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Shatnerz

365 karma · joined March 1, 2017

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Shatnerz··on Cruller: Bun's Zig Runtime, Continued on Zig 0.16
Checking git history is one of the first things I do when I find unfamiliar code or when I'm debugging something. Git history contains a lot of context that helps speed up the rest of the process
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)
Job req on Lever says that this is hybrid and not remote.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2026)
Is that email still working as expecting? I had my message bounce back to me.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: How do you fight YouTube addiction and procrastination? I'm struggling
> When I was younger, I was into video games because they gave me a sense of accomplishment and progress compared to high school, which I found relatively meaningless. I called it progress quest.

Well do I have a game for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Quest

Shatnerz··on BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)
> I still don't understand how anyone expects "sanctioned lists" to actually work.

Well one of the problems here was the sanctioning of a technology, which AFAIK has never happened previously.

Exchanges have the means to work with regulators, demonstrate good faith, and get themselves removed from any accidental sanctioning. This doesn't exactly apply to small tips akin to BuyMeACoffee.

Shatnerz··on BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)
until someone runs their funds through TornadoCash and dusts your wallet, thus putting it on many sanctioned lists and making it impossible to offloads funds into fiat by legal means.
Shatnerz··on BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)
Bitcoin may not be the best example because it does have a lot of limitation and somewhat failed as a currency and instead turned into a speculative store of value. Block time on Bitcoin is ~10 min. For small purchases, you would probably be fine with 1 confirmation, but a 10 minute wait is terrible UX. There is lighting which is a layer on top of bitcoin which is much faster, but the UX is still a bit clunky.

But in general, I agree that cryptocurrencies could help the problem, but it still carries the compliance and AML risks unless you can outsource that to a 3rd party. What happens if you accept funds from an OFAC or other sanctioned account? Violating AML can come with huge fines and is generally just a massive headache. Cash doesn't have these issues as the evidence is generally impossible to track well. With nearly all cryptocurrencies, the entire ledger is open, so if you accidentally accepted payment from the wrong person, you could get royally screwed at some later time.

Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2025)
Sounds interesting, but I really don't want to open an and deal with another account just to apply, which is unfortunate.
Shatnerz··on How dermatology became the 'it' job in medicine
Perhaps this is because supply isn't being artificially restricted?
Shatnerz··on A change of heart regarding employee metrics
I wouldn't be surprised if that was directly adapted from the anecdotes of Harry Nyquist at Bell Labs [1].

""" After crunching a lot of data, they found that the only thing the productive employees had in common (other than having made it through the Bell Labs hiring process) was that "Workers with the most patents often shared lunch or breakfast with a Bell Labs electrical engineer named Harry Nyquist. It wasn't the case that Nyquist gave them specific ideas. Rather, as one scientist recalled, 'he drew people out, got them thinking'" (p. 135). """

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Nyquist

Shatnerz··on Suits, money laundering, and linear programming
> This is called "layering"

I believe it is actually "structuring".

Layering is a step in money laundering where layers of legitimacy are added as money moves around. Structuring is breaking larger transactions into smaller transactions in order to avoid detection. Smurfing is also similar to structuring and honestly I don't understand the difference well enough to explain, but they are often used interchangeably in my experience.

edit: Here is a short educational video on the topic of money laundering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhsUHDJ0BFM&t=90s

Shatnerz··on My negative views on Rust (2023)
Inflammatory? "My Negative Views on X" is pretty far from inflammatory. It is exactly what the post was, with some positivity sprinkled in as well.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2024)
You should consider updating the header here to specify North America only
Shatnerz··on New findings point to an Earth-like environment on ancient Mars
3/4 billion = 750 million, no?
Shatnerz··on Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
Buffalo and Bison are often interchangeable in American English.

I know in Polish, "żubr", which is the European Bison, is often translated as buffalo and the American Bison is known as "bizon" which is understandably translated as bison. I would not be surprised if Belarusian was similar.

