beilabs

Website is blocked for pretty much everyone but the US? Just accessed from Nepal, blocked.....oh dear...

Edit: apparently not blocked, but still can't connect apart from via VPN.

Installed a chrome plugin that restricts my access to all social media, Reddit and some news sites between 8am-6pm only allowing a total of ten minutes access through out the day. Massive time sink.

Also, got a whiteboard which I mark out the important tasks for the day. It's a bit messy at the moment though. If everything is important then nothing is important.

Had a wake for my father some years ago. While there was a lot of alcohol there was great comfort in the many stories that everyone had of him and had no issue in laughing over. My family always has held wakes and probably always will.

Afraid you have nothing on Australians affair with Avocado.

https://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2016/10/17/i-stopped-e...

It's a staple of the Australian diet, fairly certain it's one of the 5 fruits a day over there adorned on the walls of schools across the country. Seriously though, I've seen Avocado go for $6 a piece.....those were hard times.

Single serve items like shampoo, candy, soap are readily available in developing countries like Nepal, they cost much more than the normal sizes we receive in the developed world when you adjust for the quantities. Much worse for the environment over here as well, have seen so many plastic fires in the city with the single serve packaging being utilized as fuel.

Being broke sucks, capitalism at its finest.

While I hold the title of CTO for a funded startup I feel I have taken much more of an engineering manager role.

Ticket review, deployment, product development and general firefighting seem to be the order of the day; We have a team of 12 engineers, my biggest issue is being able to let go of the important tasks and be able to trust my team that they can deliver in the 9-5 schedule they enjoy (Entirely the opposite of the life of a founder).

Being able to hire someone to just take some of the devops tasks off of my plate is my immediate priority. I have certainly found that my skills are getting a little rusty as I'm no longer in the trenches cutting code each and every day, much more in a review / implementation position.

You just described Kathmandu perfectly. Very few traffic lights were ever installed, they never really worked due to load shedding. Now with the load shedding in the city removed these lights only flash orange (sometimes).

Recently there has been a clampdown on people skipping queues, driving on the wrong side of the road (all positive efforts).

My two rules, same as where I learned to drive on a farm in Ireland; avoid hitting people, avoid hitting cows. Everything else will take care of themselves (cars, bikes, buses, trucks).

Nothing to do with increased security for the 19th Congress.

Nothing to do with being a journalist.

Everything to do with not presenting yourself at the Chinese police station.

Source: Lived in China for years, was forced to write an apology to China for not presenting myself after moving to a new city 2 months later (had a work visa); my communist party member landlord smoothed things over with local police. Obviously Jon didn't have enough guanxi.

This could be the perfect thing to announce a failing code build.....begone old traffic light systems, Jenkins + Furby could be a thing of beauty.

Interviewed for a large tech company a few months ago just for the sake of it. (VP of engineering role), corporate headhunter persuaded me to take the call even though I'm happy where I am.

5 minutes into the job interview the guy seemed very obsessed with my direct reports number. I have 12 engineers currently (CTO), have worked in China with 30 engineers reporting to me and in my previous life as a school principal I had 40+ staff and a few hundred students. With many other software roles in between around the planet.

Anyhow, it seemed that the position was not a good fit, they were recently acquired, the founders had all left and a new management team had taken over. Multiple interviews were expected as well as attending their office on-site on the other side of the planet. Ended the call once I heard this and told them this was not the right role for me. Have to be respectful but not every position is a good fit for the candidate. Trust your gut especially if red flags are raised. The guy conducting the interview seemed a bit shocked that i bailed on the process so quickly. Ain't no-one got time for the commitment some interviews require some days.

Was that not a patent grab? I always thought that was the main premise.

I'm curious how your students in Europe will agree to return the % of salary back to you. I would imagine there would be more restrictions in that regard than with the IRS.

In Ireland even a degree in CS from the worst school guarantees a base of education that has been reviewed and agreed upon. I'm unaware if the same vigilance has been applied in your own curriculum.

Also, please remember that degrees are necessary should one wish to migrate internationally in many situations so don't discount them out of hand.

Personally, I'd hire the person with the degree before any bootcamp on its own. That said, I believe that most degrees are useless without real world knowledge and application. I've hired 10 staff over the past 12 months from a variety of backgrounds, some with MSc level, others who have barely scraped through their B.Sc. Qualifications means competence at school, doesn't always equal to success in the software engineering field.

I'm going to play devils advocate here. I don't think I'd be in your target market primarily because I feel for 15k a year I can achieve a decent education just by online resources alone. It would be just as well recognized; I'd even think that a local community college could be cheaper. Granted, upfront cash is a luxury that few without the bank of mom and dad can access.

An Irish degree costs 3000 euros a year to enroll. Even for four years that would be cheaper than what's on offer here with a world wide recognized qualification.

On the whole, it seems like a very American solution to an American problem, education is just far too expensive in the states. * I'm a beneficiary of free state education from Ireland.

Best of luck in the effort, I do applaud you for it especially in the US where there are always tech shortages but...I really wish your country was in a place where your type of business didn't have to exist. A country where only those who can afford to be educated can receive education. I'm saying this as someone living in Nepal where those who can't pay can't learn either.

