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smprk

65 karma · joined September 17, 2012

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smprk··on WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities
I believe a better policy is to have a completely transparent system between apps/services, where a user can check what is being shared, and when.
smprk··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2017)
This is awesome, thanks for sharing!

So I just applied via your careers site which was powered by smartrecruiters.com .. I was also thinking of reaching out to employees and then apply through their referral, so that they can get referral bonuses if any, and it would be nicer for me as well to track the progress by talking to a fellow developer. / Would you recommend I still do that? I would love to if you are down for it.

smprk··on India floats the idea of a universal basic income
I agree with the second part of this exceprt from the article, first having already been taken care of -- It will take time before 1.3bn Indians receive such a transfer. Keen as Mr Subramanian is, he concludes that UBI is “a powerful idea whose time even if not ripe for implementation is ripe for serious discussion.”
smprk··on Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
Very helpful words from someone who has been there and done it. I am not sure if distribution woes are as bad as I hear they are. With transparent platforms like https://studios.amazon.com/ it seems to me (from far) that ease of distribution is at its best too. I don't think it is still easy, but is it not easier than it was say 10-20 years ago?
smprk··on Notifications for targeted attacks
It is a welcome move if facebook wants to be a true social platform, and increase its acceptance within me than rejection. But this particular change must come with a degree of transparency, which is required IMO to address your humorous but serious comment, and address larger value of this move.

    - How would facebook detect nation-state attacks?
    - How do we make the policy around it participative and open?
    - Etc.
smprk··on Why Red Hat Acquired Ansible
Congratulations, and thanks for making a simple automation tool that I have come to love!

You guys definitely were very active in the community. Enough for the likes of me to also become an active tweet-er. I was pretty excited when @tybstar (Tim Gerla), Ansible's co-founder, chimed in once. I hope you guys share some chunk of the sale with him too! ;)

smprk··on Show HN: Free Company Logo API
Biggest fan of working on paper, to the extent of carrying a clipboard in my laptop bag all the time. Along with other gadgets.

I wouldn't pay for something like that either. I was suggesting it be offered for free, like gravtaar.

smprk··on Show HN: Free Company Logo API
Instead of relying on FB, Twitter, Company's site for the logo, wouldn't it be better to create a "Company Logo Service" with an API, with the below features -

0. Change at one place, make it work everywhere. (consistent branding across the wild web).

1. Upload your company logo here with us.

2. Multiple versions.

3. Multiple sizes.

4. Control and Connect various sizes, versions with your various social accounts, newsletters, anything.

5. IFTTT support.

6. Get it printed on swag and merchandise.

7. More...?

smprk··on Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?
And one of the best ones from Rumi

  What you seek is seeking you
  - Rumi
smprk··on Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?
I love many poets and poetry.Two that I would like to share with HN commuity at this time would be - Rumi and Gulzar

Rumi said things like

  Forget safety.
  Live where you fear to live.
  Destroy your reputation.
  Be notorious.
Rumi: Meet you there

  Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
  there is a field.I 'll meet you there.
Rumi: Silence

  There is a way between voice and presence
  where information flows.
  In disciplined silence it opens.
  With wandering talk it closes.
Gulzar: Dil toh bachcha hai ji

  (hindi) Dil toh bachcha hai ji

  (english) Heart is such a child
Gulzar: Your name

  (hindi)
  Nazm uljhi hui hai seene mein
  misare atke hue hain hothon par
  udate phirte hain titaliyon ki tarah
  lafz kaagaz pe baithate hi nahin
  kab se baithaa hun main jaanam
  saade kaagaz pe likh ke naam tera
  bas tera naam hi mukammal hai
  isse behtar bhi nazm kyaa hogi

  (english)
  A poem is entangled in my heart.
  lines are stuck on my lips.
  Fluttering like butterflies,
  words refuse to settle on paper.
  I have labored
  for hours my darling,
  writing your name on this blank sheet of paper.
  Your name itself suffices;
  What other poem can excel that ?

