HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

Pokepokalypse

586 karma · joined September 14, 2016

submissionscomments
Pokepokalypse··on Deepest infrared image of universe
But if we can image it, then there IS an effect.

The photons emitted by that galaxy effect us, here in ours because we can see them.

It's the ones we can't see that are disconnected.

Pokepokalypse··on Tell HN: I have the perfect job, why is it not enough?
This is possibly true.

I'm in my 50's now, and when I was in my 40's, my life-situation allowed me to pursue a lot more outside interests and hobbies. I had a lot of different outside activities, and would go out after work 4 nights a week with something different.

A mass-layoff 5 years ago changed my circumstances in a lot of ways. I have another job - one that I love probably much more. But I relocated, and where I live now just doesn't have many of the same opportunities to do all the different things I used to do. And it's causing a lot of feelings of emptiness and burnout.

Since I work remote, I'm planning on another relocation.

Pokepokalypse··on Microsoft begins “Extinguish” phase of dealing with Open Source
You mean: Oracle™ Java®.
Pokepokalypse··on Experian, you have some explaining to do
I find your ideas interesting and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Pokepokalypse··on Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples
Oncosiphon piluliferum as well.
Pokepokalypse··on Even with Agile and Scrum waterfall will sneak in
Dammit! so all this Kaizen training my employer paid for me to take 20 years ago, is actually Scrum?
Pokepokalypse··on The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages
>the one the “caring progressives” keep voting for.

And the alternative is what?

Keep on hoping the oligarchs will share their wealth and it will "trickle down"?

Pokepokalypse··on Are you startup or big company material?
No big company I have worked at was stable. (otherwise, I'd still be working at my first employer). Stability is something I've strongly valued, but I've also found, it's basically non-existent in this career field. Companies are always buying each other, getting bought, having bad quarters, etc. Unless you're one of those 100x developer rock stars, (or sales/marketing), you're going to be vulnerable to being "rightsized" out.

I can also say that pay has not been the best at the larger companies, either. Though benefits packages tend to be more generous.

But at the end of the day, if those are supposed to be the compelling reasons to try to work, and stay at a larger company, then no thanks, because it's a greatly undeserved reputation.

As for small companies; yes, there's way more opportunity to learn, and way more freedom and latitude, and I'd even say career mobility is better. On the other hand, some small companies are run like total shit. But at the end of the day the risk (instability) is worth it.

Pokepokalypse··on My worst tech interview experience
My worst interview experience: Company had their own custom hackerrank test set up. Timed. It failed to execute on my laptop. (Maybe browser plugins? I tried a different browser; still no joy) - I tried a few things, including using the browser debugger, and in the 30 minutes allotted, I couldn't succeed.

So I asked the recruiter to talk to the hiring manager to give me another shot with a different computer, and never got a response.

Mind you: they also had a horrible recruit process of filling out paperwork on their web site; including a form-entry version of your resume that you already uploaded. Plus various other forms to fill out and disclaimers to sign. Honestly, the worst I had ever encountered.

Since then, this company has had 3 different recruiters (one internal, two external) try to contact me for different positions, but the first one asked for the same process of going through their careers website and filling out all the forms again - even though my previous record was still there: because it was a different position, it had to be done again. That's when I bailed.

Pokepokalypse··on Omicron Variant: Early Analysis
I knew it! This Greek Bioweapon will continue to be used with impunity!
Pokepokalypse··on Omicron Variant: Early Analysis
Only in Romanized Chinese; which is an English-approximate spelling of how it would be pronounced. (sort of).

Spelling is different in Chinese, of course, which has fuck-all to do with the Greek letter, or how it would be pronounced in English.

People bringing up the Chinese leader pronounced name's English spelling, to confuse it with a Greek letter, are really reaching hard.

Pokepokalypse··on Is it possible to create a site where users can anonymous post thoughts/essay?
4chan?
Pokepokalypse··on Python: Please stop screwing over Linux distros
>Unless you are developing something to be part of the distro, they are not for you.

. . . forgetting the original purpose and mindset behind Linux in the first place. From a 1990's point of view; it was always intended to be a hobbyist OS; and in most cases, one had to compile all the binaries and kernel one's self.

There was no such thing, really, as a "user" or "admin" - everyone was considered, and expected to be a developer.

Pokepokalypse··on Python: Please stop screwing over Linux distros
". . . and then he installed cygwin, and decided to manage and run python through the bash environment. . . " (fun fact: the git client's bash shell is actually cygwin. Also; MobaXTerm has cygwin bundled-in as well).
Pokepokalypse··on How many people have Q Clearance?
> Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret are the only clearances

Not necessarily. Maybe in DoD land, but there's also a different system (uses similar terminology) for the State Department, and Department of Education (and some others) also has a thing called "Public Trust Clearance" and they involve different background checks (which aren't transferable). But the DoD clearance is the one that takes much longer to complete.

Pokepokalypse··on How many people have Q Clearance?
yes. Even as a civilian; they told us that we should not visit the site.
Pokepokalypse··on How many people have Q Clearance?
you're not wrong; conceptually. But those aren't the actual definitions.

https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/do...

Pokepokalypse··on How many people have Q Clearance?
Or what you mean to say; a bit of controlled information, may only be classified by virtue of its context.
Pokepokalypse··on How many people have Q Clearance?
I had a secret clearance, and it was used for setting up an application to print pages with a classified banner. Once that page was printed, it was technically classified material. As you know; generation, and possession, and destruction of that material (even if an otherwise blank sheet of paper) - is controlled and documented.

In IT projects, most of us with any kind of clearance NEVER see anything controlled. But the clearance is needed in case we ever need to see controlled information, in order to write code, debug it, operate it, or train others to use the system.

