hnthrowaway0315

Whenever I see "follow the law", my first reaction is always: Is the law fair and just? I'm merely posing the question. If you find the law to be fair and just, then for sure everyone should and probably will follow the law.

I hope they at least open the original documents to the American public, instead of posting on X. IMHO the public should have the rights to review and grill the officials about the spending.

Thanks for sharing. You seem to have some knowledge of the APT scene. Can you please elaborate on the following points?

- the focus on switches and routers is very pro (did you mean the defenders or the attackers?)

- What kind of knowledge is a starting point to hunt these players? I assume very good Linux system admin skills that can protect the whole system well enough to maybe only allow some obscure entries, and then have enough RE/Red team knowledge to know how to focus on these entries. Does it make sense?

- How do those APTs operate? I'd imagine there are at least 3 groups of people, group 1 = people who make tools, do analysis, RE and such -- they are the support guys; group 2 = people who directly execute the operations -- they don't need very in-depth knowledge but need to a whole range of knowledge to know where to look at and how to best use the tools; group 3 = blue team who protects the whole facility. And of course there are managers, admins, etc.

I wonder how APT operates. I guess it is not too different from a well funded Corporate red team, but the stake is higher and the opponents have almost unlimited amount of resources.

Do we have any probe into the state-sponsored APT world? I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't any, but would like to know.

I don't think it has anything to do with Confucian though. In the Confucian world, or, rather, the Confucian world crafted by and for the Ancient Chinese scholar-officials, people who have a technical mind were bluntly looked down.

I guess I'm just not a family person. I don't have too much to complain about my family but I don't (net) gain much. Of course I'm as responsible as your usual parents on the street so I don't want to get rid of my family.

I measure productivity by measuring the effective amount of time spent on things I truly care about. I should probably clarify, but "project" isn't always a coding project. For example I also want to study General Relativity and that's a project for me too.

But I would say that most of the human interactions (small talk with strangers, with colleagues, etc.) doesn't bring meaning to my life, although I'm married and has a kid.

Yeah. Money is something that doesn't necessarily bring you happiness, but lack of which would almost surely bring sorrow. I heard some people can live happily without money, but I don't know any of them.

But would you work for an NGO if you don't have the savings from the 200K job? Maybe it's just me, but I never feel safe without the FU money, especially under this market.

BTW getting 100+K working for an NGO is fantastic! I thought they mostly just pay for meagre money. I only earn some 130K and would definitely love to switch to an NGO job with lower pay.

I think it really depends on what people want. Some people want meeting others in hostels and that's perfectly fine. But I'd still say for the majority of us getting the FU money early has tremendous advantage.

But I agree there is beauty in what you said.

Maybe, or maybe not. Now that I think about it, it's difficult to say. But let's say I would rather get rid of work than family, and I don't want to get rid of both.

BTW changing job is still a lot easier than changing family :)

Yup. My advice to young people is -- if you can't figure out what to do in life, make more $$. With enough $$ you will have a world of time to ponder what to do.

I also regret that I gave up a FAANG level opportunity because my faily doesn't want me to go to another city. I would hit well over 200K TC by now -- a very comfortable salary in Canada.

Exactly. I have thought about it for a while, I think I have to get rid of work or family to be substantially happier. Apparently getting rid of family is morally wrong, so the only option is to get rid of work, somehow, anyhow.

I fully understand why people buy lottery tickets. Hope beats probability on every single instance. I, a Master of Statistics graduates, buy them too.

This is an interesting way of reflecting on one's life.

I have calculated my ROL (Rest.Of.Life i.e. before been garbage collected) productive hours (hours dedicated to side projects) in a similar way, and the result panics me.

Assume that I still have 37 years before been garbage collected, and 35 years before cognitive degeneration:

Starting from today:

[Time-frame 1]:

I have 200 days before kid goes to primary school. That's roughly 56 days of weekends and 144 days of workdays. For each weekend day, I'd assume an average of 2.5 hours of productivity towards my side projects (I do have more but some are dedicated to gaming and light reading). For each workday, I'd assume an average of 1 hour (usually it is a burst of 2-3 hours for 2-3 days followed by 0 hours for 3-4 days). So this gives me 562.5 + 1441 = 284 hours.

