this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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[–] dan@upvote.au 25 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

Not sure if this counts, but as a software engineer, pretty much all major software you use is hacks on top of hacks on top of something someone built as a 'temporary' solution or as a proof-of-concept that's still in use years later. It's amazing that anything works properly at all. Stable software is basically just software with 10+ years of bug fixes layered on top of it.

Part of the reason that Windows backwards compatibility is so good (plenty of Windows 95/98 apps still work fine on Windows 11!) is because Windows automatically applies compatibility fixes, including simulating bugs that were in older versions of Windows, because old apps could be relying on those bugs.

My wife gets very frustrated when she encounters bugs, whereas I'm usually like "well, it's not nearly as bad as it could be" lol

[–] Infrapink@thebrainbin.org 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There is nothing so permanent as a temporary solution.

[–] dan@upvote.au 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Accurate. At work I'm finally getting around to paying down tech debt from a temporary hack that was supposed to only be in the code for a month or so, but now it's been in our production code for around five years.

It would have been maybe a week or so to do it the right way initially, but we had hard deadlines and were pressed for time and just couldn't get around to doing it. Now it's over a month of work for one senior engineer (me) to clean up, because there's so many interdependencies between the hacky code and other parts of the system that depend on side effects of the hacky code, or the order of updates performed in the hacky code. What a mess.

At least AI can help a bit. Even the newest models aren't so great at system architecture in brownfield projects though (projects building into existing systems).

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

all major software you use is hacks on top of hacks on top of something someone built as a ‘temporary’ solution or as a proof-of-concept that’s still in use years later.

i had a thought along a similar veing yesterday because i realized that the code base i'm responsible for now was originally built as a proof of concept that never got it's bugs ironed out and a temporary solution i implemented bit me in the ass.

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[–] ashenone@lemmy.ml 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The amount of salt and butter needed to get certain foods to taste like restaurant food. My mother in law nearly fainted when I started cooking for her, but she loves the way it comes out so she let's it be.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Also the reason bar cocktails taste so good? Boatload of sugar

[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

“To know the future absolutely is to be trapped into that future absolutely.”

- Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 16 points 6 days ago (3 children)

A single tick bite can lead to you becoming allergic to meat for the rest of your life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_syndrome

[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

One of my mentors in a trade got a tick bite in 82', and for years couldn't stand or walk, or fully close his hands. Never again could he fully close his hands, having to hold hammers and chisels with his thumbs only, making them extremely exhausting to use.

The nerve damage is still getting worse, and now his only goal is to wrap up all his final projects before he physically can't use his hands at all anymore.

They scare the shit outta me

[–] Carl@anarchist.nexus 4 points 5 days ago

The scary part about this is that he likely has zero actual support from any kinds of disability, because chronic Lyme disease isn’t officially recognized in the medical world. Or rather, they recognize that there is a correlation between Lyme and long-term impairment, but they have no treatment nor palliatives for it. So they just sort of say “deal with it. Most people can return to work after a few weeks, so you can too.”

Sort of like how long COVID affected (and still continues to affect) a sizable part of the population, but government disability in America didn’t recognize it as official so patients with long COVID had to keep going to work even when they were dealing with debilitating long-term symptoms.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I have several friends with this syndrome. Has led to them introducing me to some fine vegan cheeses!

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[–] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Most bar ice machines are full of snot like microbial jelly. Even if the ice machine is properly deep cleaned it will be back to some extent within only a few weeks.

In reality it's harmless (if the machine is regularly and properly cleaned) because it's mostly just yeast colonies caused by yeast being flung into the air from the beer. Yeast loves ice machines for some reason and grows very quick. Assuming the ice machine is properly cleaned regularly and not subject to overly filthy conditions then there shouldn't be anything actually concerning growing in there. But now you are forever cursed with the knowledge that any ice you get in a bar likely came from a machine full of biological slime.

Also the issue can be mostly mitigated by built in air sterilization units or completely prevented by feeding the machine with ozonated water, but I've never met a bar owner willing to pay for those options.

[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

fountain soda machines do the same in a way if not cleaned regularly. i've had a few jobs in the food industry where i would break down the soda fountain and other employees, even managers, had no idea the nozzles would come off and once they did at those places, it was obvious they hadn't been cleaned in years and would be full of crusty sugar, bugs, mold, it's horrifying.

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[–] Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

Knowledge even God carved from their own mind.

You, my friend, are a prophet of horrors unknown. Hail to you, harbinger of nausea.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 17 points 6 days ago (10 children)

What the Lindsey Graham ladybugs thing means. Once known it can never be dis-known.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago

The ladybugs are buried six feet under now. They can’t hurt you anymore.

