Matthew Miner's Basic-ish BlogMatthew Miner's Blog

Sometimes I might say something

References to items in PHP's arrays have a seemingly unexplainable quirk/bug. If one manipulates an array by using references to some items, then he makes a copy of the array and manipulates that afterwards, somehow this modifies the original array too. This isn't shallow copying of objects; this happens with primitive types like ints and strings.

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Interviews are usually pretty structured affairs, with the interviewers asking most of the questions, and the interviewees just doing their best to answer them. However, they're not like tests. There's no one right answer. There's typically no scores. Those being interviewed simply need to convince the interviewers that they are the best candidates for the job.

Therefore, you shouldn't view questions as a checklist to be checked off like if you have a passable answer to every question you'll g...

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The whole point of home automation is to do things conditionally. Maybe you want to change the light color depending on the time of day. Maybe you want to play a noise when someone hits a button. Or, in my case, I want to adjust the thermostat based on the temperature and people's locations. Regardless of what you want to do, the go-to software is the mostly-lovely Home Assistant. It makes it easy to integrate all your devices with whatever setup you want and then lets you run automations to…a...

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Since 2007, applying postage for most mail has been extraordinarily easy. You buy one Forever Stamp and put it on. It doesn't matter if you bought the stamp five years ago. You don't have to think about what the current rate is. You don't have to see any numbers at all. It's just one letter, one stamp.

However this simple rule only applies for what the post office calls "standard-sized" letters. For most mail, that's fine, but there are a couple of rules that greeting cards often don't compl...

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Bemoaning Beyond Burgers

PERSONAL PRODUCTS COOKING
One of the best final results I had cooking Beyond Burgers

I, like any American, love burgers. I'm not very picky. Obviously, some burgers are a lot better than others, but I like basically all of them, whether it's Five Guys, Wendy's, Steak and Shake, Dairy Queen, a local smashburger, or even McDonald's. I like all styles—from a plain cheeseburger to a Big Mac to a blue cheeseburger to a peanut butter royale burger. However, I believe that there is a core element to a burger—primarily comprising the burger patty itself. In light of this, I believe a bu...

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If you order lattes or macchiatos, you probably like a little sugar (or a similar substitute sweetener) in your coffee. When you order one on the Dunkin' Donuts app it asks you what sweetener you want. Somewhat oddly, the default is none. You are likely quite inclined to change this so you don't get just bitter bean juice you could get far cheaper elsewhere. However, this would be a mistake if you have added one of the sweetened flavor shots. If you turn your drink into a mocha latte and still a...

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