I think this is a generous estimation because I'm struggling with minor depression from time to time, and TBH I hate my work, so I lose a day if either flares up.

[Time-frame 2]:

Kid is going to spend roughly 6 years in primary school. He is going to get friends and gradually gives me more time if he chooses so. However, I'll probably spend more time checking his assignments, talking to him, and introducing him to some hobbies in hope he can find his passion as early as possible. I read "iWoz" and would like to influence my kid as his father influenced him. The upside is -- I can work on my hobby while educating him by just doing it. Downside of primary years is that he is going to weekend classes and clubs so those will take away my time too.

I'd give myself the same 2 hours every weekend day, and 1.5 hours every working day. Let's take 250 working days and 115 non-working days (weekends + holidays). This gives 2501.5 + 1152 = 605 hours each year, and 3,630 hours for 6 years.

[Time-frame 3]:

Kid is going to spend 5 years in secondary school. Judging from my own experience, he is going to gradually leave his parents alone, rebel against them, and stay much more time with their friends. I don't really know about my employment at the time, but let's assume I'm still working a corporation cog.

I'd give myself 3.5 hours every weekend day, and the same 1.5 hours every working day. This gives 2501.5 + 1153.5 = 777.5 hours per year, and 3880 (rounded down) hours for 5 years.

[Time-frame 4]:

Kid is either going to a college or a technical school. Either way, we will probably rent him a condo close to where he studies. I'll also probably go into consulting if possible, or at least take some long breaks during this time frame. If I want to learn General Relativity, this is probably the last chance. I don't think I'm as lucky as those who still possesses a sharp mind in their 70s, so 10 years between 50s and 60s is my best shot.

I'd give myself 5 hours every weekend day, and maybe 2.5 hours every working day. This gives 2502.5 + 1155 = 1,300 hours per year. But I'd be in my mid-50s so this is probably an overestimate. I'll round it down aggressively to 1,000 hours. I can keep the same schedule for 5 years, so 5,000 hours for 5 years.

[Time-frame 5]:

I'm not sure what my cognitive ability looks like in my 60s. I'll have a lot of time, like, 10 hours every day because I don't want to work after 60. So that gives me 3,650 hours per year, and 36,500 until I'm 70, at which point I believe I wouldn't be able to pursuit serious academic or technical objectives. I know, I know, many people can still do it, but I don't think I can do it. I doubt I can work on side projects more than 5 hours per day, so I need to cut down that number at least half, to 18,000 hours. Probably more TBH.

[Time-frame 6]:

70 till garbage collected. It's going to be mostly volunteering work or looking after grandchildren or travelling with my wife, so 0 hour.

[Conclusion]:

Overall, if my mental health and physical health is good enough, my calculation is that I can put 30,000 hours into my side projects. That is, I have to be very lucky to get this number. No mental issues, no heart issues, kid doesn't cause any issues, wife is healthy, etc. In reality, probably a half or two thirds are more realistic.

Isn't that scary? There is so much to learn, yet so little time.

Yeah, 100%. Large successful FOSS eventually needs someone like Linus who can just brush away arguments that can bog down the project. It's almost like a military operation -- armies need to move forward instead of bogging down. And in the case of Linux that's perhaps even more true, because the world literally runs on it.

I don't agree with Linus all the time (mostly because I don't have the technical knowledge to agree with), but I 100% agree to his attitude. I hope other large FOSS project maintainers have the same mindset.

Maybe they can both demand a different backdoor so their adversaries don't even need to ask for one. /s

Yeah, I agree. Maybe that's why I'm not doing great work -- I simply don't care about users. But again, you don't have to care about all users. You only need to care about the ones that have the same mindset. That's why I think working in smaller communities is better. Asahi Linux and Rust in Linux are the worst projects in that perspective because they both try to touch too many users.

