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ask hn: do people have any luck using elance or upwork as a client or freelance?
| i have had fair success, but not the best experience with the competition. there are far more developers that are ready to work for cheap. getting noticed and interviewed feels like winning a battle. it has helped me by working on niche projects, and not regular websites. | looked at elance a couple years ago but never followed through. appeared very tedious in terms of setting up a profile and submitting proposals, i had easier methods available to me to obtain work and utilized them instead. |
ask hn: do people have any luck using elance or upwork as a client or freelance?
| looked at elance a couple years ago but never followed through. appeared very tedious in terms of setting up a profile and submitting proposals, i had easier methods available to me to obtain work and utilized them instead. | i use these sites as a client to get work done on projects that i don’t have time for. from the hiring side it is rather hit and miss. i have found that price does not correlate with quality or reliability of freelancers. about 2/3rd of all developers flake out before delivery. this is despite me providing technically very detailed proposals and extensively discussing the projects before choosing a freelancer so they know what i expect.what i have found works best is just hire two people to do the same project at the same time - rarely you will get two delivered projects, but since cost is not such an issue i just chose the best coded one. |
ask hn: do people have any luck using elance or upwork as a client or freelance?
| i use these sites as a client to get work done on projects that i don’t have time for. from the hiring side it is rather hit and miss. i have found that price does not correlate with quality or reliability of freelancers. about 2/3rd of all developers flake out before delivery. this is despite me providing technically very detailed proposals and extensively discussing the projects before choosing a freelancer so they know what i expect.what i have found works best is just hire two people to do the same project at the same time - rarely you will get two delivered projects, but since cost is not such an issue i just chose the best coded one. | i do gigs on fiverr all the time, and if i'm honest it doesn't really make the money that would make the time spent worth it. if i didn't love writing poetry, or tidying up rails apps or any of the other crap i do there, i'd have quit a long time ago.imho, a dev would better spend his time going from repo to repo on github and cleaning up code. like checkout random files and run rubocop and fix it up and commit. fast, simple tasks that get your name out there. sooner or later you'll either become part of a larger project, or be noticed for your work and get recruited somewhere good.either way, e-lancing is risky altogether because of disinhibition in clients. it's apparently tempting to let someone deliver a quality product and not pay or rip them off or just be rude to them, and oftentimes a platform will have more concern with throughput than with quality so if one dev gets ripped off it's not big deal for them.like i said, build your name and you'll go farther altogether. if you're doing it just for a few bucks, you're already doing it wrong anyways. |
ask hn: do people have any luck using elance or upwork as a client or freelance?
| i do gigs on fiverr all the time, and if i'm honest it doesn't really make the money that would make the time spent worth it. if i didn't love writing poetry, or tidying up rails apps or any of the other crap i do there, i'd have quit a long time ago.imho, a dev would better spend his time going from repo to repo on github and cleaning up code. like checkout random files and run rubocop and fix it up and commit. fast, simple tasks that get your name out there. sooner or later you'll either become part of a larger project, or be noticed for your work and get recruited somewhere good.either way, e-lancing is risky altogether because of disinhibition in clients. it's apparently tempting to let someone deliver a quality product and not pay or rip them off or just be rude to them, and oftentimes a platform will have more concern with throughput than with quality so if one dev gets ripped off it's not big deal for them.like i said, build your name and you'll go farther altogether. if you're doing it just for a few bucks, you're already doing it wrong anyways. | na. typically there are thousands more devs from cheaper places and although your code might be beautiful in comparison, someone who just wants "a website" is not going to care what the source code looks like.just my personal experience, though, maybe people with tight portfolios actually make a living. |
show hn: youtube filesystem – ytfs
| this is great! also, check out this easter egg which makes every video rick roll haha: <link> | interesting! looks like this is youtube-dl combined with fuse, so that you can use a normal video player to play and filesystem tools to browse, rather than downloading first. see <link> . |
show hn: youtube filesystem – ytfs
| interesting! looks like this is youtube-dl combined with fuse, so that you can use a normal video player to play and filesystem tools to browse, rather than downloading first. see <link> . | neat! any plans to make the different video qualities quickly available? maybe as a subdir named with the resolution, eg search/movie/480p.mp4 or maybe movie.1080p.mp4? |
show hn: youtube filesystem – ytfs
| neat! any plans to make the different video qualities quickly available? maybe as a subdir named with the resolution, eg search/movie/480p.mp4 or maybe movie.1080p.mp4? | it seems not to support streaming. it has to download the whole video before playing can begin. |
show hn: youtube filesystem – ytfs
| it seems not to support streaming. it has to download the whole video before playing can begin. | haha, from the title i expected this to be a solution for generating mp4s from arbitrary data that you could then upload to youtube for backup.this is definitely really cool, too. i like that it shows that a node in a filesystem is just another way to represent some resource, but in a way that's a little more familiar to most people than something like procfs. |
forthcoming openssl releases
| given the openssl trackrecord [1], i recommend switching to libressl [2] if possible. they tore through openssl to pull out all the horrors they found and beat it into shape. openssl's code was so unbelievably bad that there's certainly more problems lurking in there.[1] <link>[2] <link> | this announcement narrows down the proximate cause of the bug to changes introduced in the 1.0.1 line.assuming this is a defect in a new feature (rather than a bugfix which went awry) that means there's a fairly limited number of culprits: sctp, dtls-srtp, npn, rsa-pss, tls v1.1, tls v1.2 or srp.fwiw, i'll take srp for 300. |
forthcoming openssl releases
| this announcement narrows down the proximate cause of the bug to changes introduced in the 1.0.1 line.assuming this is a defect in a new feature (rather than a bugfix which went awry) that means there's a fairly limited number of culprits: sctp, dtls-srtp, npn, rsa-pss, tls v1.1, tls v1.2 or srp.fwiw, i'll take srp for 300. | rich salz suggests this is unlikely to affect most users.<link> |
forthcoming openssl releases
| rich salz suggests this is unlikely to affect most users.<link> | every time some openssl bug is announced, i remember my issues with tls (i don't know if this bug is tls-related or not).would be nice if tls supported:1) "hot" certificates with 24h ttl signed-off by a longer-living certificate on a more secure machine. having 1-year certificate private key deployed on a web server is crazy. especially since revocation does not really work.2) threshold multi-signature certificates for both cas and end-user certificates.3) ca certificates locked to specific tlds (was there rfc about something like that already?) - so russian ca cannot sign certificate for a canadian tld.4) ultimately, blockchain name pinning on dns level.the last three do not really relate to a case when bug in openssl reveals a private key stored on web server. |
forthcoming openssl releases
| every time some openssl bug is announced, i remember my issues with tls (i don't know if this bug is tls-related or not).would be nice if tls supported:1) "hot" certificates with 24h ttl signed-off by a longer-living certificate on a more secure machine. having 1-year certificate private key deployed on a web server is crazy. especially since revocation does not really work.2) threshold multi-signature certificates for both cas and end-user certificates.3) ca certificates locked to specific tlds (was there rfc about something like that already?) - so russian ca cannot sign certificate for a canadian tld.4) ultimately, blockchain name pinning on dns level.the last three do not really relate to a case when bug in openssl reveals a private key stored on web server. | would the fix have already been committed to source but the security implications not been made public yet? |
freebsd port of docker
| does this bring us closer to having native docker support on osx? | now i just need nvcc to ditch linux entirely. sadly, that's not going to be forthcoming in this or any other universe. |
freebsd port of docker
| now i just need nvcc to ditch linux entirely. sadly, that's not going to be forthcoming in this or any other universe. | would it be better to target 'runc', as the open container standard? |
freebsd port of docker
| would it be better to target 'runc', as the open container standard? | see also jetpack, a native freebsd implementation of the appc spec (to be converted to ocp, i presume): <link> |
freebsd port of docker
| see also jetpack, a native freebsd implementation of the appc spec (to be converted to ocp, i presume): <link> | i'm not sure what it will gain me over my home-grown scripts to manage jails the way i like them, but i'll certainly play with it when it's ready for consumption. |
show hn: mui – lightweight css framework for material design
| there is some screen tearing or refresh problesm when scrolling this page in firefox 38.0 - <link> - not a problem under chrome.linux + cinnamon, a custom ubuntu version. | i've been pretty happy with <link> doesn't use react out of the box, but wouldn't be hard to integrate. |
show hn: mui – lightweight css framework for material design
| i've been pretty happy with <link> doesn't use react out of the box, but wouldn't be hard to integrate. | i believe that the material design library from addy osmani is coming out today <link> |
show hn: mui – lightweight css framework for material design
| i believe that the material design library from addy osmani is coming out today <link> | i'm impressed, async js, react examples, small size, has tests and includes email templates!i'll keep it in mind and i'll definitely give this a try next time i need something lightweight but pretty. |
show hn: mui – lightweight css framework for material design
| i'm impressed, async js, react examples, small size, has tests and includes email templates!i'll keep it in mind and i'll definitely give this a try next time i need something lightweight but pretty. | the merits of the wonderful library aside, this is the first material design webpage that i visited that doesn't come from google and actually feels usable.there is no clunkiness, there is calm, the components have material properties only to the point it makes sense, layer shadows are not as obnoxious as they need to be on a mobile device.and the library works with react. |
hangout: becoming a freelance developer
a few weeks back i sent a survey to my developer friends (results below). i was surprised at how many are interested in learning how to become a freelancer. so, i asked 4 friends who are already freelancing if they'd join a google hangout and share the story of how they got started. the hangout will be this wednesday at noon pdt.
please join us to learn how each of us got started freelancing.<p>rsvp to the hangout here <link><p>survey results
i had 17 respondents to my original survey (here is the survey if you’d like to take it: <link><p>what do you dislike about your current job as a developer? (multiple choice)<p>* 44% said "not enough actual coding." other popular responses were "work is boring," or otherwise inefficient.<p>what do you want more of? (multiple choice)<p>* 75% said "freedom to work only part of the year"
* 56% said they want more interesting problems.
