Hacker News Reader

socrates2016on No one wants yearly Android releases

Google agreed to this carrier model to gain market share against iOS. Google first tried the Apple full control model but couldn't get share that way. Stop blaming just the carriers.

socrates2016on The Housing Market in San Francisco and Ideas to Fix It

Rich people with money vs rich people with property. The poor people have mostly been driven out already. There is plenty of housing for tech workers. The problem is it's not hip enough: bay view, outer mission, outer sunset, outer richmond, portola valley, etc...

socrates2016on AlphaGo beats the world champion Lee Sedol in first of five matches

I think it will be very interesting if Lee Sedol can win one. Humans have different blueprints and environments. Who is to say a human can't become better?

socrates2016on Instagram's Million Dollar Bug

Nerd owns FB and wants to rub it in their face. FB power plays nerd. Nerd publicly pawns FB in retaliation.

socrates2016on Age: It’s All in Your Blood

Supposedly there is a Hong Kong billionaire who has regular blood infusions from a stable of healthy young people he keeps around.

socrates2016on Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

Have a Berkeley math degree. Two observations. Student ratings are whack. I had a professor I thought was really good but had an average rating. I had one fellow student state that he hated the professor. I am pretty sure the professor did nothing to him that deserved that hatred. People don't like it when they don't do as well as they expect. Second, it appears that the math department hires based on research because I had a newly minted professor who was just plain indecipherable.

socrates2016on Inside the sad, expensive failure of Google+

Hmmmm. The way I read it, you and the article are deflecting the blame away from Page and at Gundotra. The buck stops at who is in charge and that is Page.

socrates2016on Woman Knocked Unconscious at Parade by Falling Drone

It's the equivalent of a hit and run. The crime is the run part.

socrates2016on The Lessons Google Ventures Learned from Secret

Not all VCs are in it for sustainable businesses. Same goes for the founders. This is the case for at least one company that Google Ventures invested and made money on. I heard no outcry from Google Ventures when they made money from that business. Hypocrites.

socrates2016on How to live large in a tiny house

That reminds me of the SROs that used to dot the SOMA area before being slowly replaced with high rises. Many of the warehouses in the area are being converted into offices. One room with shared bathrooms and kitchens. Chinatown still has some of this housing as does the Tenderloin. I believe the Tenderloin is losing it fast with all the tech companies moving to the mid Market area. I don't think it's a good long term housing situation because of the tragedy of the commons.

socrates2016on Where Are All the White People in San Francisco Public Schools?

It was this way when I went to school in SF in the 80s. The rich white kids would go to the nicer elementary schools or go to private schools. A few would come back for Lowell High School (magnet high school).

Also this phenomena was well known even back then.

socrates2016on The Terrible Technical Interview

An issue with technical interviews is the shortness of the measurement. Real-life programming occurs over days, weeks, and months. You think about a problem and come up with progressively better solutions while thinking through and understanding tradeoffs. Its more a marathon than a sprint. Technical interviews are like sprints. So its as if you hire runners based on how well they can sprint but then race them in marathons.

socrates2016on $350M Might Not Be Enough to Save Las Vegas

Look at average highs in Las Vegas: http://www.vegas.com/weather/averages.html

June - September is pretty damn hot. I wouldn't want to be caught outside during the day.