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michaelhoffman

5,334 karma · joined December 13, 2011

https://hoffmanlab.org/

https://twitter.com/michaelhoffman

https://github.com/michaelmhoffman

https://hnbadges.netlify.app/?user=michaelhoffman

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michaelhoffman··on Is Cloudflare Safe Yet
That is the case with all VPNs, but that is not commonly understood by people without technical expertise who have heard that a VPN will increase their security.
michaelhoffman··on How to Avoid the Assignment Statement (2010)

    #!/usr/bin/env python3
    from functools import reduce
    from typing import List, Optional
    
    def min_pair(min: Optional[int], val: Optional[int]) -> Optional[int]:
        if min is None or val < min:
            return val
        else
            return min
    
    def min(foo: List[int]) -> Optional[int]:
        return reduce(min_pair, foo)
michaelhoffman··on The importance of transparency and reproducibility in AI research
I am one of the authors of this paper. Additional commentary in this Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/michaelhoffman/status/123734946911858689...

michaelhoffman··on Requirements volatility is the core problem of software engineering
There are checkpoints in civil engineering projects that can't be passed without a professional engineer affixing their official seal to a document. If you are a professional engineer and you are found to have done this improperly you will lose your license, which is way worse than being fired because you won't be able to get a job anywhere else either. And civil engineers are indoctrinated into their field's ethics culture with lots of reminders of how many people died when current practices were not followed.

If a firm is found to have inappropriately (for example, pressuring a professional engineer to affix their seal inappropriately) they will lose their certificate of authorization and then not be able to do any engineering work.

michaelhoffman··on Scaling Bitbucket’s Database
Same here. I don't love that they aren't going to support Mercurial anymore. But deleting all our existing projects without providing a path for us to migrate or archive? I can't trust them anymore.
michaelhoffman··on Apple store workers should be paid for time waiting to be searched, court rules
Apple argues that it's not required because you aren't required to be searched, it's only if an employee freely chooses to use the ~~~privilege~~~ of taking your personal items to work that they are searched. You can always come to work with nothing and not be searched.

I think this argument is BS and it looks like so did the California Supreme Court. Apple argues that this choice is of benefit only to the employees but without it I think they'd have a much harder time keeping employees.

michaelhoffman··on Time.gov was upgraded today
The launch of Sputnik 1 by the USSR was the single most important driver of U.S. developing its own space activities. Makes sense to commemorate that.
michaelhoffman··on Critical Bluetooth vulnerability in Android
In the UK it is really easy and inexpensive to file a small claim, and there are limits to how much cases on the small claims track can cost you.

https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim

I've done it myself and got paid by an intransigent phone retailer relatively promptly after that point. My lawsuit was about a contractual dispute rather than faulty goods though.

michaelhoffman··on GNU Recutils
It's practical for many use cases where that doesn't matter. Keeping track of your personal book collection is good, your bank's online transaction processing system probably not.
michaelhoffman··on Am I Unique?
The irony in using the "Do Not Track" attribute to track users is delicious.
michaelhoffman··on Time to Stop the ‘Doomsday Clock’. – Lawrence M. Krauss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_M._Krauss
michaelhoffman··on SystemE: A lightweight systemd replacement written in Emacs Lisp
Fun.
michaelhoffman··on Doing Things That Scale
I agree that contributing better defaults upstream definitely scales better than maintaining one's own customized setup. Of course, those in control of upstream don't always agree on what is "better" or what is a priority.
michaelhoffman··on Stripe can make automatic LLCs but a wire transfer from Citi nearly ended me
That's a good idea. Thanks.
michaelhoffman··on Stripe can make automatic LLCs but a wire transfer from Citi nearly ended me
If I could get banks to send me financial statements as PDFs in an email I would sign up in a second.
michaelhoffman··on Stripe can make automatic LLCs but a wire transfer from Citi nearly ended me
It's also so much easier to open an envelope than to deal with a passel of poorly-designed web sites and their poorly-designed authentication systems just to open a statement from each financial institution.
michaelhoffman··on Mercurial’s journey to and reflections on Python 3
The biggest problem with the Python 2 to Python 3 transition was not that breaking changes were made. It’s that breaking changes were made in a way such that you could not easily have code that worked both on Python 2 and Python 3.

It took years before the advent of six, Python 3 u’’ literals, and modernize. The author discusses this at length.

michaelhoffman··on Transputer
I remember seeing these advertised ubiquitously in computer magazines in the late 1980s. Was always a bit curious about them. This Wikipedia link 30 years later is the closest I ever came to interacting with one myself.
michaelhoffman··on Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet
Google had that reputation wayyyyyy before Sundar was CEO.
michaelhoffman··on Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
I can't agree more.
michaelhoffman··on WeWork lays off 2,400 employees
Not everyone can easily find a new job whenever they want.
michaelhoffman··on The Magical Excel 97 Far East Language Build Screwdriver
Office 97 is older than my undergraduate students. That's so weird.
michaelhoffman··on 1984, the Year of the 32-bit Microprocessor (1984)
The ads in this issue for long-forgotten products are amazing.
michaelhoffman··on How SSH Port Became 22
https://dirnagl.com/2014/01/14/otto-warburgs-research-grant/
michaelhoffman··on Canada's Decision To Make Public More Clinical Trial Data Puts Pressure On FDA
Which part of the FDA new drug evaluation process is secret? I have never heard of such a thing.
michaelhoffman··on The Man in Seat Sixty-One
This is an amazing web site. Whenever I want to travel by train anywhere in the world, I always Google for [site:seat61.com <country>] first.
michaelhoffman··on Emacs 26.3
NEWS: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/news/NEWS.26.3
michaelhoffman··on Open Location Code: An Open Source Standard for Addresses
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eiffel+Tower/@48.853909,2....

V75V+8Q Paris, France

michaelhoffman··on Crispr pioneer among University of California researchers boycotting Elsevier
It's amazing how much money you can make taking content provided to you for free, getting academics to review it for free, and then charging outrageous prices to access it.
michaelhoffman··on Two drugs that block cell division synergize to kill tumor cells
Thanks. Would really help if the PR folks would also link to the paper.
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