* 44% said they want more money<p>if you are not a freelancer now, why not? (multiple choice)<p>* 67% i like the security of a regular paycheck & 401k
* 42% i need the health benefits for me or my family<p>the surprising one was...<p>if someone made it easy for you, would you work as a freelance web developer?<p>* 73% probably, yes
* 27% probably not<p>admittedly this question was not well phrased since a handful of the respondents are already freelancers or contractors. but still, this is a surprising percentage! | yes, there is plenty of backend freelancing work too (such as data science/machine learning, as in my case).slides from my talk at this year's berlin buzzwords on this topic:"so you want to be a data science consultant (or hire one)? 10 things you should know."<link> join the hangout if i can :-) | i was a freelancer for nearly 6 years, but eventually got tired of the inconsistent income and the type of work i was doing also got boring, as well as time and energy spent dealing with issues like invoices, taxes, accountants, etc.one of the things i also missed was being part of a development team, where i could learn from others and work on projects that would be difficult for me to take on alone. being a freelancer for so long, i also found my skills stagnating, and it was hard to try and pick up new skills when working on new projects that always had aggressive deadlines.fortunately, health insurance wasn't a problem at the time as it was available through my wife's job, but being older now and with a growing family, it's definitely something that is a much more important factor.i've been in a regular job for just over 3 years now, and it's had both good sides and bad. although being a freelance developer is not something that i particularly miss, i do want to be the master of my own destiny. for that reason, i can't see myself remaining an employee for the long term, though i'm not sure whether that will mean returning to freelancing or something else. |
hangout: becoming a freelance developer
a few weeks back i sent a survey to my developer friends (results below). i was surprised at how many are interested in learning how to become a freelancer. so, i asked 4 friends who are already freelancing if they'd join a google hangout and share the story of how they got started. the hangout will be this wednesday at noon pdt.
please join us to learn how each of us got started freelancing.<p>rsvp to the hangout here <link><p>survey results
i had 17 respondents to my original survey (here is the survey if you’d like to take it: <link><p>what do you dislike about your current job as a developer? (multiple choice)<p>* 44% said "not enough actual coding." other popular responses were "work is boring," or otherwise inefficient.<p>what do you want more of? (multiple choice)<p>* 75% said "freedom to work only part of the year"
* 56% said they want more interesting problems.
* 44% said they want more money<p>if you are not a freelancer now, why not? (multiple choice)<p>* 67% i like the security of a regular paycheck & 401k
* 42% i need the health benefits for me or my family<p>the surprising one was...<p>if someone made it easy for you, would you work as a freelance web developer?<p>* 73% probably, yes
* 27% probably not<p>admittedly this question was not well phrased since a handful of the respondents are already freelancers or contractors. but still, this is a surprising percentage! | i was a freelancer for nearly 6 years, but eventually got tired of the inconsistent income and the type of work i was doing also got boring, as well as time and energy spent dealing with issues like invoices, taxes, accountants, etc.one of the things i also missed was being part of a development team, where i could learn from others and work on projects that would be difficult for me to take on alone. being a freelancer for so long, i also found my skills stagnating, and it was hard to try and pick up new skills when working on new projects that always had aggressive deadlines.fortunately, health insurance wasn't a problem at the time as it was available through my wife's job, but being older now and with a growing family, it's definitely something that is a much more important factor.i've been in a regular job for just over 3 years now, and it's had both good sides and bad. although being a freelance developer is not something that i particularly miss, i do want to be the master of my own destiny. for that reason, i can't see myself remaining an employee for the long term, though i'm not sure whether that will mean returning to freelancing or something else. | "44% said not enough actual coding"
and
"75% said freedom to work only part of the year"...these guys would be disappointed with freelancing :-)first one is obvious (so many ancillary tasks and worries when freelancing).
second one sounds good... in theory. |
hangout: becoming a freelance developer
a few weeks back i sent a survey to my developer friends (results below). i was surprised at how many are interested in learning how to become a freelancer. so, i asked 4 friends who are already freelancing if they'd join a google hangout and share the story of how they got started. the hangout will be this wednesday at noon pdt.
please join us to learn how each of us got started freelancing.<p>rsvp to the hangout here <link><p>survey results
i had 17 respondents to my original survey (here is the survey if you’d like to take it: <link><p>what do you dislike about your current job as a developer? (multiple choice)<p>* 44% said "not enough actual coding." other popular responses were "work is boring," or otherwise inefficient.<p>what do you want more of? (multiple choice)<p>* 75% said "freedom to work only part of the year"
* 56% said they want more interesting problems.
* 44% said they want more money<p>if you are not a freelancer now, why not? (multiple choice)<p>* 67% i like the security of a regular paycheck & 401k
* 42% i need the health benefits for me or my family<p>the surprising one was...<p>if someone made it easy for you, would you work as a freelance web developer?<p>* 73% probably, yes
* 27% probably not<p>admittedly this question was not well phrased since a handful of the respondents are already freelancers or contractors. but still, this is a surprising percentage! | "44% said not enough actual coding"
and
"75% said freedom to work only part of the year"...these guys would be disappointed with freelancing :-)first one is obvious (so many ancillary tasks and worries when freelancing).
second one sounds good... in theory. | i freelanced for several years then went back to a "regular" job for 3 years and couldn't take it so i am back freelancing for almost 2 years now. it's the best thing ever.i got very lucky and found a great opportunity that lets me have the benefits of a full-time job and the freedom of freelancing. basically, 40+ hours a week, steady work, 1099 setup, no benefits and the best part is that it is 100% remote. i don't have to worry about finding work since i always have work. the drawback is obviously i don't have any benefits so you have to pay for all that out of pocket - but if you do the math, it ends up being the same thing with the freedom of being 100% remote.a few months ago, i decided to use my contacts to setup a consultancy and have 5 people billing now - if you are a developer and want 100% remote and steady work, you can reach me at eibrahim at gmail or you can fill out the online application at <link> - there is no gurantee i can place you right away but i have a ton of work coming my way all the time. it's mostly full-stack dev work but lately i have been getting more and more mobile opportunities.ps: right now this is for developers in the usa and canada only but occasionally i get clients/opportunities that don't care about the geography. |
hangout: becoming a freelance developer
a few weeks back i sent a survey to my developer friends (results below). i was surprised at how many are interested in learning how to become a freelancer. so, i asked 4 friends who are already freelancing if they'd join a google hangout and share the story of how they got started. the hangout will be this wednesday at noon pdt.
please join us to learn how each of us got started freelancing.<p>rsvp to the hangout here <link><p>survey results
i had 17 respondents to my original survey (here is the survey if you’d like to take it: <link><p>what do you dislike about your current job as a developer? (multiple choice)<p>* 44% said "not enough actual coding." other popular responses were "work is boring," or otherwise inefficient.<p>what do you want more of? (multiple choice)<p>* 75% said "freedom to work only part of the year"
* 56% said they want more interesting problems.
* 44% said they want more money<p>if you are not a freelancer now, why not? (multiple choice)<p>* 67% i like the security of a regular paycheck & 401k
* 42% i need the health benefits for me or my family<p>the surprising one was...<p>if someone made it easy for you, would you work as a freelance web developer?<p>* 73% probably, yes
* 27% probably not<p>admittedly this question was not well phrased since a handful of the respondents are already freelancers or contractors. but still, this is a surprising percentage! | i freelanced for several years then went back to a "regular" job for 3 years and couldn't take it so i am back freelancing for almost 2 years now. it's the best thing ever.i got very lucky and found a great opportunity that lets me have the benefits of a full-time job and the freedom of freelancing. basically, 40+ hours a week, steady work, 1099 setup, no benefits and the best part is that it is 100% remote. i don't have to worry about finding work since i always have work. the drawback is obviously i don't have any benefits so you have to pay for all that out of pocket - but if you do the math, it ends up being the same thing with the freedom of being 100% remote.a few months ago, i decided to use my contacts to setup a consultancy and have 5 people billing now - if you are a developer and want 100% remote and steady work, you can reach me at eibrahim at gmail or you can fill out the online application at <link> - there is no gurantee i can place you right away but i have a ton of work coming my way all the time. it's mostly full-stack dev work but lately i have been getting more and more mobile opportunities.ps: right now this is for developers in the usa and canada only but occasionally i get clients/opportunities that don't care about the geography. | i became freelancer 8 years ago, while being product manager of successful antispyware software, leading quite a big team spread over three continents. it was nice job, but i find myself to wake up at 5am, code for few hours, then go to work, hate to deal with politics, get back home and code for few more hours.then one day i found ad on job board: "looking for programmer", there was nothing else than this, no description, just header and phone number. so i just ring the phone and the rest is history.this was my first client and i still working with them today. it is old rusty delphi 5 codebase. there is nothing fancy about this gig, but it is ongoing thing, the client pay on time and don't demand much. you find to appreciate jobs like this once you become freelancers and will want to stick with this profession for decades. |
ask hn: advice on searching for a mid-career job
i've been in technology for 15 years, mostly in hw, but with quite a bit of sw as well. i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me, and i had been searching for another job for almost a year.<p>resumes sent to the big companies, even when it's through referrals, go into a black hole. i did get 2 job offers from startups, but they were only able to offer me half my current compensation package. with a family to support, i could not really take those offers.<p>i try to work on side projects, but with long hours at my current job, i basically have to give up spending time with my family in order to put in enough effort. i've been trying to fit it in by working late into the night, but i don't want to miss out on my child growing up.<p>so my choices are:
1. keep working at my current job, where i feel no sense of accomplishment and no drive, have to warm the seat over 11 hours a day, but it's easy to work enough to keep my job.
2. accept a dramatic salary cut at a startup, and subject my family to a drastic decrease in standard of living, for my peace of mind.
3. quit completely, and work on projects until i find a sustainable project or run out of runway.
4. ???<p>my questions are:
1. for those of you in mid-career, how would you go about switching jobs?
2. i am currently stationed in a foreign country (korea), does that affect my chances of getting a job in the us?
3. am i overpriced? based on glassdoor, my salary expectations does not seem out of line.<p>thanks for any insight you can give me. i'm feeling very trapped right now and getting a bit stir-crazy. | i really share your sentiment, i've been going through the same thing and i live in seoul too.i was working at a startup, got accepted to a startup accelerator and cannot afford to participate as it's overseas. have to work remotely and move back to my country.sold all of our furniture as we couldn't pay the rent (wife + baby). i have applied to companies in my home country (australia), and have interviews set up. this might be the way to go for you.jobs in sk are really tough if you are not fluent in korean.keep your head up high, things will work out! | as others have mentioned, avoid startups, unless they are one of those unicorns. you have moved to product and project management. you know, every guy wants to transition from programming/coding/engineering (all those individual contributors roles). where have they moved to: product management (if they got mba from any school), project management (with pmp and csm certified scum master). some have moved to engineering leadership. once you transition to these roles, you can't jump out the way a programmer can: you need to find another full time at an established company.in many companies in the states i have worked as a consultant, product and project managers don't have direct reports. if i were you, i avoid becoming a project manager (pmp, scm) like a plague, unless you see lots of upside financially in the short turn.even for a job as a product manager in the states, you will have hard time getting offers/interviews form established companies: these companies have lots of qualified local candidates for product manager roles.if you were a graduate of an elite school, try your connections, thats the way to get your foot in the door.i have avoided becoming a project manager: every mid-career guy without hands on is a project manager these days. some have become consulting architects for vmware, cisco, if they can talk tech. others have got evening mba from columbia-haas etc: even here, all these guys are planning to become c-level execs. but what i see now in the valley: columbia-haas mba does not cut, except to become a senior product manager. thats the case with kellog, chicago booth, etc; i had seen a kellog mba with prior experience as a product manager, working as a contractor for a startup.are you trapped? i don't know. what i can say is this: you have too competition to get a product manager role at top tier companies. |
ask hn: advice on searching for a mid-career job
i've been in technology for 15 years, mostly in hw, but with quite a bit of sw as well. i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me, and i had been searching for another job for almost a year.<p>resumes sent to the big companies, even when it's through referrals, go into a black hole. i did get 2 job offers from startups, but they were only able to offer me half my current compensation package. with a family to support, i could not really take those offers.<p>i try to work on side projects, but with long hours at my current job, i basically have to give up spending time with my family in order to put in enough effort. i've been trying to fit it in by working late into the night, but i don't want to miss out on my child growing up.<p>so my choices are:
1. keep working at my current job, where i feel no sense of accomplishment and no drive, have to warm the seat over 11 hours a day, but it's easy to work enough to keep my job.
