altotrees

Despite all the dependencies, I really like the clean, simple UI. Very uncluttered, which for a todo app is super important, in my opinion.

I just re-read the Atavist piece the other day, as Le Roux made one of his first public appearances at a hearing. A truly awe-inspiring piece of journalism about a man who seems to have already lived multiple lives in his 46 years.

His message board and mailing list comments were especially fascinating to me, as I spent time lurking on those lists and others as a teen. Cannot recommend Mr. Ratliff's work enough.

Stories like these are the ones that inspire me the most. People using technology in a way that helps them in their everyday lives, or in a hobbyist fashion. I feel like many of the things I pick-up at work are out of career necessity: the latest framework, bits of an up and coming language that is going to be "the future", semi fluency in a stack so I can aid in a project,I enjoy it, but I don't enjoy it like in the same way I once did.

Probably my favorite programming memory was teaching myself Java as a teenager and building games for my friends and I to play. No responsibility, if they worked...great, if not oh well. It was exhilarating. I do not think programming will ever become a lingua franca, as stated in other places here. I think hobbyist programmers may pop up more and more,or people who know enough to build small tools for themselves (not to scale) and I don't think that's a bad thing.

Not sure about the overall ideas in this one. I am currently writing apps in Angular using Python on the backend. Just got a new contract. My career started years ago with only HTML and CSS.

Being experienced, I would agree with the thesis here, except for the fact that we hire several junior devs here at my new office with only HTML and CSS knowledge and then gradually teach them frameworks and tools they will need.

Other places I have worked have taken this approach too. Don't know Angular or ember? That's okay...if you are teachable and really want to learn. Those are the real skills you need.

I worked for UPS for a long time, and if I am understanding what you are saying then no, you must be a due-paying member of the IBT to benefit from contractually-negotiated benefits and pay. UPS corporate has a totally different set of benefits, pay, and expectations from their Teamster counterparts.

I may have misunderstood what you meant though.

I have had Amazon folks in my neighborhood: leave packages on the sidewalk, throw packages over fences and ask me for a tip.

These are antecdotal, but if Amazon wants to catch up to a company like UPS, they have a ton of ground to make up. Delivering packages is really hard work, believe it or not, and underpaying someone to do it isn't going to bring about the results you're after, guaranteed.

So I read this and cannot help but wonder if we really are 5 years away from a massive sea change. People think truck drivers could be obsolete in 5 years time, the bullish ones anyway.

The tech is still developing. We may be in a bit of a hype bubble, but it is as real and clear as it has ever been. I think even as the tech advances rapidly, public acceptance will be way further out than 5, 10 or 15 years. I would venture to say self-driving cars and truck fleets being normalized is 30 years away and in no way because of the tech, but due to all the red tape and public debate that will encase the issue.

If you think all truck drivers are going to be displaced in 5 or even 10 years, you may be living in an HN bubble. Sure jobs will be automated away, but this is going to take more time than lots of people think. For instance, one article like this could delay acceptance for months or years, in my opinion.

I lived on one of the streets they mention in the article while attending college. The hardest thing one would see was malt liqour abuse or the occasional nodded off opiate user.

I was just in the area last week, and it is arresting how different things are. Boarded up houses, handwritten signs for suboxone treatment with phone numbers, addled users staring into space on many corners - things have changed.

Stories like this give me a bit of hope because people do recover, I know that. But what is the longterm solution here? The causes of the opioid epidemic are debated ad nauseum, but it seems much harder to put a finger on the pulse of a solution. It's wrecking lives at an increasing rate, that much is for sure.

Ugh, this, the Somerton Man cipher as the Zodiac cipher are my top three to see cracked. Maybe someday...

I believe he is also on the Dart lang team at google. He has a pretty awesome blog and is super insightful when it comes to programming languages. His Github projects inspired me to research language design further.

This is spot on. I didn't care about my credit score for a long time...until I did. An autopay error from one bank account to another resulted in a late payment and a 50 point drop. Coincidentally, I also needed to rent an apartment and apply for a small car loan.

Both of these things were made much more difficult, even with just a 50 point ding. The score recovered quickly and I learned my lesson. It was somewhat eye opening for me. One thing I do wish: after tons of research and discussion with "experts" it seems pretty difficult for the average American to predict a rise in their credit score once it takes a hit.

Sure, paying bills on time and carrying low or no balances help, but at the same time, paying off a loan can either help or hurt you, being added as an authorized user to a partner's card can be beneficial or not even acknowledged. I wish the algorithm for determining this was a bit more transparent, i.e. What are the mechanisms at work behind that credit report? Not some vague "your score may have fallen because of..." Or "doing this might help your credit..." I feel like the lack of transparency makes people fear credit to a degree.

This is super interesting. I know there is much heated discussion here on HN about IBM in terms of the Watson project and some of the claims made vs. reality etc. I am pretty far removed from the trajectory of IBM's AI research, but can only figure a joint effort with MIT will bolster their reputation by association if nothing else.

