McKayDavis

867 karma · joined June 23, 2014

Happy Hacker

McKayDavison Shell Productivity Tips and Tricks

If you're using `bash`, A quick remedy for this is:

  unset HISTFILE
  exit

This prevents `bash` from updating the `~/.bash_history` file on exit with the command you don't want memorialized. (assuming you don't also have some hook that updates your history file after every command)

McKayDavison Carnival Executives Knew They Had a Virus Problem, but Kept the Party Going

Carnival isn't solely to blame for the situation.

Check this story from CNN on Feb 13th titled "Why it's still OK to take a cruise amid the coronavirus outbreak"

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-safety-coronavirus...

McKayDavison Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2020)

Roblox | San Mateo, CA | Full Time | ONSITE (Remote during Shelter In Place)

We are actively hiring and all interviews are currently done via phone & zoom.

Roblox is ushering in the next generation of entertainment, allowing people to imagine, create, and play together in immersive, user-generated worlds. We are recruiting across multiple teams and positions. Our top priority roles are:

Technical Artist: 5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++, Lua, Python and/or JavaScript

Backend Web Engineer: 5+ years’ experience, Fluent in C#, C++, Java, or another OOP language

C++ / Lua Engineer: 3-5 years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with Lua preferred

C++ / UI Engineer: 3-5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with building very complex end user applications

C++ 3D Modeling Engineer: 3-5+ years'; Proficient in C++ (and/or Python); focus on 3D API's

Data Engineer: 3+ years’ experience; Expert with Java and Go; Custom ETL design, implementation and maintenance

Engineering Manager, Developer Tools (3D); 3-5+ years'; Proficient in C++ (and/or Python); focus on growing and mentoring teams

UI Engineer: 2-4+ years experience; Strong Python; Build tools to accelerate the development process for millions of engineers

Please visit https://corp.roblox.com/careers/ to apply, find more information and/or to see our full list of open positions.

McKayDavison Ask HN: Who is hiring right now?

I share your concerns, but it is impossible to predict the future state of the world. Roblox is currently looking for candidates who will be available to work full time on our San Mateo campus when it is safe to do so. We will provide relocation for qualified candidates.

McKayDavison Ask HN: Who is hiring right now?

Roblox | San Mateo, CA | Full Time | ONSITE (Remote during Shelter In Place)

We are actively hiring and all interviews are currently done via phone & zoom.

Roblox is ushering in the next generation of entertainment, allowing people to imagine, create, and play together in immersive, user-generated worlds. We are recruiting across multiple teams and positions. Our top priority roles are:

Technical Artist: 5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++, Lua, Python and/or JavaScript

Backend Web Engineer: 5+ years’ experience, Fluent in C#, C++, Java, or another OOP language

C++ / Lua Engineer: 3-5 years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with Lua preferred

C++ / UI Engineer: 3-5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with building very complex end user applications

C++ 3D Modeling Engineer: 3-5+ years'; Proficient in C++ (and/or Python); focus on 3D API's

Data Engineer: 3+ years’ experience; Expert with Java and Go; Custom ETL design, implementation and maintenance

Engineering Manager, Developer Tools (3D); 3-5+ years'; Proficient in C++ (and/or Python); focus on growing and mentoring teams

UI Engineer: 2-4+ years experience; Strong Python; Build tools to accelerate the development process for millions of engineers

Please visit https://corp.roblox.com/careers/ to apply, find more information and/or to see our full list of open positions.

McKayDavison Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

http://apocalypsethememoir.com/

(from her profile https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chantelles)

McKayDavison Groceries and Delivered Goods Decontamination Station Instructions

It's my understanding that its also necessary to dilute to slow down the evaporation rate. At above 90%, it simply evaporates too quickly to have effect.

McKayDavison Ask HN: Good game tutorials for kids programming

I recommend you take a look at Roblox Studio [1]. My 10yo started out by building simple 3D Obby (obstacle course) games in a manner of minutes with no initial programming. Trough that initial interest he will now modify and even create Lua scripts to perform more complex game actions. The Lua scripting engine + API is simple but at the same time powerful and allows for very complex games.

There is also a quite active Roblox Developer forum [2], and good documentation of their API [3].

I don't push him much, and allow him to learn Lua / programming in gneral at his own pace. The game aspect definitely keeps his interest that I'm not so sure he would otherwise have.

[1] https://roblox.com/create [2] https://devforum.roblox.com [3] https://developer.roblox.com

Disclaimer: I work for Roblox on the Studio team now. This is largely due to my positive experience with Roblox Studio well before I even considered working for the company.