I really wish education was subsidized, worldwide! Alas, never going to happen.

Yeah; I need to really put some processes in to make it more sustainable. We're quite strict with who can come on board as we're really only looking for non-profits or co-operatives.

Late arrival to this thread. One of my projects involve working with local female co-operatives in Nepal and help them sell their hand made products around the world. Paypal doesn't operate here, merchant services for international cards are impossible to get. They don't understand technology in any way and there is a lot of hand holding.

The site is https://www.pasatrade.com

We make no money off of this, I operate it at a loss, but each and every sale gets more money back to the women who really need it; a few extra dollars here and there can really make a huge difference in Nepal. The interesting part is they make more money on each sale through us than they do locally or selling through Fair Trade channels.

"One of the first pieces of legislation passed in the new Federal Parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act. Now known as the infamous White Australia Policy it made it very difficult for Asians and Pacific Islanders to migrate to Australia. This Act stated that if a person wanted to migrate to Australia they had to be given a dictation test. The dictation test could be in any European language. So a person from China or Japan who wanted to live in Australia could be tested in one or all of French, Italian or English languages."

Granted this was well over a hundred years ago however I feel that the Australian attitude to migrants is still quite unfriendly. They're making it more and more difficult to migrate there even if you have roots in the country especially if you are from a non English speaking country.

Source: Am Irish and went through the Australian immigration process years ago.

> I stock up on the old products on clearance because they don't make them anymore.

I often think about this when a company goes under, especially hardware focused ones. I assume it's only a matter of time that their servers will no longer accepting requests, APIs will no longer function and your device will suddenly become useless. Personally, I feel that this is a perfect use case where open source can shine by liberating locked down devices.

Yeah; I was to start work at 8.30am; checked in with a swipe card; even if I had to stay till 3am(working US hours) I still had to be back at work by 8.30am. Suffered complete burn out by the time I turned 25.

I took advantage of eating out in the local eateries and avoided the canteen food; it was rare enough that I was back 15 minutes before I was meant to. :D

When I worked in China (5000 engineer company) we'd have our lunch in the canteen, I found that many returned to their desk for the last 15 minutes of their lunch break.

Out came the pillows, all lights were dimmed and calming music played through the PA system. No-one spoke, made noise during this time; quick power nap of 15 minutes did the trick for a lot of people. Definitely something I approve of; I've a small mattress in my office just for such occasions.

My father used to say; first sign of madness was talking to yourself, second sign of madness was replying to your conversation and the third sign....hairy palms.

I talk to myself all the time, it's about more structuring my thoughts. I also swear to myself all the time. Self swearing is quite frequent.

I will never begrudge anyone trying to seek a better life. If was in their position I could probably be at fault for doing the same.

I wouldn't want any of my technology preventing people from improving their situation. So yes, in this instance, I would not work on this project.

As an engineer there are certain things I refuse to work on. Anything to do with weapons, immigration, gambling. The list is ever evolving...

We can chose to work in these fields, we can choose not to. There will be engineers who have to do things to get a pay check, to feed their families. I don't begrudge that.

However it is up to each of us who understand the technology to ensure that we vote and support the best political representatives who understand when it is morally correct to best implement such advances.

Agreed. I have heard of many cases of evacs from Base camp. There are often deals worked out with chopper companies that allow them to claim off your insurance and you get a cheaper trip down the mountain (unnecessary evacuations, fast rides down).

You'd be surprised how many try it....and even more how many get away with it. Many do it for PR for their own brand / company.

A most excellent article.

I was based in the Kathmandu AP office for over two years. Every week during climbing season I heard of the fatalities on the mountain. I understand why people attempt it, the varying reasons are immense from personal lifetime goals to fundraising to pure ego.

Many attempt it on the cheap with poor training and physical fitness. Remember that altitude sickness and frostbite is a great leveler of people regardless of your race, financial status or intelligence. It can strike anyone at anytime.

Say goodbye to your loved ones and ensure your estate is in order before you do this trek, there is a huge chance that you might never see your family ever again.

By the way, I'm heading to base camp in two years and have an apartment that I rent out in Patan if anyone is coming for a short trip over. Though the startup scene is small in Kathmandu, we exist...

I wonder if the UK taxpayer will be asking some questions about the justifications of policing the embassy? A pretty abysmal ROI.

So, will the police presence now simply disappear?

I've a fiber line to my office. Tech scenes can crop up in incredibly unlikely places... :)

CTO - 6 staff - Kathmandu

6AM - Wake up - read news / email / Facebook

6.30 - Exercise on exercise bike for 1 hour

8.45 - Office - check PRs, slack, Pivotal Tracker

9.45 - Standup meeting

1pm - Lunch

7pm - Dinner

7.30 - Back at office

10pm - Home - movie / reading / sleep

I have no commute; my office is right beside my house. The only meetings we have are remote (slack / skype) which happen every so often. All communication is through slack allowing employees to work from home whenever they need.

Most of my work is working on the product across multiple projects. Code review on PRs and ensuring that the services are working as expected. We're a small team, it's hard to hide / slack off.

As someone from outside the US, this is a crazy suggestion.

It would be an immediate red flag for future investors and would also scupper legal access to other countries like UK, Australia, Canada in the future. Don't do this.