement to immediately understand everything that's going on.
"Oh, so it just checks if the SW(South West, i.e. Bottom Left) corner is above and to the right, and if the NE(North East, i.e. Top Right) corner is bellow and to the left"

Point of the story? Some people are just fucking awesome. And sometimes the youngest/most inexperienced people can teach you new tricks.
And to all of you dinosaurs here with like, 20+ years of experience, y'all can still learn even from us stupid ones. If 8 years can get schooled by a 1 month, 20 years can get schooled by a 1 year.
Listen to everyone everybody, never know where you might learn something new.

TL;DR: Got schooled by a local "Gopnik" who only started learning programming a month ago with 0 prior experience with his insane level of organization and readability.

Small test at school testing our knowledge of javascript and the p5js library.

One of the aims was to make a small rectangle slowly move across.

I lost one mark because I didn't define a y variable for the rectangle, even though the y never changes.

*sigh*

University, first Java practical lesson.

I'm sitting near this guy, clearly hyped up because he managed to install his first linux distro earlier.

After 5 minutes he asks me how to do the task the Professor assigned that morning.

I'm playing dumbass in my head, thinking stuff like "oh big boy installed ubuntu but can't declare a fucking Rectangle class in java lol" (what a dickhead).

I helped him, and then proposed to go out for a quick smoke.

Turns out we're very similar, hyped as hell with linux (like I was at the time), with same CS interests. Still texting sometimes.

My Precalculus teacher has such overstrict rules on showing work.

1. On tests, degree signs must be shown in all work. This wouldn't be outrageous except that if the answer is right but a single degree sign is missing in the mandated shown work, the entire question is wrong even with a correct final answer because the "answer doesn't match up with the work".

2. We must show work in the exact form mandated from on class. If even a single step of work is missing or wrong on even one say homework problem, no credit even if the entire rest of the sheet is correct and complete.

3. Never applied to me, but if a homework problem cannot be solved by a student, they must write a sentence describing how far they got and what wasn't doable, or no credit on the entire homework. Did I mention it is checked daily and is 2 unweighted points with 50-100 point tests?

4. On graphing calculator problems, one had to draw a rectangle representing the calculator screen, even for solving systems of equations without explicit drawing graphs as part of the problem, because otherwise, she had "no proof that a calculator was used". It isn't that hard to fake, and it was quite stupid.

5. Reference triangles were required even when completely unnecessary or the answers were assumed copied, even if a better method was shown in work.

And much, much more!

Some days I feel like I really know what I am doing and today was not one of these days...

Working on a game engine using Vala and now using Raylib in the backend for rendering and input.

Wrote a VAPI for Raylib and when I was doing the 'Rectangle' struct... I made it's members integers when they are floats...

So this whole time; when using a camera everything would jitter like crazy.... because I was taking the transform which is all floats... rounding it then casting to an int only for the int to be cast into a float again....

Lo and behold; changing the members to floats and removing the rounding and casting makes everything silky smooth...

I have been debugging every bit of my current render loop trying to work this out when it was 100% unrelated.... I hate myself sometimes

Due to a very unfortunate rectangle packing solution, my bed is currently at a 30° angle to the grid of the room. It's unexpectedly hard to fall asleep when every object in my vision adheres to a single shared grid except for my bed.

Vs studio 17, Y U NO COMPILE MAH C++? It's literally one tiny program, with only one "Rectangle" class. g++ likes it and compiles it clean, why can't you be more like him? :(

Why THE FUCK is Google Maps React just a gray rectangle unless we resize the window and it magically appears.

Urgh

What are your favorite hotkeys? Some of mine:

Super+x: opens xterm(by far my most used hotkey)
Alt+space: opens mutate launcher prompt
Super+Alt+c: opens selectable clipboard history
Super+Alt+d: toggles window decoration
Shift+Alt+4: enables draggable selection rectangle for screenshots(like on a Mac)
Alt+keypad_minus: switch to next virtual desktop
Super+tab: opens rofi for keyboard filterable selection of open applications

I accidentally set the width and height of a rectangle to zero in my code, and my program drew a circle. Interesting outcome.

