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Tech1

176 karma · joined July 9, 2013

NYC

Embedded Software Engineer

adam.e.heller1 [at] gmail.com

https://github.com/HellerCommaA

submissionscomments
Tech1··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2019)

  Location: New York City (NYC), New York (Manhattan)
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Maybe (Toronto, Denver, Boston)
  Technologies: C, C++, Java, JavaScript
  Résumé/CV: On request to email
  Email: adam at heller.photo
About: Been doing embedded Android/Linux C++ for the past ~5 years (user space, mainly middleware and C++ web stack, decent amount of kernel work and standalone binaries in C, written / updated several company apps for Android). Looking to move into a senior role, leveraging my leadership experience in the military, and or pure Android development. Options in the embedded space are pretty slim in NYC and I feel Android would be a better way forward. Open to cleared positions, active clearance.
Tech1··on The Thing
(Just FYI I don't know if I could put a source / article on this, but this information was information that Robert Hanssen allegedly leaked to the Russians [Aldrich Ames also leaked similar things and a lot of the same HUMINT sources]. I initially read this in a Robert Hanssen non-fic book a while ago)

Apparently, during the construction of the embassy in (edit: Moscow) -East Berlin-, the construction company (surely at the direction of the KGB / GRU) placed passive bugs in the concrete (they only transmit when blasted with microwaves at the right frequency and would avoid counter-intel sweeps unless active). They built the buildings almost pre-fab style, laying the concrete out then assembiling it. It's then when the bugs were placed.

The west eventually learned about this, if I recall correctly, it was from a Russian defector by the codename of Mother.

It was called Operation Top Hat (that's where i'd start googiling). The US knew the embassy in (edit: Moscow) -East Berlin- was bugged on the first 3 floors by the Russians as well as having secret hollow support columns with clandestine access to the building. The decision was made to just not use the first 3 floors of the embassy for classified discussion. The remaining floors were built by Americans and undoubtedly under FBI/OGA watch.

IIRC there was also a network of tunnels leading from the embassy in West Berlin to under the wall to listening posts.

Edit: my memory is shot apparently. It was in Moscow, not Berlin. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/private-tour-cias-inc... https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-29-mn-177-st...

I think i screwed up another thing Hanssen revealed and that was a tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin and under the Soviet embassy.

Tech1··on Next-generation of GPS satellites are headed to space
Hopefully the week field is longer than 10 bits. That was a headache.
Tech1··on “Let her speak please”
I was at this event. Marilee was seated directly in front of my girlfriend and I (the stage / panel and the back of Marilee's head pictured: https://imgur.com/a/GEapw). The interruptions were real. I was one of the men in Marilee's facebook post making comments about the sexism. Immediately following Marilee's comment, the entire place erupted with applause. On the way out, several people asked my GF if she was the one who made the comment, with one person saying "That was the most important thing to happen here today".
Tech1··on Kim Jong-Nam Was Killed by VX Nerve Agent, Malaysians Say
Prior US Army bomb technician checking in.

Also look at State Secrets: An Insider's Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program by Vil S Mirzayanov, Novichok is covered there as well. ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1432725661/ref=oh_aui_sear... nonref)

Tech1··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2017)
Drop your contact info in your profile please!
Tech1··on Technical report on DNC hack [pdf]
I'm an ex Army bomb technician, let me help you. You know WMDs were found in Iraq right? ..Unless we're not calling stockpiled chemical weapons WMDs anymore.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleea...

Tech1··on My Pixel has a manufacturing defect
I'm a pixel xl 128 owner too. As long as we're going down this route, has anyone else noticed weird 'refresh' lines drawing over top of images? They appear very briefly and very faintly (and only in chrome as far as I've noticed, may be a chrome(ium) bug).
Tech1··on [dead]
+1. When did we start accepting alt-right blogs on HN?
Tech1··on The Most Effective Weapon on the Modern Battlefield Is Concrete
I was/(am?) a bomb tech, I didn't dig up a damn thing, we were too highly valued of an asset..And only having a small handful of us to support an entire theater of war makes us exceedingly rare.

Got called out on quite a few. One in particular was a dude out at a COP in the middle of no where Farah, taking a piss next to a Hesco, looked up and saw a mine poking out of the barrier. Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. It's not surprising.

Tech1··on The Most Effective Weapon on the Modern Battlefield Is Concrete
Farah (2009 - 2010) EOD tech reporting in. We were almost all Hesco too. Oddly, we found a lot of PMNs[0] in our Hescos.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMN_mine

Tech1··on Ask HN: 30+ men and women in software, how much do you make?
Any thoughts on slang / secdb? or are you at a lower level? (i see low latency, don't think they're that close to the metal)

...or not at that firm? email's in my profile. Reach out if you all are looking.

Tech1··on Ask HN: 30+ men and women in software, how much do you make?
30, M, NYC, 120k. Firmware (C++), and some Java.

I just realized how bad I'm getting boned.

