David Riding

I just sent this email to #BigBasket #bbdaily about inconsistent billing. Some (like I) would call it fraud. I had a customer experience and fraud confrontation with #Flipakart a couple weeks ago. What's going on with me? Really... Is it me or them? When will they really get serious? I understand that there can be software errors. In digital world, or technically - a software, N number of things can break. But there are few things that cannot be compromised. OK, here's that email 👇 Dear Grievance Officer at Bigbasket, I am writing to bring to your immediate attention a serious issue regarding incorrect billing of products on my account between <redacted> and <redacted>. This matter is not just a simple error but constitutes financial fraud, which cannot be taken lightly. During the specified period, I noticed that the billing for one item (<redacted>) was inflated. For <redacted> milk, the correct billing was <redacted>. However, between <redacted>, both dates included, <redacted> was charged. Although I have been promised by the customer support that the additional amount has been refunded to my account, I am concerned that other customers might have been similarly affected. This issue likely extends beyond my account and could have impacted numerous other customers. I am also worried that these things might just be occurring and will continue to occur. Out of 100 customers impacted, a few may notice and the remaining may not even know that this happened. Bigbasket is making money in unscrupulous ways. Given the gravity of this situation, I urge you to initiate a thorough investigation into the matter. It is imperative that corrective measures are implemented promptly to ensure that all affected customers receive appropriate refunds. Additionally, robust measures must be put in place to prevent such issues from occurring in the future. Please provide me with detailed information on the steps you are taking to resolve this issue for other customers and the preventive measures you plan to implement to avoid such incidents in the future. I also intend to bring this matter to the attention of the concerned government authorities to ensure that appropriate actions are taken. I look forward to your prompt response and resolution of this matter. Trying to do the right thing Saket Modi

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Be sure to mark your calendars for this one! #kcdnug #dotnet #questanalytics

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I found this book to be really useful. Definitely grab a copy if you're interested in any aspect of observability!

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The Wind Walker - Has been selected as one of the 300 books in The Official Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off! Hosted by Mark Lawrence himself! Please support the blogs giving their time to review all these fantastic reads. Links and details in the comments below! Mission statement: The SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read. #competition #fantasybooks #books #bookrecommendations #BookReview #bookrecs #bookreviewersofinstagram #bookreviewblog #bookreviewers

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As per Brandon Suponchick, CTO of Aviture, in his session at the Kansas City Developer's Conference called "The Agile Architect: Building Product From The Trenches, Not The Tower," one of the many insights he shared was the importance of testing but even more foundational is that code needs to be testable. In order to have "architecture that evolves at the same pace as your business requirements," we need to start with code that is easy to test, and tests should be holistic and stable. If code design is poor and difficult test, our ability to change systems and deploy quickly will be limited. We need to be able to ensure our code will not break through sufficient tests. This includes unit tests. #KCDC #KCDC2024

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I've seen a few people in my feed calling out Andy Jassy for not mentioning or giving any credit to the employees of Amazon for their recent financial success (in their public filings). While that's accurate, I don't know that's it's fair to criticize Jassy for this, at least in comparison to the rest of his tenure as the CEO there. In particular, there's no data to support the idea that Jassy cares about the employees at all; remember, this is the same person who hired people as remote employees during the pandemic, and then brutally shifted the company's remote work policy in direct opposition to both the data and employee feedback, and effectively fired anyone who would or could not comply (which in some cases, meant upending their lives and families to relocate for the company). Jassy is a relentless cost-cutter, who (to his credit) is relentless focused on _his_ customers, the shareholders of Amazon. I'm 100% certain that Jassy would eliminate 99% of the employees of Amazon tomorrow, without any second thoughts, if he thought it would raise the net profits by even 5%. I'm certain Jassy views the human employees of Amazon as just an unfortunate business expense, and only marginally contributory to his personal efforts to optimize the company's profit margins. There are some really good/smart people who work hard to keep Amazon successful, and overall they have done a pretty good job as a company, and this post isn't intended to take anything away from that. I'm just noting that Jassy demonstrating that he doesn't care about, or even acknowledge, the work of the rest of the employees there is 100% in line with who he appears to be as a person and CEO, in my experience.

