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dirtybird04

135 karma · joined December 19, 2016

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dirtybird04··on Austin rents have fallen for nearly two years. Here's why
10+ year resident of Vancouver (the Canadian one, eh) here. Saw a similar increase in both Van and Dallas during that time period, knew something fishy was going now.

Now we know it was a coordinated attack on all housing and equity using drug money. I still can't figure out if I should marvel at the events that have transpired or be scared shitless of the things to come. Guess we will figure out soon enough.

dirtybird04··on Startup Winter: Hacker News Lost Its Faith
As another Canadian (who is living in the US and working in tech), this is just naive on so many levels.

Firstly, unicorn valuations does not necessarily mean innovation. There is nothing innovative about the Salesforces and Zendesks of the world, they're great market fits in a very profitable corporate world.

Secondly, the whole world is playing catchup to US which it comes to money, not just Canada.

Lastly, the valuations & money in US are a result of an insane ethos (working hard, breaking shit), very corporate-friendly government policies, and a very capitalist society.

Canada isn't perfect, our housing is way too expensive and we'll always play second fiddle to USD. But Canadian society is miles better than anything you'll see in US, and for that I'm forever grateful. Giving up that peace and security is just not worth it for any amount of money.

dirtybird04··on Launch HN: Refine (YC S23) – Open-source platform for enterprise web apps
I've used Retool and absolutely love it. It's a godsend for folks like me who want to create quick internal tools without delving into frontend frameworks and code. It's very drag-and-drop, intuitive, and easy to use. I describe it as MS Access on steroids.

This thing looks nothing like Retool. As other people have mentioned here, Refine "just scaffolds your codebase, gives you a good start, and has some cool hooks". So the whole "Open-Source Retool Alternative" angle seems very confusing and off-base to me. They look like very different tools built for very different audiences, imho.

Seems like you're trying to piggyback on the Retool wave. Why not just be honest (and a bit creative, perhaps) with your marketing? My $0.02

dirtybird04··on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
Just say "Eid Mubarak" with a warm smile, should be good. Could be followed by a friendly hug and a gift of sweetmeats but that's mostly for family & friends.

And for the curious: the proper response to an "Eid Mubarak!" is "Khair Mubarak!"

dirtybird04··on Negativity drives online news consumption
You sound like a hoot to be around. Hope you find some peace within yourself and stop telling others how to live their lives.
dirtybird04··on Negativity drives online news consumption
Thank you for the recommendation! These guys sound hilarious and I am really looking forward to listening to the whole series
dirtybird04··on Negativity drives online news consumption
> ‘The Wire’ Star Lance Reddick Dead at 60

> My Struggle Session at Stanford Law School

> Two gifts to Trump family from foreign nations are missing, report says

> Michigan Is Becoming The Anti-Florida On LGBTQ Rights ― And A Lot More

> Biden jokes he's ‘really not Irish’ because he's sober, doesn't have relatives ‘in jail’

> Just Because ChatBots Can't Think Doesn't Mean They Can't Lie

> Derek Chauvin, ex-officer convicted of killing George Floyd, pleads guilty to federal tax evasion

> As crucial legal test for Antifa ideology heads to trial, right-wing media also scrutinized

I live on the west coast and the above items you mentioned are pure sensationalism and have absolutely nothing to do with me, my state, or my local community. They add absolutely no value, informational or otherwise, to my life. They do not help me make more informed choices for me and my family or better my life in any discernible way.

You want to care about all that fluff and noise? Good for you. Just don't go around pretending to be a better person for that, or denigrating others who don't fall for that crap. People like you are part of the problem, not the solution.

dirtybird04··on How Spotify's podcast bet went wrong
Lookup Marvis app. It's an Apple Music replacement UI meant for heavy album listeners, really improved my everyday music listening experience
dirtybird04··on How Spotify's podcast bet went wrong
Look up SongShift app, might be of some use. I was able to successfully migrate my playlists out of Spotify and into AppleMusic seamlessly.
dirtybird04··on A Midcentury Bender: Revisiting Mad Men
So we're just going to pretend that Season 5 of The Wire never happened? Because that story sure stuck out like a sore thumb.

My point is, all shows have their ups and downs. Sopranos/BB/Wire were great and definitely kickstarted the golden age of television, but Mad Men just hits differently and I think I now know why: the visual richness and spectacular screenwriting/character development.

dirtybird04··on YouTube disrupted in Pakistan as former PM Khan streams speech
You're not wrong about things as they stand.

However, you do conveniently leave out that it was the US toppling the Shah of Iran that resulted in a religious wave taking over the whole region. And it was the US, again, that armed and trained everyone in Afghanistan to the teeth to help them fight the commies. And it was the US, yet once again, that just bailed as soon as USSR collapsed, leaving a massive power vacuum in the Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban takeover.

Pakistani army merely tried to use that power vacuum to their advantage. And it failed miserably, might I add. The army has gotten used to the boatload of USDs for being an war ally, but all the US hatred now is creating fractions within it.

My point is, every country plays this game, and they all play it dirty. Why assign moral bankruptcy to a minor player while completely overlooking the major player that's stirring all the global shitstorms?

dirtybird04··on Ask HN: When did corporate America become so flaky?
I recently read there that someone waited 9 months to go through Google's hiring process. That's a LOOOONG time to be waiting around for one job offer, it's ridiculous!