Tech1··on Park.io – automating tasks to make $125k per month
He paid me $500 for a two letter .io I owned. I hope you got market value!
Tech1··on Fire balloon
These are still (very rarely) found by hikers in the pacific northwest (source: i'm a bomb tech).

Other relevant / weird WWII reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb (US program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog (Russian program)

Tech1··on Command and Control [video]
Ex US Army bomb technician here (eod). This entire story is somewhat of a legend among our community (those that actually went through nukes at least).

Added to our (me and the SO) calendar for the weekend. Looking forward to seeing it.

Tech1··on Show HN: A flask app to make dashboards, easily
IIRC, flask deploys straight to AWS's elastic beanstalk (gunicorn) with minimal configuration, I even think it's given as an example in EB's docs. I've deployed an EB hosted flask instance (2 ec2 instances behind a load balancer with zero issues) in production.
Tech1··on Google tags Wikileaks as a dangerous site
I was active Army EOD (TS-SCI) when both Chelsea's and Snowden's leaks happened. We were the opposite. Forbidden from accessing WL at all, even on our personal computers. No real way to enforce it obviously, but the threat was the fact (specifically with Snowden) that you accessed TS-SCI material that was outside the 'scope' / compartment of your SCI access.
Tech1··on [dead]
Down in NYC Edit: and instagram won't refresh.
Tech1··on Dyatlov Pass Incident
Army EOD stepping in. *ordnance, common typo.
Tech1··on I've Been Waiting For The Oculus Rift, But Now It's Sitting In My Closet
I've got a triple head setup and a TrackIR v5 and play a lot of flight / combat (DCS series) sims (with a Warthog HOTAS), ARMA 3, and Elite Dangerous. It's worth it.

I'm still standoff ish on VR till my setup can be replicated, but I think I'm an outlier in the target market.

Tech1··on Some thoughts on when NYC last opened new subway stations
I live off the 1st Ave L stop (Stuy town). Take the L during rush hour and you'll see exactly what I deal with every day.

I'm all for the 2nd Ave expansion, however I think that something needs to be done about over-ridership with our existing infrastructure. As Brooklyn becomes more gentrified, the L (and others) will only get worse. Queens, I'm looking at you Astoria, is only going to get worse.

Tech1··on Why the maker of Roomba vacuums is getting out of the warbot business
Just to give further explanation to everyone commenting on the 'warbot' phrase... The robots iRobot makes for use in war, are designed to save lives. Not take them. They saved my life, as well as the lives of several coworkers, on many occasions. They are designed to dismantle IEDs or road side bombs as you may know them. The number one killer in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If I can send a $150,000 piece of equipment down range to handle an IED with a skilled operator at the controls, instead of risking human life to make the route / area safe for passing friendly troops, local nationals, or coalition troops, instead of risking my life... I'm going to it every single time.

Tech1··on Why the maker of Roomba vacuums is getting out of the warbot business
Ex Army Bomb Technician (EOD) here, now doing enterprise java / intranet stuff. Disclosure: I also used to work for one of iRobots competitors, Roboteam.

My speculation is that they also sold because they lost a 25 million dollar contract to Roboteam. It's a 7 year contract to the airforce for 200+ robots. IMHO, unless more services drop out of the joint robotics program, as the airforce did, it will likely be the last large government robotics contract for a very long time.

Tech1··on Three hundred programming interviews in thirty days
Just something simple, allow me to add it to my google calendar.
Tech1··on Three hundred programming interviews in thirty days
I'm kind of in a similar boat. I've done them for companies that I like in the past, however I flat out refuse to do them for recruiting / job placement companies.

ammon / uptown, I've put off doing my screen-sharing section of your interview process (I got pushed past the phone screen?) due to a lack of time. Maybe adding a way to 'schedule' it would be helpful for those of us that live by our g.calendars....and you all as well.

Tech1··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (June 2015)
SEEKING WORK: NYC / Remote

* Full stack.

* Python Flask / Django preferred

* https://github.com/HellerCommaA/

* adam.e.heller1@gmail.com

* https://www.dropbox.com/s/xo3c19dx5eyy6dy/heller%20resume.pd...

Tech1··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2015)
Location: NYC, NY (New York City, New York)

Remote: Maybe

Willing to relocate: No. I love this city too much

Technologies: Flask, Python, Javascript, AWS

Résumé/CV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xo3c19dx5eyy6dy/heller%20resume.pd...

Email: adam.e.heller1 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com

Looking for: Flask! Anything Flask! I love working in it and even have a semi-successful extension, flask-materialize https://github.com/HellerCommaA/flask-materialize

Tech1··on Ask HN: How to cope with depression
You will too dude/dudette. Keep your head up.
Tech1··on Ask HN: How to cope with depression
I appreciate the info, but I currently hold (and use) a security clearance. All these MDMA / cannabis / LSD-25 assisted therapies are doing great things for veterans, but when it comes time to fill out that SF-86 in a few years, it would bone me.

Still, I appreciate the info.

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