Though some may eventually end up on a system or program whose very existence is classified. And that fact alone, is often not very special, and may be the only thing they ever "know" that's controlled.

Pokepokalypse··on An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists (2001)
I'd just like to relate my experience with VC's and startups.

I worked at a non-silicon-valley startup in the 1990's. After a couple of years of growth and success, a new investor came in, and bought the company; supposedly to "prepare" us for an IPO. (we all had stock options). I think this was around 1995.

The new investment group removed the team of founders, (all engineers), to a role running the engineering team, and they hired "A professional" CEO to replace them, in the role of business management. He was actually a pretty good guy and seemed to really be dedicated to helping our team grow and succeed.

Lo and behold, about 3 months later, they announced a "merger". Lots of "synergy" with the new company; which was smaller, but wanting to build a major player in our market. They were based in Scotts Valley; so now, we were a Silicon Valley startup. Our CEO was then sort of "demoted" to being the site-manager.

The next thing that happened, was that our "parent" company bought our largest competitor. There was more gung-ho pep talk about how our products had no overlap, and that it would be a vertical integration, and we had so much work to do that there would be no layoffs.

Business deals, changes, rebranding initiatives flew hot and heavy for the next few months. Our CEO was sent on a 2 week trip to China, to work on a reseller agreement. He left on a Friday.

On Monday morning, we were all just reading our emails, and getting our coffee, preparing to start the day. Outside the window, looking at the parking lot, there was a row of 6 men, walking out of their rental cars, towards our building. They were recognized by some of our team, as high-level managers from the "parent" company. They strode across the parking lot looking like gangsters on their way to a hit.

Shortly after they came in, the email was sent. It said that there would be a meeting, and if your name was on list A, to go to one conference room, and if your name was on list B, to go to a different conference room.

I was in the "lucky" group: There was a stack of 2" thick manila envelopes on the table. Basically, our buy-out offers, which included a deal to agree to stay-on for 6 months, and wind-down operations at this site. That was about 10% of us. The rest were laid off and told to go home. Additionally, the key staff who were asked to stay, were offered relocation packages. I took mine. Which turned out really nice for me: because the new location ended up being a much better job market, and a boost to my career (eventually), and also, I got to hold on to my options until they were actually worth something, compared to the "unlucky" ones who were just offered a pittance for their shares. I wasn't happy or proud to have had to keep working with these people, but it did actually work out for me.

Probably the worst part was how arrogant and dismissive this group of men were, to our team. Frankly, they were dicks, as they laid off tech workers, in a region where there really wasn't a strong tech industry.

Later, we found that the CEO had been sent on a completely bogus trip. There was no deal. They just wanted him out of the way, so that the deal could be done while he was on a 14 hour flight.

He could have objected, but by the time that would have had any effect, the damage (to our engineering team) had been done. Some of the key players were on the phone and had new jobs by the end of the day on Monday. The ones who were laid off, had signed agreements. There was just no way the deal could have been reversed had the executive staff at our site objected, and the ones who could have objected, were bought-off.

And that's my account of how VC's work.

The product we had made was, indeed, continued, under management of our competitor. They never went public; they were later bought by another company, and our options were converted to their stock. A few years later, they were bought by another company, in a similarly stinky deal, involving blackmail of a board member. (he had some skeletons in his closet, and when they outed him, they really fucked him over HARD).

That's when I left. And decided I hated working in the private sector.

Pokepokalypse··on Jimmy Wales’ Final Email
Well, the lawyer factor is probably most important.

A lot of people are willing to spend big money to shut down truth.

Pokepokalypse··on Why SQLite does not use Git (2018)
actual timestamps (instead of "relative time"). . . what a concept.
Pokepokalypse··on Interview with Charlie Munger on Controversial UCSB Dorm
>Is it just their ever-growing echo chambers of yes-men

yes

Pokepokalypse··on Bash functions are better than I thought
Or, (thanks, Amazon): `--no-paginate` `--no-cli-pager` (dang that pisses me off! thank goodness for `jq`).
Pokepokalypse··on Former U.S. president Donald Trump launches 'TRUTH' social media platform
lol, how is this different from his last 3 attempts? (his shitty blog, his twitter misadventures, and his sad failed command of the whitehouse.gov website. . . )
Pokepokalypse··on Multitasking Doesn't Work
Media multitasking is great.

Tragic though, for advertisers.

Pokepokalypse··on It feels like America is running out of everything
> Essentially, because it was against human nature.

I've heard this counterargument against socialism/communism for a long time, and it always sounds like a form of "magical thinking" to me. Asserting the tautology that "humans are naturally greedy" when if you know any actual humans, you know this is not true.

Short-sightedness, selfishness, greed, and laziness are all easily handled by a functioning criminal justice system, and public education system. At least in THIS country, we willfully subverted and destroyed these institutions, over a long period of time. For various reasons, but mostly because the haves wanted it this way. The same happened in the USSR.

A few entitled and already very wealthy people are greedy. Most of the rest of us will ACT greedy when they've been deprived of basic necessities by a crooked and rigged system. But by and large, most people are not inherently greedy.

Pokepokalypse··on It feels like America is running out of everything
yes, the consequence is; those who are more easily able to accumulate the money, will still hoard and stash all the excess.
Pokepokalypse··on Why are American houses so flimsy and poorly built?
Fill those voids with closed-cell spray foam, and you get even better sound (and heat) insulation.
Pokepokalypse··on Why are American houses so flimsy and poorly built?
The whole west coast is full of old brick houses; which were either knocked down, or have been retrofitted and reinforced. Because brick structures are inherently unstable in earthquakes.
← PreviousPage 2 of 16Next →