imroot

I wish that LinkedIn had the ability to disable your profile.

I'm not looking for a job, I'm not looking to connect with recruiters, and I really don't like the ability for one of my exes to publicly see where I'm working so that she can continue to harass me -- on the other hand, My LinkedIn Profile is around eight or nine years old at this point in time, and I've amassed a fair amount of connections, that I'd like to keep should I need to start looking for a job anytime soon. I wish that I could disable it, hiding it from search engines, recruiters, and anyone else who's looking for it, until I'm ready to start looking for a job without deleting every one of my connections and starting over.

Or, you can do what I do -- a barcode scanner near my trash can that scans the UPC codes of everything that I throw away (or recycle) and adds it to my shopping list for the next time that I'm out.

I had a company effectively tell me the same thing -- that taking their job would be disastrous for my hobbies/family ("We work from 10AM until 11PM most days, and later on Friday and Saturday") and then gave me a salary formula that would bring me down to making less than half of what I was currently making.

I politely declined -- and am still getting emails from them once a week saying that they'd love to have me on their team and if I reconsider, please let them know.

I've been on (and managed) both in-house and remote teams. As an employee, I love the flexibility of working for a remote team -- you're more focused on getting the work done versus spending 'x' hours a day in your office or in your cube. On managing a remote team, it emphasized my need to ensure that everyone had a clear understanding of the tasks at hand for that day/week/month and that we were all communicating effectively (We used IRC, VoIP phones with a built in VPN (they could be on the 'network' when plugged into the back of the phone), and google hangouts).

If you add in the fact that I'm basically in rural Appalachia (Eastern Kentucky) and there aren't that many DevOps/Linux SysAdmin jobs for guys out here -- I'm almost forced to be a complete remote resource for most companies. I've been doing a fair amount of interviewing recently -- I've had companies tell me that their engineering staff is completely remote but their DevOps team is an extension of corporate IT and that they need to be in the office for that (um, what?), that I'd be their first remote employee (scary), or that they have a cloud environment and they want a distributed team, but, everyone's in an office somewhere because they don't have enough internal support for a remote workforce.

From a manager's perspective, letting go control of your team is scary: you lose the ability to check in on your employees by walking to their desk, you lose the 'butt in seat' visibility of your team, and you lose the 'over the cubical' conversations. What they don't immediately see is that those same things still exist, and still happen, but in different mediums. Employees will still chat amongst themselves in IRC, managers will still message people or note who is or isn't here based on activity. Giving up that control resulted in a productivity boost for my team -- almost everyone (there was one employee who had an interesting home situation and we had to get him office space to work) was twice as productive at home than they were in the office. We still had our team dynamic -- we'd meet up once a week for dinner and work from a shared working space one afternoon a week -- but we felt closer to one another and understood our goals and targets more.

I'm wondering if the rapid decrease in the number of flights out of CVG might have also caused the security waits -- since Delta left the Cincinnati airport once the Northwest merger was approved, they keep on cutting flights back...

Forge.mil is a mess -- and will probably always be a mess until they ditch Collabnet's SourceForge Enterprise Edition as a platform.

There is code out there that would transform GitLab's Open source edition to use PKI for authentication (I wrote it for an employer and threw it on, ironically enough, github), but, the DOD is set in its ways and I'm sure that CollabNet (and Steel Thread) is trying to milk that contract twenty ways from Sunday.

Most of the labs have moved away from being owned by the public to being owned by corporations (Los Alamos is now owned by a company called LANS -- Los Alamos National Security -- partially owned by the University of California); my friends who have contracted at Los Alamos have mentioned a few times over that non-essential services have been scaled back if not completely cancelled. I'm assuming this is also the case -- if it's not "Core" to the lab, or part of the lab's mission, they're stepping away from it to keep their costs down.

I'm really surprised that neither KPCB or Pao has settled this out of court. It's going to be a nasty airing of dirty laundry across the board by the time this thing is over...

