Hacker News Reader

beaylott1986on Young men now spend more of their free time alone than any other group

This describes Manchester, UK pretty well as well - before the pandemic there would be some sort of tech meetup every day of the week. But now it is down to ~one a week. And many have been taken over by recruiters and marketers.

beaylott1986on Przewodów village in Poland hit by two Russian missiles, two dead

I'm sorry ... 'shelling'...? There is no russian artillery in range of the ukranian polish border please go and look at a map!

beaylott1986on Przewodów village in Poland hit by two Russian missiles, two dead

Very plausible.

beaylott1986on Przewodów village in Poland hit by two Russian missiles, two dead

Sky News in UK is quoting 'security experts' commenting on photos showing wreckage that looks like from S-300 system. Only Ukraine is operating these within range of the border so entirely plausible this was an interception of a missile aimed at a target near border. In this context the comments from some eastern European and Ukraine itself are irresponsible. At least Poland and other NATO partners are urging caution.

beaylott1986on Why are glasses so expensive? The industry prefers to keep that blurry (2019)

This must be a US thing. In UK you pay £25 for an eye test (which employer is required to cover if you have to wear glasses at work) and then you can order online with prescription you get from test for £40 and usually there are 2 for 1 or 50% offers even on that. It is baffling that you would have no competition if this was costing $800 ... is there IP or regulations stopping this or something?

beaylott1986on ‘I want to protect my family’: Polish civilians flock to army training

Finland was not a member of NATO and was previously viewed as a neutral country during cold war. Their prioritisation of territorial defence went hand in hand with this and was in context of having fought wars with Russia in modern period. It's not really comparable to Poland's situation which was already in NATO prior to this. A nuclear war is more likely than a territorial invasion of Poland. If they want to prepare for war they should base their planning on likely scenarios. Unless it's just politics.

beaylott1986on ‘I want to protect my family’: Polish civilians flock to army training

Probably now it is the same given the security assurances provided to Finland/Sweden by US/UK during NATO accession process.

beaylott1986on ‘I want to protect my family’: Polish civilians flock to army training

What scenario are they training for exactly? Highly unlikely Russian/Belarus army would be able to get anywhere near Polish border let alone cross it. And if nuclear war is their concern how is such training going to help? Their concern is understandable given history but very misplaced. And their nationalist politicians benefit greatly from rallying around the flag (much like Russia hmm).

beaylott1986on Ask HN: Cloud certifications and job prospects. Is there a real connection?

In UK context, many job ads for DevOps/Platform/SRE/Cloud roles will ask for AWS SAA if AWS is being used. I see other certs listed far less, whether AWS or otherwise. AWS SAA does seem to be the best value one in this sense. I'm currently working on AWS SAP.and wondering if there is any point tbh as I hardly ever see on job ads.

The AWS SysOps Associate exam is actually far more rigorous - questions are harder IMHO and it has a lab now so I would personally view someone holding that more favourably.

All clouds have partner programmes (mostly agency consultants) where status is partly linked to number of certified staff at different levels. For AWS specialty certs count same as professional in partner programme so for AWS partners they should just get them to do the easy AWS specialties like security instead of SAP.

I think the certs just help to get CV in front of people, they won't help much after that.