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RhysabOweyn

92 karma · joined September 2, 2021

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RhysabOweyn··on The quiet resurgence of RF engineering
To just get started in RF you need to have a basic understanding of multivariate calculus, circuit analysis (including non-linear devices), systems and signals, electromagnetism, and semiconductor physics.

These are not topics you will just figure out on your own or "on the job".

RhysabOweyn··on College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work
Why are people promoting the idea that exams are not written or given in person anymore? I graduated relatively recently and maybe had 1 take home exam during my entire education. Every other exam was proctored in person and written. The professor who made the take home exam also made it much more difficult than a normal exam so I would not really say it was easier than a normal in person test.
RhysabOweyn··on In world without BlackBerry, physical keyboards on phones are making a comeback
I had one of these (although in the states it was called the G2. I also had the G1) and fully agree, best phone I ever had. It was also the only Android I had that survived longer than 3 years. Regrettably, I have since switched to an iPhone.
RhysabOweyn··on India and EU announce landmark trade deal
Immigration is absolutely a part of this deal. Interestingly, EU official communications and western media barely mention this, but the Indian government's official communication tout a "new framework for mobility" that will "open up new opportunities in the European Union for Indian students, workers, and professionals." [1]

[1] https://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl%2F40615%2...

RhysabOweyn··on Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub
If only European bureaucrats mortgaged their entire economy on 500 AI scam companies that never produce any profit and sold off their entire manufacturing base to their main adversary. This is how real superpowers roll.
RhysabOweyn··on US startup Substrate announces chipmaking tool that it says will rival ASML
The issue with x-ray lithography has always been... the cost. Just the cost of making a mask for one of these systems makes it unusable in industry. Would be interested to hear what they did to get costs down.
RhysabOweyn··on ACA health insurance will cost the average person 75% more next year
There has been an explosion of enrollments from red states in recent years, getting hit with a massive increase in monthly expenses will probably not go down so well: https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/where-aca-marketplace-enrol...
RhysabOweyn··on AI Won't Kill Junior Devs – But Your Hiring Strategy Might
For now... some states are beginning to change their laws to allow non-lawyers to own law firms.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kpmg-wants-to-be-the-first-acco...

RhysabOweyn··on A Research Preview of Codex
Obviously there is no way to really predict when this would happen, but I don't think it will be up to developers to decide whether it happens or not. In Texas for example, the legislature forced engineering to be professionalized (or regulated) in an emergency session after a school in a well off area exploded in a gas explosion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion#In...).

I also do not think this is limited to software engineering. Medical doctors and accountants have faced the squeeze in recent years too. There are tons of (bad) DO med schools opening up across the country that will be flooding the field before long, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants get to do more and more work that only doctors got to do, and more and more accounting is being offshored. The question is when things get so bad that even the powerful decide to actually do something about it.

RhysabOweyn··on Ask HN: Facing unemployment – what now?
If you have the means/opportunity to go back to school and do another profession that you have interest in, I recommend it. That is precisely what I did with my SWE earnings. Take it slow though, I breezed through a harder degree plan my first time around college and proceeded to do much worse at the start when I went back. I had to be realistic and take a lighter course load.
RhysabOweyn··on A Research Preview of Codex
I believe that code from one of these things will eventually cause a disaster affecting the capital owners. Then all of a sudden you will need a PE license, ABET degree, 5 years working experience, etc. to call yourself a software engineer. It would not even be historically unique. Charlatans are the reason that lawyers, medical doctors, and civil engineers have to go through lots of education, exams, and vocational training to get into their profession. AI will probably force software engineering as a profession into that category as well.

On the other hand, if your job was writing code at certain companies whose profits were based on shoving ads in front of people then I would agree that no one will care if it is written by a machine or not. The days of those jobs making >$200k a year are numbered.

