drdunce

1. No, but I wouldn't subscribe to a service that took more data than I deemed necessary or was happy to volunteer 2. No, because they couldn't offer any guarantee it would be removed 3. Because you'd need my data to achieve that, so I've potentially made my problem worse. Are you more trustworthy than the other services? 4. I can't imagine how that would work so struggle to give an answer 5. Wouldn't subscribe 6. Wouldn't subscribe

This is very interesting. I have a PhD in Machine Learning but cannot get work. It seems like like everyone has one! I'm thinking of switching to security and kind of assumed it would be the same, especially seeing the ostensibly high entry requirements. Sounds promising, thank you for the insight

It's a frustrating read from a ML perspective, because of the ethics of it.

This lazy approach to road safety of putting increasingly complex speed cameras everywhere is severely negligent. Invest the time, effort and money to make the roads safer. Make them German Autobahn level safe. Are these profitable yet empty gestures really fooling anyone?

Spent many years in software engineer in London - web dev; ecommerce; mobile dev etc. Picked up a bunch of industry certifications along the way, happy customers, completed projects, but didn't ever manage to get more than average salary.

Moved to academia, got a PhD in machine learning, got a bunch of publications in high ranking outlets, and managed to land an entry level assistant position - but now I'm stuck in the same position, just in academia. My work/life balance is probably a bit better. Still love computer science and will probably keep on, but it's a cruel mistress!

The bubble never came back after it burst the first time. It's been done for a while. Now we have people with PhDs and 20yrs experience fighting over the scraps.

I believe the point at which the author leaps from a clear and beautiful worded explanation into deep complexity without accompanying explanation is the point at which they no longer fully understand it themselves.

Having attended many a conference and spoken to many an author, the deep bit of maths in their publication without any understanding is most often the bit you later find they copy and pasted.

If you really want the cutting edge, I think it's probably academic conferences in the area you're interested in.

But I don't think most people really do, because that's far too much noise to parse. Most people probably want it to have passed the bullshit test (so many academic papers make fake claims now), been tested, and been wrapped up and demonstrated in a neat Python library or similar. Somewhere like this is probably the best place for that.

1) Software development takes 2 weeks to be able to do, and 15 years to be good at

2) You're competing in a global heavily saturated market and need to find a way to stand out (all the qualifications, certifications, github repos, friends you can get to land the first proper position)

3) You're not special but you're not a failure either. Software dev is a rollercoaster of feeling like you're one or the other

4) Don't aim to be a software developer, aim to solve a problem you're interested in (software development for the sake of software development is terribly dull - 99% of the problems are boring - find the 1%)

5) Ignore the hype. You won't be a rockstar programmer, top 10 app store, bitcoin millionaire tomorrow because you bought that Python book

I've heard of a couple of CEOs, and a few freelancers now doing hands on things in their downtime.

IMHO, software development is a rollercoaster of exciting highs and lows. While woodwork, creating something tangible with your hands... it's something else. It's a perfectly balanced sweet continuous feeling of pure zen that you don't want to stop.

I believe it can make you more productive when you return to your main work.

I cry a single tear of joy, then shuffle back to the black and green glow!

Wait, you guys are getting too much money?

I agree but I can't help feeling like this anecdote kind of reinforces my first point. I don't believe we should be quite so speed limit obsessed. I think we should be able to keep our eyes on the road and all drive to the capabilities of our vehicles under the conditions. German autobahns have demonstrated this can work (if you have a decent road system).

We shouldn't be getting tired from checking the spedometer, we should be getting tired from driving, and when we are tired we should be stopping.

I think this is the solution. You can't keep chasing with legislation and even if you could you can't spy on drivers all the time.

The key is keeping drivers focused and keeping traffic moving.

Also removing all the things that encourage complacency. Lane assist etc.

they currently drive like they're on the phone ...and drunk

Very nice quote. And a menagerie we have become!

I believe a good piece of software is like any well made tool. It fulfills a single purpose, elegantly and simply. It is closed for further modification, but open for easy extension.

I can reach in my tool box and take out a socket, that will fit a torque wrench, breaker bar, or ratchet. I can easily see exactly how it works.

In short, register the domain name.

My method of escaping this problem is to develop things iteratively and have a minimum viable product in mind. I'm going to release something that's 80% there very quickly, and its success, if there is any, will spur me on to do the last 20%.

Widespread apathy.

People less willing to work, vote, socialise, or just plain live.

At the time of the action few instances had been identified in European countries where, due to the current Covid travel policies, they were safely isolated and unlikely to make onward travel. The new variant was however highly prevalent in the red listed countries.

This has been the same practice used all along. The action is always commensurate with the number of cases. Countries don't red list other countries based on speculation while awaiting further information (if the Netherlands has 5 cases maybe it has a million?). In my humble opinion I personally feel it would be a good idea if they did, the information isn't always fast enough - however, that would no doubt create more cries of prejudice.

The fact is, in terms of the action taken, nothing novel really happened here. Therefore, I don't see how it can be deemed punitive or prejudiced.

Everyone has Omicron?

I can't believe at this point in the process, after all this experience, politicians are being so immature as to interpret travel bans as punitive action. It really undermines the amazing scientific work that's being done. By now, every country must have been on another countries red list when they've been doing comparitively worse (let alone following the announcement of a new variant). No messengers were shot here. Isolation is effective when executed properly and we're talking about potentially saving many lives.

Even as an 8yo, I understood that if I wasn't allowed to go to a friends birthday party because I had the flu, it wasn't because anyone was being mean to me!

cars used to be so well designed. you never had to look down at a screen to see what was going on, it was just there, at your finger tips. You could tell what gear you were in, if the handbrake, lights, indicators were on/off or virtually anything without taking your eyes off the road for even a second. The interface had evolved with everything being exactly where it ought to be. When you changed it it made a reassuring clunk so that you knew. Now it seems like everyone is reconfiguring the keymappings on a 90s flight simulator while they're driving.

It requires a disproportionate amount more work to succeed in than other careers. The payscale has a long tail and low median (everyone quotes a high mean but it's not normally distributed) which means it's really not worth it unless you are. There's better careers to be unenthusiastic about if you're just there for the money.

This is so true. There's a lot of hype surrounding "programming" jobs and a frankly bizzare push to get everyone into one. I think it's incredibly damaging to effectively tell children they haven't "made it" unless they can code. From my personal experience, there's very few truly interesting or particularly profitable jobs in computer science and they take a huge investment to get there - maybe 5% of people with CS PhDs get to actually do something interesting. No, that 1 week scam coding bootcamp isn't going to get you anywhere anymore than you can learn a programming language from one of those 24hr books. Everyone else is doing mind numbing repetitive tasks that often don't even involve writing code after training (testing/data entry etc.).

I personally love computer science and have since a young age, but the career as a whole often isn't particularly meaningful or profitable. I'll do it anyway, because I love it. Objectively, there's much better things I could be doing. Previous generations had the same obsession with their children being lawyers and bankers (although I believe they probable are at least quite lucrative). Hopefully one day we'll learn and let our children be what they want to be. I'd hate to think we might be disuading some aspiring surgeons for example, with the promise of being wealthy "rock star programmers", only for them to end up in an unfulfilling job in data entry.