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ruffrey

1,519 karma · joined April 23, 2015

Integrating LLMs into insurance software at Applied Systems Inc.

Wrote code and deployed software infrastructure to support sustainable materials science at Genomatica.

Worked a contract building crypto analytics tools at DeFi Pulse.

Developed golang ETL systems at Walt Disney Studios.

Worked on end-to-end encrypted DevOps tooling (secret storage) as employee #1 at EnvKey (YC 2018).

Founding CTO/coder for 2 years at AQUAOSO (techstars 2019), building a water resilient future, open source GIS/Mapping.

Mostly golang, javascript/typescript, and python. Open source contributor where possible.

Mailsac.com founder.

Formerly: Genomatica R&D, DeFi Pulse, Disney/Marvel, envkey (YC), AQUAOSO, (techstars), Digium R&D, Clevertech, VSP Vision, freelance.

GH: ruffrey Tw: ruffrey Em:

jeff at ruffrey

dot com

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ruffrey··on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell
Mailsac.com

Disposable email for quality assurance and dev teams. A long term side project (10+ years). Started with Node.js and mongodb. Grew to golang and Postgres, with several custom micro services.

ruffrey··on Meta, Microsoft, AWS and TomTom launch Overture Foundation for open map data
Esri, garmin and mapbox as well
ruffrey··on White House is pushing ahead research to cool Earth by reflecting back sunlight
It will help, we need these big efforts.

But it won’t reduce ocean acidification via too much CO2.

ruffrey··on ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
Second this. The company I work for had countless issues with this model. Stuck keys, heat, stuck drag and drop, touchpad unclickable at top.
ruffrey··on Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (2020)
There are several models of DVD called “M-DISC” which have gold plating. They are advertised as lasting hundreds of years.
ruffrey··on We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
[deleted]
ruffrey··on Ask HN: Why is Disney+ UX so bad?
I have only used Disney+ on a smart TV and Apple TV. It is on par with any other app on these platforms. I have seen several children work it without any instruction.

Perhaps their UX specialists are focused on non-web platforms?

ruffrey··on Ask HN: What is the best password manager for business use?
EnvKey

Programmer focused, not strictly a password manager. But easy enough to use as one.

ruffrey··on Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil (2011)
Interesting! I have always thought this. R2D2 saves the day so many times across stories and drives change in ways that make Star Wars canon more than any other character.
ruffrey··on Stripe cuts internal valuation by 28%
Stripe did $12B in revenue last year. If the valuation of $95B dropped 28%, that is $68B. That seems like a fair, if not quite low valuation of a fast growing SaaS fintech company with an excellent product.
ruffrey··on My 40-liter backpack travel guide
Now that’s funny, hiding it in worn weight.

You mention multiple use - that’s huge too. Shaving grams everywhere can add up to half a pound if you’re newer. Choosing the lightest of multiple options (lightest base layers, lighter cup, lighter pot) adds up to savings.

ruffrey··on Tech layoffs keep stacking up
I have to continue this train of thought. It is dangerous that people consider layoff as a performance indicator for the employee. It’s just too hard to tell.

I was laid off recently along with many others because an entire experimental project was killed because the market shifted (crypto, I know). Prior to that I’d received top performance marks and had been promoted to team lead. They gave me a great recommendation for the next gig.

It’s as easy to get a low performer who’s on a PIP and employed, as a high performer in a risky company. Hard to tell which one you’re interviewing.