Tech hiring in America has been broken for about a decade now. Shitty leetcode style coding questions, unprepared interviewers, lack of any decency or communication etiquette, merry-go-rounds of design interview, it's really insane when you think about it. But everyone puts up with it because there's so much money involved. And that money is not going away anytime soon, and unfortunately, neither are these practices.

dirtybird04··on AlphaFold reveals the structure of the protein universe
>Amazon basically put malls out of business which are hugely environmentally destructive.

I'm all for tech doing good but this is a hugeeeee stretch

dirtybird04··on Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it
That was when silicon valley was still run by computer nerds. Those days aren't coming back buddy, time to move on
dirtybird04··on Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes
The comment you're referring to blamed "capital flight from Asia" and "local or foreign millionaires". How did you get to "literally blaming Asians"? That's a pretty big jump there bud.

Also, capital from China must be at least an order greater than capital from all of Middle East combined. Not defending their decision not to do anything when your Arabs and Iranians were buying up real estate, just that it was a drop in the bucket and pretty easy to ignore. Chinese capital, on the other hand, is becoming cumbersome for quite a few countries now

dirtybird04··on Google doesn't want to pay Sonos for technology it copied
Is Apple Music really crap? Their UI isn't the slickest but their service, audio quality, and music catalog is top notch. And unlike their Swedish counterparts, they aren't trying to push crappy podcasts on me to up their revenue
dirtybird04··on Is Bluetooth holding back Apple's AirPods? We asked the man who made them
I bought an Apple Watch and Powerbeats Pro headphones just for my morning walks/runs. When it works, it works like a charm and gives me the perfect start to the day. Bluetooth and I are best friends on those days!

But once every two weeks or so, the phones (or at least one of them) decide they aren't having any of it and just refuse to pair, and I have to spend the whole morning trying to figure out what went wrong. Bluetooth and I are blood enemies on those days!

dirtybird04··on ‘Hard’ skills from PhDs remain relevant beyond academia
Yes, it's entirely soft skills. But they work very hard at using their soft skills to solve trivial business problems.

Every worked a marketing or revops job? It's mind-numbingly trivial, the likes of you and I wouldn't last a day. But these MBAs do it all without blinking, and do it passionately. And I, for one, appreciate them for that.

dirtybird04··on The Ponzi Career
Some beliefs and values are personal, and thus, intangible. Try to recognize that not everything good in life has to be (or even can be) quantified.
dirtybird04··on Apple doesn't care about album cover art
At least it's static. Spotify keeps pushing music videos as cover art for singles and it's annoying as hell. If I wanted to see a video, I would've used other platforms.
dirtybird04··on Why do interviewers ask linked list questions?
Went through interview rounds last year and I was asked a recursion questions for a DS interview. Been doing this for 10 years and have never come across a data problem that only recursion could solve. But I remembered it from university days, so I cobbled together a working answer.

At the end of the interview, I asked the interviewer to give me one scenario where a recursive solution would be the most efficient one. Blank stares.

That was my eye-opening moment. I would never work for a place that asks these ridiculously outdated copy-paste interview questions. Can't believe I put up with that shit for so long.

dirtybird04··on “When it comes to broadband, America is the original shithole country”
>Broadband is the single wire that delivers free speech, a free press, free assembly, education, family life, employment, health, opportunity, civic and political engagement, and every other necessity for a decent and dignified life in the 21st century

Okay I know this is HN and there is heavy slant towards technology and tech-driven solutions but this is just a ridiculous statement. What if I get a 4G/5G router? Is my life any less decent or dignified?

There's a lot more to life than ridiculous torrent/YouTube/netflix speeds

dirtybird04··on Ask HN: What Lived Up to the Hype?
Real tv fans have come to accept that the last season of The Wire and the last episode of Breaking Bad are pretty blah. We just shake our head and move on.
dirtybird04··on Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a meaningful amount “fast”?
A wise man once told me "Never count another man's money" and I'll pass that on to you. Figure out what you want in life, stop comparing to the Adam Neumanns and Jeff Bezos of the world, that's a surefire way to lose your mind and self.
dirtybird04··on Open-Source Spotify App
Whippin' the llama's ass
dirtybird04··on Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him
I don't know or care much about Stallman and the situation, don't really have a dog in this fight. What I do know is that "It's been like this for decades" is never an appropriate defense.
dirtybird04··on I dropped out of MIT and started a new college in San Francisco, AMA
Kinda off-topic, but an interesting comment in response to a particularly engaging thread:

"Usually AMA subjects ignore questions that aren't softballs. Props to you for actually going through and answering. Thanks!"

Yeah, that's a really low bar. And sums up why I stopped paying attention to AMAs a while back. It's mostly just fluff and PR with an occassional Snoop Dogg gem.

dirtybird04··on Google Maps shows sunken car where missing man’s body was found
The first time I heard of "Florida Man", I thought that shit was made up. Now I'm incredibly fascinated (and perhaps a bit scared) by it.
dirtybird04··on Why Media Lab thought it was doing right by secretly accepting Epstein’s money
These are nice achievements. Impressive, even. But that's a very low bar for a "hero" imo.
dirtybird04··on Sacklers Would Give Up Ownership of Purdue Pharma Under Settlement Proposal
It's a great idea. It's unfortunate that it would get shot down almost immediately under the guise of "socialism", just like the the idea to nationalize the banks after the financial crisis of 2008.
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