2. accept a dramatic salary cut at a startup, and subject my family to a drastic decrease in standard of living, for my peace of mind.
3. quit completely, and work on projects until i find a sustainable project or run out of runway.
4. ???<p>my questions are:
1. for those of you in mid-career, how would you go about switching jobs?
2. i am currently stationed in a foreign country (korea), does that affect my chances of getting a job in the us?
3. am i overpriced? based on glassdoor, my salary expectations does not seem out of line.<p>thanks for any insight you can give me. i'm feeling very trapped right now and getting a bit stir-crazy. | as others have mentioned, avoid startups, unless they are one of those unicorns. you have moved to product and project management. you know, every guy wants to transition from programming/coding/engineering (all those individual contributors roles). where have they moved to: product management (if they got mba from any school), project management (with pmp and csm certified scum master). some have moved to engineering leadership. once you transition to these roles, you can't jump out the way a programmer can: you need to find another full time at an established company.in many companies in the states i have worked as a consultant, product and project managers don't have direct reports. if i were you, i avoid becoming a project manager (pmp, scm) like a plague, unless you see lots of upside financially in the short turn.even for a job as a product manager in the states, you will have hard time getting offers/interviews form established companies: these companies have lots of qualified local candidates for product manager roles.if you were a graduate of an elite school, try your connections, thats the way to get your foot in the door.i have avoided becoming a project manager: every mid-career guy without hands on is a project manager these days. some have become consulting architects for vmware, cisco, if they can talk tech. others have got evening mba from columbia-haas etc: even here, all these guys are planning to become c-level execs. but what i see now in the valley: columbia-haas mba does not cut, except to become a senior product manager. thats the case with kellog, chicago booth, etc; i had seen a kellog mba with prior experience as a product manager, working as a contractor for a startup.are you trapped? i don't know. what i can say is this: you have too competition to get a product manager role at top tier companies. | > i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me...have you considered creating a new role for yourself inside your current company? assuming you have a good relationship with company leadership, there may be a way to continue both your professional growth and help the company move forward with its agenda.here's an overview of the idea> <link> |
ask hn: advice on searching for a mid-career job
i've been in technology for 15 years, mostly in hw, but with quite a bit of sw as well. i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me, and i had been searching for another job for almost a year.<p>resumes sent to the big companies, even when it's through referrals, go into a black hole. i did get 2 job offers from startups, but they were only able to offer me half my current compensation package. with a family to support, i could not really take those offers.<p>i try to work on side projects, but with long hours at my current job, i basically have to give up spending time with my family in order to put in enough effort. i've been trying to fit it in by working late into the night, but i don't want to miss out on my child growing up.<p>so my choices are:
1. keep working at my current job, where i feel no sense of accomplishment and no drive, have to warm the seat over 11 hours a day, but it's easy to work enough to keep my job.
2. accept a dramatic salary cut at a startup, and subject my family to a drastic decrease in standard of living, for my peace of mind.
3. quit completely, and work on projects until i find a sustainable project or run out of runway.
4. ???<p>my questions are:
1. for those of you in mid-career, how would you go about switching jobs?
2. i am currently stationed in a foreign country (korea), does that affect my chances of getting a job in the us?
3. am i overpriced? based on glassdoor, my salary expectations does not seem out of line.<p>thanks for any insight you can give me. i'm feeling very trapped right now and getting a bit stir-crazy. | > i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me...have you considered creating a new role for yourself inside your current company? assuming you have a good relationship with company leadership, there may be a way to continue both your professional growth and help the company move forward with its agenda.here's an overview of the idea> <link> | option #3 (quit and work on projects) also seems to come with a salary cut (down to 0). if working for a startup would drastically cut your family's standard of living, so would this option.startups have other problems besides the lower salaries you were offered: the vast majority of all startups fail quickly, so there's no job security. if you take one of these jobs, you might be looking for a new job in a few months.i'd suggest staying at your current job and continuing to look for another one, but not at a startup.also, you say that your current company isn't working out for you. is it really the company, or just the job you have there? would it be possible to change jobs within your current company? |
ask hn: advice on searching for a mid-career job
i've been in technology for 15 years, mostly in hw, but with quite a bit of sw as well. i transitioned to product and project management 4 years ago, but the current company is not working out for me, and i had been searching for another job for almost a year.<p>resumes sent to the big companies, even when it's through referrals, go into a black hole. i did get 2 job offers from startups, but they were only able to offer me half my current compensation package. with a family to support, i could not really take those offers.<p>i try to work on side projects, but with long hours at my current job, i basically have to give up spending time with my family in order to put in enough effort. i've been trying to fit it in by working late into the night, but i don't want to miss out on my child growing up.<p>so my choices are:
1. keep working at my current job, where i feel no sense of accomplishment and no drive, have to warm the seat over 11 hours a day, but it's easy to work enough to keep my job.
2. accept a dramatic salary cut at a startup, and subject my family to a drastic decrease in standard of living, for my peace of mind.
3. quit completely, and work on projects until i find a sustainable project or run out of runway.
4. ???<p>my questions are:
1. for those of you in mid-career, how would you go about switching jobs?
2. i am currently stationed in a foreign country (korea), does that affect my chances of getting a job in the us?
3. am i overpriced? based on glassdoor, my salary expectations does not seem out of line.<p>thanks for any insight you can give me. i'm feeling very trapped right now and getting a bit stir-crazy. | option #3 (quit and work on projects) also seems to come with a salary cut (down to 0). if working for a startup would drastically cut your family's standard of living, so would this option.startups have other problems besides the lower salaries you were offered: the vast majority of all startups fail quickly, so there's no job security. if you take one of these jobs, you might be looking for a new job in a few months.i'd suggest staying at your current job and continuing to look for another one, but not at a startup.also, you say that your current company isn't working out for you. is it really the company, or just the job you have there? would it be possible to change jobs within your current company? | as unpleasant as working with recruiters can be, at the very least they do seem to be able to get interviews consistently. you may want to give some of them a try (i'm sure others here can give you the names of a few good ones). |
why star citizen is likely going to be a complete disaster
| i never thought much of derek smart, especially after being suckered by the promise of no less than three of his hideously broken excuses for games, but writing for a shitty neoreactionary gamergate site[1] is perhaps the absolute low of his abysmal career (congrats, derek, now you've literally shared a banner with such gems as "why we need to fight against transgender acceptance"), to say nothing of the massive pot-kettle color comparison involved.[1] <link> | he has a point and the domain expertise/experience but he doesn't say whether the failure of star citizen will involve chris roberts running around the internet and getting in massive flamefests with random users and threatening to sue everyone all while claiming all sorts of improbable qualifications. or whether it will inspire parodies like this:<link> can only hope! |
why star citizen is likely going to be a complete disaster
| he has a point and the domain expertise/experience but he doesn't say whether the failure of star citizen will involve chris roberts running around the internet and getting in massive flamefests with random users and threatening to sue everyone all while claiming all sorts of improbable qualifications. or whether it will inspire parodies like this:<link> can only hope! | derek smart criticizing a space sim game about being overly ambitious? now i've seen everything. |
why star citizen is likely going to be a complete disaster
| derek smart criticizing a space sim game about being overly ambitious? now i've seen everything. | derek smart certainly has his own history but his remarks are spot on. scope creep went out of control fairly early on, i backed this game expecting a spiritual sequel to freelancer which i felt was a realistic goal. at the time, i was not aware of robert's history of being removed from the freelancer project due to delays. however, even in the case of freelancer i was sold on freelancer due to some of robert's promises and quite surprised when the released version was missing many of the promised features. cig wanting to build and rent out their own motion capture studio to third parties and selling ships for exorbitant pricing left a bad taste in my mouth early on. i will be happy if star citizen ends up being a modern freelancer but i fear many will be sorely disappointed. |
why star citizen is likely going to be a complete disaster
| derek smart certainly has his own history but his remarks are spot on. scope creep went out of control fairly early on, i backed this game expecting a spiritual sequel to freelancer which i felt was a realistic goal. at the time, i was not aware of robert's history of being removed from the freelancer project due to delays. however, even in the case of freelancer i was sold on freelancer due to some of robert's promises and quite surprised when the released version was missing many of the promised features. cig wanting to build and rent out their own motion capture studio to third parties and selling ships for exorbitant pricing left a bad taste in my mouth early on. i will be happy if star citizen ends up being a modern freelancer but i fear many will be sorely disappointed. | he may certainly be right; star citizen comes across as an insanely ambitious project. but i confess that when i realized this critique was written by the battlecruiser guy, i jokingly thought: "well, if anyone knows about overpromising and underdelivering on space combat sims..." |
material design lite components in html/css/js
| great implementation of material design, the best i've seen so far. with other material design implementations [1] i ran into problems with checkboxes, sliders and other design choices, as well as problems on mobile. i appreciate the design choices made for mdl. it also runs smooth on mobile and the form elements like checkboxes and sliders work really nice.also, useful documentation along with codepen and easy clipboard buttons.following.[1] to name a few material design examples: <link> | i'm genuinely curious: this looks very lame. why are the commenters excited? not trying to offend i'm mean lame as pragmatically as possible. |
material design lite components in html/css/js
| i'm genuinely curious: this looks very lame. why are the commenters excited? not trying to offend i'm mean lame as pragmatically as possible. | great news that google has started this library. this will help md implementors like me."that said, the large, diverse number of implementations available are often quite liberal with their interpretation of the spec (not their fault!) and their opinions don’t always reflect what the material design team would consider ‘correct’."nevertheless i found a number of deviations from the design specs: - disabled buttons should not have a z level
- fab ripples should originate from the center
- icon buttons should have a touch area of at least 40px
- the same goes for slider knobs (at least 30px, already small)
on the website: - the scrollable tabs on the site are scrolled just a couple of pixels per arrow click, instead of scrolled per tab
- scroll areas should have -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch, the current site is not scrollable on mobile safari
author of polythene for mithril, <link> |
material design lite components in html/css/js
| great news that google has started this library. this will help md implementors like me."that said, the large, diverse number of implementations available are often quite liberal with their interpretation of the spec (not their fault!) and their opinions don’t always reflect what the material design team would consider ‘correct’."nevertheless i found a number of deviations from the design specs: - disabled buttons should not have a z level