Rumi - http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Rumi

Gulzar - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10289313-selected-poems

smprk··on Ask HN: Which AWS SDK (ruby, node, php, etc) to use? And why? If all are new
You are right that the choice should depend on what gets the job done best and not on what we would like the team to pick up. I assumed all the AWS SDKs were at par when it came to helping us do what we want done.
smprk··on What should a self-taught programmer study?
I would recommend very simple things really -

1. For Data Structures and Algorithms.

- Join this site where active job seekers hang around and share interview questions - http://www.careercup.com

- Solve a question a day and post your solutions, read through that of others and comment.

- This is an active community so you would get up and running with the basics quite fast.

2. For Design Patterns.

- Do a "light reading" of this book - http://www.uml.org.cn/c%2B%2B/pdf/DesignPatterns.pdf

- Explore opensource projects and see if you can identify patterns.

smprk··on How we got read access on Google’s production servers
Very interesting in deed. There is a auto driver in India (a taxi like vehicle) who uses the same pricing model for his services - http://www.thebetterindia.com/4813/tbi-heroes-ahmedabad-no-r...

Nice to know about such things :-)

smprk··on Propose HN: Screenshot Saturday
I would talk to services like the below to partner with them as an extra feature for their customers to improve their apps and sites UX and targeting. * http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ * https://www.optimizely.com/

I would also try partnering with specialized cloud hosting solutions like * https://www.heroku.com/ * http://www.acquia.com/ * https://www.getpantheon.com/

Unless you are seeing keen interest from people willing to pay for this directly in its current form, where I would research and learn how website or app optimization platforms market themselves.

smprk··on Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave
You should definitely follow the advice of getting a legal counsel and dealing with the issue now as opposed to later.

Also, you should

1. Clear your thoughts around what you want for your company at this point in time, in the near future, and in the long run.

2. Understand what role you envision yourself and your fellow co-founder playing in the above scheme of things.

3. With thoughts around these two areas cleared up, you should sit and talk about this with your co-founder at the earliest.

smprk··on How Japan Copied American Culture and Made it Better
The only other country I have been to outside of my own country, is America. And I must say I loved the people and the culture there.

If you look at all the small differences between way of life in America and different parts of the world, you will start appreciating all cultures for what niceties they offer.

Do try it :-)

smprk··on Some young adults disconnecting with 'dumbphones'
What are the 4-5 top apps that you use on your smartphone and what % of time usage does that make?

Currently the only apps I use (99% of the time) on my smartphone are - * Contacts, * Camera, * Email, * Maps. In that order.

Confession:

When smartphones had just hit the scene, I would stuff mine with new and shiny apps all night long, but in the long run, none of them stuck around.

smprk··on Engineers Allege Hiring Collusion in Silicon Valley
Wouldn't a better idea than putting up a 'no poaching' kind of exit barrier be to give 'bonus every X period of time' kind of incentive, for employees you value and would like to retain?

I wonder if in the world of technology it makes sense to retain a demotivated employee?

smprk··on Butterfly: Your everyday terminal in your web browser
Your comments led me to discover Figlet (http://www.figlet.org) and ASCII art generator (http://patorjk.com/software/taag).

Weekend customization times! :-)

smprk··on "Free-to-play" misleading advertising in Europe
Hm. I see the good intent of protection against 'unwitting purchases' BUT still do not welcome the government intervention here. Governments have a tendency to work on 'soft targets' like software / app development. I would like to see them work first on unwitting charges/terms-and-conditions imposed by credit card or insurance companies.

The order of priority just feels wrong.

smprk··on How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
I find there is a common theme in the ZenHabit's post we are all commenting on, PG's post that you have shared, and many other things I have read about procrastination. All these readings take me back to the fun and simplified explanation of procrastination posted here on quora - http://qr.ae/h6VWJ