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FreeKill

969 karma · joined July 2, 2008

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FreeKill··on Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis
Yeah, I think the prices also have resulted in a massive change in how consumers decide to go to movies as well. With the price so high for a family of four, people rely much more heavily on positive word of mouth/reviews before making a decision.

So people are much more risk adverse. I've never understood why they don't do tiered pricing based on the type of movie it is. If it's not a mega blockbuster type film, reduce the price a bit to make it easier for people to take a risk and try out a movie without it being a 90%+ rating on rotten tomatoes. I'd personally probably go a lot more if a movie like say Marty Supreme was $10 instead of $20.

FreeKill··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2022)
Paramount Commerce | REMOTE - North America/Europe applicants only | Full-Time | Many Python & Java Roles | https://www.paramountcommerce.com

Paramount Commerce is a small (approximately 150 employees worldwide) but rapidly growing global payments technology company based in Toronto, Canada that provides a safe and simple way to integrate bank account-based payments. As a leading solution in both iGaming and sports betting, we are trusted by industry-leading brands such as DraftKings, theScore, PartyPoker, and Bet365 to process billions in global transactions annually.

We also believe strongly in positive mental-health and work-life-balance of our employees, and we back this statement up with our many benefits including 4-day work weeks during the summer months (June-Sept), paid time off on birthdays, half-day vacations before all statutory holidays, an employee wellness benefit that can be used for therapies and gym memberships, retirement fund employer contribution matching, and a generous profit sharing/bonus program (paid quarterly) and available to all employees.

We're rapidly expanding with major initiatives to expand and upgrade our payment platform and to build out a comprehensive new data engineering / analytics pipeline. We are looking to fill multiple roles, so we'd love to hear from you if you're interested.

Full Job Listing:

- Senior Java Software Engineer - https://apply.workable.com/j/19AACAA381

- Intermediate Python Software Engineer - https://apply.workable.com/j/92A83B353F

- Data Visualization Engineer / Analyst - https://apply.workable.com/j/839BAD62DD

- Other Open Positions: https://www.paramountcommerce.com/careers/open-positions

FreeKill··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2022)
Paramount Commerce | REMOTE - North America/Europe applicants only | Full-Time | Many Python & Java Roles | https://www.paramountcommerce.com

Paramount Commerce is a small (approximately 150 employees worldwide) but rapidly growing global payments technology company based in Toronto, Canada that provides a safe and simple way to integrate bank account-based payments. As a leading solution in both iGaming and sports betting, we are trusted by industry-leading brands such as DraftKings, theScore, PartyPoker, and Bet365 to process billions in global transactions annually.

We also believe strongly in positive mental-health and work-life-balance of our employees, and we back this statement up with our many benefits including 4-day work weeks during the summer months (June-Sept), paid time off on birthdays, half-day vacations before all statutory holidays, an employee wellness benefit that can be used for therapies and gym memberships, retirement fund employer contribution matching, and a generous profit sharing/bonus program (paid quarterly) and available to all employees.

We're rapidly expanding with major initiatives to expand and upgrade our payment platform and to build out a comprehensive new data engineering / analytics pipeline. We are looking to fill multiple roles, so we'd love to hear from you if you're interested.

Full Job Listing:

- Senior Java Software Engineer - https://apply.workable.com/j/19AACAA381

- Intermediate Python Software Engineer - https://apply.workable.com/j/92A83B353F

- Data Visualization Engineer / Analyst - https://apply.workable.com/j/839BAD62DD

- Other Open Positions: https://www.paramountcommerce.com/careers/open-positions

FreeKill··on Biking while Black: Racial bias in Oakland policing (2019)
I sometimes think this is intentional, in the sense that trivial laws like these are kept on the books long term simply because they provide such a convenient mechanism to justify stops and other police activities that would otherwise not meet the burden needed to make them legal. I wonder if a solution might be to have certain categories of laws require re-evaluation every so often, in order to stay relevant. Almost like an expiry date, if they aren't explicitly renewed, they are no longer enforceable, thereby necessitating at least some kind of discussion on their continued relevance at regular intervals.
FreeKill··on Browse Every Awesome List on GitHub
Is it mostly only for programming/software lists? A couple I searched for like these ones:

https://github.com/davidliwei/awesome-CRISPR

https://github.com/seandavi/awesome-single-cell

https://github.com/danielecook/Awesome-Bioinformatics

https://github.com/eselkin/awesome-computational-neuroscienc...

https://github.com/websemantics/awesome-synthetic-biology

aren't showing up when I search, but they are obviously more biology/software related, so not sure if that's by design.

FreeKill··on Done Answering Questions Stack Overflow
I wonder if something more like a wiki format would be better long term. Say you take a question like "How to loop through a list of key,value pairs in JavaScript. Through the last 10 years, this has changed a lot through vanilla to libraries like jquery to new iterations like ES5/6. What I would love to see is just a page with this question asked, maintained over time with an emphasis on when the previous solution was relevant, and highlighting the most recent, preferred options for solving the problem.

