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just_myles

120 karma · joined September 28, 2018

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just_myles··on Police across Canada are using predictive policing algorithms, report finds
Of course understanding that this is Canada: I don't recommend this kind of approach. It might solve the immediate problem but, does not address the cause. Having police visibility during "peak" times will resolve the issue of crime in a specific area and time but, will not solve the crime from not happening somewhere else. Also, I don't know who is working on these reports and whether or not they apply their own biases. The US already has an issue with over policing. This would definitely exacerbate it.
just_myles··on A Message to Our Users
I'm in complete agreement here. Their response is appropriate given the challenges that they face. No team ever thinks they are going to get that kind of migration to their platform the way zoom has received. Good for them.
just_myles··on Yes, I am still learning Rust
We are all always learning. I am all over the place from java, shell, awk, python, and now I'm playing with Go and I kind of like it but can't find the time to actually make something useful so I can learn from it.
just_myles··on What's so hard about PDF text extraction?
I remember writing one of my first parsers was for a pdf and I had to employ a similar methodology where I had to rely on regex and "positionally-aware fixed-length" formatting rules. I would literally chunk specific groups by the number of spaces they contained lol. I had to do very little manual intervention but, damn it all, it worked :D .
just_myles··on What's so hard about PDF text extraction?
I can cosign on this methodology. I used to work in an organization that used to build pdfs for accounting and licensing documentation. I used a proprietary tool (Planetpress :( ) to generate the documents using metadata from a separate input file (csv or xml) to determine what column maps to what field.

Good thing about this was as you have already outlined: It allowed for some flexibility in what was acceptable input data. For specific address formats or names we could accept multiple formats as long as they were consistent and in the proper position in the input file.

Regarding renegotiating: We didn't get that far. However, if a customer within our organization was enlisting our expertise and could not produce an acceptable input file, then we would go back to them and explain the format that we require in order to generate the necessary documents. Of course, creating our document through our data pipelines is obviously the better choice, but this was not an option in some cases at the time.

As far as doing the work of creating these documents in a tool like Planetpress is concerned, well, don't use Planetpress. You are better of doing it in your favorite language of choice's libraries tbh. Nothing worse than having to use proprietary code (Presstalk/Postscript.) that you have to learn and never be able to use anywhere.

just_myles··on Why Nvidia’s GeForce Now has become so controversial with game developers
I understand why they pulled their products from this service.

However, the problem I see with this is if they use the same pricing scheme as Google Stadia, most people will have to pay full retail for games that are fairly old that they already own. At least offer those games at a discounted price by verifying ownership.

just_myles··on Ex-MS engineer convicted of 18 felonies after stealing $10M in digital currency
Seconded. Based on my previous jobs working in retail fraud, most retailers are able to track and cancel gift cards when they can confirm them.
just_myles··on An Intuitive Guide to Linear Algebra (2012)
I agree with your post. I had the same problem where match was harder for me to comprehend. It wasn't until I started programming that I started to understand the concept you cite (Functions.).
just_myles··on The worlds worst IoT idea is almost fully funded
I'm sure no one has asked for this(Please don't judge me.). But I would be willing to drop 25 bucks on this not 49 as that is way too high.
just_myles··on Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight
Complete and utter madness. I think they're simply doing this to be contrarian.
just_myles··on MoviePass is shutting down permanently and liquidating in bankruptcy
Same. I saw way more movies than I normally would. I use AMCs service now which is pretty good as well. But you can't beat 10 dollars.
just_myles··on In Bash, when to alias, when to script, and when to write a function?
I use alias for simple day to day things that I have to do.

Simple use cases: alias la='ls -al' alias somefolder='cd blah/blah/blah'

Less typing. Nothing too crazy. What he is doing with more complex features, I wouldn't look to simplify with .bashrc.

just_myles··on Apple lawsuit tests if an employee can plan rival startup while on payroll
I'm really interested in the findings. How can Apple prove any of these claims?
just_myles··on Why Learn Awk? (2016)
I see your point regarding spaces in names. Suppose I could use FILENAME. But I think my point was made.
just_myles··on Why Learn Awk? (2016)
In my defense I did this fairly quickly (Which was the point.) and was not trying to illustrate proper syntax (I mean it does run and does produces an output.).

ls -l | awk '{print $9 "\t" $5}'

That is about as much as i'm willing to do for this.

just_myles··on Why Learn Awk? (2016)
Right. I don't consider that particular exhaustive at all and this has helped me when I wanted to do quick searches.
just_myles··on Why Learn Awk? (2016)
Because syntatically as a language/tool it is super easy to remember. Writing one liners with awk feels more intuitive to me.

Awk example:

ls -l | awk '{print $9, $5}' or ls -lh | awk '{print $9, $5}'

Seems a whole lot simpler. To me. I find if you have to write exhaustive shell scripts then maybe you can look for something more verbose like Perl, I guess.

just_myles··on All the money in the world couldn’t make Kinect happen
I don't know. Seems to me that there is some good technology in there. I think what hurt it ultimately, and forgive me if I am repeating this but, the launch of the xbox one x with the kinect seems to have hurt it more. As I recall there was controversy over "always on" to receive commands from the users that rub the community the wrong way.
just_myles··on Ask HN: Started job 3 months ago...not going as planned
I agree with the above. Try to impact the culture from the ground up. In the meantime try working on new things and share those things with your colleagues who are otherwise not very interested in the job.

If the pay is substantial you should definitely give it another 6 months. I think as workers in general, that we should evaluate the companies and its leaders annually the same way they evaluate us. Hope this helps.

just_myles··on Working for someone vs. doing your own thing
I thought that was a bit odd. If it was for the author's own rationalization and is not trying to convince the audience of a any kind of point, then why is the author publishing this publically? Why can't the author write this out in notepad or on pen and paper(Like I do.) and leave it at that? Vanity?
just_myles··on Toyota will transform 175-acre Japan site into a ‘prototype city of the future’
Definitely not non-existent but can appear that way when you compare it to southern california.
just_myles··on Ring fired employees for watching customer videos
I agree, there should be a legislative intervention here. These devices come out semi-regularly with no regard to security.
just_myles··on How to Exit Vim
I was able to find how to exit vim fairly easily. I do like this though it's quite funny.
just_myles··on Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?
Link doesn't work for me. Interested in any correlation between airpod use and making more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and Shopify combined.... why does that even matter in this case? Do airpods read twitter feeds to you :D ?
just_myles··on Sony Announces Electric Concept Car
Not a fan of those sprawling dashboards. Drivers are distracted enough.
just_myles··on If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads
Well you have the option of not signing in with your facebook account. Good thing about this market is that there are other options out there and presumably more coming in the future.
just_myles··on A podcast that hacks Ring camera owners live
You know, I hadn't thought about that.
just_myles··on College-educated workers are taking over the American factory floor
I find that to be true for myself personally as well.
just_myles··on E-scooter company goes bust after spending big on Facebook ads
You're not wrong. They should have focused those monies on building the actual product first and then shipping it. At that point, once the kickstarter units are built and shipped, grow your business accordingly. To have nothing to show for the efforts is deplorable.
just_myles··on Operations for Effective CEOs
You know I don't normally recommend books I read or have read, but both of these books below really resonate with me:

"The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers": https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+hard+thing+about+hard+things&...

"What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture": https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Do-Who-Are/dp/B07X36GGQ7/ref...

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