Be me, wanting to try out PyOpenGL.
Lets start by drawing a rectangle.
Nice.
And now add some text?!

NOPE CANT RENDER FROM TTF OR SOME OTHER STUPID SHIT! YOU NEED TO CREATE A BITMAP FONT. WHICH IS THE MOST INEFFECTIVE BS IVE EVER SEEN.
K but there is surely a library for Python which enables the usage of text in OpenGL? Yes but its last support was 12 years ago.
FFS WHAT IS THIS GARBAGE?
At the end i found out cpp uses freetype to convert each character of a font to a bitmap with the according spacing.
THIS SHOULD BE WAY SIMPLER!

Man I'm only 4 years in and I'm so tired of writing bullshit code that no one cares about. How do people do this for 20 years. I don't know. Motivation is at an all time low. It seems stupid to me that instead being out there with the butterflies I am dying staring at a rectangle for days on end. FML.

- assignment is to display a paragraph fit within a rectangle
- takes maybe 10 minutes to write
- 1 error preventing Xamarin Forms solution from building
- googles error and seems to be a version issue with a single package
- upgrade that single package
- 43 errors preventing solution from building
- reverts back to previous package version
- 76 errors preventing solution from building
- angrily turns off laptop and packs away things into laptop case
- talks shit about xamarin and all the annoying nuisances ive dealt with for this stupid mobile app class
- takes laptop back out because deadline is tomorrow and i have to make the solution build even though i want nothing to do with it
- laptop takes 2 hours and 14 minutes to load up Windows (no update or anything. Just me signing in like every other normal day)
- code builds first try without errors
- wait what the fuck
- concludes that i need only verbally intimidate electronics into submission from now on

Rectangle all the things!!

div {
clip-path: polygon(50% 0, 0 100%, 100% 100%);
}

The newest fucking chrome update made image previews (and other dark elements in chrome) fuck up (the actual image is only the white rectangle, the shitty half darker tone is the shit I am talking about), I even deactivated all the fucking plugins to make sure its none of them, did anyone else have that and fixed it? it doesn't even appear in the fucking source wtf

"The value used to compute the x position of either side of the rectangle."

and

"The value used to compute the x position of the other side of the rectangle."

I get it ... but man documentation if you don't already get it ... like nobody is gonna get that.

Suppose I make an app. Suppose it becomes popular worldwide. How can I protect its name, logo, etc worldwide? Is there some international registry or smth...? For instance is there any law restricting me from creating my own app, calling it Facebook, drawing a white lowercase F in blue rectangle as its logo and releasing it to the public?

I found a better solution than taping over your webcam:
Not using the shitty inbuilt screen in the laptop.
And if you need tape, use BLACK TAPE, because who wants a glow in the dark yellow rectangle above their screen...

So, in opengl 4.x, there are no primitives for circle, and the only ways to draw an almost perfect circle are following

Draw a triangle fan and fk up your memory for a circle
Draw a rectangle and use the fragment shader and distance equation to discard the bit that is not used
But you will need to add an if statement and potentially increase the frame time (from what i have heard)
And it will be more complicated than just using a triangle fan

If you centre align a 1080x1920 rectangle within a 1920x1920 square, you get two 420x1920 rectangles.

420

Coincidence?

Finally finished an algo to check an image for grouping of pixels that will form a rectangular area. I got the grouping to work on one image, but found it was utterly failing on another. I went through every step of the algo and still could not find the solution. The 128x128 image was working, but the 128x16 image was not. I knew it had something to do with the dimensions. Started thinking it was overflowing a buffer somewhere. So I started putting asserts in the functions that abstracted the buffer access. None of the numbers exceeded the proper bounds. It was close to bedtime so I finally gave up. I was tired. Then I realized it wouldn't be until the next evening when I could look at this again. So I got up again and started looking at the code again. I had a loop to check the output of my algo that I did the memory access of the buffer. It too was not fully filling my temp image to show how the algo was working. WTF!

