Hey there,
Quick post about a new repo I made. I wrote some code to deduplicate my DJing library for an upcoming event.
At first I used Bash, where I could use the mdls utility to read metadata. string parsing to compare fields ended up seeming kind of difficult, and I don’t think Bash has data structures like dictionaries and sets, or at least I couldn’t figure out how to use them quickly.
Here’s the repo: DJ-DeDupe
A few days ago I signed an offer to join a new team at my company. This is not just a move, but a promotion too. I will be working on revamping our infrastructure to use modern scaling techniques.
I’m incredibly excited! Previously, I was working on a team that basically did legacy work. It was stable, but it was also kind of stale. The longer I worked in that role, the more I would be pigeonholing myself.
Right before I interviewed for this team I started watching MIT 6.824 Distributed Systems (Spring 2020). I learned about MapReduce and Google File System and apparently it paid off!
I’m still trying to figure out my cadence for this blog. Part of why I want a blog is because I want to get rid of Facebook and I’d still like to have a place to post about my life. That’s pretty easy to post about.On the other hand, keeping this more focused on what I’m thinking about lends itself to longer, more thoughtful posts. Unfortunately that means they’ll probably be infrequent unless I get into the habit of journalling or otherwise recording whatever it is I’m doing at the moment.
I haven’t posted on my blog in forever. I only just now decided to write something here on a whim because I realized I want to start sharing more stuff online.
Basically, I’m someone with extreme ADHD who is doing a lot of things at once. Over the past many years I’ve been learning Spanish. Although I am Dominican, due to a long series of events I ended up never learning it. This past year, I’ve put in extra effort now that I’m visiting family again. I’ve been using a language partner who I speak to throughout the day and Anki flashcards.
Over this past 6 months I’ve also been studying data structures & algorithms off and on in order to interview for a new job. I haven’t studied this hard in a long time so there has been a lot of material to cover. Luckily, I’ve been much better taking notes so I developed a robust set of resources to refer to.
In general, one of the biggest skills I’ve picked up over the past year has been writing things down. That’s what inspired me to consider posting on my blog again.
Now, I am trying to decide if I want to get a master’s degree. I am leaning towards yes, but I am still heavily considering how it might affect my ability to do other things with my spare time.
This year, whatever it is I pursue, I will be posting more online, whether I’m playing games on twitch.tv/wodinga, posting on my blog, or releasing apps. Here’s to a successful 2022!
Hello world! I’m Raf. This is going to be my blog where I post about computer topics I find interesting, my current work, and ramblings about solutions to save a dying world.
I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2014 with a degree in Computer Science. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been passionate about computers because I believe with the ever increasing complexity in the world, computers are the tool we need to help make sense of it all. I believe that if people are taught what computers can do and how to use them effectively, they stand a chance in this increasingly numerical world. All that to say that I think computing is about people first and machines second.
My other passion in life is electronic dance music. Occasionally I’ve been known to DJ and produce music. My favorite genres are house, techno, and trance. Of course I am a huge fan of glitchy, jazzy music too. Some might call it IDM, but I personally hate that name. I’m a fan of anything considered futurebeats, or anything bubbly. Really I have a wide taste in electronic music that’s hard to put into words. I’m generally a fan of anything that makes you groove, makes you feel, or stimulates your mind when you’re finally too tired to dance.
The world is a messed up place and it is on fire. I am terrified that collectively we’re just sitting around and watching it happen. I have no idea what to do about it, but rather than just mope about it I will start compiling information about what is going on and currently actionable ideas and solutions about how to change things. This is mostly for myself, and I’m sure there are people much smarter than me already ten steps ahead. But maybe whoever reads this blog can learn something too. It’s my belief that most people are aware of the slow motion train wreck that is our environment. However, in addition to being overworked and overwhelmed by their own lives, the problems we face are so massive in scale that it’s hard to grasp what we can do about it in the first place.
Make no mistake, the vast majority of the problems we face are are caused by a tiny minority of people and the companies they run. Perhaps the nonviolent solution is to figure out how to can opt out of the systems they have created if our governments won’t do anything about them.
Anyway, I’m going to work on some music to take the edge off. See you around.
Anti Square Wave 