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RandomCSGeek

168 karma · joined December 14, 2017

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RandomCSGeek··on Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident
The real problem here is not that the tech is imperfect, I'd actually expect it to be imperfect given it's not been even a decade for this tech. The real problem is that this imperfect tech is on public roads. How do they even get the permission to test drive on public roads?
RandomCSGeek··on Edward Snowden: Facebook is a surveillance company rebranded as 'social media'
Why is this even a subject for discussion? A typical HN user already knows about this, while the general masses don't give a f* about their privacy.

Also, for the most part, FB is not getting your data without your permission(like a surveillance company), rather, it asks you to give it(eg: upload contacts so we could find your friends), or people voluntarily give data to it(eg: uploading selfies, with location and time metadata as bonus).

There are only two things of concern here, 1. How to make more people aware about the privacy implications of their online actions. 2. How to make these firms more responsible for properly protecting the data they have.

Regarding #1, when I told people about myactivity.google.com, at least one person switched to DuckDuckGo(although I don't know if he sticked with it). Attempts to make people switch to Signal have miserably failed, forcing me to use WhatsApp as well. No one ever quit FB though, rather they got deeper into the rabbit hole by using Instagram as well.

Regarding #2, countries should learn from EU and make stronger privacy laws.

RandomCSGeek··on Developer Survey Results
"By default, Git uses whatever you’ve set as your default text editor via one of the shell environment variables VISUAL or EDITOR, or else falls back to the vi editor" --git config guide https://www.git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Confi...
RandomCSGeek··on Ask HN: Best way to learn modern C++?
I would recommend the book C++ Primer, by Stanley Lippman. Also http://www.learncpp.com/. Both are great resources IMHO. You might have to skim over certain topics as you already know C.
RandomCSGeek··on Clang Is Now Used to Build Chrome for Windows
Who are the "we" they refer to in this blog? Are they Google's devs who build chrome, or are they clang's devs? If they are clang's dev, why are they building chrome? I am completely confused on this one.
RandomCSGeek··on Ask HN: What stack would you use to build a CRUD web app in 2018?
I'd like to know what you think of http://jhipster.tech/ . Is it something you'd consider using?
RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
Look what happened in India. The brahmin were once the richest group and at the top of socio-economic ladder. Today, they are the poorest ones, at least in the state of Maharashtra. A major reason being that brahmins don't get job/education reservation or caste based scholarships as many others do.
RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
They should solve the problems, instead of hiding the symptoms. They need to encourage women to enter tech field. This could be done at school level. They could ensure that women don't face harrasement at work. They could help women find jobs after a gap due to childbirth.

Find why women don't take admissions in STEM as much as men do. If there isn't any human-made reason, then let it be. Don't force equal numbers down the throat of deserving candidates.

What is currently going on in the world isn't going to solve the problem of race/gender based problems.

RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
If you have 90% asian male/white male candidates, and 10% women/minority candidates, would you still remove most of asian/white male candidates to bring equality?
RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
In our campus placement, one of my female classmate was asked a single question in a "technical" interview. Which was, "Are you willing to relocate to city x".

I won't make any conclusion as that would get me tons of downvotes.

RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
But if had 90% acid and 10% base in your storage, would you throw away most of the acid to get a neutral solution?
RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
There are two ways to nullify a problem. 1. Solve it 2. Create another problem in equal magnitude and opposite direction.

Unfortunately, most countries/organisations seem to prefer second one, because it's easier and shows effect earlier, although over long period of time, it's going to be the worse one.

RandomCSGeek··on Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired because I resisted “illegal” diversity efforts
One thing I never understand is how people claim to support both equality and pro-minority/anti-majority actions at the same time. It's like saying you support democracy and kim jong un.
RandomCSGeek··on What is happening in the Arctic is now beyond words, so here are the pictures
I think the north eastern India, which has lot of forest cover and is close to Himalayas, might be able to sustain local population. Similarly, the islands which don't submerge my also do fine. But the real problem will be with coastal metros(esp. Mumbai) and with central India. I have quite some friends from central India, and the situation isn't good there. Already, this region receives much less rainfall than the coastal regions, as the two mountain ranges on both coasts block most clouds. Change in weather would very severely affect this region.

https://youtu.be/LJf5JjZjsGI have a look at this video, this region which suffered hailstorm destroying most crops, is supposed to be a somewhat dry region.

RandomCSGeek··on How poverty changes your mindset
This is what happened to me. At some point, I realised that asking for something puts more pressure on my already stressed parents. I actually regretted having demanded few things. At first I forcibly stopped myself from wanting to have things, and eventually the desire simply vanished.
RandomCSGeek··on Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
I'd suggest going through https://www.privacytools.io/#email. These providers won't give your data to NSA or third party companies(or at least this is more likely, than with another provider like google). Given you are asking for some sensitive data, I'd suggest you use one of these, at least for this specific project if you can't make the move completely.
RandomCSGeek··on What is happening in the Arctic is now beyond words, so here are the pictures
AFAIK, the current rate of species extinction is exponentially faster than the previous ones. So "perhaps" might not be a suitable word.
RandomCSGeek··on What is happening in the Arctic is now beyond words, so here are the pictures
Although you are right, note that liquid water expands as it heats. Also, not all ice is floating.
RandomCSGeek··on What is happening in the Arctic is now beyond words, so here are the pictures
A huge part of world's population lives on coastal cities. When cities like Mumbai and Dhaka will start to submerge, you can imagine the havoc that will cause. Also, some countries like maldives will completely submerge. I don't think europeans would be very happy about accepting these people, given the situation that has arisen from Middle eastern migration.

