I've joined the Federation · 6:17pm Nov 18th, 2022
I didn't want to start the meltdown at Twitter but, considering the timing, it's all my fault! No, not gonna write Star Trek. I did get an account in the Fediverse, however, because I needed an outlet for my non-MLP writing, including talking about SF&F writing, and stuff. Immediately, Twitter broke. (At least according to the media, who really understands computer engineering—my day job.)
So at https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr, I wrote this about "the coincidence". I transcribed it here for your amusement. (PS: I am still writing SG's story.)
The difference between blue collar and white collar jobs? That's obvious.
The difference between material engineering and computer engineering jobs? Frame of reference, I think.
Consider a Rocket Scientist and Computerist. If your job never requires you to ever be in the same room, building, city, state, country, or hemisphere (probably the same planet for speed-of-light issues), then you will have a different mindset.
Flexibility in outlook, perhaps?
I am a computerist. My day job, anyway. My avocation is author; I can do that anywhere, maybe one day on the moon.
Further consider these quotes:
“[...G]iven the scale of the resignations this week, they expect the platform to start breaking soon,” adding: “[T]he team that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is gone after Thursday. ‘You cannot run Twitter without this team,’ the employee said.”
“I know of six critical systems (like ‘serving tweets’ levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers. There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.”
"...I wasn't sure that he understood that compared to rocket science, democracy is much more complicated."
Anonymous via Verge and NYT, and Sen. Ed Marky via Politico.
Let's be real.
As a developer, I know that systems can run forever if they are robustly built. Programs do not wear out like engines do. They encounter untested situations and behave unexpectedly. How good or bad that is is subjective, or objective if there is a spec.
Using a wood frame construction metaphor, it's the untrained fix-it crew that saw and nail and replace structural members without planning, understanding, or foresight that cause the termite-ridden house to collapse under it's own weight.
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On a personal note, I joined the Eldritch instance because I wanted to reply to Federated posts curated and IM'd to me by a friend, @taur10 (Javarod on FimFiction). I didn't know that my getting an account would cause the collapse of Twitter. Really sorry about that!