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[–] godsammitdam@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I've legitimately had people use Pascal's wager and then say that the basilisk is nonsense. So I guess you could include Christianity in this too.

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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How to play Scrabble competitively.

Once you know, you can't play against normal people anymore, they'll hate it and, if it happens often enough, you. You can only play against other Scrabble bastards, and you'll hate that and, very quickly, them.

[–] onlyhalfminotaur@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is why Scrabble is not a good game.

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[–] vrek@programming.dev 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)
[–] Carl@anarchist.nexus 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

Monopoly isn’t an awful game if you actually play by the rules. It’s not great, but it’s not awful either. But most people don’t know all the rules, make up a bunch of stupid house rules, etc… And as a result, the game drags on for hours even after it’s clear who the winner will be. In reality, playing by the rules has each game lasting like 20-45 minutes.

For example, most people know that when a player lands on an unowned square, they get the option to buy it. Straightforward, right? But most people don’t realize that if that original player turns it down, it goes to auction. The players can submit bids to purchase the square, and they can start far below market value. Meaning that all of the squares should get bought relatively quickly, instead of taking like ten rounds. There is actually a strategy to refuse to buy a square, to intentionally send the property to bid, just so you can then potentially buy the properly below market value. Basically, Player A lands on a square. Player A refuses to buy the square at the market price of $1000. Player A then wins the bid at $800. Player A effectively got a $200 discount, simply by sending the property to auction.

Also, the bank can’t go bankrupt.

You can run out of houses to build. Know how you can upgrade four houses to a hotel? And the game only has 32 houses? The hotel increases the square’s rent, but returns the houses to the available pot. It’s actually a perfectly valid strategy to upgrade all of your properties to four houses, and then refuse to upgrade any of them to hotels. Since the game only has 32 houses, you can use 8 properties to effectively lock out any hotels from being built. And since nobody can build any hotels while you’re sitting on all of the houses, your 4-house properties are effectively the most expensive in the game simply because nobody can upgrade their properties while you’re hoarding all the building materials.

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[–] ghen@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I learned how to play a perfect game of Monopoly just so I could beat my family and friends so that they stopped asking me to play Monopoly. Even before learning the trick I hated that game

[–] vrek@programming.dev 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you play by only the official rules it's not supposed to be fun. It's supposed to teach how much monopolies under capatalism are horrible for everyone else.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

This was my thought reading the description of "how to play it right so people won't hate the game for taking too long." They'll just hate it for what it is instead.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

In Practice: "Actually, the rules state the property goes to auction if you don't buy it. Also, money doesn't go in the middle for Free Parking. And if there aren't enough houses then no one can build more."

In Reality: "Well we've never played like that before, so we're not going to change it. Stop being mean to your brother and just use something else for the extra houses."

[–] olbaidiablo@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What a human body looks like after being dead for 5 days in the July heat in an apartment with no air conditioning. The smell is also something I wouldn't wish on anyone either. Even worse, actually knowing and liking the deceased.

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[–] Inucune@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Mercaptan (the chemical used to give natural gas an easily detectable smell) is not regulated.

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[–] wicked@programming.dev 11 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I just learned that people who are allergic to shrimp are also allergic to cockroaches.

[–] lattrommi@lemmy.ml 12 points 6 days ago

also cicada. i learned this after a local pizza place made the news for having a pizza topped with them during the last brood x emergence.

[–] whats_a_lemmy@midwest.social 3 points 6 days ago

Fun way to discover there are cockroach remnants in an unrelated food

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[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There are some atrocious actions people have done to other people and themselves that I wish I could unlearn. Not just the genocides, slavery, and mass rapes across history and currently but the individual stuff like what happened to Furuta Junko (nsfl). I used to think learning about the more morbid nature of humanity would be helpful to understand but it's hard not to become cynical or misanthropic after learning about some of the worst stuff.

[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mm hmm

1 guy 1 jar (nsfl)

The jar doesn't make it.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Doooo NOT watch it.

My brother-in-law sent it to me maybe 20 years ago now and every horrible moment of it is still there making me flinch and pain.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Technically you shouldn't know my password!

[–] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] vrek@programming.dev 7 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Why is your guess just *******?

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[–] MrOtingocni@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

What the murmurs in the void are saying.

Don't try to figure it out. Just. Leave. It. Alone.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

The easiest primary explosive to synthesise at home is HMDT (Hexamethylene triperoxide diamine) The second easiest is TATP (Acetone Peroxide).

Knowing what organic mercury does to the body and brain, and how miniscule an amount is required, and how easily it gets into the body

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)
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