Shatnerz··on EU Parliament commitee approves cash cap and ban on anonymous crypto payments
> Anonymous online / digital payments seems to exclusively facilitate crime, but doesn’t seem to be relevant to regular ‘normal’ people.

How so and is there anything to back that up or is that just a gut feeling?

I pay for my VPN subscription online, anonymously using crypto. Am I facilitating crime?

Shatnerz··on Private company landing on the moon today
> Not moving my family to Texas, Florida, or Alabama, for anything. Beautiful states, but I have a daughter.

Are women not safe in these states? I'm not sure I'm picking up whatever you are implying.

Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Are there any good reasons to use C++ over Rust for new projects today?
Familiarity and library support would be the two obvious reasons.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: How'd you manage the password managers' master password?
Link for the lazy: https://xkcd.com/936/

I came here to post essentially the same thing.

Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Will there be more layoffs in 2024?
Of course. We haven't even finished January yet.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
I completely missed the context. Thanks for pointing this out.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
When you find yourself asking this question, the truth is that you probably should have left a few month earlier. Things rarely improve. Take care of your finances and never put yourself in a position where you are dependent on a job if it is avoidable. It really helps with keeping a clear mind in making these decisions and greatly reduces stress around job changes and uncertainties.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs?
The quote from George Carlin, a comedian, is about the general population. The quote itself is from "Doin' It Again / Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" a special in 1990 and predates Google.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: What is the current driver of tech layoffs?
In a normal distribution, like lets say a large population, the mean, median, and mode are all equal. I don't see a problem with the quote.
Shatnerz··on A battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant
Wouldn't it have to have happened after the plant shutdown in order for it to coincide? If it happened prior, then it would have been clearly unrelated. If you shut down a power plant and run into power issues down the road, a connection seems likely.
Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Survivors of "down rounds" – how did it go?
> Is my cash compensation adequate? A down-round can make stock grants worth almost zero unless there's a huge rebound.

Most startups fail and options and equity become worthless regardless.

In my experience, the biggest changes will be in morale and company culture. There is a chance that the company gets hit by the "Dead Sea Effect", all the talent starts leaving because they can find better opportunities while the lower tier devs stick around.

Shatnerz··on Ask HN: Leave and exercise shares (and get poor), or stay put (and get bored)?
> They are currently worth $200,000

According to whom? Is there a secondary market or is this just the FMV from the last valuation? If there is no liquidity, they might be "worth" $200k for tax purposes, but as with most startups there is a chance that everything falls apart and that there is no liquidity event.

> exercising them would cost me $25,000

I would double check what your expected tax bill would be, because it sounds like you might have $175k worth of paper gains. The effective cost to exercise might be much higher depending on where you live and your tax situation.

Lastly, if you are the Head of Product at a startup, I would assume that you could find a high enough paying job so that $25k isn't a significant burden on you, assuming you don't live above your means. Getting some offers may help you decide in the end.

Shatnerz··on Cicadas are so loud, fiber optic cables can ‘hear’ them
There are also plenty of annual cicadas in North America, which I assume you are talking about NA with the 13 and 17 year brood cycles. While not nearly as loud as the broods, annual cicadas have always been a sure sign of the seasons. I have always considered the end of summer when the cicadas stop singing. They become such a constant background noise that it is easy to forget that they are even there if you have lived in the area for awhile.
Shatnerz··on The Bond villain compliance strategy
The transfer of value is pretty nice. International transfers via crypto are often cheaper than wire fees. Domestic transfers can be faster via cryptocurrency depending on where you are at. ACH is painfully slow. SEPA is a a bit better. That being said there is a tradeoff. You lose clawback mechanisms in favor of independence and control.
Shatnerz··on The Bond villain compliance strategy
Can any financial system exist without financial crimes? Just look at HSBC. Nearly all of Binance's failures also happened at HSBC which continues to operate within the law simply by paying fines as the cost of business every so often.
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