blacksmythe

  >> configure it with a whitelist of lint checks

I have found Pylint to be very helpful, and always use it on Python projects past the size of a short script.

If you start using Pylint at the beginning of a project, you can blacklist warnings that you want to ignore fairly easily.

  >> lots of developers in their forties and some in their fifties at our company. We would be happy to hire more.

You can try oldgeekjobs.com

  >> number of contributors is probably a reasonable indicator

In case you don't want to click on the links:

    Scala: 287
    Go:    704
    Rust: 1599

  >> Forget project Euler

I found Sphere Online Judge (http://www.spoj.com/problems/classical/) problems to be much more challenging than project Euler.

One big difference is that a good manager can take an average team and build a good team over time. If you can't do that, you aren't a good manager.

A manager that can't tell who on their team is good will (in the long run) take an average team and turn it into a bad team.

'jacquesm has written extensively on this topic. I highly recommend these articles:

    http://jacquesmattheij.com/how-to-build-a-windmill
    http://jacquesmattheij.com/how-to-build-a-windmill-ii

>> fine just learning ES6, a front-end technology like Angular (2) or React

And in 2015 you would have been just fine learning Ember or Angular 2.

And in 2014 you would have been just fine learning Angular 1 or Ember.

And in 2013 you would have been just fine learning Backbone and Ember.

And in 2012 you would have been just fine learning Knockout and Backbone...

Also:

  >> Once I made a robot to play video games for me.

  >> It's extremely cheap to built and operate. 

The cost of the facility is inconsequential compared to the efficiency of the developers working there.

Or stay in Santa Barbara pretty much year-round.

Does anyone doubt that there are 2x programmers (programmers twice as effective as an average senior developer)? I have worked with a number of them.

If one were to assume some sort of power law or Gaussian tail distribution, it is logical to assume that a few 10x programmers exist. However, they are going to be sufficiently rare that you are not likely to be able to find them or recruit them.

A more interesting question is if there are 3-4x programmers, and if so, is it feasible to find and recruit them? I have worked with people (rarely) that I would consider 4x programmers.

I sometimes see the opposite.

    We took an app written and maintained for the last 10 years in language A, and re-wrote it from scratch in language B.

    The new codebase is smaller, more maintainable, and runs faster!!!

  >> (our VP) specifically named you because your piece is finished.

That is really poor, short-sighted management.

Middlebrook?

http://hckrnews.com/ has already provided a better interface.

  >> For all intents and purposes we have lost the 1800s technology of community barn raising. At least we as defined as HN participants.

I am pretty sure 'we' havent (in the sense 'we' = sum of HN member knowledge).

HN includes some pretty amazing members: http://jacquesmattheij.com/how-to-build-a-windmill

I don't have links handy, but HN includes people who homestead, and practice many mostly-lost arts.

patio11, tptacek, tzs, cperciva, WalterBright, ChuckMcM, Animats, rayiner, RogerL, jerf, jacquesm, nostrademons, mark_l_watson, edw519, lmm

Not sure why this is a controversial statement.

Walmart is often critized for hurting local jobs - replacing successful independant business owners with lower-paid employee jobs. If this is true, Walmart leaving an area should be (at worst) job-neutral.

  >> It would be a bummer if those already marginalized workers lost their jobs.

Unless people on average switch to buying more on-line, the local job market should just switch to different stores.

  >> They're based on 409A valuations which are usually much, much lower.

Mostly in cases where common stock is much, much less valuable than preferred stock.

It worked really well for Tandem Computers.

People felt pretty happy with the company for about a year after their sabbatical, and didn't want to leave for about 2 years before their sabbatical (and miss it).

Don't know why this didn't work as well for Google.

I believe if you flag too many articles, HN takes away your flagging privilege.

>> to stay in Pluto orbit, either you carry a lot of fuel with you to slow down

Gravity assist can be used often used to speed up a spacecraft, but can also be used to slow it down.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist

In addition, atmospheric drag can also be used to slow down a spacecraft passing a planet.

  >> inertial, ...

A nice discussion of inertial navigation capability (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10752294):

    Consumer grade MEMS ...are not sufficient for intertial navigation, ... 

    At around the $2K-30K you get systems that can 
    provide accurate navigation for up to 2 minutes or so. 

    Aviation grade IMUs ... maximum horizontal position drift of 1.5km 
    in the first hour of operation. These will run 100K and up.

Uber can apply some market pricing to this by charging more for the SF commute and less for the return direction.

In 1985 we were still prototyping with TTL packages.

By 1988 we were using Altera PALs, a big improvement in density. (PALs might have been available sooner, but I was working on microwave systems in the intervening years).

6502 assembly is surprisingly popular as a learning platform.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4213806

A more relevant way to look at risk is reduction of life expectancy.

If your adult life expectancy is 78 years old (http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/your-life-expectancy-by-a...) and a hot dog a day gave you a 1% chance of dying at a median age of 52, that would be a life expectancy reduction of 3 months for eating a hot dog a day. If it were a 1% chance of dying at a median age of 69, that would be a 1 month life expectancy reduction.

  >> Professor Norvig comes along and does it in a simple functional one liner.
  >> Mind blown.

That is how I felt taking Martin Odersky's Scala course.

  >> people really loved to hate on Tarsnap

On the contrary, Colin is highly regarded on HN both for his technical ability, and his success in business (despite breaking from conventional wisdom in how to be successful in business).