Kim van Wyk

@malachy@mastodon.nu I've always considered the economy of scale argument to be excellently presented in one of Terry Pratchett's most memorable passages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

@GrahamDowns@mastodon.africa I've gone with "Engineer" but that's mainly because my degree is in electronic engineering and I worked in embedded systems writing C for years. It's all desktop and server Python code these days but I still think of myself as an engineer before any other term.

@davidism I'm reminded of Raymond Chan's frequent use of the Douglas Adams quote: "it rather depended on being on the other side of this airtight hatchway". https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20060508-22/?p=31283 is a particularly good example - he has many similar blog entries on the theme.

@molly0xfff given the sparse example, presumably you have a lot of reason to cry out "holey sheet" (I'll get my coat)

@leoncowle @uastronomer that's a different case entirely, in that you don't start with "Kind Regards" and then go to DEFCON-1 if you drop the "kind" during correspondence. For the equivalent I suppose you could change to "Utter Lack of Rgds" if you need to, but that does lack a certain subtlety.

@brianokken quite a lot of parents would cosin this sentiment

@uastronomer the "kind" in "kind regards" does of course have a useful meaning in the understated British way of corresponding, particularly in work type emails. If your British or culturally-British South African correspondent starts writing "regards" during a mail thread instead of the "kind regards" they started with, you can rest assured they are *seething*.