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steffan

613 karma · joined September 12, 2011

hackernews@zerog.net
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steffan··on There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
Cf. Conway’s law [1967]

“…the structure of a designed system mirrors the communication structure of the organization that built it”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

steffan··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2026)
MongoDB | Senior Developer Advocate | REMOTE (Dublin, Ireland) | Full Time

My org is hiring for multiple openings for Senior Developer Advocate roles. We aren't just doing "content." We are the technical "tip of the spear" for MongoDB's largest global accounts.

- The Scale: You'll be solving data architecture and performance bottlenecks at a scale very few engineers ever get to see. - The Impact: It's incredibly rewarding to optimize systems for household-name companies and see the immediate ripple effect. - The Culture: You'll join a tight-knit group of MongoDB experts who actually enjoy collaborating. - The Mix: This is a high-engagement role.

There are multiple open positions:

For significant travel across the UK/Europe (and occasionally Asia) to work face-to-face with devs, balanced with deep-dive technical work. Apply at https://www.mongodb.com/careers/jobs/7241758

For mostly remote, apply at https://www.mongodb.com/careers/jobs/7495485.

If you have 5+ years of experience in consulting/SA/DevRel and want to bypass the recruiter screen, contact Hubert directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hubertnguyen/ or message me directly @mongodb.com

steffan··on Roam 50GB is now Roam 100GB
This is the equivalent of having the previous 50GB base plan and going over by $50 worth of data (an additional 50GB). If you were routinely going 50GB over the 50GB plan, I'd suggest that maybe a 50GB plan wasn't the right plan for you. Under the old plan, 100GB of data would have cost $100. Residential unlimited is $120, so for most users this would seem like an improvement.
steffan··on Ask HN: Is there a easy connector between MongoDB and Postgres?
[I work for MongoDB] For your use case, I would consider just holding all of the data in MongoDB. With an appropriate data model, you'd be able to quickly retrieve the information you need for the initial page display as well as article details.

This isn't to say that there aren't use cases that might be better served by either database or a combination, but for your particular use, you may not be gaining enough to offset the added complexity of using two different databases.

Obv. I'm biased, but I would recommend using MongoDB :)

Here's a reference for some design patterns to consider: https://www.mongodb.com/company/blog/building-with-patterns-...

steffan··on Tire falls off United plane after takeoff from SFO
A plane heading to Japan from SFO would be carrying quite a bit of fuel. It's possible / likely that the takeoff weight would exceed the safe landing weight, requiring circling to burn off fuel or dumping fuel. If they have to get rid of fuel anyway, it might make sense to continue to another airport where they could get a replacement aircraft.
steffan··on Which GPU(s) to Get for Deep Learning
> 6. North American outlets are rated for ~15A * 120V. So roughly 1800W. I can just use one outlet per psu whenever it's under 1800W, right? For simplicity let's also ignore whatever load is on that particular electrical circuit.

You're going to have a bad time with this assumption; typical non-kitchen household circuits in the U.S. are 15A for the circuit. Each outlet is usually limited to 15A, but the circuit breaker serving the entire circuit is almost certainly 15A as well; one outlet at maximum load will not leave capacity for another outlet on the same circuit to be simultaneously drawing maximum amperage.

Typical residential construction would have a 15A circuit for 1-2 rooms, often with a separate circuit for lighting. Some rooms, e.g. kitchens will have 20A circuits, and some houses may have been built with 20A circuits serving more outlets / rooms.

steffan··on What's the simplest way to kill a Delaware C Corp?
You probably shouldn’t be coming to HN for legal advice, which is what you need.

In any case, you’ll need to dissolve the Delaware Corp in Delaware and unregister(?) the California foreign Corp. registration. You almost certainly owe taxes to CA and taxes / fees to Delaware.

I strongly recommend talking to an attorney who specializes in corporate law, at least having a consultation to enumerate the steps necessary.

steffan··on Ask HN: Should customers get free upgrades of my software forever?
This doesn't sound unreasonable to me, especially as a solo developer. I think it's important to make sure your customers understand that they may not be able to download their installer in the future.

Perhaps sending an email reminder _n_ days before expiration of their one year free maintenance and reminding them of that (and perhaps offering an upsell to renew for an additional year of maintenance)

steffan··on NASA’s Webb takes star-filled portrait of Pillars of Creation
Thanks for the correction. I was thinking of images similar to the Hubble Deep Field in which there are an unimaginable number of galaxies.
steffan··on Social engineering dos and don'ts
> ...a more cowardly version of them...

Outside of military / national security or if your agreement with your employer stipulates that you would give up your life before corporate secrets (and you are compensated accordingly) it's not reasonable to characterize cooperating at gunpoint as "cowardly"

steffan··on NASA’s Webb takes star-filled portrait of Pillars of Creation
I think they’re millions of galaxies, which is even more amazing
steffan··on Reverse Engineer’s Perspective on the Boeing 787 ‘51 days’ Directive
To address the second part:

> and yet the plane appears to have no mechanical backup instruments[?]

