mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Random company: “we use the same level of encryption that the military does on their personal data” Sounds impressive. Oh yeah, what level is that then? “None” 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I would simply not engage in activities which are likely to appear on the front page of Hacker News. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026A few years ago I went for an interview that lasted from 10:00 to 16:00 and they didn't offer any food or drink. They said I was the best candidate they had seen by far and upped their offer by 5k from what was advertised, but that only matched what I had been paid 3 years previously. 000
Reposted by @mrmartincowen.bsky.socialTabbeigh Cat 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ @tabbeigh.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Oh hey, speaking of coffee discourse. If you're at an interview and they don't offer you water or coffee at some point, you're going to constantly be asked to do things without the proper tools for an insulting pay rate. I've found this to be true no matter what kind of job it is. 327542
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Watching what‘s new in TvOS27 on my Apple TV 4k first generation which doesn’t get TvOS27 😠 Most of it seems to be reduced bloat and speed improvement, not clear why we can’t have that. Not going to replace it just yet, rumours of new one coming soon. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 26/08/2026You may think that you don’t really care for country music, or that Dolly Parton’s songs were nothing special, until you‘ve heard this performance. Hits you in the ❤️ every time. #DollyParton www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEUe...youtube.comDo I Ever Cross Your Mind - Dolly Parton & Chet Atkins (feat. Allison Young) | Among Friends (Ep. 2)YouTube video by Josh Turner Guitar 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Favourite black cat post for #blackcatappreciationday 101
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Using a telescope as a projector for the #eclipse 200
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Logical opposite of a trackpoint, to stop you having to move your hands between the keyboard and mouse. Keyboard on mouse instead of mouse on keyboard. 010
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Recruiter using AI pattern, “it’s not X, it’s Y”. But if “this opportunity has generated so much interest.” why you emailing me every day when I’ve not said I’m open to new positions? AIs are like recruiters, not actually understanding, just pattern matching and expecting you to do the cogni work. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 09/08/2026LinkedIn job ads are full of lies. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Coming home on the tube, saw a lady wearing a cap embroidered with “ever since I was young, I’ve wanted to turn unstructured data into actionable business insights” and I wonder how her interview went. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 28/07/2026news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4907... Agrees with blog.martincowen.me.uk/comment-driv...news.ycombinator.comBeyond "Clean Code": Why Your Comments Matter | Hacker News 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Laughs in Waterfall #Agile #SWdev #AI 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Nice to be told by the AI that I’ve “done an amazing job debugging this down to the hardware register” 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Yeah, had some of those last night with fish 🍟Real mood boosters. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Gemini is giving a bad, garbled explanation here. Twisted pairs do not “absorb stray capacitance” or “stabilise edges”, they create a better defined impedance and constrain the fields. Use it for Python, its much better at that than electromagnetics. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 25/06/2026CEOs missing the point that the goose must stay intact to continue to produce explains so many of their decisions. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026LinkedIn Manager: No one’s clicking on our notifications button, what can we do to get them to click it? LinkedIn UI Eng: Move it next to the messages button, they click that all the time for useful communications, but if we can get them to misclick in a tiny space… 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 13/06/2026May you never suffer a difficult porridge 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026As a: Yahoo Mail user I want to: have a modal pop up with no close box block my access to the app until I have taken a full tour So that: I can’t quickly get to my emails because learning what changes the product manager wanted is more important than the whole point of the app 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Nothing says you’re a valued employee more than no one turning up to the daily and weekly meetings that you’re invited to. Although I did once have a manager run out to another meeting that he’d “forgotten about” in the middle of an appraisal. 000
Reposted by @mrmartincowen.bsky.socialJason Gorman @jasongorman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026What if I were to tell you there's a way to produce less reliable and less secure software that takes longer and costs more? I can see you're intrigued. 4563269
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Maybe it was the change in weather conditions but listening to Bryan Adams’ It’s Only Love from his live album gave me a warm tingling feeling down my spine which took me right back to the 90’s. That chord sequence after the rest. Saw them once in Wembly Stadium, massive day. 020
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Sinclair Spectrum, BBC Micro, Oric-1, Dragon 32, Commodore 64, TRS-80 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 14/05/2026My YouTube recommendation algorithm has converged 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Don’t use some iffy online stopwatch, they said. The page could have malware in the adverts, they said. Use Windows native clock, they said, for a better experience. 000
Reposted by @mrmartincowen.bsky.socialEmma (IPG) @invoxiplaygames.uk · 12/05/2026Good month to be a C programmer who avoids dependencies and third-party libraries like the plague :^) 714911
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 04/05/2026Reposting because of the date #May4th 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Suspicions that the YouTube I was watching was AI were confirmed when this image popped up with the placeholder text still visible. No human editor would pass that. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026There was a terrific jerk on the tube this morning. No, it wasn't me. Go learn some physics. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 26/04/2026A workshop sort of place where electronics, firmware and software sorts could experiment, invent and teach each other all day with no management or deadlines. Eventually product ideas might come out but no pressure. Xerox PARC meets Pixar meets Google 20% time. 131
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 24/04/2026If you are very fast, or if your machine is very slow, you can sometimes catch Windows Explorer using the ancient 3.11 fonts for only some of the files. 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 18/04/2026Modern attitudes to coding - velocity is everything, it doesn’t matter where we are going or considerations of long term maintainability. 110
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 15/04/2026Well whose fault is that, Microsoft? You are the one that decided to install updates and reboot with the lid closed. #AI #Copilot Has it been removed? Did I ask for it to be removed? 010
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Large broccoli the size of a small broccoli 000
mrmartincowen.bsky.social @mrmartincowen.bsky.social · 04/04/2026Downloads means it’s copied to my device. Anyway catch this while you can. For a live concert the recording quality is amazing, not to mention the musicianship. 000