Just finished reading about Facebook and Microsoft launching a joint AI effort not five minutes ago. To those enmeshed in or working in AI research: are these joint efforts a response to Tensorflow and Google?

So we have all of these chat apps. Choice is never a bad thing, but this has to be somewhat beyond saturation point, no? I don't know about anyone else, but I would rather have my work chat apps resemble social media chat apps less rather than more. Fewer Gif's, fewer emojis — they can be funny and endearing in the right context, but just feel forced and obtuse in a work setting. Also, this is coming from the makers of Confluence and Jira...I'll have to try it and see it in person before forming a true opinion, but not holding out too much hope.

For me: writing code is my job, writing code is my hobby, writing code is what drives and comforts me. I hear about a great new tool or language, I just have to try it out - usually on my own time.

Doing this has served me well in some cases, but there have been times I have woken up in the morning not caring if I ever use a piece of tech again. This has been a pattern throughout my life: to focus on something to the point where I may be a bit obsessed, start to get really good at it and then burnout hard and transition to a new focus.

Luckily with tech I have learned moderation to a point. I still almost hit that wall sometimes, but recognize pretty quickly when I am about to and take a short break from the tools or issue at hand.

Such an iconic album cover. I know people who knew the cover/design way before they even knew who Joy Division was.

Interesting, I know he has been at a few places since then, wonder if his output has picked up? Getting into Java was my first taste of programming and I loved it, thought really highly of Gosling and still do. I just had a friend tell me this morning "heh Java is so dying." I swear I hear this every few months, but I fail to see it going anywhere. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough?

To the point about his ego not being fed at Google: when he went there, I wondered what he would be working on and if being another name on a roster if insanely talented engineers and scientists(Norvig, Pike, on and on and on)would help him grow and create more great things, or prove a frustration in some way. What was he working on there, I haven't read many details, does anyone know?

I was going to ask about that, if these were in any way core contributors. I figured most of those serious enough to make helpful commits wouldn't take the bait.

So many people taking it seriously. I have never attempted to commit anything to the kernel, but it seems like a tough crowd in some areas.

They were in my Linkedin network, and a college friend coincidentally. I simply pinged them and asked them a few questions about the new job and interview process. I disclosed that I had also interviewed for it. They were a bit leery of their own skill level upfront, so even they were surprised when it was offered. An interesting situation.

Recently had a recruiter call me, interview me over the phone once, in-person once, and via skype once. The job seemed to be a great fit, the pay was there, everything seemed to be lined up. The recruiter called me again to tell me that they were going to be taking the next steps with me very shortly. A week of silence goes by, then another.

I email, inquiring about the position. "Oh, we gave that to someone we had been interviewing for months, but we'll keep you in mind for the future." Unprofessional disconnects and other encounters like this have taken place several times, in my experience. It turns out I knew the person who did get the job I was all but promised. After talking to them, the company had contacted them three days after its last interview with me, and the successful candidate had been asking for $10,000 dollars less and had less experience than myself. A month later, that candidate emailed me and told me they were let go for "being unable to meet the requirements of the position."

Anecdotal experience like this really makes me skeptical when I hear employers bemoaning that they cannot find employees. Can they really not find employees or good talent, or do they just not want to pay the wages that people are asking for?

His story is tragic. Tragic in that he was seemingly so smart even he couldn't handle it. Tragic in that people lost their lives. Tragic in the fact that we lost a mind like his and the advancements he could've brought to mathematics potentially. Sad in that he was so impacted by MK ultra. It's a truly terrible, yet captivating story.

His neo-Luddism has always been of interest to me also, as one of my classes read his essays in college. They just seem so uneven, like they are trying to grasp at a logical idea but fall short. Yeah, interesting and really sad.

This is pretty awesome. I had never read this before. Simplicity is so easy to strive for, yet so hard to achieve sometimes.

It may not be a solution, but it's a smart thing to do and at least a step in the right direction, no?

Has anyone used TensorFlow for any hobby projects? I would be interested to know what kind and how it worked out. This is a pretty neat tutorial, I'll have to set aside more time to look it over.

This is why you should always read the terms and conditions of an app. I'm always shocked at how many people do not take this seriously. In this age of "data sharing" it is super important to take extra caution.

Not from what I have read or heard. There still seems to be a need across the board for those with deep knowledge, especially when it comes to certain topics. The people I have known who have had trouble, and studies I have read about the topic point mainly to biology and chemistry as the two hardest fields to break initially with a PhD. But of course even that could change depending on specialization, etc.

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin only helped me to start appreciating this. It is incomprehensible that lots of the same folks are still in leadership positions. Follow the money, indeed.

Magazine editor and web developer. Two hats.

I was about to say, accepting all outside contributions would promote bloat and kill portability. I don't think they are doing this in an elitist way, just as a matter of practicality.