This type of activity isn't limited to major metro cities -- it's happening (with surprisingly frequency) in the midwest. Cincinnat/Hamilton County is notorious for doing this type of thing, but instead of with Methadone, it's with Suboxone; it's a drug that blocks the detoxification effects of heroin.

The police are under pressure to make more Heroin arrests -- so much so that they're targeting people who may or may not have a criminal history and asking them if they know anyone who has some Heroin for sale -- and offering to give them up to $500 if they do. For most residents of Hamilton county, $500 is a fair amount of money....and they always 'know' someone who 'knows' someone who can supply the drug...so they'll say yes (and then get arrested for trafficking).

This really boils down to a lack of good mental health and health care. I have two friends who are struggling with a Heroin addiction -- one fell off of a roof while working, and the other just can't cope with her problems; if we had better and more affordable health care (and while I support the ACA 100%, I still think we need to move to single payer healthcare), I don't think either of them would be addicted to the drug now.

These have been in use for a while -- in 1996/1997, the radio station I worked for had Satellite clocks that we would use to get into and out of baseball and football games -- ideally, our schedules would match a hard break on the clock, and we could just "bump" out of one song and into the program, but, you'd sometimes have to use fill music, the weather, or, anything else you could get your hands on to make the time work.

Even then, almost everything was automated; we had Harris consoles where we could program the 'next' event by hand (and then a button to return control back to the Harris). Today, the sporting events are sending cue tones for commercial breaks and top-of-hour legal ID's, negating the need for some 16 year old kid to be making minimum wage listening to baseball and doing his/her homework at night.

I have a really hard time believing that this will pass constitutional muster if this ever the use of this device ever gets challenged or gets into the court system. One's home is generally sacrosanct -- there are some exceptions, but those are few and far between.

This is something that I've toyed around with a CANbus hacker called CANiTM (which is open source hardware) -- while I have Nationwide Insurance, I did call up Progressive and ask for a snapshot; they sent one to my house, and I was able to save me driving around a farm at reasonable speeds.

I then tweaked the CAN bus parameters a bit -- making the VIN number match the VIN of my current vehicle, and replaying that a few times during the trip so that it would seem like I'm a very patient, slow driver, who drives less than 5 miles a day at 8:30 and at 5:15, monday through Friday, and then sent it back to Progressive at the end of my 30 day trial.

Progressive quoted me an insanely small number for my auto insurance -- probably around $22/month -- which is about half of what Nationwide charges me for the same insurance.

It's my understanding that Progressive now is collecting GPS data with their snapshot tool, so I'm not sure that the same attack/replay would work for their system.

Depending on where you live, that's exactly what happens.

In Kentucky, they'll send (usually) 3 state troopers, and knock on your door. If the person that they want isn't at home, they'll take your word for it, and let you be on your way.

In Ohio, it's usually six or more officers with guns drawn. They'll try to open the doors of the house to gain entry without knocking or announcing their presence. When the person that they're looking for isn't at home, they'll try to find a reason to come inside and search the property looking for that person (and a reason to arrest everyone inside). They'll then circle the house outside for 24-48 hours to intimidate the people inside but eventually give up when they realize that the person doesn't actually live there.

What's really sad is that I was great friends with a member of Law Enforcement until I realized how short-sighted and two-faced he was; the LEO community really breeds an environment of "us versus them" and if you're a defendant (regardless of guilt or innocence), you're a scumbag who deserves to be in jail.

This is something that I am really passionate about.

I have a farm in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky, that I've put a glass studio in part of the unfinished side of my pole barn (I use the other side for electronics assembly, testing, and debugging) that I use for casting the blanks for grinding the mirrors.

I use a High Def projector and a 12MP DSLR camera to identify parts of the mirror that need to be ground down more and then ultimately verify that the curvature of the glass is correct.