So, rather than a score based social network style system, turn the questions into living, and evolving documents. Also, sometimes a person gets stuck having to work on code that's a decade old, so it would be nice to have a history as well, and not just the most recent solution that may not work in their environment.

FreeKill··on How The Expanse went from game concept to blockbuster TV series
I like the yearly rankings they do over at Reddit to try and find shows I've missed. (example: this years https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/kqnefi/results_...)

It's quite interesting if you look at The Expanse. Started barely top 100, then top 40, then top 20, and now this year people are ranking it #2 all time behind Breaking Bad. Seems like it took a bit for the word to get out about it, but people who take the time to watch it, seem to really enjoy it.

FreeKill··on How The Expanse went from game concept to blockbuster TV series
Yeah, I think it shows what humans of right now would be like in space, if we had the same technical progression, rather than imagining how we would be instead.
FreeKill··on How The Expanse went from game concept to blockbuster TV series
Agree completely. There's one episode in the 3rd season, I believe, where a lot of damage occurs on a ship full of people (being vague). I always loved how in that episode, they go a lot into the added difficulties of injuries in space. For example, the inability of the body to stop bleeding and clot if there's no artificial gravity, so even minor wounds become deadly. I also think the Expanse presents a more realistic picture of what humans of today would be like in space, not the usual more optimistic version of us...
FreeKill··on Warner Bros. Will Send Entire 2021 Slate to HBO Max and Theaters
Agreed. I believe a huge portion of the budgets for movies also revolves around marketing in general. Maybe those budgets can be reduced substantially if the movies are all being placed directly on streaming services. For instance, does it really matter in a streaming only world if your movie does huge numbers on the first weekend it comes out? I'd imagine success will be measured more in retention and possibly new subscriptions corresponding with a specific movie release.
FreeKill··on Warner Bros. Will Send Entire 2021 Slate to HBO Max and Theaters
Same with Canada as well. Will be a shame if this experiment fails simply because they were unable to capture subscribers from the majority of the world outside the US. People aren't going to wait for it to come to their country, they'll likely pirate it instead...
FreeKill··on Moderna Covid vaccine candidate almost 95% effective, trials show
I think you'll essentially get your wish regardless. Assuming you're just a regular Joe citizen (not a healthcare worker, not someone high risk) you're highly unlikely to get access to the first run regardless. So, if phase 3 was a beta test, phase 4 will be millions of doses going to people as a sort of invite only full-release. So, as long as you're fine taking it 3-6 months or more after that, if no ill effects have befallen the millions of early adopters, then you're gold.
FreeKill··on Sex drive-in
Sounds to me like it's just spacing? Like pulling into a small parking space, where you have to park the drivers side in a way the door can't open...
FreeKill··on Elizabeth Holmes representing herself in Arizona civil case
Yeah, I believe it's supposed to be directed by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, Anchorman, etc.) and the original author of the book is writing the script as well. Could be quite good if done right. I would assume they are waiting for these court cases to have their day, before filming the movie...
FreeKill··on Jellyfin: A Free Software Media System
Also, other quality of life features such as searching your library, ordering your list by different criteria such as directors, critic reviews, release date, combining movies/tv shows into organized collections etc.
FreeKill··on French court rules Steam games must be able to be resold
I also agree that #2 is greatly overlooked. I know, personally, I would have purchased many games in the past, if I had an option to resell it for even half the price I paid for it. Instead, I end up waiting 12+ months until that game comes down in price commensurate with the value I believe it to be worth.

This applies a lot to single player games that will take 10-20 hours to complete like the newest Tomb Raider series or Deus Ex series, where I'm sure I will enjoy them, but not enough to spend $70+ on them.

FreeKill··on A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)
I've always found it interesting that ketchup flavoring on frito lay products were not a bigger thing. In canada, ketchup flavored chips etc. are a very popular flavor and have been around for decades. Just never seems to really have caught on elsewhere until somewhate recently.
FreeKill··on Epic Games Is Acquiring Psyonix
You absolutely can. The GeForce Experience is not necessary for anything. You can download drivers and install them without having to login to anything. GeForce Experience is just for the convenience of automation and for the extra tools it brings with it...
FreeKill··on Red Flags in Software Developer Job Descriptions
My favorite is always when the job description includes superfluous descriptors in front of the developer role. Like "Rock Star" Developer or "Super Star" Developer. In my experience, it's almost always code for we want to put a ton of responsibility on you, while at the same time having unreasonable expectations for both speed and quality of what you produce.
FreeKill··on Show HN: Notepin – Extremely simple blogging platform
Would be nice to see an example of an actual blog using the platform, on that page, without having to sign up first.
FreeKill··on Netflix Flexes
What I also find interesting is the fact that Netflix doesn't necessarily even need the "flex" to succeed. Their push on bird box could have failed miserably, and they really wouldn't have suffered greatly, whereas Disney's push of A Wrinkle in Time probably hurt, since the movie ultimately flopped and their only chance to recoup costs was after the huge investment.