This is unlikely in a modern aircraft because mechanical instruments to back up e.g., the artificial horizon / attitude indicator or directional gyro (DG) / heading indicator are:

1) Mechanically complex - the attitude indicator and DG make use of gyroscopes which rotate at up to 24,000 RPM along with other mechanisms. They are typically powered by vacuum or electric motors which consume relatively more power (or require vacuum lines and a vacuum pump)

2) Expensive to maintain - see (1) - they need to be serviced somewhat regularly

(3) Heavier than their solid-state counterparts

(4) Have [dramatically] different failure modes - instead of a display going dark, a DG will slowly drift as the gyroscope precesses, giving erroneous values. Same with the artificial horizon. This can lead to catastrophic results under instrument meteorologicalconditions (IMC) where the pilots rely solely on instruments to maintain essential things such as heading and level flight.

(5) Because of (4) they require additional redundancy to ensure instruments can be cross-checked with one another. This compounds (2) and (3)

steffan··on Microsoft Defender tags Office updates as ransomware activity
This could be interpreted as a commentary on annual subscription models
steffan··on Ask HN: How can I secure my AWS instance's SSH access if I have no static IP?
Even if you don’t have a static IP, you can probably restrict to a /24 subnet or maybe /16.

Additionally, you can ensure password access is disabled and use ssh keys along with 2FA.

steffan··on High-powered motorcycle vibrations might impact iPhone camera
No, there's more than enough noise to cause permanent hearing damage.

Obviously higher speeds=higher wind noise; you might be fine < 35mph (~ 55kmh) in a city, but anything above that hearing protection is advisable.

"Measurements of motorcycle riding noise levels vary, but are generally around 85-95 dB at speeds up to 35 mph, climbing to 110-116 dB at 65 mph"

steffan··on How to properly load a dishwasher (2020)
Asko, without question. I've had three (in three different houses) and they've always been fantastic. Current one is rebadged as a Viking. I would definitely buy another one. First one I actually removed and reinstalled in another house. That one lasted over 10 years and is probably still running.
steffan··on 300 Megawatt Tesla battery catches fire
Obligatory: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sa...
steffan··on Why are used cars so expensive right now?
There is: (https://www.universetoday.com/144108/a-brand-new-island-in-t...) it's just somewhat slow by human standards.
steffan··on 'Superager' brains resist the march of time to have memories like 25-year-olds
Other potential benefits notwithstanding, nicotine is most definitely toxic:

https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/96314.htm

https://www.acmt.net/Nicotine.html

steffan··on So you want to build a house more efficiently
Another likely reason is that balloon framing makes use of single studs that extend the height of the structure, with the 2nd floor suspended. The nature of available framing lumber has shifted and it would be likely much more expensive and difficult to obtain satisfactory 16'-20' studs vs. the more common 8' length.
steffan··on Hacker deleted all of NewsBlur’s Mongo data and is now holding the data hostage
(Earlier in the thread I mentioned my affiliation - I am not commenting in any official capacity here)

Sorry about your prior experience. I think early versions assumed a systems knowledge that was at odds with the idea that anyone could just start using a database without any prior database knowledge.

steffan··on Hacker deleted all of NewsBlur’s Mongo data and is now holding the data hostage
Defaults have long been changed to prevent listening on 0.0.0.0 by default; this has been the case since May of 2017, over 4 years ago. In order for this to occur, a user has to explicitly turn on listening on all interfaces.

In conjunction with this, prudence would dictate that you enable authentication as well. In this case, it seems that reliance was placed on Docker to maintain iptables settings to disallow connections from untrusted IPs and that iptables setting was reset.

As always, defense in depth is a good strategy; authentication in addition to firewall rules would have prevented this.

steffan··on Hacker deleted all of NewsBlur’s Mongo data and is now holding the data hostage
Thanks, crazysim
steffan··on Hacker deleted all of NewsBlur’s Mongo data and is now holding the data hostage
Sorry to hear this, jepler - please let me know if there's anything I can do to assist (MongoDB emp. in unofficial capacity). Email in profile

Update: emailed Samuel directly

steffan··on Ask HN: Why Are the Interior Surfaces of Aircraft Painted Green?
Typically the green color is zinc chromate which is used to prevent or reduce corrosion on aluminum parts
steffan··on EC2 Serial Console
My understanding from the post was that it requires a system root account, not ssh. The former implies the latter, but you could (and usually should) disable root ssh access.
steffan··on What if Elon Musk went to Harvard?–The costs of the brain drain
Out of curiosity, if you'd like to share, what were the degrees?
steffan··on Vancouver seaplane company to resume test flights with electric plane
Flying gasoline-engined airplanes is already the default. I suspect it will stay that way until the numbers shift noticeably
steffan··on Vancouver seaplane company to resume test flights with electric plane
The article does point out this:

“And by far the most common reason piston engines quit is because they don’t receive fuel, either due to fuel starvation (the airplane has fuel but it doesn’t make it to the engine) or fuel exhaustion (the airplane truly ran out of it). These two causes account for over one-third of engine failure accidents”

steffan··on Vancouver seaplane company to resume test flights with electric plane
I think you're misinterpreting reports of stall-related incidents as being an engine stall, but the most common accidents are related to 'aerodynamic stall'. Engine stalls are virtually unheard-of.
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