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ashwinaj

451 karma · joined March 1, 2013

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ashwinaj··on FCC abandons efforts to make U.S. broadband fast and affordable
> maybe nobody cares about watching Netflix if we can now have holodecks that become fully immersible experiences that allow for educational training and, to your chagrin, entertainment as well

I don't see why billions of dollars should be spent, for say, less than a low single digit percentage of the rural population who want to stick a machine to their head for educational training.

It's infinitely cheaper, a more sane and healthier decision to move to the location where they can sit in front of the instructor, if they value this education.

ashwinaj··on FCC abandons efforts to make U.S. broadband fast and affordable
1. Chattanooga, TN isn't exactly "rural"

2. How large is each "diagnostic medical image"? I can't imagine this being in the order of TB

    a. An existing 5G/LTE or satellite internet is perfectly serviceable for even GBs of medical images

    b. Let's assume the images are in the order of TBs, does this justify spending billions for one person (or tens) in a "rural" area?
ashwinaj··on FCC abandons efforts to make U.S. broadband fast and affordable
Contrarian opinion: What exactly is the point of "fast" internet?

Most people use the internet for entertainment, people can survive watching Netflix at 1080p/720p, it isn't debilitating. If I'm wrong in my assessment, give me use cases where you require fast internet in a rural area.

If the question is cost, I don't see how laying fiber and equipment for hundreds, if not, thousands of miles is a solution to reducing cost (unless it's subsidized by the government).

Spending billions on mostly "entertainment" is a waste.

ashwinaj··on Perfume reviews
There are tons of Youtube channels and Reddit threads dedicated to clones. My protocol is, if the originals sell at outrageous prices, I go for clones. They are good enough for me.
ashwinaj··on Ask HN: Is RSS dead?
Lol, same here
ashwinaj··on Li Wenliang
> Online is how you reach the largest audience

So? Is this going to cause any change in the government's behavior: No.

This is the literal definition of a paper tiger.

ashwinaj··on Li Wenliang
> In my WeChat feed, I've seen a lot of panic

This is the problem, everything is hush hush or online. No one has the _____ to stand up and say this is not right. I'm only contrasting this with democratic govts. (However flawed the system is) have a voice to stand against a govt. This is non existent in China.

ashwinaj··on Li Wenliang
I am talking about Chinese citizens criticizing the Chinese govt. __in China__ the same way as American citizens can criticize the American govt. in America, if it wasn't obvious. And by criticizing I mean openly criticizing in public, not hiding behind some pseudonym online
ashwinaj··on Li Wenliang
Sure, but people can openly criticize the US govt and it's policies. Can they do this in China?

A sense of national pride should not trump objectivity.

ashwinaj··on Whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang confirmed dead of coronavirus at 34
> Chinese social media has been awash with anger over the death of the whistle-blower

How about going out to protest? Oh wait, you can't...bravo for your virtue signalling.

ashwinaj··on IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO
Doesn't matter what his ethnicity is, if he doesn't produce (whatever that definition is: stock price, technology output, new market etc.) he'll be kicked out. At the CEO level, nepotism does not work (unless he has a golden parachute, does he?). Why the hell will he hire his "buddies" who are not productive?

So comparing him to low-mid level Indian managers who are fighting over scraps is comparing apples to oranges.

ashwinaj··on A newly updated index ranks English proficiency around the world
Yeah right. I was in Beijing last week, how in the world is China ranked alongside India in terms of English proficiency? I could hardly find anyone even at the Beijing Capital airport to speak a coherent English sentence, let alone grammatically correct.
ashwinaj··on You’re Not Lazy, Bored, or Unmotivated
> You’re not unmotivated. You’re not lazy. You’re not bored. You are afraid.

Well put. Being afraid of failure is the root cause.

ashwinaj··on Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
You can nitpick.

But I'm pretty certain most, if not all, African Americans who worked for racists were fired if they found out that they were part of the civil rights movement.

As Jordan Peterson says, clean up your room before you go fixing the world. Go up from Shoreline towards 101 and see the number of homeless people; what exactly are these enlightened Googlers doing for them other than ignoring them and driving away with their expensive Maserati's, Tesla's etc. and complaining about how expensive it is to live in the bay area. How about NIMBY laws? The list goes on and on..

ashwinaj··on Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
Finally common sense prevails! Get to work on time, eat your free lunch, work, go home.

To those of you who disagree; if you want to "make a difference" take a cue from Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther king Jr. etc. Mahama Gandhi didn't work for the East India company while simultaneously fighting for freedom.

If you are serious about it put your money where your mouth is and stop being empty vessels.

ashwinaj··on Atlassian ditches ‘brilliant jerks’ in performance review overhaul
Throwaway account, cool.

You're talking as if most, if not all, companies are engaging in R&D at the level of the Apollo 11 space mission. You don't need brilliant people in most cases, merely having honest, diligent, persistent normal human beings can get the job done.

ashwinaj··on Atlassian ditches ‘brilliant jerks’ in performance review overhaul
I'm not sure where you are located but come to the SF Bay area. You'll find tons of them in every company.
ashwinaj··on Peak California
Yes and no. There is a stark difference between Texas and California (I've lived in both states).

Here's a recent story shared by a friend who moved from CA to TX: He took his son (who are Indians) and another bunch of kids, two were Indians and the rest white to a water park in Austin. One of the Indian kids cut the line and moved to the front of the line where my friend was. He asked him why did he do that and he should not cut the line; the Indian kid responded "We are Indians and we need to stick together". This is in the so called liberal oasis of Austin.

