Stop whining. They’re trying to help give you training wheels. They’re responding with their experience, and you’re being hypercritical about semantics.

If you go to a medical expert complaining about pain, do you get offended when they tell you how to fix it? And for the natural response “they aren’t doctors”, well (a) they may be and (b) if you really want the level of help you’d expect from a medical professional, perhaps don’t ask the internet.

No blanks and limited, expensive kitting. I want to try it, but probably never will.

I use Colemak DH with a numpad and nav layer (there’s a media layer, but it doesn’t see regular use) and Callum-style mods for my layout. I code in python, rust, typescript, sql, latex (and other documentation formats).

34-keys is my sweet spot. My daily is typically a charybdis (home) or sweep (office), and I switch between a totem, zaphod, and 34-key planck periodically.

The key to my layout is callum mods on the left hand layers, with command modifiers underneath (i.e., zxcdv) and alt f and b above. W and Q positions are transparent.

The nav layer is on the right hand, with about what you’d expect (arrows on home row).

The numpad is also on the right hand, and I use the num row keys instead of the numpad, so I get all of my symbols there, too. Various brackets are combos on the num layer (in QMK; all layers in ZMK).

I also have combos for (semi-)colon, tab, capsword, and underscore. And the media layer.

PSA: Posting shipping barcodes is a great way to dox yourself

I love it. Highly recommend it. You must get a good 20V or 24V adapter, but worth it.

Also, you probably want a rotating file handler for the logging.

Tests. And typing. And comments.

Tests can help you be sure that each piece is working as intended and that they’re working together. You can also mock bits out or create a temporary database for local dev.

Adding typing and comments, especially docstrings will help others read your code more easily.

Yes!

I was in a similar situation with my professors at one point: I was applying for a master’s program, and they only wanted PhD students. Luckily, I had three professors willing to speak up for me – one whose class I got an A in. The other two I barely passed (and one of those I technically didn’t, and I had to retake it). Both of those classes were 8am classes, and I slept through almost every class – if I managed to show up.

I figured they both had horrible impressions of me, but I accidentally had lunch with one of them one day, and we ended up talking for quite a bit. That gave me courage to talk to the other one, and she’s the one that recommended I talk to a sleep doctor (I got around to it 3 yrs later, and it turns out I have narcolepsy).

Not every teacher is going to be quite that amazing – I’ve had plenty of the exact opposite – but in my experience, I have a bad habit of projecting my own image of myself onto my perception of how others see me.

It sounds like you’re in a tough spot, and I’m not trying to minimize what you’re going through. I hope this is helpful. You can do this!

First of all – congrats! You made it through. That’s not an easy task, and you made it.

Second, don’t toss out grad school just yet. Poor grades will have an impact, but it’s not an insurmountable obstacle. One good option would be to try to find a job as a lab tech. Learn the ropes, improve your skills on the job, then start applying. Along the way, talk to the profesors and tell them what you want to do – they may have advice and be able to help. Most achools also have career counselor who can help, too.

A big also: Don’t pay for grad school in STEM (maybe just STE?). Most schools waive tuition and pay you a stipend as an RA or TA.

Third: Burn out is real. Push through what you can, but take time for yourself. This may mean taking an afternoon off or a week off – you know what you need and what you can afford.

Context: I’m a director in a biotech with a PhD. Looking into autism for my kids and realizing I am almost certainly on the spectrum myself.

Generally speaking, avoid water. Use 90% isopropyl alcohol or higher.

Without pictures, best guess is that the flux caused a bridge, and the subsequent water caused another issue.

Nice! How’s the liatris?

My daily driver is a 34 key layout, and I’ve been curious about pinky clusters, so I just mapped it to the top outer button, i.e., Q on the peft side. As I still have that button, I rarely remember to use the outer ones.

Yep – that sounds like it! Great idea and sleek look.

Really interesting! I’m not sure I’m willing to drop below 34, but this design makes me want to consider it.

What’s the format for talks? (Maybe I just missed it, but I didn’t see a description)

I’ve seen too many issues caused by relying on the system python. For starters, it’s much more difficult to fix if you screw something up.

I tell everyone to use pyenv – but only to install specific versions of python. I then create a primary venv for a couple of versions, and that’s what I use as my “system” version. Each project creates a separate venv based on the pyenv versions. I use autoenv to activate and deactivate as needed.

It’s a little more setup, but it avoids so much magic, and it’s extremely robust.

I use DictReader all the time, along with a library to hande the type detection. This is the way to go, especially if you need to process line by line or filter columns and rows out first.

Regardless, I’ll avoid pandas wherever I can. It’s not something I want in production level code if I can help it.