McKayDavison Sourcetrail, interactive source explorer, is now free and open-source

The site seems to be having intermittent connection issues due to the HN hug-of-death. In the meantime here's their Github repo:

https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail

McKayDavison Kim Peek

I recall seeing Kim Peek many times in the old downtown Salt Lake City library in the late 80s. I always saw him camped out at some table near the reference section under the escalators on the main floor. He would usually have a stack of phone books (The White Pages) from around the country and spend hours methodically scanning and memorizing every page.

McKayDavison Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2019)

Roblox | San Mateo, CA | Full Time | ONSITE

Roblox is ushering in the next generation of entertainment, allowing people to imagine, create, and play together in immersive, user-generated worlds. We are recruiting across multiple teams and positions. Our top priority roles are:

- Technical Artist: 5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++, Lua, Python and/or JavaScript

- Backend Web Engineer: 5+ years’ experience, Fluent in C#, C++, Java, or another OOP language

- C++ / Lua Engineer: 3-5 years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with Lua preferred

- C++ / UI Engineer: 3-5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with building very complex end user applications

- Data Engineer: 3+ years’ experience; Expert with Java and Go; Custom ETL design, implementation and maintenance

Please visit https://corp.roblox.com/careers/ to apply, find more information and/or to see our full list of open positions.

McKayDavison Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2019)

Roblox | San Mateo, CA | Full Time | ONSITE

Roblox is ushering in the next generation of entertainment, allowing people to imagine, create, and play together in immersive, user-generated worlds.

We are recruiting across multiple teams and positions. Our top priority roles are:

Technical Artist: 5+ years’ experience; Proficient in C++, Lua, Python and/or JavaScript

Backend Web Engineer: 5+ years’ experience, Fluent in C#, C++, Java, or another OOP language

C++ / Lua Engineer: 3-5 years’ experience; Proficient in C++; Experience with Lua preferred

Data Scientist: 3+ years’ experience; Expert with SQL and Python or R

Please visit https://corp.roblox.com/careers/ to apply, find more information and/or to see our full list of open positions.

McKayDavison A new Einstein cross is discovered

see my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19483785

McKayDavison A new Einstein cross is discovered

WMAP measurements put the age of the universe at ~13.77 billion years, so I was initially perplexed by this part of the article:

> The object acting as a lens turns out to be an elliptical galaxy located at a distance of approximately 7 billion light years (z = 0.556), while the source is at least 20 billion light years away (z = 3.03).

...but I found this explanation in the Wikipedia article on the most distant known galaxy (GN-z11), which is 32 billion light-years away [1]:

> At first glance, the distance of 32 billion light-years (9.8 billion parsecs) might seem impossibly far away in a Universe that is only 13.8 billion (short scale) years old, where a light year is the distance light travels in a year, and where nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. However, because of the expansion of the universe, the distance of 13.4 billion light years traveled by light from GN-z11 to Earth, called the light-travel distance, has expanded to a distance of 32 billion light-years during the 13.4 billion years it took the light to reach us.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GN-z11#Notes

see also:

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_of_the_universe#Meas...

McKayDavison Rudder issue that plagued the Boeing 737 throughout the 1990s

Direct link to Pinto Memo anchor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Cost-benefit_analys...

PDF of Pinto Memo: https://www.autosafety.org/wp-content/uploads/import/phpq3mJ...

Fight Club "recall formula" segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bEkk5GHwg

McKayDavison Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

They previewed Project Hummingbird to do just that:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/googles-flutter-toolkit-go...

McKayDavison New bridge collapses into river in eastern Saskatchewan hours after opening

Google reverse image search found a higher resolution (2472x1930) photo of the collapsed bridge:

https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/984273818587a1353cda1...

I'm not saying it's not new... but it doesn't _look_ new.

McKayDavison MonoPerfCap: Human Performance Capture from Monocular Video

Project page: http://gvv.mpi-inf.mpg.de/projects/wxu/MonoPerfCap/

McKayDavison Tsunami warning ends for B.C. after large earthquake strikes off Alaska

All tsunami warnings and watches were cancelled at 2:12am HST / 3:12am AKST / 4:12am PST / 12:12pm GMT.

There remains a tsunami advisory in effect for South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula.

[1] http://tsunami.gov/events/PAAQ/2018/01/23/p3054t/5/WEAK51/WE...

mirror of [1] https://gist.github.com/mckaydavis/8693d4ae9bb844f8bccef90bd...

McKayDavison Tsunami warning ends for B.C. after large earthquake strikes off Alaska

The Tsunami Watch for Hawaii was cancelled at 1:10am HST.