ruffrey··on Show HN: MiniMail – Disposable Email Service for Everyone
Mailsac had been around for 10 years.
ruffrey··on My 40-liter backpack travel guide
A trick from us dirtbag ultralight backpackers - weigh everything with a kitchen scale and track in lighterpack.com
ruffrey··on What workers want: raises that beat inflation
Does inflation affect a highly paid worker the same as an average worker? This feels nuanced. If you consider housing, perhaps it does. BLS/CPI inflation doesn’t include that right? Somebody making $100k may be minimally affected by rising food and goods costs. Somebody making $50k may be very affected. A 1% raise for $100k worker is $1000 which may help food cost. A 2% raise for $50k worker would do the same. Are these hypothetical affects included when thinking about inflation?
ruffrey··on The state finally letting teens sleep in
I recall simply being unable to wake up for first period at 8am most days, in late high school. Waking was painful and nothing felt better than sleep. However at night, despite efforts at good sleep hygiene and consultation from a counselor, i couldn’t get to sleep before 11 or later. My grades and mood suffered greatly, as did the relationship with my poor mother. She battled with me day after day, first thing in the morning, to go to school. The first few years of college I did not schedule any classes before 10am and had effectively perfect attendance. Mood problems faded as soon as high school ended.

Even today, in my 30s, a day or two with poor sleep will make a noticeable mood dip regardless of circumstances.

But as an older adult, I naturally wake up at 6:00 every morning. It was the same for much of my childhood except a few years of high school. So perhaps this was a developmental thing.

ruffrey··on Are AI Becoming Sentient?
It brings to mind a test. Ask the ai to do something unexpected in some way, and do it later (without a prompt).
ruffrey··on Tell HN: Bitwarden does not export attachments in backups
It’s worth taking a glance at other E2EE apps. I’m biased but EnvKey can handle huge content, though file support is in early stages.
ruffrey··on OneTrust lays off 25% Workforce
I’ve recently seen this, but still performance was not the driver. A small company had two teams, a data eng team and a cloud products team. Both very high performing. The economic tide turned and they needed to cut % headcount to survive. Instead of cutting from both teams, they cut the cloud products team and put the idea on hold. This kept the long term play on data intact. They’ll hire full stack later. Yes they could afford to lose people, but not due to individual performance.
ruffrey··on Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits
Many of the Adafruit boards and kits are designed for education and fun.
ruffrey··on List of Worker-Owned Tech Cooperatives Worldwide
I encourage anyone interested in this concept to check out Opolis. I have been happy so far. Seems to be one of the few companies actually making this happen right now.
ruffrey··on Lets talk about blockchains
It’s unfortunate how the entire blockchain ecosystem is overshadowed by overhyped scams and nasty hacks.

There are countless economy-changing experiments happening in the DeFi community. Rebuilding of Wall Street and insurance infrastructure being attempted on chain, where trust and centralization and scams or unfairness are ripe for disruption. Staking assets to provide liquidity pools has resulted in billions coming on chain.

Plenty of people are trying to make a quick buck. Plenty of hacks and bad engineering is happening. Most things don’t need a blockchain. I wish HN community looked deeper though.

ruffrey··on Nexe: Create a single executable out of your Node.js apps
Nexe has been around for a really long time. There have been several approaches to bundling Node apps into single executables. Native Addons always presented a problem. Same with dynamic imports. With better bundlers like weppack, improvements by Electron in cross platform code signing, and Vercel’s approach to executable bundling, I think Nexe has mostly become a second tier tool, right?
ruffrey··on Show HN: Postgres.js – Fastest Full-Featured PostgreSQL Client for Node and Deno
Thanks porsager. Any plans for Knex support?
ruffrey··on Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
Fasting
ruffrey··on Ask HN: Why is there no small Android phone?
https://www.unihertz.com/collections/smartphones/products/je...

Jelly 2 is small and quite usable for its tiny nature.

ruffrey··on Apple’s iPhone has 56% share of the U.S. smartphone market
Typing this from an iPhone SE gen 1. Second battery but otherwise still flawless and up to date.
ruffrey··on Google Search Is Dying
I pay for YouTube premium and haven’t seen an ad the entire time. It’s worth $12 a month to me. Also get music streaming with it.
ruffrey··on Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
For reference, Saturn is about 9-10 AU from the Sun.
ruffrey··on A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
WiFi?
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