But again, maybe they can hire someone like me, whose sole job is to block the very worst entitled users.

> primarily due to the very large fraction of entitled users

I think anyone working in serious open source projects just need to learn to ignore those users. I definitely would have the attitude of "I'm perfectly fine if no one uses my product" and have a lot of fun banning entitled users left and right.

Thanks. I guess I have the awareness but don't have the medicine. I feel that everything with kids is pretty random, and humans don't do well without formulas. Honestly, my whole life is pretty random lol.

> This psychological defeat is what keeps you up at night.

I totally agree. I'm a bad programmer who knows little about lower level systems. And it is exactly the thought of "I need to get to the bottom of things" that kept me burning candles after my son went to bed.

But humans are fragile. I wish I were a machine who could just turn on/off with a flip of a switch. Human emotions, good or bad, mostly impede my progression. If I quaff a coffee, I get excited, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can tune into production mode immediately. If I have a depression/anxiety session, it usually wasted that whole day. I guess only the passion part works to some sort.

I look up to people like John Carmack, David Cutler, Tom West and Fabrice Bellard who can design, implement and debug complex systems, given it in hardware or software, or both. I admire most not their technical prowess, but their seemingly emotionless devotion to their objectives.

> Mediocrity is directionless

I can relate to it too. Or maybe it's better to say -- you are mediocre BECAUSE you are directionless. I dabbed into many things, but never drilled deep enough to grow that into a career, or even a serious hobby. I think it's mostly in the Gene, given I have always been like this for the last 40 or so years. I could recall my 5-year old version sitting there, impatient with a construction toy. And when I look at my kid I immediately identify this deficiency. I feel sorry for him because I don't really know how to deal with it myself, let alone guide him through. I might find him a therapist if he goes down into this dark alley for too long.

I feel that was a piece of history very much worthy talking about, plus it is very inspirational for younger engineers who want to be real engineers.

I for one look up to people who can design, implement and debug complex systems, especially computers components and low level computer software.

Just get a job since you are already senior. You can learn it on the job. Find a few tutorials if you must, but people should be able to pick it up in a few weeks for basic work.

As a parent, I think it's just taking choices. There is no absolute win for either end, just gives and takes. When the dust falls we can just hope that we get a bit more takes than gives. Most of us just walk on ice and skate to wherever fate takes us.

We just need to make sure that we never fight directly with another regional power, e.g. China or Russia. IMO, neither of them wants a fight with the US too, because you don't want to push a super power to the corner, EVEN if you think you are good enough to win.

In the mean time, the situation in EU and Asia is going to deteriorate and North America can absorb more talents as it sees fit. The last two times it was mostly EU but this time Asia might be the new talent pool we can draw from.

Maybe that's how US is going to have enough STEM talents -- just like WWI and WWII, take as many talents as possible when the other parts of the world are in shit.

Huge amount of inflow H-1Bs. I'm just joking.

Does Australia ask manufacturers to setup factories locally? I always think it's a good idea for employment and perhaps technology transfer. I don't know why Canada is not doing that. Getting a couple of big car factories could be huge for the locals. That's thousands and thousands of employment.

IMO the US really needs to do some house cleaning before anything real gets done. You can't expect the hand to cut itself out. I'm not sure if Trump could do that, TBH. He didn't have a lot of support in Military-Intelligence.

The ghost cities are more likely to be cities previously built for mining and other activities that were gradually abandoned by young generations throughout the years. Zhengzhou should be (relatively) fine as a provincial capital as well as a railway center but I'm sure there might be a few high rising abandoned buildings here and there.

It depends on where you are. Metropolitans and provincial capitals are expensive, but some smaller cities are cheaper. But then the public service is worse and you kinda want to live closer to bigger cities. I don't know how much $$ you are talking about, but it's easy to figure that out if you can give me a city in mind and I can check the cost for you.