David Ruffner has moved

My coworker and I figured out a nasty bug in our own code yesterday. It was one of those "works on my machine" situations. We ended up using some of the strategies from @b0rk@social.jvns.ca 's zine, The Pocket Guide To Debugging, https://wizardzines.com/zines/debugging-guide/. We worked together, reproduced the bug, made a minimal example, identified and answered small questions, kept a log book, and analyzed the logs (a report from running the command). Eventually we solved it, and it was caused by a flawed assumption on our part.

Initially, the problem was daunting. It was involved with a tool, nuitka, that I'm not familiar with. It's a tool for compiling python applications into C and then makes a Windows exe file for running the application. It's somewhat niche, so I didn't find answers from web searches. I didn't know where to start, and things didn't make sense at all.

Having a set of strategies to fall back on was encouraging. It made the process a lot more fun too.

#debugging

I rode my bike to the May Day rally and march in Newark today. Some good things:
- It felt great to have solidarity with other people determined to change the current situation.
- The weather was fantastic, blue sky, mild temps and sunny.
- I was able to make it despite an issue with my bike tire, my phone dying, and not initially finding the protest. As I was about ready to give up and head home, I found the group marching and joined right in.
- There were drums and lots of good chants. Lots of energy despite a small crowd.
- On the ride home, I saw a bald eagle soaring and being harassed by another good sized bird (maybe a hawk?).

#threeGoodThings (plus some extra)
#uspol
#MayDay

The azaleas in our yard are blooming! I love the abundance of flowers.
#bloomscrolling

Three good things from today:
- I decided to sleep in (a little) today and the kids didn't wake me up, despite it being Easter.
- My friend reached out yesterday with a short video message just to say hi. 😊. We message d a little today and it was great to catch up.
- We visited my wife's family today and had a yummy meal together. Our kids and my brother-in-law's kids had a fun time playing together and doing an Easter egg hunt.

#threeGoodThings
#easter

I learned today from a coworker that in python you can use slice indexing to insert a list into another list. For example:
```
a = [0,1,2,3]
b = [8,9]
a[1:1] = b
print(a)
# [0, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3]
```
It works but seems strange to me. It makes sense that the index 1 position of the `a` list gets filled in with the first entry from the `b` list, but then this previously index 1 value is remembered and gets appended to the end of the `b` list. It's not obvious to me.

I intend to look into the implementation to see how it works under the hood.

#TIL
#python

"Just as you shouldn't let others' judgements deter you, don't let them define your metrics of success. We can't control whether we live up to others' expectations, but we can control whether we live up to our own".

I was inspired by this article by Kelli Hendrickson. I definitely feel the pressure of other people's definition of success, as I navigate the next phase of my career. It's encouraging to see someone go their own way.

https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2026/02/leaving-mit

#careerShift

The Hell Mary. A more aggressive name for the long pass that sometimes happens at the end of American football games.

The Diarrhea of a Wimpy Kid. A more graphic name for the well known kids book.

😄
#parenting