There's an observatory about 200 miles away near Columbus, Ohio that can mirrorize the glass (it's a 3 day process), and I usually donate my last telescope to the observatory for letting me use their equipment (and I bring my own supplies).

I've attempted to make my own lenses, but, there's just too much room for error in that process.

Once I have the mirrors and lenses correctly, I've been playing around with NEMA-34 stepper motors and kflop/kstep motor controllers to power my polar object tracking -- there are usually two buttons on the telescope that I use -- one for releasing the steppers and the other for energizing and starting to track -- along with encoders so that I can get an approximation of the night sky.

I love living in the middle of nowhere, in Kentucky for the stars, and my ability to do unique farm tech (temperature and water quality sensors using raspberry pi's and mesh networking, GPS and yield sensors on my tractors, solar powered wifi repeaters to my 'city home' for fast internet).

So, I'm obese. I have no problems admitting that -- at my heaviest, I was 400 pounds, and while I'm nowhere close to the weight that I want to be, I watch my diet, work out every day, and try to live a life that promotes a great body image.

My mom is/was obese -- before she had a lap band installed. My dad is obese. My significant other is/was obese.

Being a 'bigger' person is something that I grew up in, and something that I attribute to being normal.

I didn't realize that being a "bigger" person was a problem until I went off to college and noticed that I was the exception, and not the norm. I only dated bigger women, because that's basically the only type of woman who would date someone who's bigger, and you can begin to see a cycle move forward again.

My SO got a full gastric bypass surgery in 2009 (after we had been through the second round of our post-grad work), and went from 400 pounds down to 150 pounds (for a 6' tall woman). She's been egging me on to get a lap band or bypass, but, I've already dropped a good 100 pounds from my heaviest weight, and will be able to drop the last 100 pounds on my own. My SO no longer has diabetes, heart issues, or anything like that -- other than some vitamin deficiencies, she's a pretty healthy (and stubborn) woman.

I don't think it's a genetic thing -- I think it's an environmental thing; you don't see a lot of chubby kids in a smaller household, and vice versa -- I don't see a lot of skinny/smaller children in a household that has obese or overweight people in it.

This is a little bit different from the accounting 13 month calendar -- an "Adjustment" month that usually falls in the next FY that the accounting/auditors can do adjustments and still have 'true' dates on everything.

Honestly, having another month to pay bills (and you know that nobody's going to pro-rate everything down to 13 months) isn't really appealing right now, nor would the additional overhead of two more payroll cycles.

Logically, it makes sense, though.

About 10 years ago, I dated a woman who worked at a distillery, and they were looking for some software to automate the labeling and shipping process for their bottle and label samples. FedEx just released their API, so, I wrote them a little web based program that generated the label, and then automatically identified which packages were delivered outside of the delivery window so that they could be submitted for refund.

While FedEx had no problem refunding the shipping for the packages that were delivered outside of the window, they raised the distillery's rates dramatically (over 100%) over the next few months. At the time, UPS nor USPS would accept packages from a distillery (regardless of if they were shipping spirits or not), so, I turned off the functionality that sent the 'out of window' reports, and a few months later, the distillery's rates went back down to normal.

Would I use this today? Not at all -- FedEx is really on top of areas where they're going to be delivering late and if you have a package or packages going to that area, they're preemptively sending you "Service Alerts" letting you know that they're using the weather or other clauses from their terms of service to not honor the guarantee. I haven't shipped UPS in years due to them not wanting to pay on a warranty claim, but my guess is that UPS is probably also doing the similar type of things to their customers as well.

The adjustable frame/movable base for the geekdesk can be found on alibaba for less than $200/shipped. I bought the frame, then went to Lowe's and had a semi-custom countertop made for my frame, and my end cost was around $350.00. Custom geekdesk max, minus the $1000+ price tag.