Then I finally realized the flaw:
buffer[x+y*height]

And my test loop to test the algo:
buffer[x+y*ymax]

I kept overlooking the error because I was sure it was right. Also my asserts for the functions to access the buffers? They only checked the inputs x and y. So it didn't help that the math was wrong for reading and writing the buffers. It also worked fine on 128x128 images because the width and height were the same.

It is funny that I struggled with this part. The algo was actually surprisingly easy to formulate. I just looked through every point and checked a buffer to see if that point was used. If not then I would attempt to grow in the x and y direction the shaped of that point based upon pixel color. This was saved in a structure while growing that point. Then when that rectangle could not be grown further the inner loop would continue checking used points again.

I still have work to do to use the data this algo produces. I need to now figure out how to parent the rectangular areas to each other. I will probably use my check buffer to keep track of these rects by an index. Then do adjacent checks to determine parenting. Eventually I will have to extend this algo to 3 dimensions, but that should not be difficult.

the text in the grey-ish rectangles says "Advert"
the text in brackets above the bottom grey-ish rectangle says "(Content continues below advert)"

and yes, the thing in the middle is the actual whole content, there's no continuation below that non-advert

(it's a dictionary showing a very simple word that's just a direct synonym of another very simple one)

Any recommendation for a programming monitor? I have seen cool setups here with long vertical rectangle-ish screen .What do you call it?🤔

Best thing about having two screens and rectangle is that you can collect all the security pop-ups on the smaller one and just continue working till it's actually convenient to restart everything. (Like after the meeting)

Seriously corporate security measures are completely fucked. Not only did they manage to slow down even Go compiles to a crawl with defender and other crap. Just tried to write 6 words to our PO. Focus got stolen by 4 of the 6 words typed.
One of them demanding to restart Firefox and that one can't be closed or moved out of the way unless you have some fancy window manager tool. This isn't security this is harassment.

So which do you think would be faster to detect related points in an image to a certain threshold ?

A. Scan a line at a time and define a rectangle surrounding the shape ?

B. Starting at a pixel find values in each direction within a tolerance and recurse each point found with the same function

C. Do something similar to above but try to find the edges by finding the last point before blank space to get a shape

D. Identify all line segments on the horiz very and diagonals and see which ones intersect ? Omg I asked this before. After discovering all the points that are within threshold and iterating through these alone?

E. Is there another goddamn method ??? Lol

I was 7 years old, and my mom’s friend brought me their old computer as a new year present. I was absolutely happy that day, because I wanted my own computer as far back as I can remember. I spent that evening exploring russian psychological (!) sex quiz (!!) with pictures (!!!) :D I found it on C:\

Actually no, there is an earlier memory. I was four, and I really wanted to mess around with my sis’ computer, it was some kind of holiday, maybe the new year as well. They won’t let me do it, and being an engineer, I took a rectangle-shaped candy box and made a “laptop” out of it. I remember drawing the screen, the icons and stuff. And plastic mold that actually handles candy, I turned upside down, and the candy cavities became sort of “buttons” I could press.

TL:DR I wanna scare the shit out of intruders, do you recommend Arduino or Raspberry Pi?

So, I live in a place kinda like a college, but everyone get their own room. There's staff 24/7, and obviously, I really dislike some of them. Otheres I just like to joke with.

Sometimes, I've thought of putting together a "system" which will probably make them shit a brick.
The way I would do this, is have an Arduino or Raspberry Pi connected to a sensor, which will trigger an airhorn somehow. Yes, and airhorn. They should shit bricks, remember?

That's the beginning tho. Later, if this ever becomes something, I plan on adding some system so it wont trigger when I open the door, along with flashing red lights when intruders opens the door.

I attached a picture. The smaller rectangle is my closet. First circle is the sensor, which I assume can just tell when the door moves, if I place it correctly.
The rectangle is the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, which should control it all as you probably already know.
The second circle is the airhorn. Not sure how I'm gonna trigger that yet.

So, does any of you have some advice or recommendations on how I can make this dream become true? Or even additional components to make it more efficient?
Last and most importantly, would Arduino or Raspberry Pi be best for this, is there a specific model thats better fit?