[1] http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/text.php?id=hawaii.TSUHWX.2018....

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

> But you would be splitting limited supplies among more people, right?

Yes, but Mormon churches generally have well-stocked pantries they use to help local families in need.

> Was the church only meant as a shelter for the blast, and not an actual fallout shelter?

Both. Compared to our house, the church is a stronger building that is much more airtight (in the case of fallout).

As far as actual fallout shelters, there are none -- this is simply the best option within reach.

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

Maybe a bit, but a single broken window pane would be far easier to re-seal and protect from fallout than the literal wind sieve that is my house.

Every window in our house (save two) are the jalousie type common in older homes in Hawaii. [1]

[1] https://modernize.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/jalousie-wi...

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

It definitely depends on a number of variable factors including the size and location of a detonation. Either way, the leeward side would definitely be a higher risk area.

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

It doesn't, except for increasing the odds of being able to gain access.

The church is simply the best structure for blast/fallout protection that is accessible from our house within the flight-time of an ICBM launched towards Hawaii.

That being said, it was comforting to have other families to share concerns with.

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

I had considered that too and breaking a window to gain access was an option.

I'm not a member of the church, but I chose this building specifically as it was most likely to have other people seeking shelter there who also had keys to the building. Indeed, the first family to arrive after us lived a block away and I did verify they do have a key.

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

I live on O'ahu and was holding my phone when the emergency alert came in at 8:07am. I yelled "Oh my God!" and ran to show my wife the message. I've run through this scenario a few times in my head before and I knew every minute was critical -- so I went into action mode immediately. I told my two kids to get dressed now because we were leaving in exactly 1 minute. The reason we were leaving is our house is single-wall wood construction with no sealed windows and no HVAC, which is pretty much the least ideal shelter possible in a nuclear fallout scenario.

The four of us were in the car on the road at ~8:09 and inside the local LDS (Mormon) Church 0.9 miles away at 8:12am. The church building is the nearest concrete structure with sealed windows and interior rooms that I knew I could gain access to. Unfortunately it doesn't have a basement, but very few structures in Hawaii do.

Thankfully, the doors were already open as there was a family inside doing some cleaning. We were the first to arrive and at least a dozen other families showed in the next 10 minutes. We all hunkered in the gym, some crying, some praying, most just in shock. The first glimmer of hope came when I read the first report of the it being a false alarm on Twitter at around 8:23am.

The whole incident was absolutely terrifying and I'm very upset that it even happened. But, we learned some valuable lessons and I'm satisfied with how my family responded to the incident. Overall, my plan was good and was executed about as flawlessly as possible. I realize we need to add a "bug-out bag" of essential items (e.g. medications, cell phone charger, hand-crank radio) that we can grab as we head out.

It most definitely helped that I had considered this scenario before and knew exactly what steps I would take. The one good takeaway is that this event has sparked many similar conversations state-wide (and beyond) of what to do in these situations. Here's hoping these plans never have to be executed again...

McKayDavison What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

This [1] reddit thread has a fitbit graph.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hawaii/comments/7q6hzg/average_card...

McKayDavison Blood Test That Spots Tumor-Derived DNA in Early-Stage Cancers

My super-quick skim of the paper shows that they are indeed using cfDNA. The novelty presented lies in the creation and application of a technique they dub "targeted error correction sequencing" (TEC-Seq).

Figure 2 shows the sequencing error rate reduced from around 1e-4 using conventional NGS to 1e-6 using TEC-Seq.

This increased sensitivity allows for discovery of early cancer at levels that are undetectable using existing cfDNA testing techniques.

McKayDavison Blood Test That Spots Tumor-Derived DNA in Early-Stage Cancers

As the linked article doesn't name the paper, here's a link to it:

Title: Direct detection of early-stage cancers using circulating tumor DNA

Link (no paywall): http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/403/eaan2415

McKayDavison Blood Test That Spots Tumor-Derived DNA in Early-Stage Cancers

I haven't read the referenced study, but I'm sure this is using the same (or very similar) cell free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing techniques currently used clinically for Non Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) to screen for genetic defects such as trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).

NIPT is a non-invasive blood screening test that is quickly becoming the clinical standard of care. Many insurance companies now cover the entire cost of NIPT screening for for at-risk pregnancies (e.g. women of "Advanced Maternal Age" (35yo+)). The debate is moving to whether it should be utilized/covered for average-risk pregnancies as well.

[1] http://capsprenatal.com/about-nipt/

[2] https://www.genomeweb.com/molecular-diagnostics/aetna-wont-c...