- fab ripples should originate from the center
- icon buttons should have a touch area of at least 40px
- the same goes for slider knobs (at least 30px, already small)
on the website: - the scrollable tabs on the site are scrolled just a couple of pixels per arrow click, instead of scrolled per tab
- scroll areas should have -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch, the current site is not scrollable on mobile safari
author of polythene for mithril, <link> | so, i just wanna say i am absolutely, incredibly excited for this. i've loved the design of paper-elements, but i don't want to attempt integrating polymer into my projects.that being said, the use of bem is a huge turn off. the markup for a simple card uses seventeen different classes, which is absolutely a nightmare to memorize. for comparison, a card from materialize uses only five to seven classes (depending on the type of card).however, since this is built in sass, i assume you could use the extend keyword to combine a lot of the frequently used together classes into something more manageable. i haven't really used sass in this way, so i'm not sure how that'd work. |
material design lite components in html/css/js
| so, i just wanna say i am absolutely, incredibly excited for this. i've loved the design of paper-elements, but i don't want to attempt integrating polymer into my projects.that being said, the use of bem is a huge turn off. the markup for a simple card uses seventeen different classes, which is absolutely a nightmare to memorize. for comparison, a card from materialize uses only five to seven classes (depending on the type of card).however, since this is built in sass, i assume you could use the extend keyword to combine a lot of the frequently used together classes into something more manageable. i haven't really used sass in this way, so i'm not sure how that'd work. | i have to say, i really dislike the appearance of material design. |
the hedge fund managers who work for tips
| i've always struggled to understand why hedge funds exist. as the author points out, the average hedge fund severely underperforms the market while charging a large fee to do so. i was talking with a guy who works at a hedge fund over the weekend and he half-jokingly told me that his hedge fund survived on institutional investments and that most of their clients didn't really care as long as his fund "didn't lose too much money".if you take any finance class anywhere in the world, you are bound to come across the random-walk theory of the stock market, as well as strong, semi-strong, and weak market efficiency theory. the only way to reconcile these theories with the hunt for alpha is through differences in information - aka insider trading. the funds that consistently outperform the market are either 1 in a million lucky (how do you choose this firm as an investor? you don't), or they trade on information that others do not have access to.insider information is the only logical reason to invest in a hedge fund in my opinion. if you know the managers of fund x are buddies with janet yellen, go golfing with fortune 500 ceos on the weekends, and vacation in europe with french politicians. just hope that they aren't the 1/100 that the government decides to make an example out of.otherwise, as most of my professors have advised, you should just invest in a portfolio of etfs and only pick stocks for fun with money you aren't afraid to lose.on instavest: so why would i invest with a novice hedge fund manager who has none of these connections, who is competing with the thousands of hyper-intelligent grad students our system churns out into finance every year (rather than underfunded labs and dwindling academic positions), who is just trying to get his name out there placing risky bets in a bubble of a market? | i love the idea here, but i really wonder what incentive people have to tip (especially if it appears others are tipping). it's great that you've measured a ~10% tip rate, i hope it stays up there.but it seems like really fertile ground for a free rider problem. do you have plans for that if it manifests itself? |
the hedge fund managers who work for tips
| i love the idea here, but i really wonder what incentive people have to tip (especially if it appears others are tipping). it's great that you've measured a ~10% tip rate, i hope it stays up there.but it seems like really fertile ground for a free rider problem. do you have plans for that if it manifests itself? | whereas i like the idea, large hedge funds will still exist and thrive on their fee structure.these rely on a considerable sum of institutional investors, where tipping wouldn't be feasible. |
the hedge fund managers who work for tips
| whereas i like the idea, large hedge funds will still exist and thrive on their fee structure.these rely on a considerable sum of institutional investors, where tipping wouldn't be feasible. | i'm always happy to read good articles about hedge funds so i'd hate for this comment to come across as a dismissal - it's not. that being said, the uninitiated should be a bit wary of this line, which is a good example of a class of hedge fund commentary that appears a lot:hedge funds have consistently underperformed the market in recent years: last year the average hedge fund made 3.3%; s&p 500 index gained 11.4%.we're in the late stages of a bull market in equities. hedge funds are traditionally set up to protect assets or even generate returns in downturns; one of the things you trade away for that safety is full participation in market gains. so i'd expect a canonical, 'good' hedge fund to underperform a bit in an upswing but be flat or potentially even positive in a down market.the article talks a bit in the second half about how hedge funds achieve this - where the 'hedge' comes from - so the insight is there if you think hard about it: you have to pay for the hedge somehow, and it comes out of your upside participation.the reason hedge funds are falling out of favor is more to do with a surfeit of crappy funds, which again the article hints at but is too polite to explain. a lot of that collective underperformance post 2008 is down to a huge population of 'me too' equity long/short funds all following rote strategies. that statistic conceals the limited number of cleverly managed, fast moving funds which were able to take contrary positions in the credit bubble and protect their investor's money by shorting cdss.all of which is to say, the industry needs a shakeup and maybe this variable fee structure has a role to play. good luck to them. |
the hedge fund managers who work for tips
| i'm always happy to read good articles about hedge funds so i'd hate for this comment to come across as a dismissal - it's not. that being said, the uninitiated should be a bit wary of this line, which is a good example of a class of hedge fund commentary that appears a lot:hedge funds have consistently underperformed the market in recent years: last year the average hedge fund made 3.3%; s&p 500 index gained 11.4%.we're in the late stages of a bull market in equities. hedge funds are traditionally set up to protect assets or even generate returns in downturns; one of the things you trade away for that safety is full participation in market gains. so i'd expect a canonical, 'good' hedge fund to underperform a bit in an upswing but be flat or potentially even positive in a down market.the article talks a bit in the second half about how hedge funds achieve this - where the 'hedge' comes from - so the insight is there if you think hard about it: you have to pay for the hedge somehow, and it comes out of your upside participation.the reason hedge funds are falling out of favor is more to do with a surfeit of crappy funds, which again the article hints at but is too polite to explain. a lot of that collective underperformance post 2008 is down to a huge population of 'me too' equity long/short funds all following rote strategies. that statistic conceals the limited number of cleverly managed, fast moving funds which were able to take contrary positions in the credit bubble and protect their investor's money by shorting cdss.all of which is to say, the industry needs a shakeup and maybe this variable fee structure has a role to play. good luck to them. | i made an account to play around with, i don't have too much money to play with at the moment so i wanted to start with a $50 investment. no dice, this requires a >$1000 initial investment. maybe when my student loans are paid off i'll come back to this. |
revisiting how we build firefox
| i hate the trend of building native uis in html, because the result never feels right. for example, firefox does not use os x native context menus, and it shows in how they look, position themselves, animate, respond to keyboard and mouse events, etc.but firefox devs have clearly spent a great deal of effort to make these faux-context menus look native. what an enormous waste of development energy to emulate what the platform already provides!rather than pushing forward with a layer that provides even less access to platform ui elements, i wish they would recommit themselves to keeping the native elements native. | it's probably time (past time, actually) for mozilla to start looking into putting xul/xbl to pasture for firefox ui and using html/css/js instead, since the web platform has become sufficiently capable that the arguments for having a separate stack of technologies for building ui don't really hold anymore.still makes me a bit sad to see it go, though; i'm old enough to remember when xul seemed like an exciting potential platform for general-purpose app development. which never really panned out, alas, but was fascinating at the time. |
revisiting how we build firefox
| it's probably time (past time, actually) for mozilla to start looking into putting xul/xbl to pasture for firefox ui and using html/css/js instead, since the web platform has become sufficiently capable that the arguments for having a separate stack of technologies for building ui don't really hold anymore.still makes me a bit sad to see it go, though; i'm old enough to remember when xul seemed like an exciting potential platform for general-purpose app development. which never really panned out, alas, but was fascinating at the time. | mozilla has been doing experiments in building browser ui in html for a long time. for instance, see chromeless ( <link> ).current html is capable enough. it's nice to see them talking about adopting that in mainline firefox. |
revisiting how we build firefox
| mozilla has been doing experiments in building browser ui in html for a long time. for instance, see chromeless ( <link> ).current html is capable enough. it's nice to see them talking about adopting that in mainline firefox. | the correct thing to use is appkit on os x, wpf on windows, gtk+ on gnome, and qt on kde. yes, this requires more code, but it results in a much, much better experience. as an os x user, it's so obvious when an app isn't properly using appkit. |
revisiting how we build firefox
| the correct thing to use is appkit on os x, wpf on windows, gtk+ on gnome, and qt on kde. yes, this requires more code, but it results in a much, much better experience. as an os x user, it's so obvious when an app isn't properly using appkit. | some context that might help people understand this email...there are two high-level components which make up firefox. the first is gecko, the rendering engine. the second is firefox, the application itself, which uses gecko to render web pages and itself.firefox, built on top of gecko, is written primarily in xul and xbl (and js).<link>
<link>'s going on here is that mozilla is considering getting rid of xul and xbl and building firefox with the same technologies that people use to build web content.there are at least three big advantages to doing this:1. eliminate the need to support xul and xbl in gecko.2. contributing to firefox gets easier because there is no need to learn what are essentially mozilla-specific languages.3. mozilla learns more about what it takes to build complex applications like firefox itself using web technologies.the only real downside is the amount of work involved. |
roomblocker (yc s15) is modernizing hotel booking for groups
| looks very polished, and for the bid->award pipeline, a lower-friction path to getting a hotel booked for a group.can you elaborate a bit on differences between your offering and passkey, from both the event management and event attendee/delegate perspective? | congrats to dave and mike, who are solving a real pain point for groups organizing hotel bookings. |
roomblocker (yc s15) is modernizing hotel booking for groups
| congrats to dave and mike, who are solving a real pain point for groups organizing hotel bookings. | what's the backend? how do they connect with the hotel systems? personally negotiating with hotels (something my former employer/now owned by expedia spent a fortune on) seems hard to scale. |
roomblocker (yc s15) is modernizing hotel booking for groups
| what's the backend? how do they connect with the hotel systems? personally negotiating with hotels (something my former employer/now owned by expedia spent a fortune on) seems hard to scale. | congrats dave/mike. like your idea and the pain point it is solving in group bookings. i wanted to know how are you differentiating from much bigger player like priceline findgroupdeals.hotelplanner. i think features like user interface, link to room block, assigning personal advisor are something which aren't difficult for them to implement. can you pl shed more insight on actual differentiation? |
roomblocker (yc s15) is modernizing hotel booking for groups
