TL;DR: re-write the recursive function so that the 1st call doesn’t need to wait for the result from the remaining calls, all the way down to the base case, before returning.
Recursive functions continue calling themselves until the base case is hit - and then they return. The continued calls keep pushing frames onto the stack and can lead to a stack overflow for large inputs. Some languages include an optimization that cleans this up, provided that the function is written in a way that it doesn’t need to wait for the results for all the other recursive calls to resolve to return.
TL;DR - For newdepths.xyz I wanted to add a simpler way for users to log in, in that way they can avoid creating a new password just for this little site. I also wanted to implement all the parts of the flow to get a good feel for them and how they fit together. Of course there are a lot of libraries that handle this well, but I think that doing it manually with low stakes is a great way to learn how everything fits together.
TL;DR: I’m working through the Cryptopals Cryptography Challenges, starting with knowing nothing about cryptography. These are my (not so) random notes and takeaways from them. They generally seem to follow a pattern of introducing a concept in cryptography (repeating key XOR, ECB mode, CBC mode, stream ciphers, etc) and then having you break it in some way(s). I’m hoping to turn my notes on some of these in to more detailed posts at some point, but for now, this mostly ‘stream of thought’ that I’m updating as I work through them.
TL;DR: Use the functions in the random module for modeling, simulations, games, sampling, etc. but use os.urandom, secrets, or random.SystemRandom for cryptographic applications. I know very little about cryptography and security, these are just my notes about stuff I recently learned.
It uses the Mersenne Twister algorithm, which is a pseudorandom number generator with a period of 2^19937-1. It is one of the most widely used PRNGs in the world, and suitable for many applications.
TL;DR: If you’re getting a weird looking Error: fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output error checking out a large repo on a GitHub Actions using a Windows Runner, try switching to use HTTPS instead of SSH for your clones (by providing a personal access token instead of an SSH key).
Summary I was recently working on getting CI setup for a project that has a pretty large repo with a few submodules and uses LFS for some large binaries.
Some tips for Working at a Smaller Company (mostly for devs) TL;DR - A small company can be a great place to learn, and it can be a lot easier to see the effects of the results of your work. At the same time, you likely won’t have access to the same structure, level of mentorship, clarity of career path / progression, or resources. In my experience you need to be the kind of person who (1) is happy with being more of a generalist, and (2) take responsibility for your own learning - eg fill in gaps were necessary, go deeper when needed, and lean on outside resources, friends, etc.