A lot of wildlife requires specific environmental situation. A lot of species won't survive changes in temperature.

Most poor people will have hard time surviving either increased flooding or increased droughts. Where I live(South MH, India), we are already facing drought every other year, and I am preety sure this is going to get worse. Millions live in this area. Where do you think we will move when we don't have water? (clue: look for places with more water)

So in short, huge parts of world either get submerged in sea, suffer from severe droughts/flooding, from desertification, or from the destruction of crops. Without food, water and land, people migrate in large numbers, and thus exert more pressure on those places.

Some experts believe that a war is likely between India and China over water in next decade.

I haven't touched the issue of lack of antibiotics and resurgence of old diseases at all.

RandomCSGeek··on How poverty changes your mindset
During my childhood, my father's most of the income went into repaying loans. Luckily, we had our own house, so we didn't need to worry about getting homeless. But I remember I rarely got to spend money on any kind of "luxury". By luxury, I mean simple stuff like a icecream cone or a baloon.

The effect it had on me is quite wierd. On one hand, I always wish to earn more so as to not have to go through that phase again, while on the other hand, I never care about spending money. Even now that we have more money, I rarely spend on clothes, fancy food, gadgets or whatever that is not necessity. That phase of borderline poverty has made me frugal for life.

RandomCSGeek··on Trump administration cracks down on H-1B visa abuse
As an Indian who suffers from discriminatory policies of Indian government(reservation based on caste, gender and physical disability), if someone offered me an option to move to US(or any other developed country for that matter), but on a salary say 3x less than avg salary of US employee, I'd most likely accept it. The grass looks greener on the other side, and there is hardly anything to lose by trying.

If you really want to stop people from scamming the system, you need to make the system stronger.

RandomCSGeek··on The Practice is not the Performance: Why project-based learning fails
I think the author has confused engineering and science.

For example, for learning Web Development, I'd prefer a project based model where I learn concepts and apply them to my project side by side. This way, although the end result would be mess and likely incomplete, I get to learn a lot from the mistakes and issues that come in the way.

On the other hand, for learning about compilers, a tradional semester-based course, with 2-3 lectures/week, and maybe an coding assignment/week that can be completed in an hour or two would work best. In this case, while I don't have any real project at the end, I do learn the core concepts.

RandomCSGeek··on Signal Foundation
I and a friend signed up for signal a few days ago. I received verification code after few minutes, he received it on next day. Smells like underpowered server to me.
RandomCSGeek··on Flight Sim Company Embeds Malware to Steal Pirates’ Passwords
I don't understand what the use of anti-piracy measures is. Most pirates are those who won't pay for the software anyway. If an AAA game doesn't get cracked, most people would simply get another cracked game and play it.

So companies aren't getting anything from anti-piracy measures. Rather, they are wasting time and money on implementing these measures.

If I were to make a software, I'd keep it DRM free. Maybe I'll give occassional discounts to attract people who won't pay otherwise, but that's it.

RandomCSGeek··on Facebook is pushing its data-tracking Onavo VPN within its main mobile app
VPN has always been marketed as a silver bullet that protects you from all the evil that exists on the Internet. Only if people were little more aware about how it works, they'd not fall prey to such tricks.

That said, as we discuss this of HN, there will be millions out there falling prey to FB.

RandomCSGeek··on Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
The masses generally follow whatever is trendy. People initially followed facebook, and when Whatsapp and Instagram came, they followed them. FB is going through it's natural life cycle, and we will see it desperately trying to survive as it's stats get negative and shares dwindle.

This is problem with any service where users care about userbase. For netflix, userbase is not a concern for users. Hence such services are more likely to survive long term, as long as they keep themselves relevant.

FB, Whatsapp and Instagram however, are destined to die very soon(I'd bet a lifecycle of 2 decades). Users are eventually going to move on.

RandomCSGeek··on Insane drug cocktails in India net drug makers millions and pose global threat
Doctors here(in India) are very corrupt. They'll give you anything as medicine if they get a commission from its sales. Add to that the fact that the overall quality of both education and students in India is very poor(due to reservation), the looming disaster seems inevitable.

I feel bad that we, otherwise peaceful people, have become reason of death for many people.

RandomCSGeek··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2018)
I thought of applying for the Internship but then cancelled my plan after looking at the email address. It shouts "spammy" from start to end.
RandomCSGeek··on Xi: an editor for the next 20 years [video]
They say it's pronounced "Zigh". I am a non-native English speaker, so I am not even going to try to question this.
RandomCSGeek··on Strava heatmap can be used to locate military bases
Hello brother!
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