| congrats dave/mike. like your idea and the pain point it is solving in group bookings. i wanted to know how are you differentiating from much bigger player like priceline findgroupdeals.hotelplanner. i think features like user interface, link to room block, assigning personal advisor are something which aren't difficult for them to implement. can you pl shed more insight on actual differentiation? | congrats on the launch dave and mike! with ~30% of hotel revenue generated from meetings and events, this is a hugely important business for the hospitality industry.how are you comparing your offering to a player like cvent? their supplier network allows event planners to search venues / have different hotels submit rfqs for free. it would also be great if you can share a little bit more on the customer demographics you are targeting as well as the type of hotel partners you are looking to onboard. |
the inevitable return of cobol
| my mom programmed cobol back in the early 70s while she was doing the hippie thing back out in berkeley. after that she learned basic and taught me that on my apple iic. all as a six week college dropout.i always have wondered what it would've been like if she had stuck with that instead of going off to live in the woods of new hampshire. | counter-argument: old apps, of the sort that are written in cobol, are often ones that there are good reasons to replace anyway.the reason they tend to still exist, where they do still exist, is that businesses don't want to dedicate the budget to the replacement. but that also means that they don't want to dedicate a huge budget to maintenance, either. if cobol actually gets rare enough that cobol devs start getting high-end wages, it makes the "replace this thing" option look that much more appealing, which pretty much puts a ceiling on the demand for cobol devs.if you are a purely mercenary developer, don't learn cobol, because it's not where the money is. |
the inevitable return of cobol
| counter-argument: old apps, of the sort that are written in cobol, are often ones that there are good reasons to replace anyway.the reason they tend to still exist, where they do still exist, is that businesses don't want to dedicate the budget to the replacement. but that also means that they don't want to dedicate a huge budget to maintenance, either. if cobol actually gets rare enough that cobol devs start getting high-end wages, it makes the "replace this thing" option look that much more appealing, which pretty much puts a ceiling on the demand for cobol devs.if you are a purely mercenary developer, don't learn cobol, because it's not where the money is. | this is right up my alley; i work for a large financial firm doing cobol work right now.the language itself isn't that bad. there are a lot of quirks given how old it is (variable names being limited in size, file name being only 8 characters long, file-based scope, etc), but once you learn them it's really not that bad.the best thing about the language is how it enforces a particular programming style. you have to define all variable and external data sources before you're able to use them. and when you get to the meat-and-potatoes of the program, a certain style is primarily used: open external resources (files, db2 tables), check for io errors, process the data, close the resources. makes it easy to grok what's going on within a program (even if that program is older than you are).the biggest challenge that i see for new cobol programmers is learning all of the tools you'll use for your job. on the ibm zseries mainframe that we use, there are a ton of tools that we use to monitor our batch/cics online programs. but that, like everything else, will take practice. |
the inevitable return of cobol
| this is right up my alley; i work for a large financial firm doing cobol work right now.the language itself isn't that bad. there are a lot of quirks given how old it is (variable names being limited in size, file name being only 8 characters long, file-based scope, etc), but once you learn them it's really not that bad.the best thing about the language is how it enforces a particular programming style. you have to define all variable and external data sources before you're able to use them. and when you get to the meat-and-potatoes of the program, a certain style is primarily used: open external resources (files, db2 tables), check for io errors, process the data, close the resources. makes it easy to grok what's going on within a program (even if that program is older than you are).the biggest challenge that i see for new cobol programmers is learning all of the tools you'll use for your job. on the ibm zseries mainframe that we use, there are a ton of tools that we use to monitor our batch/cics online programs. but that, like everything else, will take practice. | i studied at the university of wisconsin-platteville and was forced to take a cobol class. anyone in the computer information systems emphasis was required to take several cobol-centric classes. a few classmates went on to write cobol on the job and they were definitely getting higher offers than the rest of us looking for "cool" jobs.on the other hand, the only cobol shop in town pays meager wages and is considered to be the place where your career goes to ddie. |
the inevitable return of cobol
| i studied at the university of wisconsin-platteville and was forced to take a cobol class. anyone in the computer information systems emphasis was required to take several cobol-centric classes. a few classmates went on to write cobol on the job and they were definitely getting higher offers than the rest of us looking for "cool" jobs.on the other hand, the only cobol shop in town pays meager wages and is considered to be the place where your career goes to ddie. | assuming i wanted to pick up cobol and land a contract gig, what else do i need to know? a language is syntax but also libraries, patterns, and ecosystem. for instance it's hard to do rails without knowing git, bash, linux, sql, javascript, css, rspec, capistrano, devise, mvc, etc. do cobol apps typically talk to relational databases, or is everything stored in fixed-width flat files? do cobol programmers use git? am i going to need to keep an as/400 running in my garage? |
we apologize
| i like reddit, a lot, but the community is shit. i read this apology and then ellen's reply and that has negative 55 hundred votes. they have no real reason to dislike her. they have no real reason to be mad at the one woman being fired. they're just coming off as a bunch of upset kids with some "authority" in the form of votes or moderation.as a casual user i have no need to dislike ellen or feel slighted by the woman being fired. but the hive have decided those are the things that the community should do (and dislike justin beiber and kanye west and whatever else), and the community does it. i can't even get a straight answer as to why they're upset.children are emotional. | why did this apology come out today and not before pao spoke to news outlets about this topic? why wouldn't you try to talk to your upset users quickly and directly?<link>
<link> |
we apologize
| why did this apology come out today and not before pao spoke to news outlets about this topic? why wouldn't you try to talk to your upset users quickly and directly?<link>
<link> | as someone who has been using reddit for nearly a decade, i can't help but find this whole thing to be completely absurd. mods are claiming they're the backbone of the whole site, which is complete nonsense. it's the internet; one person steps down, there are thousands to replace them... just like reddit and other sites have always worked. the whole organized "blackout" just felt like a bunch of people on a power trip who didn't want to step away because that would be relinquishing some sort of internet "status." when did it get so complicated? |
we apologize
| as someone who has been using reddit for nearly a decade, i can't help but find this whole thing to be completely absurd. mods are claiming they're the backbone of the whole site, which is complete nonsense. it's the internet; one person steps down, there are thousands to replace them... just like reddit and other sites have always worked. the whole organized "blackout" just felt like a bunch of people on a power trip who didn't want to step away because that would be relinquishing some sort of internet "status." when did it get so complicated? | this is a pretty shitty apology. the key problem is that ekjp isn't owning the failures directly. just look at the language in the post..."we screwed up."
"we haven’t communicated well..."
"we acknowledge this long history of mistakes..."this type of language shows a lack of ownership and accountability of the author. it's a huge red flag. if one of my employees wrote something like this i would never have accepted it.a good apology would have started with something like, "i am sorry." everything that happens at a company is ultimately the ceo's responsibility. the language used in ekjp's apology does little to reassure me that she actually feels like she owns the failures. |
we apologize
| this is a pretty shitty apology. the key problem is that ekjp isn't owning the failures directly. just look at the language in the post..."we screwed up."
"we haven’t communicated well..."
"we acknowledge this long history of mistakes..."this type of language shows a lack of ownership and accountability of the author. it's a huge red flag. if one of my employees wrote something like this i would never have accepted it.a good apology would have started with something like, "i am sorry." everything that happens at a company is ultimately the ceo's responsibility. the language used in ekjp's apology does little to reassure me that she actually feels like she owns the failures. | there were a few components associated with this recent upheaval.- earlier that week, reddit modified the search function which (though i don't know the details as i am not a mod and really don't care) apparently affected or limited the moderators' abilities is some negative manner.- the banning of harassing subreddits, though none of the lurkers cared at all and the majority of active users did not care, left a sour taste in many users' mouths.- the firing of that employee apparently greatly affected the ability to facilitate the most popular subreddit on the website, as well as a few others.when the mods of iama closed shop for a while due to the third issue, the powder keg exploded, leading others who disliked the treatment of mods and those who irrationally hate the reddit ceo to make a hullabaloo for eight hours.frankly, i deleted my reddit account due to this. not for any dislike the ceo or a desire to stand up for mods' rights, but rather because i genuinely do not care about the drama anymore and would rather focus my attention on more important things[1] and more interesting topics[2].[1] such as commenting on hacker news.[2] such as discussions about reddit.:-) |
how i became an artist
| awesome post! very useful to have the inside scoop. there was a recent posting on "ask hn" about pressure to quickly succeed. the exact quote was "i'm 22 and i feel if i don't hit it big within the next 2 years i probably won't". [1, 2] success is a slow road, as this post so nicely illustrates, you need to constantly be putting in the hours! it's easy to browse hn/startup eco-system and only see the career highlight reels and think: "jeez, i will never be successful", or "man, how did they get to this point person, must just be a natural", or "i can never be like that". but, this behind the scenes view shows you what success looks like on a day-to-day basis (hard work + passion + education + tons of practice + over many many years). what is funny, is that we often only see the end result, and just assume it was an overnight success.[1] <link>[2] sorry to use this as an example, but looks like new account / throwaway | really good piece.the bit that stood out to me in particular was his embrace of deliberate practice. it's been identified in studies as the most powerful tool for learning skills like this - good to see it born out in at least one practical example too. |
how i became an artist
| really good piece.the bit that stood out to me in particular was his embrace of deliberate practice. it's been identified in studies as the most powerful tool for learning skills like this - good to see it born out in at least one practical example too. | this might be a dumb question, but i figure it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway! i'm really interested in learning how to create art, and skill-wise i'm currently right where you were at the start. if i were to follow your exact path, it would take me many years to get anywhere near your level, and while i'm up to the challenge, i don't have four solid years to devote to a new college run at the moment. however, looking back on my computer science education (which forms the basis of my professional career), i can definitely see how i could have acquired the skills to get me where i am today in far less time had i known exactly which areas to focus on ahead of time. same with my music education; in my music courses, we covered what i had been studying (half-heartedly) for most of my childhood in about a semeseter. art-wise, do you have any suggestions for specific areas to focus on that might substantially accelerate my education?anyway, thanks for the great article! this might just be the kick i need to start taking art seriously. :) |
how i became an artist