From a licensing point of view, Philadelphia is interesting. The PPA manages the licensing of Taxi and Limo services in Philadelphia, but, outside of the county, it's all the PA Department of Transportation. Pennsylvania constables can work in any area of Pennsylvania once certified, but not in Philadelphia.

Am I surprised by this? Not in the least. It's possible that Uber got an ok by PennDOT and thought that it would be good throughout the state...or, this might be the PPA throwing their weight behind their revenue protection. Regardless by which one it is, I would hope that Uber will protect the drivers who took their advice (then again, independent contractors and the like) and drove.

*edit: grammar/spelling.

Progresses' database is an interesting and very powerful product, but, I'm not sure that this will be beneficial to anyone who isn't really familiar with the verticals and integrations that Progress owns. I know that I've seen progress used by running MFP/ERP suites that are used by automotive and manufacturing companies.

I've been a contractor for one of the Big 3 at one point in the early 2000's. I was given a Kia at Enterprise to drive, and when I came out on my first day, it was encased with no less than 300 pallets and shrinkwrap.

Apparently, they forgot to tell me that you shouldn't drive a non-UAW vehicle onto the parking lot.

Enterprise's Roadside Assistance guy was not happy with me when he had to help me pull the pallets away so I could get my vehicle out.

I've putzed around on something very similar to this for performing analytics on terrestrial radio stations and the commercials. Great work, and I love that you've open sourced it...I didn't use python for mine (C++), but, python allows for a much easier barrier to entry versus my spaghetti code :)

I worked at Eucalyptus for a few months in 2010.

From my point of view, the biggest pain points were:

- Below market salary, even for Santa Barbara.

- Seven Ph.D's running development seven different ways, leading to:

- Many Silos between departments, development, and delivery.

Even with all of that said, they were an amazing company to work for and had an amazing team of software developers, sales folks, and support team. I remember one day that Marten came in after Enterprise gave him a very nice Audi Convertible as a rental and he threw his keys in the middle of the engineering fishbowl telling the developers to take it out for a spin.

I believe I was employee 35-ish. I know that a few of the founders had plans to get sports jerseys made when they hit 50 employees with numbers 1-50 on the back.

Congrats to the team.

I go to a doctor who always takes his own blood pressure readings. He also goes over every word that the nurse has charted, to make sure that he's not missing anything.

I have moved a few times, and I now happily make the two+ hour journey to see this doctor every time I need anything routine or that my major-city's doctor has a 2+ week waiting list.

This is in sharp contrast to last night, where my significant other visited the emergency room and the doctor came in and asked us why she weren't taking the medicine that our a doctor wrote for her on Wednesday. The kicker: she hadn't been to the doctor on Wednesday -- he completely screwed up everything, and then refused to see her again for the rest of the night, basically, making the OB/GYN nurse come down after surgery to talk to her and then the nurses.

My Small town doctor that I drive two+ hours for is much more amazing, happier, and gives me better care than my Cincinnati doctor. I can say the same about the dentists, and opticians that I've visited in Cincinnati as well.

My neurologist is relatively old-school -- he uses an EMR in the room to order scripts and lab works, however, he uses his time with me talking to me, and then enters records into his EMR in between appointments.

As such, I prefer visiting this guy (an older gentleman) versus a young, fresh out of school neuro in the same office, even though it's much, much easier for me to get into the younger neuro than my guy.

I [semi-foolishly] graduated from law school in 2008. I was fortunate, as an employer paid for the cost of my law degree (and for my bar exam), and then laid me off in 2010 due to the economy tanking (and forgave all of my debt).

Since graduating, most of my friends (including myself) have all moved to careers where the law is not the primary driver; most are saddled with a mountain of debt, make between 40 and 80K/year (most first year law grads make less than 60K in their first year).

People think that lawyers are glamorous, due to the fictionalization of their career (law and order). You have attorneys who are either left or right wing whackjobs (I went to law school with a woman who was only going to law school so that she could overturn Roe v. Wade) who have no sense going into law, let alone practicing with clients.

