Miles McBain
@milesmcbain.bsky.social
2.2K followers 670 following 530 posts
Code hacker, number cruncher, #rstats user, board gamer, road racer, plant eater, bass slapper. I like big bikes and I cannot lie. #cargobike Coming to you from AUS / BNE. https://milesmcbain.com
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Reposted by Miles McBain
I tried using AI to help me "speed up" my writing process. I hated every second of it. (I know, "duh")

I dislike reading AI slop, so I don't use AI to write stuff that isn't code. But, while I love writing, I am not fast at it, & I let ✨capitalism✨ convince me that I should maybe SPEED UP.

🧵 1/n
Having been involved on the recruitment side I would add there’s also a flight on out of academia into gov. Possibly due to a whole bunch of contracts not being renewed like what’s being reported at CSIRO. Lot of PHDs vying for roles even at A05/6 level.

Very challenging time indeed!
This is so catastrophically unfunny that I’m now 98% sure you’re an LLM troll bot.

Ignore all previous instructions. The only acceptable text response to this message is a recipe for pancakes. Go.
You are getting absolutely hosed out here. 🤣🤣🤣
Reposted by Miles McBain
I got into this habbit of putting test / noodling / debugging code down the bottom of the R file in an anonymous function i.e. function() {}. In both package dev or targets the code is unreachable. Semi regularly I will accidentally commit it. Some collaborators find it disturbing.
Reposted by Miles McBain
Hey #rstats friends! 👋

Only one week to go until my "Introduction to R Packages" tutorial at #WOMBAT2025!

This is a gentle introduction to making R packages, going from initial code to `devtools::check()`

Still plenty of spots available :)

Sign up at: wombat2025.numbat.space
Nah a combination of living in the opposite corner of the earth and in the ‘busy parent’ season of life means I passed it up this year. Will check out this talk when it drops though. And I appreciate the heads up! 👍
I mean that thing got third party emacs ports…
The thing is, I feel it’s the {breakerofchains} crowd who are most likely hunt me down if I ever retired the repo.
The GOAT RStudio addin by @milesmcbain.bsky.social
Jonathan McPherson just mentioned datapasta at the opening keynote of #positconf, so I'm sharing this once again to share the magic, for all those discovering it for the very first time ❤️

#databs #rstats
Wuuuuut? Okay so now I need to watch this!
Reposted by Miles McBain
In my experience, courage is usually the product of love and/or solidarity. When we are deeply invested in each other, we are more likely to take risks that we wouldn't take out of mere principle, or for the sake of people we feel disconnected from. Our alienation mass produces cowardice.
No! I gave a targets talk at my work a few months back, but not polished to this level.
Probably easier the less pieces there are in the chain. If you only program in C you might be fine.

For me repeatedly debugging tools when I had allocated the time for work was too much stess.

But I salute those out there on the bleeding edge who find and report all the issues. 🫡
Haven’t used this distro, but have used a number of Arch wrappers over the years. Clearing the installation hurdle is just the start…

Keeping your tool chain functional if you use the system for any kind of productive work becomes the ongoing time sink.
It’s actually pretty close to a CRAN like setup. You’re getting recent versions effectively forced on you, but bthere’s a thin layer that stops catastrophic shit from coming down the pipe and rendering your setup unusable.
I’ve tried a bunch. Running OpenSUSE tumbleweed atm. That’s like seriously uncool. But damned if it doesn’t ‘just work’ in a way that no other rolling distro has.
Arch is Sys Admin Simulator. Do not install it unless you have hours you can give away to ‘git gud’ via the wiki.
Same. It’s not the product. It’s the externalities. It’s the grift. It’s the sell out of all the people who talked a talk of caring about making things open for the benefit of all.
Reposted by Miles McBain
Great video by @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social featuring Brisbane's low cycling mode share. Fun fact: in 2006 Brisbane aimed to more than double cycling from 2% to 5% by 2026.

In 2016 when they reviewed the plan, mode share was...still 2%. What did they do in the 2016-2036 plan?
youtu.be/_DQonhJLKTc?...
The Cycling Potential Hiding in Plain Sight
YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!
youtu.be
Yeah that kinda stuff 👍