was_boring

10-15 minutes is a long time to wait for results, especially when you're asking for feedback. The freeform text box isn't helpful because it lists a bunch of things I should tell it but not _how_ I should tell it.

You can fix both by offering samples, better guidance and structured but unobtrusive input where it matters.

edit... now that I think about the wait time, is there any AI behind it at all? I haven't seen an application of AI that takes this long ever, but have seen ones that push onto mechanical turk (or equivalent) and hope for the best.

I don't think there is a way to change the database without slowing down development. After all, the data is the most valuable thing you have.

Besides that, I tend to follow the same general principals RainforestHQ presented in 2014 https://www.rainforestqa.com/blog/2014-06-27-zero-downtime-d...

I'm literally doing this right now. There are multiple bugs with the implementation, poor quality overall, but all my manager sees is the dollar signs. Somehow, they forgot it's already 2x overdue, still not feature complete, and the good developers we have are burning out trying to make up for their slack.

It's a shame really.

I didn't know about the EoL for Chromebooks. I have one on the list that will reach it next year. Yes, I've had it for ~5 years, but I didn't expect it to just stop receiving updates after a certain period of time. Especially because it is still usable. I even got an older model chromebook because it was the best in the market for the price point at the time. Little did I know I was shooting myself in the foot.

This will make me rethink chromebook purchases in the future. I feel sorry for the people who bought into pixel.

I believe a probationary period is fairly standard in the U.S., even if the candidate doesn't know it. Generally it's a 30/60/90 day plan, feedback from managers, etc. If they don't live up then you start reevaluating fit.

If I got a 2 month severance package after being fired for working for 2 months then I would be ecstatic.

Now does reframing it solve your problem? I'm not sure -- that's a question of how to influence.

If your goal is to move into leadership at the executive level it probably doesn't matter. What matters more is developing your leadership skills, rapid advancement from IC to management and networking.

I work at a small company and have about a dozen engineers under me. When I approach these problems I do this:

Identify where your want to be when you retire. This could range from anywhere between CEO to a fortune 50 company to an individual contributor at a small start up. Next identify attributes of the company or industry that are important to you. There wrong answer.

Next identify where you want to be in 2-5 years, ignoring job titles. This becomes our immediate action plan.

Now see what job titles fit into that at your current position, and develop a checklist to get there.

The meals are intended to be microwaved, but are _starting at_ $7. This puts them at the top end of microwaveable meals. Why do this instead of going to the local bodega and getting something fresher (or at least not microwaved)?

If I'm microwaving something, I'm already expecting it to be chewy, soft, tough, water-filled, and of low quality all around -- so why pay premium?

The value prop when compared to grabbing a microwavable meal at the store and bringing it to the office just doesn't seem to be there.

I'm curious if this violates any laws. Perhaps the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

While disappointing, it's not out of line with other court decisions. At this point, I believe the only function of the police is to execute state violence.

This isn't an engineering failure, but a failure of management. Non-technical management has no clue how expensive it is to properly maintain a system and design it for security when all they can see is an output of a widget. In almost every case, it is non-technical management who decide when work stops not the engineer tasked with building it.

With that being said, the only way change will come is either through government intervention (but they barely understand the internet, so good luck) or through organized labor movements that then codify it into law. However, there is a large anti-union block within technology so that has it's own challenges.

Realistically, nothing will happen within our life time unless there is a crisis that changes the norms or a particularly likable person makes it their life mission.

Why is JavaScript required for ads?

As someone who does hiring, I have a different interpretation. Let's say I'm a rails shop and I'm looking for mid to sr. level candidates and someone has 10 years of experience working on Java 1.4 spring based application. I think to myself "this is great, they are willing to do some grunt work but I need to know they haven't stagnated".

It's the stagnation that leads to lower job offers. You need to convince me that you were a dedicated employee for 10 years (which you are), but you also need to show that you're willing to learn something completely different. This can be a side project (doesn't have to be crazy, but slightly more then just going through the tutorial), certification of some sort, or _something_ that tells me you're not just going to write java-esque rails.

