Notices by Anders Borch (anders@mastodon.cyborch.com)

@majorlinux as an iOS developer I just want to let you know that “constantly running in the background” is not actually something that iOS apps are capable of.

If your battery life is worse than usual then I advice that you take a hard look at your screen time. Did it go up?

It turns out that one of the enablers of COVID was actually our increased carbon footprint.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html

#covid #covid19 #CarbonFootprint #CO2 #climate #ClimateChange

You don’t need moderators if your target audience is people would be removed by moderators on other platforms.

#Twitter #Moderation

From: @tchambers
https://indieweb.social/@tchambers@indieweb.social@indieweb.social/112376772392287825

@Curator @snarfed.org

You may want to reconsider your "Fuck off" comment while on mastodon.art:

https://mastodon.art/about/more#code-of-conduct

@qqmrichter @activitypubblueskybridge @fedidevs @fediversenews you have to appreciate someone so openly breaking their instance rules about proper conduct.

It makes it easier to report and block them.

Windows 10 end of life costs more CO2 than Greece produces in a year

Microsoft will end of life Windows 10 in October 2025. At that point a lot of computers will need to be replaced if people want to continue to use Windows.

Software companies end long term support for software all the time. This isn’t news in itself.

The problem arises when minimum requirements for the next version of Windows forces people to also upgrade their computers.

According to Canalys 240 million computers will be impacted by this forced upgrade.

Looking at the CO2-eq emissions in the lifetime of a computer, including the production, transportation, and end of life in a landfill, this comes to about 331kg.

The math is simple enough to do at this point: 331kg CO2-eq per computer times 240 million computers, which comes to about 80 million tonnes CO2-eq.

This is more CO2 than all of Greece produces in an entire year.

(Average CO2-eq emissions per capita is 5.6t, their population is 10.3 million, for a total of 57,7 million tonnes CO2-eq).

References:

1. https://www.itpro.com/software/windows/windows-10-end-of-life-could-prompt-torrent-of-e-waste-as-240-million-devices-set-for-scrapheap
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370158642_Sustainability_Assessment_of_Electronic_Waste_Remanufacturing_The_Case_of_Laptop

#Climate #ClimateChange #eWaste #Microsoft #Windows #ClimateCrisis #Emissions

I have interviewed 100s of candidates for software engineering positions.

I’ve done take-home tests, in person challenges, pair programming with the candidates.

All of them were awful experiences for me and especially for the candidate.

I can only think of a single instance where a code challenge exposed a poor software engineer and I could definitely have made the same assessment just by talking to them.

Lately I’ve stopped doing any software or mental puzzles.

I don’t do any of that when I interview designers or QA people or HR people, so why would I be particularly toxic towards software engineers during the hiring process?

Instead, I actually read their resumes (which is significantly quicker than doing interviews, asking them to repeat the same information), and then I ask them questions like:

- Where do you get your tech news?
- How do you learn about new technologies?
- What do you most appreciate in your coworkers today?
- What is a perfect workday like for you?

I specifically avoid trap-style questions like “what is your greatest weakness?” or “why are you leaving your current job?”

I recommend that you make a plan for what you want to learn about the candidate, e.g. “are they good at acquiring new skills?” or “do they share the same values as the team?” and then structure the interview around that.

Be a non-toxic manager. Make your company look good during the interview process. Get better candidates.

#jobs

Right now it sounds like there is no actual federation going on:

“it doesn’t sound like you’ll be able to post from Mastodon to Threads, and you can’t move your account between services”

#threads

From: @tchambers
https://indieweb.social/@tchambers/111574528182921957

@jeremydebose I heard rumors about telescope-lenses which is kinda cool I guess 🤷♂️

I am less excited for the next #apple event than usual. I was SUPER excited about the 15” MacBook Air. Other than that, my 2 generations old iPhone serves me well, so does my 3 generations old watch and my 6 years old iPad is still like new.

Longevity of these devices makes me less worried about buying new apple devices, but also means that it might be a few years before I buy anything from them again.

@underlap I was using MacPorts for a long time, but the last couple of years I've stuck to Homebrew ?

(I know, this wasn't what you were asking for, but macOS is the best unix-variant for me, by far).