RhysabOweyn··on Data manipulations alleged in study that paved way for Microsoft's quantum chip
I don't think that you can really make that comparison. "Conventional" computers had more proven practical usage (especially by nation states) in the 40s/50s than quantum computing does today.
RhysabOweyn··on Honest and Elitist Thoughts on Why Computers Were More Fun Before
Another good option is the ESP32. You can get one for less than $10.
RhysabOweyn··on The F-35 as a Subscription Service
From my understanding, Israel pretty much did exactly this; however, I remember listening to a British military expert on Deutsche Welle explaining that when a nation reverse engineers the F-35, it locks them out of a lot of intelligence sharing from the US that keeps the F-35 military hardware functioning versus their opponents (Russia, Iran, China, etc). Keep in mind that as a nation develops new military capabilities, its opponents will react to this and switch up their own hardware/tactics so these updates are incredibly important to keep the fighter jet effective over time. Not as much of a problem for Israel since they have well established and funded intelligence agencies and a local military industry that can do this themselves. Their main opponents are also not as militarily capable as Europe's (Russia) so that probably plays a role as well.
RhysabOweyn··on Apple will soon receive 'made in America' chips from TSMC's Arizona fab
Chip design/semiconductors/etc. have been a dead end in the US for 30+ years, but EE is a broad field and other specialties like RF/power systems/anything defense related are still in high demand. An EE with a PE will have an infinitely easier time getting a job working at a utility or engineering firm than any software developer these days to be honest.
RhysabOweyn··on Jacquard lab notebook: Version control and provenance for empirical research
I once worked with a professor and some graduate students who insisted on using box as a code repository since it kept a log of changes to files under a folder. I tried to convince them to switch to git by making a set of tutorial videos explaining the basics but it was still not enough to convince them to switch.
RhysabOweyn··on Ask HN: Non-duopoly smart phone in Sweden?
You are misinformed. I personally had to deal with the nightmare of not having a personal number as a Swede born abroad.
RhysabOweyn··on Ask HN: Non-duopoly smart phone in Sweden?
Yes, there are Swedish citizens without personal numbers. Not only that, but you can only get a personal number if you have been a resident. If you are a Swedish citizen who has never lived in Sweden, you have to move there to get one. Otherwise when you are registered with the tax authority abroad you are only issued a samordningsnummer.
RhysabOweyn··on Ask HN: Non-duopoly smart phone in Sweden?
Swish is only the surface of the dystopia that Sweden is these days. Wait until you find out how Swedish personal numbers (personnummers) work. The government, banks, insurance companies, landlords, etc. can pretty much deny anyone (including Swedish citizens) basic services if they don't have one.
RhysabOweyn··on Why tech job interviews became such a nightmare
I know I failed the technical interview because the interviewer made it clear during the interview that my approach was not the answer they were looking for.
RhysabOweyn··on Why tech job interviews became such a nightmare
Part of the issue is that there is no real standard to these interviews and the interviewers can have widely varying expectations at times. I once failed a technical interview on a coding question, not because I did not give them the optimized answer (I did and the interviewer even acknowledged it) but because they wanted a one liner rather than a full explanation of the algorithm. I guess I should have known to ask them about that before diving deep? But to be honest, I have never had an interviewer want the 'one liner' answer to one of these DSA questions before. In the end I was rejected and lost 4 hours of my time to their elongated interview process.
RhysabOweyn··on Under Musk, Twitter is handing over more data to investigators
Twitter as a platform is noticeably less stable; however, I have noticed the same thing using a lot of services (google maps, instagram, youtube) from big tech companies in the last year coincidentally following the mass layoffs in late 2022/early 2023. Twitter has still probably degraded the most compared to others just based on my personal usage of the site. My suspicion is that these companies that hold such market share are making the calculation that they can get away with degraded performance in their apps because users either can't or refuse to move to alternative sites. It seems to be working too since most of twitter's user base that was reacting hysterically to Elon Musk purchasing the company has still not left.
RhysabOweyn··on No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
Here’s a publicly available overview of the temperance movement and just how insane it was: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK216414/
RhysabOweyn··on No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
Maybe read the well documented history of self-righteous teetotalers? It's not too hard to understand what the goal of this type of rhetoric is.
RhysabOweyn··on Do we live in a society without a counterculture?
> What you describe boils down to being irrationally angry, stunted in various ways, and generally destructive... It's not a counter-culture but just counter-productive and essentially a defect. If anything, it is devoid of culture.

Just because something isn't PC doesn't mean it isn't counter-culture. Hip-hop for example is riddled with extremely homophobic, violent, and sexist content but has become by far the biggest music genre in the world. That doesn't mean it isn't culture and it definitely was counter-culture (at least in the 80's and 90's).

RhysabOweyn··on Is Germany attractive enough for qualified workers?
That number is not really accurate though because ethnic Germans from their diaspora that ended up back in Germany post-WW2/USSR collapse are considered to have migrant background.
RhysabOweyn··on 50-Year Mortgages That Children Can Inherit
In the Scandinavian countries (excluding Denmark which is more of an issue of limited land) 50 year mortgages are the norm and they have high rates of home ownership.