I would even go so far as I prefer people with diverse backgrounds, who are really willing to learn, so that we benefit from mistakes they made at previous employers.

No one is ever "indispensable to the project", and being smart isn't an excuse for being a jerk. Here's how we do it at my company -- you're given a talking to by your manager and a warning, if it continues it starts getting documented and you get fired.

We have a simple rule when hiring -- we don't hire jerks -- and we make that clear during the interview. Generally that self-selects people out and we end up with a team that is productive and cooperative. This is essential when building products, companies, or even coding as all of them are social interactions at their fundamental level.

Note that it requires more then just creating an LLC if you're really trying to do it for protection. The LLC really needs to have its own finances, equipment, etc, or a lawyer can "pierce" it in court.

Exactly. My 3.5 year old could have noticed this (looks at my computer while I'm typing, and loves it somehow) and if they pointed it out I would have said "You're right! Let's fix it. Here you press that key. Great, we fixed it for us, but what about grandma? Should we fix it for her too?"

This would then lead to a kernel patch and they would feel incredibly happy about for as long as they remembered it (little kids love to help in any way).

I have worked with recurring events, and the answer that I've seen is generally both. You have one record which is the "template" and then populate the database out with specific instances to some arbitrary date. Every so often then run a cron to populate further and further out.

I'm convinced most successful programmers can be successful mechanics for the same reason!

Most programmers I know tend to be handy in some way, whether that's fixing their own cars (myself), wood working, or some other skill which requires them to think through problems and work with their hands.

I actually view fixing cars as not only a hobby of mine, but as a fall back career should I ever become bored of software or need some quick cash.

Yes! I did some profiling of it and it took nearly 2 minutes to finish loading, and 30mb of data transfer! All for checking my email.

This is on a fairly decent MacBook pro with 150mb down, living near one of the largest data centers in the world.

mdn: !mdn

wikipedia: !wiki

django: !django

python: !py

All sorts of them for your average developer.

Zestful sounds like a feature of Edamam (https://developer.edamam.com/).

I think the market is not in parsing, but extracting nutrition information.

There are a few ways you can tackle this issue: 1) have the same algorithm for each group, but train separately (so in the end you have two different weights); 2) over-sample the group under represented in the data; 3) make the penalty more severe for guessing wrongly on female then male applicants during training; 4) apply weights to gender encoding; 5) use more then just resumes as data.

This isn't an insurmountable problem, but does require extra work then just "encode, throw it in and see what happens".

Amazon only scrapped the original team, but formed a new one in which diversity is a goal for the output.

I don't see many projects enforcing a line length, and if they do it's generally set much higher (120-150).

But there's shows on TV where you can watch people use the hardest of drugs. I saw one where I watched a couple shoot up, and under them was a text saying one of them had died within weeks of this event.

How is this different then me turning on a sporting event? After all, most of there revenue comes from advertisements and TV deals.

I'm also suspicious of any for profit private education experience, because they do not have any stake in you receiving an education that betters your life.

These code bootcamps should be either non-profit, grant driven, or have a financial stake in any increase in salary you may get.

I see a lot of comments about people are amazed by $3k/mo advertisement spend and most goes towards salary.

I would say they have chosen wisely. HN is a forum for technical startups and people who work in the field. Yet here they are, without spending anything on advertising on the front page.

The blog post was written by the marketing director, and just by being here they are marketing buffer. This is lead gen.

I've been using notion.so for my personal wiki. So far, I really like it. The pricing is a bit steep ($8/mo per user) for team plans though.

Arguably, decreasing human kind's birthrate is a net positive. Even in the absence of that, being a dad, and knowing many dads, we've already made the choice to "disadvantage" ourselves -- and wish we could do it more. What stops us is the fact that we would lose our jobs which disadvantages our kids.

So I say bring on mandatory leave! The vast majority will be much happier.

Speaking of tests that never fail... I've seen contractors hand over code exclaiming they've met the 75% test coverage required by SalesForce's platform but never actually asserting anything.

I would imagine that they have an integration with dozens of providers. It makes sense to spread it out so your business cannot be bullied by any single third party dependency and you can pit them against each other to get favorable terms across the board.