Damn those homework are pretty over my head and I’m not sure if I’m overthinking it all…
Basically the assignment was, that we program a tool that fills as less LEGO base plates with a given number of LEGOs as possible.
For example you’ve got 10x20 base plates, and 30 2x4, 10 6x4, … LEGO blocks and now need to fill those base plates.
I’m now looking into rotatable rectangle bin packing but as said it could easily be that there is an simpler solution to that.
Any suggestions?

in middle/high school we learned turbo pascal and while others tried to draw a rectangle or circle I drew a church

I never saw the teacher that surprised, but not much recognition since that

I hate that I'm having a SHITLOAD of work to do but apparently I need to work with data entry because the clients are too retarded to use a motherfucking CMS. JUST TYPE THOSE CHANGES INTO THE BOX YOURSELF, NO NEED TO INVOLVE 3 PEOPLE, YOU JUST NEED TO TYPE THAT BULLSHIT, THE BOX IS RIGHT THERE, NICE AND RECTANGLE, YOU'VE BEEN USING IT BEFORE HOLY FUCK

How to Create Beautiful and Durable Pie Boxes

Whether you are looking for a unique gift to give, or you are looking to protect the delicate items you hold, there are many ways to do so with the right pie boxes. By using a custom designed box, you can capture the essence of the delicacies you are storing and protect them for a longer period of time.

Protect delicate items
Using pie boxes is a good way to protect delicate items such as pies, cakes and desserts. However, you need to be sure that the box is the right size and shape to ensure that your item is safely packed. If you don't pack your delicate products properly, they could suffer from moisture and change in temperature.

Before you begin packing your goods, consider whether you should use bubble wrap or paper. While bubble wrap provides an extra layer of protection, it can also leave your product vulnerable to scratching. Choose paper to wrap your items, as it will prevent scratches and will keep them from shifting during transport.

When wrapping fragile items, you need to use a lot of packing tape to secure your package. You should also fill any empty space in the box. You can do this by using bubble wrap, or by adding extra padding. Make sure to mark your box as fragile and to place a label with your name and delivery address on all sides of the box.

Once you've completed the packaging process, you need to seal the box and place it in the shipping box. Besides bubble wrap, you may also want to include ice packs to add extra protection. A cushioned ice pack is another option for additional protection.

You should also use quality packing tape, and make sure to cover all the openings of your box. You can also use zip-up bags to help you keep your things in place.

It is important to know the best way to protect delicate items, so you can prevent them from damage during the shipping process. There are many ways to do this, but you should use the right tools for the job. Purchasing a box that is the right size and shape for your items is the most effective way to do it.

When you use custom pie boxes, you can rest assured that your pies, chocolate pies and other edibles will be safe. They're manufactured with modern equipment and environmentally friendly printing techniques.

Make a gift
Whether you are giving a pie for a birthday, wedding, or as a thank you gift, you can make pie boxes that are beautiful and durable. Several pie box designs are available online, but you can also create your own. Here are some simple instructions to make a simple, yet elegant box.

The first step is to print out a template of a pie box. You can use a piece of scrap paper or decorative paper for your design. If you are using decorative paper, cut out a rectangle the size of your box. If you are using colored cardstock, you will need to cut out a pie filling layer. Once you have a pie filling layer, copy it for several boxes. You can also add other designs or embellishments to your boxes.

Next, place your colored cardstock on your cutting mat. With your x-acto knife, cut out a rectangle that is as large as your box. You will need to fold it on the dotted line. If you are using an x-acto knife, it will be easier to fold the box. Alternatively, you can use a scoring stylus. If you have a Cricut, you can score the cardstock to make a scalloped box top. You can also use burlap ribbon or twine to wrap your box.

Once you have the box finished, you can decorate it with other decorations or embellishments. You can even use calligraphy or other techniques to make the box more special. To close the box, you will need a sticker or piece of tape. You can decorate the lid with patterned paper and a clear plastic screen. This will allow you to see the contents of your pie. You can also use embellishments such as ribbon, glitter, or other materials to make the box more fun.

If you are giving a pie for a holiday or party, you can decorate your box with a festive theme. For example, you can have a holiday tree on the front of your box. Or, you can dress it up for a tailgate party.