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For those of you who know me well, I am outgoing in person but also an introvert. I do not enjoy social media or large groups. They stress me out, and it's an effort that wears me down quickly. I have been delving into AI, and it's been mentioned a lot about how it's used to create social media influencers. I was advised I must up my social media game to succeed and build my brand. I had an idea to make an AI social media version of myself for generating posts and responding to posts (no, this post was not cooked up by AI). I brought this up to someone who promptly told me I couldn't do that but couldn't tell me why. Why, or why not, make an AI for social media content? If social etiquette and protocol have been formalized to the point of being code, what do I bring that an AI does not? I ask this to start a conversation about how we interact on social media and use AI going forward. Please let me know what you think and if you have anymore questions. Here is my post's "Rewrite with the AI" version, just because it plays well into the conversation. "As we continue to delve into the world of AI, it's interesting to consider the possibilities it holds for social media. As someone who finds large groups and social media stressful, I wondered if creating an AI version of myself for generating and responding to posts could be a solution. However, I've been told this may not be possible, but without any explanation. So I ask you, what do we bring to social media that an AI cannot? As social etiquette becomes more formalized, and code-driven, it's worth considering how we interact on social media and how AI may fit into that equation. Let's start a conversation about the role of AI in social media and what it means for our personal brands. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. "

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Here’s a quality we don’t talk about enough, my #technicalhiring manager friends: speaking truth to power. How do we hire for people who are comfortable having incredibly uncomfortable conversations? Whether it’s talking about the downsides of a decision or raising the alarms about a dangerous defect, you want technical truthtellers on the team. Here’s how to get them. #recruiting #talentacquisition #techjobs #technicalhiring #developers #hiring #jobs #boeing

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🥂Happy 25-Year Anniversary of gainous.com! On April 19, 1999, I registered the gainous.com domain and started my very first personal web site. It looked a lot different then and has gone through many iterations over the past 2-1/2 decades. It started out as just a collection of text-based hyperlinks linking to geeky websites.🤓 Today, it is a place where my wife and I share our adventures with you. Check out '𝑳𝒆𝒔 & 𝑳𝒊𝒍𝒊'𝒔 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔' at: https://www.gainous.com Here's some state-of-the-internet trivia from the year 1999: • Traditional dial-up modems were the primary means of accessing the internet, but cable and DSL were beginning to emerge. Cable was said to reach speeds of 10Mbps, while ADSL could hit 6Mbps. • 41% of adults are using the internet and the weather is the most popular online news attraction. • AOL launches AOL 4.0 and inundates American homes with CD-ROM mailers. AOL membership jumps from 8 million to 16 million members. • Yahoo! acquires GeoCities for $3.6 billion. https://www.gainous.com

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A must-listen! Verisk’s Sid Wong joins MSPN's podcast, "Set-Aside Some Time.” Verisk’s Sid Wong, VP of Policy, joins MSPN host Annie Davidson to discuss important state law provisions nationwide and how they can affect your MSA settlements. Listen now and learn how these state laws can impact you: https://ow.ly/fO1130sC6kT #MSPN #MSA #StateLaws #LegalInsights #Verisk

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I am starting up a new consulting service. The idea was born out of how many times I have a potential client for NS804 reach out with a horror story about their development process. Now let’s be honest most dev agencies and developers are not setting out to do poor work. They simple are not. Some are, but most are not. 90% of the problem lies in communication. So I figured I cannot write software for everyone in the world, but I can advise many more and take an help mitigate the risk on the company and start up. So if you are a start up, or small business that is having trouble me with a software project, is contemplating to engage a developer DM me so we can talk and I can share how I can help you out to avoid pitfalls and likely get your project back on track to success.

