Teochew Thunder

ChatGPT's capabilities and their implications in Software Development
"However, as every software developer knows, writing code is only about ten percent of the entire job. And that's a generous estimate."

A Software Developer's Vacation in Kuala Lumpur
"Malaysia is looking increasingly like a good place to retire."

Quiet Quitting: Do Or Do Not?
"No employer is entitled to the extra mile. That is complete rubbish."

Film Review: M3GAN
"M3GAN had no surprises. No plot twists. It had no right to give me this much fun, but it did."

Five Java Exceptions Personified
"The exceptions listed below mostly occur in Java, but some are pretty general and should be encountered in basically any programming language."

Film Review: Black Mirror Series Three
"I was undeniably entertained and none of the episodes I've watched so far, strike me as particularly weak."

On job applicants who want work-life balance
"Work-life balance looks different to everyone. Never let anyone dictate to you what your balance should be, or worse, allow your employer to be in charge of it."

What we think we deserve, does not matter
"Focusing on what is possible is more productive than focusing on what is desired."

Film Review: Missing
"June uses a colorful MacBook but her mother Grace uses Windows?! Wow, way to age-stereotype!"

Big Tech Layoffs in Progress!
"Tech professionals who let go of this perception that career success only means working in big tech, will get on just fine."

TikTok Congressional Hearing: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
"If drug content is not present in China and Singapore, that is because these countries have no tolerance for that content. It's not that TikTok needs to do better (although they certainly do), but that America herself needs to do better."

Do Not Confuse Data With Information
"Yes, I'm writing a blogpost about Data Analytics on my wife's birthday. Talk about having a death wish."

Five New Workplace Buzzwords
"You know what's worse than being a stepping stone? Not being good enough to even qualify as one."

Sperminator: A TeochewThunder Project
"The idea was corny. Silly. Utterly ridiculous. And so me."

Techronyms and their place in the industry
"Maybe it's just me, but I would rather tech workers understand the concepts rather than simply being able to parrot the terms."

Film Review: Black Mirror Series Three, Redux
"After the slight disappointment that was Series Two, Black Mirror came back strong with plenty of content, all the while staying somewhat true to what came before."

Remote Work Is A Moral Issue For Elon Musk
"Years of watching Elon Musk make an absolute monkey of himself on Social Media has driven me to the conclusion that the man's a bit of an attention junkie."

Didn't get that promotion? Blame The Peter Principle
"The Peter Principle dictates that there is a chance that you might struggle if promoted."

An Examination of the CSS Display Property
"Yes, I used a picture of Donald Trump. He may as well make himself useful in this very educational blogpost."

Meta's new platform: Threads or Threat?
"People who feel differently about the issue may beg the question: why in the ever-loving Zuck do you need all that data, Mark?"

Let's Unpack The CSS Box
"If we think of everything as boxes, then we really need to understand the properties of those boxes."

It's Not Personal
"Why would this be personal? Are these employers laboring under the delusion that people work for them because they like them?"

App Review: Two Dots
"Two Dots is a puzzle game that doesn't require quick fingers or uncanny reflexes - just patience and perhaps a bit of luck."

The Real Reason Behind Political Resignation
"While Singapore is largely a meritocracy, suitability for a position does not consist of only professional competence."

From Twitter To X?
"Of all changes to take place, this stands out as a strange choice."

The How And Why Of One-Hot Encoding
"Yes, OHE, like all solutions, is not ideal for every situation."

A Comparison Between Tables and Divs
"Can tables be nested too? The answer is yes, and those seriously disturbed individuals who have attempted this will doubtless live to regret such depravity."

Fat Arrow Notation in JavaScript
"Good old Fat Arrow to the rescue!"

About the 2023 Singapore Presidential Election Sample Count
"Now, as a programmer, and by extension, a numbers and statistics nerd, I could not let this one go."

Ten Awesome Tech Tattoos
"Tech tattoos, on the other hand, should really occupy their own niche. The ones I managed to find in cyberspace are clever, quirky and just awesome."

Film Review: Target
"Emotionally, this movie had me by the balls."

Why I did it my way
"Even unpleasant employers were an experience. Not experiences I necessarily want to repeat, but valuable nonetheless."

Ode to my Lenovo
"The Lenovo handled it all like a champ. It was tireless, inexhaustible, like a stallion in its prime."

Whose fault is it, really?
"He had failed to understand the process. But see, understanding the process wasn't his job. It was mine."

Functions that handle NULL values in databases
"Handling NULL values is important. Whether you choose to handle them at the data entry level (not allowing NULL values in a column) or in a calculation (using the COALESCE() function), at some point you have to handle them."

Reference Review: Techlead
"Some complain about the monotonous, deadpan delivery. It's actually my favorite part."

INFO

A collection of technical snippets and ruminations on the web industry and tech in general. Much of it is opinion-based, and as such, I fully expect people to disagree.

As with most opinion-based content, your mileage may vary.

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Posts for 2023