I doubt if this frequent in the Bay area; sure you can point to PC culture and all that but this story is a sobering reminder of how segregated Texas espcially when you have kids acting like this.

ashwinaj··on If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed
Please travel around the world (alone or with family/friends); unfortunately we live in this bubble of tech, politics, 24/7 news cycle that it makes us irritable/depressed.

I wouldn't say I'm depressed, I work at a startup so there's a lot of pressure (unnecessarily so). All it took is a 3 week vacation, some self reflection, talking to the locals (and realizing how insignificant our so called "problems" are in the larger scheme of things), realizing that we are so blessed. This for me was enough to get me to a less unhappy state and being more introspective instead of getting irritable and reacting to shouting matches. This sounds a cliched thing to say but it really works.

ashwinaj··on The UAE’s secret hacking team of U.S. mercenaries
Well put.

I grew up in the UAE where xenophobia/racism is rampant. If you really want to see white privilege in action and more shockingly, out in the open, move to any Arab country.

ashwinaj··on Coding Interview Preparation Bootcamp
> And nobody internally enjoys doing a lot of coding interviews

That's true, I recently had an interview and the interviewer was on the phone all the time totally uninterested, barring the first 5 minutes. How do you account for that?

Everybody knows (and as stated in the article) the system can be gamed (by memorizing Leetcode solutions) and I choose not to. If you don't believe me have a look here:

https://www.1point3acres.com/bbs/thread-191077-1-1.html (translate it to English)

(there are a ton of interview experiences and detailed questions and strategies on this site)

There are people who are freaking memorizing behavioral questions!! Surely, the FAANG companies are aware of this?

This what I see happening these days: 1. You have an interview candidate solving questions without memorization

2. You have an interview candidate solving questions with memorization

How are you distinguishing between the two and how do you prevent bias? Bias in all forms, not just the stereotype: white guy hiring another white guy.

ashwinaj··on ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ Say Some Computer Science Students
Funny coincidence, there was a new grad hire event yesterday at "The Patio" in Palo Alto. FB don't seem to be having a problem hiring new grads despite what this article says.
ashwinaj··on Show HN: TabNine, an autocompleter for all languages
Thanks for the information!
ashwinaj··on Show HN: TabNine, an autocompleter for all languages
Awesome plugin Jacob. I have a question about the full version, is it per editor? Eg., I use Sublime Text most of the time, but occassionally vim, do I need to buy 2 licenses? Also are these licenses transferrable between machines (work vs home)?
ashwinaj··on Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews
Can't agree with you more! Not sure why you're getting downvoted.

Interviews are subjective, and what I've seen recently is the expectation is that you solve Leetcode questions within 10-15 mins with the optimum solution (yes, this was told to me my several recruiters). Sure, so basically you're asking me to memorize as many Leetcode optimum solutions as I can.

No thanks, if you want to hire Leetcode monkeys go ahead and see how that works out. On top of this, when you add concious and unconcious bias what are your chances of being hired?

ashwinaj··on Money can buy happiness, but not unconditionally
Interesting analysis, for me the takeaway was that he is 24. Going anecdotally, most people who are 24 think money can buy happiness; and it makes sense since most of them have:

1. Some form of debt

2. Lived off their parents or lower wage work

3. All of a sudden get paid thousands of $$ (assuming it's a high paid full time job, which this person seems to have)

As we grow older, I think our perspectives change (mine certainly did). It's the same argument that we no longer played with dolls/toys/action figures when we are in our teens.

ashwinaj··on H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies
Thanks for posting this. It seems to me that everyone is looking for a way out of a difficult circumstance and see Canada as some sort of a paradise. I grew up in the Middle East, the labor laws there are much worse than the US; so I'm personally not worried. If I have to leave, I will.
ashwinaj··on The Real Cost of the 2008 Financial Crisis
Here's a simple hypothetical question: If you or I were to steal a pack of gum from a store and were caught we would have been charged with a misdemeanor. And it would remain in our background record for 10 years.

What does a banker have to do before he/she can be charged with at least a misdemeanor? You're right about the government having a hand in the crisis, but this is ridiculous that no banker was charged.

ashwinaj··on Cisco Said to Be Cited for Bias Against U.S. Workers
> Exhibit A of our system's self-destructiveness are international students at American universities being refused residency on graduation.

You cannot categorically say that all international students are "highly skilled" or even "skilled". Some are, some aren't; and I'm saying this as an Indian citizen on H1B in the United States. There has to be some kind of vetting period instead of handing off a green card right after graduation. I bet if the tables were turned you won't see anywhere close to this kind of generosity.

Regarding Cisco (downvote me if you want) not a lot of people do "skilled" work; Cisco is a sales machine and does not care about engineering. Fixing bugs (and passing them off as features) from companies which were acquired, doing busy work, attending 2-3 hour meetings, middle management malaise with paper pushers, maintaning status quo (it's 2018 and they still use gcc 3.3) etc. is not what I would define as "skilled" engineering work. It's mediocrity and that's what they want to maintain.

ashwinaj··on It’s easy to become obese in America. These 7 charts explain why
> There's plenty of metropolitan cities where no one has to drive

What percentage of the land mass of the US does that constitute? I bet less than 10% and that's being really generous.

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