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Things I’m now fairly sure are true about navigating the waters of change, based on my career in corporate operations and my last year spent pivoting into technology. Let me know if you want to add anything: 1) Don’t wait for the change. Be the change. Have faith and don’t stop until you’ve arrived. 2) Remain grateful and appreciate of the relationships you’ve built. Never be afraid to give or request help. That’s why we’re all here. 3) Vulnerability is one of our greatest strengths when we aren’t afraid to to embrace it. Courage is being both vulnerable and bold at the same time. So… Time to level up. Building in public while learning Cloud infrastructure and gaining AWS Practitioner / Architect status…. Is three months too aggressive?.. Maybe so, but you’ve got to have goals, team. #100DAYSOFCLOUD #AWSARCHITECTURE #LETSGO #STAYHUMBLE #BUILDINGINPUBLIC #SOFTWAREENGINEER #SOFTWAREDEVELOPER

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Managing UP, OVER, and DOWN takes practice. Keep your team in the loop, even if there's no action item. For incidents, or possible incidents, letting others know and that you have it covered is a great way to build trust: "FYI, no action needed. <blah broke>, We're currently <doing the thing>. Will fill you in as we know more". For news or other items of interest: "FYI, the Henderson account went under revision again for <context aware> redlines". You don't need a novel, no Bottom Line Up Front, just the Bottom Line is often enough to keep people in the loop and engaged.

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When I was a kid, it felt like there were about 8 jobs for people with college degrees. I didn't realize that there are so many roles for people who do planning/facilitating around various things. Stage managers, project managers, event planners, business analysts. I have run into a lot of high-performing, super organized, high-schoolers who fret about their futures because they don't feel like they fit into doctor/engineer/lawyer/teacher/business roles that seem like the only options at that age. The next time I talk to someone like that I'm going to tell them that they can also make entire successful careers out of the fact that they are great at planning/organizing/managing.

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I have a deep interest in the history of the universe and cosmological mysteries, so I love watching documentaries about the cosmos and reading books about science and the vastness of the cosmos. 🔭🌠 My recent favorite authors in the field of astronomy and space science include Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Christian Davenport, and Seán Carroll. Elon Musk is one of the key figures making space exploration and even colonization possible, so I was eager to learn more about his vision for the future and the new space industry. 🛰️ 👨‍🚀 This book provides a fascinating insight into Elon Musk's passion for technology and innovation, offering a detailed look into his life. The author conducted over 50 hours of conversations with Elon and interviewed nearly 300 people to capture the turbulent stories of Elon's companies. It's a must-read for anyone interested in technology, entrepreneurship, or the incredible story of a person who revolutionized three different industries simultaneously. 🌟📚 #ElonMusk #book #space #universe #technology #entrepreneurship #astronomy #cosmos #science #innovation

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I recently came across a book that delved into the life of Mark Twain, widely regarded as America's most cherished writer. It was fascinating to learn that Mark Twain was born on the exact day when Halley's comet graced the sky on November 30, 1835, and coincidentally, he passed away during another appearance of Halley's comet on April 21, 1910. This newfound knowledge sparked my curiosity about Halley's comet, leading me to discover its immense popularity. Halley's comet becomes visible to the naked eye from Earth every 76 years, with its most recent sighting occurring in 1986. Therefore, we can anticipate its reappearance in 2061. While it has been observed in the skies since ancient times, it wasn't until 1705 when the English astronomer Edmond Halley recognized it as a recurring comet. Comets, in general, are composed of dust, gas, snow, and ice, and they traverse through the Solar System. As they approach the Sun, the heat causes a tail of gas and dust to form, creating a luminous streak in the sky. One of the most renowned encounters with Halley's comet took place in 1066, coinciding with the significant historical event known as the Norman Conquest. Legend has it that in 1222, the comet's appearance inspired Ginghis Khan to dispatch his Mongols to invade Europe. Additionally, in 1301, the Italian artist Giotto depicted Halley's comet as the star of Bethlehem in his painting "The Adoration of the Magi" after witnessing its splendor. Our ancestors held a deep fear of Halley's comet, believing it to be a harbinger of famine, disease, and other calamities. However, in 1986, researchers were able to study the comet extensively using advanced technology. Utilizing powerful telescopes and deploying five probes that ventured within a few kilometers of the comet's nucleus, they gained valuable insights. While Halley's comet was once associated with the demise of kings, it is now eagerly anticipated as a breathtaking spectacle. #commet #Halley #telescope #technology #science #MarkTwain #sky #Earth #SolarSystem #legend #story

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