| this might be a dumb question, but i figure it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway! i'm really interested in learning how to create art, and skill-wise i'm currently right where you were at the start. if i were to follow your exact path, it would take me many years to get anywhere near your level, and while i'm up to the challenge, i don't have four solid years to devote to a new college run at the moment. however, looking back on my computer science education (which forms the basis of my professional career), i can definitely see how i could have acquired the skills to get me where i am today in far less time had i known exactly which areas to focus on ahead of time. same with my music education; in my music courses, we covered what i had been studying (half-heartedly) for most of my childhood in about a semeseter. art-wise, do you have any suggestions for specific areas to focus on that might substantially accelerate my education?anyway, thanks for the great article! this might just be the kick i need to start taking art seriously. :) | i'm also on quest to become an artist, i created a site for keeping up consistent drawing streak (although i'm struggling at the moment).the site is for anyone to use and we have quite a few artists using it already: <link>'s a post i wrote talking a little more about the site: <link> |
how i became an artist
| i'm also on quest to become an artist, i created a site for keeping up consistent drawing streak (although i'm struggling at the moment).the site is for anyone to use and we have quite a few artists using it already: <link>'s a post i wrote talking a little more about the site: <link> | this is great and you're of great inspiration to young artists or simply anybody that wants to pursue their dreams.i think that living a humble life doing simple things that don't necessarily lead to professional success, is still a very noble lifestyle. the pressure society has brought upon us to follow our dreams, simply because it's nice to follow your dreams, is a bit of a pipe dream.what i'm trying to say is that success isn't objective, it cannot be measured with the amounts of projects you've built, or with the amounts of professional artworks you've produced. success is being happy about the simple things in life, whether these are output of your work (art, code, music, etc.) or experiences you've had in life. |
in search of the space shuttle thermal tile database
| i read somewhere that nasa uses a request tracker system for managing activities. perhaps that database would contain references to the appropriate documents?<link> | i have a feeling this would be a material traceability db, due to the high quality assurance/control requirements at play.i haven't dealt with ceramic tracability before but i deal with steel tracability on a daily basis.a quick primer on steel:
when you buy steel from a mill, you usually get it in plates or sections. these will be stamped with a heat number which links it back to the conditions under which it was made; the chemical ladle analysis and properties to meet a particular specification. these then undergo visual, non-destructive and destructive testing to verify everything is acceptable.a third party / independent verification body (or ivb) will also confirm this by basically shadowing every step of the way and confirming everything is legit; right from the internal processes and systems of the company down to the certification of testing equipment involved and witnessing the tests.if this is the case and everything lines up you will get something like an en 10204 3.2 cert with your plate/section.then to maintain tracability from plate to part, there are standard processes and requirements (either industry standard, or client imposed) which then help maintain a chain of custody as it were.i would hazard a guess that it's similar for ceramics. |
in search of the space shuttle thermal tile database
| i have a feeling this would be a material traceability db, due to the high quality assurance/control requirements at play.i haven't dealt with ceramic tracability before but i deal with steel tracability on a daily basis.a quick primer on steel:
when you buy steel from a mill, you usually get it in plates or sections. these will be stamped with a heat number which links it back to the conditions under which it was made; the chemical ladle analysis and properties to meet a particular specification. these then undergo visual, non-destructive and destructive testing to verify everything is acceptable.a third party / independent verification body (or ivb) will also confirm this by basically shadowing every step of the way and confirming everything is legit; right from the internal processes and systems of the company down to the certification of testing equipment involved and witnessing the tests.if this is the case and everything lines up you will get something like an en 10204 3.2 cert with your plate/section.then to maintain tracability from plate to part, there are standard processes and requirements (either industry standard, or client imposed) which then help maintain a chain of custody as it were.i would hazard a guess that it's similar for ceramics. | nasa has held it's cards close to it's chest when it comes to operational data about the shuttle, particularly the refurbishment process.back in the cold war there was the fear that this information would be useful to another country that could learn from our experience and develop a shuttle that is faster and cheaper to turn around. maybe things are different now. |
in search of the space shuttle thermal tile database
| nasa has held it's cards close to it's chest when it comes to operational data about the shuttle, particularly the refurbishment process.back in the cold war there was the fear that this information would be useful to another country that could learn from our experience and develop a shuttle that is faster and cheaper to turn around. maybe things are different now. | while i sympathize with the authors desire to obtain a neat dataset, the externalized cost of obtaining it seems high and (frankly) perhaps just a little inconsiderate.imagine someone asked you to spend a few days (minimum) looking through storage to find the boxes with the data in some warehouse. |
in search of the space shuttle thermal tile database
| while i sympathize with the authors desire to obtain a neat dataset, the externalized cost of obtaining it seems high and (frankly) perhaps just a little inconsiderate.imagine someone asked you to spend a few days (minimum) looking through storage to find the boxes with the data in some warehouse. | i saw the space shuttle discovery up close at the amazing udvar-hazy center in/near washington dc. the scarred shielding tiles, partly because they are on the surface closest to visitors, were something really special - made the whole thing as an experienced object very real.not every other craft in the museum was built for war or commerce as there were many experimental aircraft built by hobbyists, but the shuttle was an iconic thing. i'd had shuttle toys in the 80s. where other exhibits were more "oh, that's cool", seeing the discovery had a real impact on me.if you're ever anywhere near that area, go take a look. free entrance, $15 for parking, and you will spend hours there. it's a separate facility to the national air and space museum that most people would visit in the centre of washington dc - which is also very good.<link> |
qihoo 360 and go
| we have a lot of chinese students that come to the school i work at. all of them have this software and similar installed and it causes nothing but headaches.they believe they actually need it installed even when the school supplies them with a laptop that has all the necessary protection pre-installed. | it's a shame for go's official blog to put a post from the shameless company.they should remove the article. |
qihoo 360 and go
| it's a shame for go's official blog to put a post from the shameless company.they should remove the article. | can people please discuss the technology stack and the content of the blog post here? thanks. |
qihoo 360 and go
| can people please discuss the technology stack and the content of the blog post here? thanks. | this is slightly off topic, but when my dad couldn't install his printer, he called a random tech company online....they basically requested full access to his computer, for about $99, and set up his printer, but they also installed a bunch of software, one of the things they installed was qihoo 360.this wasn't requested, and it made me wonder whether or not qihoo pays a bounty for each install to these random companies.it made me really suspicious of the software.has anyone had any experience with their tools? |
qihoo 360 and go
| this is slightly off topic, but when my dad couldn't install his printer, he called a random tech company online....they basically requested full access to his computer, for about $99, and set up his printer, but they also installed a bunch of software, one of the things they installed was qihoo 360.this wasn't requested, and it made me wonder whether or not qihoo pays a bounty for each install to these random companies.it made me really suspicious of the software.has anyone had any experience with their tools? | it is shocking to see a post from qihoo 360 appear on the official golang blog. this company is notorious for at least the following:* their flagship products, "360 security", provides an alternative windows-update facility; they take use of this to disguise another product of theirs, "360 browser", as a windows update: <link> (chinese source)* "360 security" and "360 browser" spies extensively on the user, including uploading "suspicious" files for their "cloud antivirus" service, uploading the browsing history: <link> <link> (chinese source)* "360 security" was caught cheating in av software tests: <link> more interestingly, after the denunciation from the test bodies, qihoo 360 pretended that it quit the test voluntarily and announced that these tests are no longer suitable for "internet-era av software".* they recently announced a "pregnancy mode" in their router product, due to widespread concern about the effect of wifi signals on the fetus.their wrongdoings are uncountable. |
show hn: replicated – deploy your saas app on-prem using docker
| this will be such a lifesaver. on-prem is the #1 request we have from larger companies, and we've been offered a good amount of money for it. i always say no, but if it's as easy deploying to heroku, it'll be a no brainer. | i'm one of the founders of replicated, would love your thoughts on what we're building. |
show hn: replicated – deploy your saas app on-prem using docker
| i'm one of the founders of replicated, would love your thoughts on what we're building. | got excited to see atlassian listed on the page. didn't find that atlassian actually uses "replicated". felt sad, because jira, etc. are a bit of a pain to upgrade.am i missing something? seems like an endorsement by atlassian or working use case at first glance. same goes, obviously, with github and palantir. |
show hn: replicated – deploy your saas app on-prem using docker
| got excited to see atlassian listed on the page. didn't find that atlassian actually uses "replicated". felt sad, because jira, etc. are a bit of a pain to upgrade.am i missing something? seems like an endorsement by atlassian or working use case at first glance. same goes, obviously, with github and palantir. | when i landed on the homepage, i wondered, "how much do they really solve the on-prem problem." with respect to that, i thought the video was informative, and the value prop was really clear. i'd be interesting in hearing more about what else travis had to do to be able to support this integration from their side.p.s. say hi if you're in the startup cincy slack team. (tim metzner shared this post.) |
show hn: replicated – deploy your saas app on-prem using docker
| when i landed on the homepage, i wondered, "how much do they really solve the on-prem problem." with respect to that, i thought the video was informative, and the value prop was really clear. i'd be interesting in hearing more about what else travis had to do to be able to support this integration from their side.p.s. say hi if you're in the startup cincy slack team. (tim metzner shared this post.) | sounds interesting. curious about something — if my app relies on cloud services (amazon s3, google bigquery, etc), does replicated do anything around that? i'm guessing i might need to modify my app a bit to ensure that cloud services endpoints are stored in deploy configuration, and not baked into the code? |
lucerne: a common lisp web framework
| this is really cool! i hope i'll be able to use cl for webdevelopment one day. | name is uncomfortably close to "lucene" |
lucerne: a common lisp web framework
| name is uncomfortably close to "lucene" | i must confess i'm conflicted about this. while it's encouraging that lisp is being used to build a web framework, this is not a lispy approach. it's more like python written in lisp. in particular the use of python decorators in lisp grates.a more lisp-native approach could be to use higher order functions in lisp as well as to use macros instead of adapting django templates. |
lucerne: a common lisp web framework
| i must confess i'm conflicted about this. while it's encouraging that lisp is being used to build a web framework, this is not a lispy approach. it's more like python written in lisp. in particular the use of python decorators in lisp grates.a more lisp-native approach could be to use higher order functions in lisp as well as to use macros instead of adapting django templates. | seems to be a slight issue with your site on mobiles, somehow your button is overflowing onto a new line:
<link> is 1080x1920, using firefox on my android 4.4.4 oneplus one) |
lucerne: a common lisp web framework
| seems to be a slight issue with your site on mobiles, somehow your button is overflowing onto a new line:
<link> is 1080x1920, using firefox on my android 4.4.4 oneplus one) | i quite enjoyed learning scheme at university. coming from oop, i loved when it just clicked and you began to look for opportunities to use higher order functions. i never actually used lisp, so i might try that one with a small project.for what type of web project could common lisp be a good fit? it should probably have something to do with huge lists of data that have to be processed, so that you can map, filter and fold them. the data should be relatively simple to obtain, too, so that the missing libraries are not that huge of a problem. |
new paper: theory of programs
| > programming, wrote dijkstra many years ago, is a branch of applied mathematics.this is as effective as saying "x is a branch of philosophy", where x is any discipline. it's probably true for every discipline, but what's the point?also every x is a branch of physics, because we live in a physical universe and everything is inside it (so even pure mathematics is a branch of physics).and finally x is a branch of computer science because computation and information processing sometimes appears to be more fundamental than everything else. e.g., physics cannot answer the question, "are we living in a matrix-like simulation?" but if we really are, the whole physical universe is mere computation happening in some higher dimension.i like to think of mathematics, computer science, physics, and philosophy to be deep and insightful realms of human thought, and they have many connections but also many unique attributes. | what i couldn't find was an answer to the question "why?"i could see this being an interesting basis for teaching computer science in high schools, where a text like this functions in a way similar to euclid in high school geometry courses. i'm pretty sure there aren't any non-exceptional examples of high school computer science courses (e.g., the ap cs course is better described as an intro to computer programming course).and in any case this is a nice exposition.but aside from that, i'm not sure i see any new insights here about cs/verification, nor any suggestions for research directions that aren't already extensively explored. perhaps i'm missing something, though.(edit: there's a list of suggested future work at the end of the paper. i guess i get it now; although all of these things have been done in verification/pl -- and even by non-type-theorists -- they almost always involve the development of a new logic, and aren't done in pure set theory. so certainly there's a lot of work to do if you want to do things in this style. but i'm still trying to see the benefit of this style, aside from pedagogic or philosophical benefits. is my inexperience in this area blinding me from some obvious potential? i don't know much about non-high-school set theory.) |
new paper: theory of programs
| what i couldn't find was an answer to the question "why?"i could see this being an interesting basis for teaching computer science in high schools, where a text like this functions in a way similar to euclid in high school geometry courses. i'm pretty sure there aren't any non-exceptional examples of high school computer science courses (e.g., the ap cs course is better described as an intro to computer programming course).and in any case this is a nice exposition.but aside from that, i'm not sure i see any new insights here about cs/verification, nor any suggestions for research directions that aren't already extensively explored. perhaps i'm missing something, though.(edit: there's a list of suggested future work at the end of the paper. i guess i get it now; although all of these things have been done in verification/pl -- and even by non-type-theorists -- they almost always involve the development of a new logic, and aren't done in pure set theory. so certainly there's a lot of work to do if you want to do things in this style. but i'm still trying to see the benefit of this style, aside from pedagogic or philosophical benefits. is my inexperience in this area blinding me from some obvious potential? i don't know much about non-high-school set theory.) | at least since 1935 [1, 2] people have been trying to formalize all of mathematics with set theory. i always thought this was fairly interesting, similar to how the real numbers can be modeled in a language using dependent types like coq.however, i always found hoare logic, and its concurrent extension rely--guarantee from jones, to be quite easy to understand. the more interesting part is how to do this automatically for a user. abstract interpretation is one way to do this, but this necessarily requires mapping some programming language to your mathematical model. however, determining the formal semantics of mature programming languages, even c, is still open research (e.g., see papers on semantics in pldi [3] 2015).tldr: verification is hard.[1] <link>[2] topoi, the categorial analysis of logic. goldblatt, robert. <link>[3] <link> |
new paper: theory of programs
| at least since 1935 [1, 2] people have been trying to formalize all of mathematics with set theory. i always thought this was fairly interesting, similar to how the real numbers can be modeled in a language using dependent types like coq.however, i always found hoare logic, and its concurrent extension rely--guarantee from jones, to be quite easy to understand. the more interesting part is how to do this automatically for a user. abstract interpretation is one way to do this, but this necessarily requires mapping some programming language to your mathematical model. however, determining the formal semantics of mature programming languages, even c, is still open research (e.g., see papers on semantics in pldi [3] 2015).tldr: verification is hard.[1] <link>[2] topoi, the categorial analysis of logic. goldblatt, robert. <link>[3] <link> | just skimming the definitions they seem more than a bit naïve. a relation is really a more general thing than a program, since it need not be computable in any way.the real mathematical models of programming are not all that difficult to understand. the most famous, the turing machine, is really just a finite set of states and a function on it. the complications which arise later are real complications, describing things such as side effects and complexity — its not trivial stuff! |
new paper: theory of programs
| just skimming the definitions they seem more than a bit naïve. a relation is really a more general thing than a program, since it need not be computable in any way.the real mathematical models of programming are not all that difficult to understand. the most famous, the turing machine, is really just a finite set of states and a function on it. the complications which arise later are real complications, describing things such as side effects and complexity — its not trivial stuff! | anyone find the definition of `functional` a little bit odd?is there a reason why a "no-op" or identity function should be considered imperative? or why a program must be imperative if at least one post-execution state is also a valid pre-execution state? |
the cult of vice
| where vice started and where it is now is certainly a sign of the times, i'll say that. | > but editorial standards change when your aim is not to be an entertainment company, but a trusted source of news.this amazes me: what makes them think that they aren't a trusted source of news for their audience?> with expansion comes a sense of responsibility,” he told me recently in one of vice’s glass-walled conference rooms. “as time goes on i don’t think that being silly, being stupid, is cool anymore. when you look at the planet, at the state that it’s in, it demands attention. it demands scrutiny. and it demands a certain level of seriousness.”could it be that it's exactly the lack of seriousness of vice's reporting up to this point that has made people trust them? reality isn't always serious, and when it is, sometimes the only way to deal with it is to laugh at it, or to admit that it's strange.in short, this looks like yet another company getting big and then changing everything that made them successful. it's not necessarily going to hurt their bottom line, but it's an example of why companies getting big is bad for consumers. |
the cult of vice
| > but editorial standards change when your aim is not to be an entertainment company, but a trusted source of news.this amazes me: what makes them think that they aren't a trusted source of news for their audience?> with expansion comes a sense of responsibility,” he told me recently in one of vice’s glass-walled conference rooms. “as time goes on i don’t think that being silly, being stupid, is cool anymore. when you look at the planet, at the state that it’s in, it demands attention. it demands scrutiny. and it demands a certain level of seriousness.”could it be that it's exactly the lack of seriousness of vice's reporting up to this point that has made people trust them? reality isn't always serious, and when it is, sometimes the only way to deal with it is to laugh at it, or to admit that it's strange.in short, this looks like yet another company getting big and then changing everything that made them successful. it's not necessarily going to hurt their bottom line, but it's an example of why companies getting big is bad for consumers. | i occasionally read local vice articles (not u.s. - they obviously employ writers in lots of countries) and most of them are unbearable trash.then, suddenly, a gem appears. the vice munchies take on weightlifter morghan kings diet is one of the better introduction to weightlifting in general.(in case anyone's interested: <link> ) |
the cult of vice
| i occasionally read local vice articles (not u.s. - they obviously employ writers in lots of countries) and most of them are unbearable trash.then, suddenly, a gem appears. the vice munchies take on weightlifter morghan kings diet is one of the better introduction to weightlifting in general.(in case anyone's interested: <link> ) | 'vice has described its salaries as “competitive with comparable emerging media companies,” but many employees seem to be here for the work and the culture, not the money.“there’s a sense that you’re lucky to be there,” said one former employee. “what you don’t get paid for in cash is made up in the cool factor, and maybe getting into their parties.”“it’s like a cult,” said another ex-employee.'when an employer makes it clear that you're lucky to work for them, and when you're getting paid in cool factor instead of cash, you probably are working for a corporate cult. |
the cult of vice
| 'vice has described its salaries as “competitive with comparable emerging media companies,” but many employees seem to be here for the work and the culture, not the money.“there’s a sense that you’re lucky to be there,” said one former employee. “what you don’t get paid for in cash is made up in the cool factor, and maybe getting into their parties.”“it’s like a cult,” said another ex-employee.'when an employer makes it clear that you're lucky to work for them, and when you're getting paid in cool factor instead of cash, you probably are working for a corporate cult. | perhaps this is now old, but everytime vice is brought up all i can think of is this piece with david carr from page one (2011) - <link> |
developers are not always rich people
i really struggled through university, and have been lucky to find employment. but with debts of over $50k and living in a uk city to be close to work is slowly bankrupting me. i am loosing. i am loosing my health, and slowly my will to live. i am now sitting outside a cafe using my phone on free wifi as i have had my telephone lines disconnected and am building up rent arrears.<p>i wonder how many people are in this situation? and how it makes you feel? where can i turn to get help?? | you do whatever it takes to survive. i still remember making $20 last the entire month for food for two early in my career. i remember being rendered destitute. twice. i remember having the tax man on my ass for a ton of money i didn't have after a particularly catastrophic failure. i've lived in 2 square meters of space while looking for a job. during that time, i wrote <link> to keep myself sane. i've begged family members for a plane ticket just to get me the hell out of a bad situation. now, 20 years into my career, i finally have some stability. part of that is my fault, since i'm entrepreneurial at heart, and i'm too stubborn to lie down and die.when you're not born rich, you have a big challenge ahead of you. you fight, or you die. | i'm a developer. i live in my car. i have a job but i don't make much. on the weekends i escape to libraries and try to find shaded areas before and after hours in parks. this past weekend was especially miserable because it was a 3 day weekend with nothing open. i spent a lot of hours just sitting in my car doing nothing. i find refuge at night at walmart lots.
it's not a good life but i'm managing. it keeps me hungry. i'm pushing myself harder than ever to learn and hopefully get a better job.
keep your head up, and remember this is only a temporary situation, it will pass. |
developers are not always rich people
i really struggled through university, and have been lucky to find employment. but with debts of over $50k and living in a uk city to be close to work is slowly bankrupting me. i am loosing. i am loosing my health, and slowly my will to live. i am now sitting outside a cafe using my phone on free wifi as i have had my telephone lines disconnected and am building up rent arrears.<p>i wonder how many people are in this situation? and how it makes you feel? where can i turn to get help?? | i'm a developer. i live in my car. i have a job but i don't make much. on the weekends i escape to libraries and try to find shaded areas before and after hours in parks. this past weekend was especially miserable because it was a 3 day weekend with nothing open. i spent a lot of hours just sitting in my car doing nothing. i find refuge at night at walmart lots.
it's not a good life but i'm managing. it keeps me hungry. i'm pushing myself harder than ever to learn and hopefully get a better job.
