— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
Posted on 11/06/2022 1:59:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Elon Musk, with the Twitter acquisition, is now the subject of much attention by the general public. Elon is not shy about saying whatever he wants — and being a computer-nerd genius with more money than King Charles III and his late mom, he is sometimes a little obscure.
Like today:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
This one was puzzling enough that the editors asked me for a translation. “Version control” is the way software developers keep track of changes in order to make sure you know what’s changed in case you f—— something up. Your version control is what lets you backtrack so that you have a chance to cover up fix the problem. The joke is that the top tool, git, is pretty much the current state of the art. Subversion is the most common previous version control tool. The bottom picture is a bunch of files with ad hoc file names and no other version control at all. So the “real” version control there is the least powerful, oldest method of all. (Well, if we count duplicate card desks as the same thing.)
Some of you may remember when Mudge, famous hacker and security consultant, testified to Congress. He said Twitter’s security practices were “ten years out of date.” Well, git is the industry standard version control. Subversion was 20 years ago, and some other tools date back to the late ’70s.
Making copies of files is even older. Is Elon saying that’s the state of Twitter’s code? If so, he may have bigger problems than dealing with a bunch of abusive snowflakes.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Change the frequency, Kenneth.
🤓
I guess with “perfection”, technically then there would be no reason for versions. You write it once, perfectly.
I’d be pretty bizarre if Twitter was using anything other than git for versioning. It’s been the go-to standard for over 10 years.
Real programmers prefer RCS.
I’ll take a quick stab at a very general description.
In a good configuration management system, you might have a file with a basic name: “Test Plan for ABC Component.docx”
You can check the file out (like from a library), makes changes, and check it in. When it is “checked-in” it cannot be changed. The name of the file does not change, but behind the scenes there is a revision history which tells Who did What and When they did it.
Your company may change “Test Plan for ABC Component.docx” a hundred times, but the file is always the same name in the same place. This is good. One golden copy that everyone knows is “latest and greatest” as it improves over time.
That would be along the lines of “Git” or “ClearCase”, which have been good systems for controlling artifacts.
“Subversion” is older and more primitive but was respectable in it’s day.
The absolute worst idea is to change files and save them under new names each time, and in new places (new folders) each time. That’s how you get “Final Test Plan” and “Final Test Plan version2” and “Really Final Test Plan” and Final Test Plan B” and so one.
Can anyone find the “latest and greatest”? No.
That seems to be how Twitter manages files. It’s horrible.
Subversion and GIT are tools for maintaining version control with Subversion being a centralized system and GIT designed for distributed applications. Manually building final versions of documents by storing the component parts and subordinate versions in folders is how non-tech savvy people do version control. Perhaps he is suggesting that he is not seeing a consistent versioning solution across Twitter? Or suggesting that perhaps a new version control tool will come out that is better than any of these? Who knows.
RCS is dandy if you’re working alone, but pretty clumsy in a team environment.
Probably unecesasary, but just in case Musks’s irony is still not apparent —
Offer up a truly good system (”Git”) and he says “I want something real”.
Offer up an older and more primitive system (”Subversion”) and he’s still not satisfied. He wants something really real.
Offer up the worst system imaginable and the leadership of Twitter smiled and said “Perfection”.
He’s making fun of their incompetence.
We can only assume that this is a testament to the crappy practices going on inside of Twitter.
“ In a good configuration management system, you might have a file with a basic name: “Test Plan for ABC Component.docx””
I would tie whatever versioning control software to the CMDB and utilize a good ticketing system like Service Now to track and approve changes. Funny this came up when it did. I fired someone last week for implementing a code change without going through the formal change process.
So what you’re saying is those Twitter employees really need to learn to code? Haha
I was a ClearCase admin for some 20+ years. Niche. Still my favorite SCM but they don’t offer a free version, at least that I know of.
Twitter may be using perforce, dunno.
Something to consider:
If you ask the boss “Do you want it to be right or make the deadline?” and they say “Both”, they mean “Make the deadline”.
Yes, and Musk stopped all check outs and check-ins of source code immediately, meaning no changes allowed. If something was already checked out by a programmer, it remains checked out until programmers from Tesla review it.
That's horrible - and 'worse' would be if some folks mucked with that system intentionally... Musk has his work cut out for him...
Ah, now I understand your handle. Very Good!
Yay! Someone gets the joke. Everyone else?
(In all fairness only long-time programmers would get the joke)
Sounds like Elon’s TESLA tech team found widespread shenanigan’s, tom foolery and hijinks.
No severance for those now departed Twitter employees
Advertiser spending on social media is likely trending down.
The modes of digital advertising with the highest return on investment are direct email and search engine optimization.
Advertisers want forms of advertising where they can measure click-throughs to their websites and products.
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