Netflix's goal is quite distinct from much of its competition. In simplistic terms, their goal is to release enough compelling content to keep existing subscribers subscribed and then hopefully entice new users to sign up more than old users quit. These "flexes" I would assume are primarily for the second category. If you make something enough of an event, with subscribers talking about it all the time, maybe non-subscribers will think they are missing out and take the plunge. If that fails, however, they only really lose out on the marketing costs, since it's very unlikely to affect the existing subscriber base at all.

FreeKill··on [dead]
As a follow-up, does Equador have to keep him? Why would they continue to grant him asylum if he causes them problems?
FreeKill··on Organized Resources for Deep Learning Researchers and Developers
I thought both of these two courses on coursera were quite good:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning/

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-learning

First one is a bit older school, but takes you through all the fundamentals and actually explains a lot of the math involved. It also gets you thinking a lot more about how to solve problems from a Linear Algebra standpoint and the types of problems machine learning is good for tackling.

Second one is a much more modern day set of courses specifically focused on Deep Learning techniques and problem solving.

I thought both were great. First one is free as well...

FreeKill··on A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning – Part II
wow, I really like this format with the ever adapting figures on the right hand side as a way of explaining a concept. Great design.
FreeKill··on The Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
Here's an example of some of the community maintained lists you can use to block more things easily. https://wally3k.github.io/ Many of these are updated quite frequently as well.
FreeKill··on The Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
Pi Hole is free, unless you're counting the system you have to run it off of (like a raspberry pi) but you can run it off any device you want like a virtual machine at home for instance, so you only need to buy a Raspberry Pi if that's how you intend to operate it. The benefit of it, is it blocks a lot more than just ads. For instance, it blocks any attempts to "phone home" by my smart TV or by applications I use such as Nvidia Geforce Experience. It's more extensive than browser based ad blockers because it works for your entire network, not just web browsing (for example, blocks all youtube ads on my un-rooted mobile device). It also has a huge set of customizable community maintained block lists that block everything from simple ads all the way to pornography (if that's what you want).
FreeKill··on The Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
Agreed, same for me. I did get it to work with my router as well, and it works amazingly well. When you supplement it with the community ban lists as well, it's incredibly powerful and updated quite frequently. Highly recommend it. Works great off a Raspberry-Pi.
FreeKill··on Hollywood Is Wrong: Netflix Is the Future of Film
I think one of the big issues with the film industry today, and one thing Netflix addresses tangentially, is that all films should not be the same price. It's strange to me that a movie like 'Avengers Infinity War' is the same price as 'Super Troopers 2' or 'A Quiet Place'.

I consider myself a movie buff and I remember in the 90's, friends and I would go to movies as something to do. We wouldn't necessarily plan to go, but movies were a reasonable price < $10, we were bored, and you'd just go, see what piqued our interest, and give it a try. Now-a-days, movies are so expensive that it's almost an event and something you have to save for like concert tickets or sports tickets. Why would you take a risk on movie X, with middling reviews, when it costs so much? That's why so many middle of the road films seem to crash and burn so much more starkly these days, because people can't afford to take a chance on a potential stinker.

I think movies should have a scale for pricing, Infinity War costs $20 to see, but Super Troopers 2 costs $10 to see. Maybe they both start at $20, but over time, the price slowly declines until it leaves theaters based on how it's performing. After all, the goal for theaters is get butts in seats so they can sell concession food anyway.

Where Netflix really stands out is their incentive is entirely different. They have one goal, to keep subscribers from unsubscribing for another month. As a result, they hope that when you're bored and you turn on Netflix, something in their library catches your eye. Netflix has replaced the 'randomly going to a theater' experience and as a result, many movies that perform poorly in the theaters can thrive on the platform. Who cares if a movie is a 30% Rotten Tomatoes candidate, when it cost you nothing at the moment to watch it, and you have nothing better going on anyway. It's not an event, it's a way to pass some time. It's the new channel surfing...

All the film makers who end up being snobby about Netflix are missing the point entirely. Not all movies are suited for the $20, monster screen experience, and you can clearly see that with many experimental films crashing and burning hard in recent years. The cinema price is so prohibitive these days that a family doesn't take any risks, they save their money for huge tent poles where the rating is virtually guaranteed. That's a losing formula for experimental films who were never going to have broad appeal and it's a shame that a segment of the film industry seems hell-bent on standing in the way of that alternative outlet. They should embrace it with open arms.

FreeKill··on Chat is Google's next big fix for Android's messaging mess
You're right, it's not a brand new app, it's an update to messenger, but it's definitely not the continuation of the app they just finished trying to convince us for a year+ to use, Allo.
FreeKill··on Chat is Google's next big fix for Android's messaging mess
Fool me twice google! I won't get fooled again?

In all seriousness, how can anyone advocate for the adoption of this new chat app? After Chat/Buzz/Hangouts/Messenger/Duo/Allo and probably more, I can't with a straight face convince anyone I know to adopt yet another Google messaging product, despite whatever problem it sets out to rectify this time around.

At this point, I have zero trust that the application will continue to get long term support or will even still exist in a few years time. Remember when Google said Hangouts was going to consolidate and fix problems in all these disparate applications as well? Google has lost 100% of the benefit of the doubt with me in regards to trying out new messaging applications and it's not worth putting in the hassle to convince others to use it with me.

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