keep your head up, and remember this is only a temporary situation, it will pass. | move out of london. you don't need to be "close to work" a lot of people commute in every day. and, yes, train tickets are insanely expensive but i bet it is still a saving all things taken into account.$50k is do-able even in south england, i mean you won't be a movie star, but you'll get by on rent and so on until your salary increases. it is only london where that won't cut it. |
developers are not always rich people
i really struggled through university, and have been lucky to find employment. but with debts of over $50k and living in a uk city to be close to work is slowly bankrupting me. i am loosing. i am loosing my health, and slowly my will to live. i am now sitting outside a cafe using my phone on free wifi as i have had my telephone lines disconnected and am building up rent arrears.<p>i wonder how many people are in this situation? and how it makes you feel? where can i turn to get help?? | move out of london. you don't need to be "close to work" a lot of people commute in every day. and, yes, train tickets are insanely expensive but i bet it is still a saving all things taken into account.$50k is do-able even in south england, i mean you won't be a movie star, but you'll get by on rent and so on until your salary increases. it is only london where that won't cut it. | please, get in touch with family and/or a mental health professional. it's touch to tell from this brief post, but i wonder if you might be suffering from depression or another illness. this could easily lead to difficulty with getting work done, as well as having the confidence to endure the emotional roller coaster that job-hunting often entails.more to your question: i'm not sure if you're currently employed or not. either way, it looks like you need to find a new job, so that's what i'm focusing on.almost all of my job prospects have been from people i already know. in fact, my next job (starts in two weeks) came out of a chance encounter at a conference (i happened to sit at the right table for lunch). if you're job-hunting, you should be going to at least one meetup or other tech event per week—ideally more. also, keep networking even when you're not actively looking—you never know when that might pay off (or you might be able to benefit them) in the future.think of anyone that you know that might have a lead—former professors, friends, people you know from church or other social organizations, etc.—and see if you can meet them over coffee. applying for a job with an inside connection is much more effective than applying blind.i've been where you are—i had an unconventional resume, and the wrong bullet points on my resume (tons of java experience in an area where most of the big enterprises are on .net). it sucks. the feeling of repeated rejection is soul-crushing. the amount of perseverance needed is staggering. but, i can say with a high amount of certainty that you can get through this. don't be afraid to ask for help—no one should have to go through this alone. |
developers are not always rich people
i really struggled through university, and have been lucky to find employment. but with debts of over $50k and living in a uk city to be close to work is slowly bankrupting me. i am loosing. i am loosing my health, and slowly my will to live. i am now sitting outside a cafe using my phone on free wifi as i have had my telephone lines disconnected and am building up rent arrears.<p>i wonder how many people are in this situation? and how it makes you feel? where can i turn to get help?? | please, get in touch with family and/or a mental health professional. it's touch to tell from this brief post, but i wonder if you might be suffering from depression or another illness. this could easily lead to difficulty with getting work done, as well as having the confidence to endure the emotional roller coaster that job-hunting often entails.more to your question: i'm not sure if you're currently employed or not. either way, it looks like you need to find a new job, so that's what i'm focusing on.almost all of my job prospects have been from people i already know. in fact, my next job (starts in two weeks) came out of a chance encounter at a conference (i happened to sit at the right table for lunch). if you're job-hunting, you should be going to at least one meetup or other tech event per week—ideally more. also, keep networking even when you're not actively looking—you never know when that might pay off (or you might be able to benefit them) in the future.think of anyone that you know that might have a lead—former professors, friends, people you know from church or other social organizations, etc.—and see if you can meet them over coffee. applying for a job with an inside connection is much more effective than applying blind.i've been where you are—i had an unconventional resume, and the wrong bullet points on my resume (tons of java experience in an area where most of the big enterprises are on .net). it sucks. the feeling of repeated rejection is soul-crushing. the amount of perseverance needed is staggering. but, i can say with a high amount of certainty that you can get through this. don't be afraid to ask for help—no one should have to go through this alone. | my first job as a programmer in 2011, the boss was paying me us$10 an hour to code in visual basic 6. he gave me a $2 raise ($12) after 6 months of proving that i was a good coder. a year later, i ended up having to get a new job because i had debt that i had to pay off and didn't want to take 10 years to do it. eventually got a job working a web developer for $16-$18/hr.the advice i have: if you have a college degree or at least 5 years experience in programming, know that you more valuable than you think you are. also: the reality is, you are replaceable. keep moving on til you are loving what you do and doing what you love .. and getting paid to do it. |
stuff in space
| now i finally understand why, in star trek tos, they only visited planets with "lifeforms less advanced than humans" (or with no human-like lifeforms). bugger the prime directive, and the mission to "explore strange new worlds". doing otherwise was just too dangerous!can you imagine the perils of trying to keep a 300m-long starship in orbit, without hitting all the bits of rubbish? sulu would have been doing slaloms for half of every episode. (although they could probably spring-clean a planet of orbital debris within a few hours, too, just vacuum it all up with a tractor beam).as spock so eloquently put it in st4: "judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, i believe we have arrived at the latter half of the 20th century." | so, if you've ever seen anything that looks like this, but is also slowly spinning, the spinning isn't just to look cool. the spinning, even very slow and gentle, can help give a sense of the 3d depth of the space. even just fractions of a degree/sec can be very helpful. i recommend trying to toss in some slow constant rotational motion and see if it helps get a sense of the space. at least based on my browser, you've got the performance for it to look pretty decent.edit: klunky hack you can pop in the url bar to make it go zoom: javascript:void(camyawincr=.001,f=window.requestanimationframe,window.requestanimationframe=function(a, b){f(a, b); camyaw+=camyawincr})
once you run that, screw with camyawincr directly, rather than re-running that. clicking a particular element causes jiggling as the klunky hack fights with the code tracking the element.you may need something other than .001, depending on what frame rate you're getting.(edit edit: there's something to be said for this whole "web" thing sometimes. it's neat that we can hack on code like this....) |
stuff in space
| so, if you've ever seen anything that looks like this, but is also slowly spinning, the spinning isn't just to look cool. the spinning, even very slow and gentle, can help give a sense of the 3d depth of the space. even just fractions of a degree/sec can be very helpful. i recommend trying to toss in some slow constant rotational motion and see if it helps get a sense of the space. at least based on my browser, you've got the performance for it to look pretty decent.edit: klunky hack you can pop in the url bar to make it go zoom: javascript:void(camyawincr=.001,f=window.requestanimationframe,window.requestanimationframe=function(a, b){f(a, b); camyaw+=camyawincr})
once you run that, screw with camyawincr directly, rather than re-running that. clicking a particular element causes jiggling as the klunky hack fights with the code tracking the element.you may need something other than .001, depending on what frame rate you're getting.(edit edit: there's something to be said for this whole "web" thing sometimes. it's neat that we can hack on code like this....) | this is so awesome, and render beautifully in firefox, but i can't seem to get the "orbs" (the actual objects) to render themselves in chrome. is anyone else having this difficulty? disabled all blockers and everything. |
stuff in space
| this is so awesome, and render beautifully in firefox, but i can't seem to get the "orbs" (the actual objects) to render themselves in chrome. is anyone else having this difficulty? disabled all blockers and everything. | we did something similar at the space apps nyc hackathon this april where we tried to simulate the effects of cascading space debris collisions known as the "kessler syndrome".we ran out of time so it doesn't actually cascade but it shows the rather high likelihood of collisions if you fast-forward with the slider on the bottom left of the screen. pull requests would be very welcome, the data from space-track.org generally is great fun to play around with (as is three.js and satellite.js).<link> |
stuff in space
| we did something similar at the space apps nyc hackathon this april where we tried to simulate the effects of cascading space debris collisions known as the "kessler syndrome".we ran out of time so it doesn't actually cascade but it shows the rather high likelihood of collisions if you fast-forward with the slider on the bottom left of the screen. pull requests would be very welcome, the data from space-track.org generally is great fun to play around with (as is three.js and satellite.js).<link> | github repo: <link> |
monkeys' cosy alliance with wolves
| funny to see this adjacent to the kipling article on hn. in kipling's jungle book (fiction), wolves hate monkeys, considering them self-important creatures who never follow throilugh on their grand plans. | on a somewhat related note, they've been known to kidnap stray dogs and keep them as pets.<link> |
monkeys' cosy alliance with wolves
| on a somewhat related note, they've been known to kidnap stray dogs and keep them as pets.<link> | ...yawn. that's not even remotely comparable to domestication. there are countless examples of predators having non-feeding-related interactions with prey. sharks swimming with fish; lions lounging near gazelles; etc, etc. if they're engaging in a cooperative hunting strategy, then that's certainly interesting, but not new or groundbreaking. |
monkeys' cosy alliance with wolves
| ...yawn. that's not even remotely comparable to domestication. there are countless examples of predators having non-feeding-related interactions with prey. sharks swimming with fish; lions lounging near gazelles; etc, etc. if they're engaging in a cooperative hunting strategy, then that's certainly interesting, but not new or groundbreaking. | i think domesticated is a big term for naming an interaction between two predators. domestication implies a transformation in the morphology of the domesticated species, this is just mutual tolerance at best. |
monkeys' cosy alliance with wolves
| i think domesticated is a big term for naming an interaction between two predators. domestication implies a transformation in the morphology of the domesticated species, this is just mutual tolerance at best. | from wikipedia:"unlike most large canids, which are widespread, generalist feeders, the ethiopian wolf is a highly specialised feeder of afroalpine rodents with very specific habitat requirements.[6] it is one of the world's rarest canids, and africa's most endangered carnivore.[7]""wolves in bale have been observed to forage among cattle herds, a tactic thought to aid in ambushing rodents out of their holes by using the cattle to hide their presence.[5] ethiopian wolves have also been observed forming temporary associations with troops of grazing gelada baboons.[31] solitary wolves will hunt for rodents in the midst of the monkeys, ignoring juvenile monkeys even though these are similar in size to some of their prey. the monkeys in turn tolerate and largely ignore the wolves, although they take flight if they observe feral dogs, which sometimes prey on them. within the troops, the wolves enjoy much higher success in capturing rodents than usual, perhaps because the monkeys' activities flush out the rodents, or because the presence of numerous larger animals makes it harder for rodents to spot a threat.[32]"according to another website, in 2008 there was thought to be as few as 500 of the species remaining.it is also well known that this species regurgitates food for the pups in order to supplement their supply of milk, and other females will assist in providing milk when necessary.to me, this all adds up pretty clearly. a species about to go extinct, that primarily feeds on rodents, that uses other species to increase the likelihood of success of feeding, but still has trouble feeding itself. they adapt by forming an alliance (or at the very least being much less likely to attack).this could be an example of how domestication formed, or, domestication could have developed from a completely separate process. the only thing that is clear is that this is an almost-extinct species that uses another species in order to improve its chances of eating. |
ipv6 exhaustion counter
| this counter is completely inaccurate. i used to work for a company that was doing email marketing (i quit because i disagreed with their practices). my employer was buying about one /48 per week. what does this mean? we alone exhausted 2^80 ip addresses per week, or 2e18 addresses per second (that's 2 quintillion!). so this counter showing 2 addresses exhausted per second is wrong by an order of 1 quintillion.in fact, with the proper paperwork you can still relatively easily buy an entire /40 or maybe even /32. with these practices, ipv6 will run out of addresses within the next 100 years. well, to be pedantic, it will run out of allocatable subnets, but the vast majority of their addresses will remain unused. | what about the 10^40 years between ipv6 exhaustion and proton decay? no one plans for the future these days. |
ipv6 exhaustion counter
| what about the 10^40 years between ipv6 exhaustion and proton decay? no one plans for the future these days. | reminding us once again why 64 bit addresses would have been just fine. |
ipv6 exhaustion counter
| reminding us once again why 64 bit addresses would have been just fine. | relevant <link> |
ipv6 exhaustion counter
| relevant <link> | notes from when we get close to exhaustion of ipv9:<link> |
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