I'm much happier as a programmer/nerd. Even with being on call, I still sleep much much better at night. I'll still do legal things (contract law, estate planning, and not giving legal advice to drunk people), but, I never call myself an attorney and I rarely admit that I'm a lawyer to anyone outside of my friends and family.

With that said, Law school is something that plays on the dreams of these kids. They're saddled with debt from undergrad and post-grad, thinking that they're going to be the next Erin Brokovich or Jack McCoy. My friends joke that Law School made them better drinkers, better readers, and that their 6-figure student loan debts came with a great group of friends. Sadly, that's where most kids come out of law school with these days -- a drinking problem, a mountain of debt, and nowhere to go.

The Victory Solution/Realtech - Cincinnati, Ohio (REMOTE OK)

Realtech provides solutions to help loan officers and mortgage companies foster great relationships with Real estate agents so that the mortgage companies can grow their purchase business. We do this by offering a suite of tools that the Real Estate professionals can use at no cost or a trivial monthly cost (under $7) that will help them market their listings in today's digital age.

We're growing, cash flow positive, and bootstrapped.

I have the following positions open:

Junior Developer (Python/PHP)

Junior System Administrator (Linux/AWS)

UI/UX Developer

Relaxed atmosphere. Catered lunch every day. Membership to a hacker/maker space, 100% covered health/dental/vision for you, and we pay 85% of your family's coverage. Choice of Mac or PC.

Please send a resume to ian@thevictorysolution.com, and let me know that you noticed my posting on HN. You can also find me on freenode as iwilson if you'd like to chat about the position or the company.

That's not completely true.

I have personal knowledge of a Children's Hospital taking the home of the parents of a 13 month old infant who received a liver transplant and had ran up at 3 million dollar bill in the hospital.

A little backstory -- I love to volunteer. Fire/EMS, STEM, Kids, you name it, if it's a cause that I support, I'll generally be there with a bell if I've got the free time. One of my non profits that I do a fair amount of technical and 'feel-good' work is a foundation that caters to small children who have terminal or other serious illnesses and helps their family out.

One night in 2013, a rather distraught woman came in saying that Children's had placed a lien on her home because of the unpaid medical bills; apparently, they had moved, civil service sucks in Ohio, and had a default judgement against them. New collections company comes in, finds this family, and then places a lien on her homes, car, and gets a court order to garnish their bank account.

Ultimately, it took a pro-bono attorney about 80 hours to get the entire mess cleaned up. Today, the little guy is almost 4 and the family has a clean title on their home and car, and as long as she keeps less than $2K in her checking account at all times and only has the one home and one car, Children's will never come after her for the money that is owed, and in 3 years, they'll wipe away the debt.

The biggest issue that I have with this is that the government regulations are meaningless these days due to lack of code enforcement.

Two great examples: 1.) Staying in Fremont, CA, needing a trip to the San Jose airport at 4:50 in the morning. I had a cab 'scheduled' but a few drivers didn't show up, and they didn't bother calling me to let me know that they were not going to show up. The dispatcher didn't speak english well and didn't understand the questions that I asked. If I had instant feedback that nobody was coming, I would have made alternate plans the minute that I knew nobody was going to pick me up. 2.) In Chicago for a business trip. I generally don't carry cash, but, needed a ride from point a to point b. Taxi driver's sticker said he took credit cards, but his machine was 'down.' A "standoff" of sorts occurred between me, the taxi driver, and Chicago PD; ultimately, after the police harassing him (and reminding him that a working credit card reader was required in the city), he reluctantly ran my credit card and let me out of his car.

It's unfair that the Taxi companies skirt these rules too -- Uber and Lyft just give their ecosystems a quicker way to get ride of bad actors and focus on customer service, where the Taxi companies are focused on keeping the medallion owners happy.

"The data are from Netflix."

Really, Washington Post?!