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bjacks

46 karma · joined April 6, 2015

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bjacks··on GitHub is apparently in crisis again
Has anyone noticed that the GitHub reviews on Glassdoor.com only start from May 19th, 2015? Have they been deleting bad reviews? Seems really suspicious.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/GitHub-Reviews-E671945_P3....

bjacks··on GitHub is apparently in crisis again
Because of GitHub's cultural issues towards women and sexism. I.e. the whole Julie Ann Horvath/Tom Preston-Werner/Zach Holman incident.
bjacks··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2016)
Hi there! I was wondering what your tech stack is, and is the software engineering role a remote job?
bjacks··on A Badass Way to Connect Programs Together
Can anyone explain what a sequential programming language is?

Context here:

"I guess I’d underestimated the difficulty of implementing Anything-over-TCP in a sequential language. Just because it’s really really easy in Erlang doesn’t mean to say it’s easy in sequential languages."

bjacks··on How to Choose the Right Coding Bootcamp
It's Recurse Center, not Resource Center!
bjacks··on How we used Category Theory to solve a problem in Java
I totally agree with this, it was like 'here's a solution using category theory', but what were the alternatives? How is this useful/applicable to me, and why should I learn category theory?
bjacks··on Kelly Slater's New Man Made Wave Project
I know, it's amazing, would love to know what the tech is behind it, it seems super secretive. Here's a link to his company who built it: http://kswaveco.com/ - no details unfortunately.
bjacks··on Big IPO, Tiny Payout for Many Startup Workers
There's a reason they call it Man Jose!
bjacks··on Early exit is a tail call optimization of procedural languages
I think that if the author re-wrote the first method in a cleaner way, composed of lots of smaller methods with descriptive names then the code would be a lot more readable, and you wouldn't even need to debate the whole multiple returns versus single point of return thing because your "mental stack" could handle either option equally well.

For example:

  public string Execute(int integer, string str, bool boolean) {
    string result;

    if (isValidInteger) {
       result = validateStringAndBool(str, boolean);
    } else {
       result = “Error: Integer is too small”;
    }
   return result;
}

  private string validateStringAndBool(string str, bool boolean) {
     if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str)) {
       return isValidBoolean(boolean)          
     } else {
        return  “Error: String is null or empty”;
     }
  }
 
  private string isValidBoolean(bool boolean) {
     if (boolean) {
        return “Success”;
     } else {
        return “Error: Incorrect Boolean”;
     }
  }
And yeah, I can't see how this has anything to do with tail call optimization other than a fluffy analogy to stacks - mental and programmatic.
bjacks··on Atlassian gets IPO share price of $27
Once a company has gone public is it common for lots of staff who have stock to quit?
bjacks··on Who Y Combinator Companies Want
I'd really like to know what it is about a resume or in an interview that makes someone seem like more of a 'product programmer'.

Is it the particular things they have worked on at other jobs, i.e. their experience, or is it the way they talk about what they want to build?

I'd be really interested to hear how I can make myself sound like more of a product programmer.

bjacks··on Is the new Zuckerberg fake charity an estate tax avoidance scheme?
Maybe you're not as decent as you think you are.
bjacks··on P vs. NP: An Assumption That Runs the Internet
I don't understand how verifying a TSP is any different to solving it - I.e. don't I have to do just as much work to verify that a particular solution is correct as if I was solving it from scratch? I.e. brute force?
bjacks··on Atlassian files for IPO
How can I buy shares?
bjacks··on Reconsider
I love this part of the article, it's incredibly important to remember this:

"The web is the greatest entrepreneurial platform ever invented. Lowest barriers of entry, greatest human reach ever. I love the web. Permission-less, grand reach, diversity of implementation. Don’t believe this imaginary wall of access of money. It isn’t there."

bjacks··on Cops are asking Ancestry.com and 23andMe for their customers’ DNA
Because the victim is dead and they can't find any family.
bjacks··on What Really Keeps Women Out of Tech
Probably trashy women's gossip magazines, lots of pink etc. That would do it for me.
bjacks··on Developers who can build things from scratch
A little off-topic, but has anyone else found that a lot of Haskellers fit into that "pet technologists" category? I've worked with a number of them, and seen them sneak Haskell in, despite it not being the best choice for the project.
bjacks··on How Coursera Competes for the Best Talent
Afterwards. I was basically in shock at the start of it..
bjacks··on How Coursera Competes for the Best Talent
Actually, this exact thing happened to me. I was asked to come in for a couple of hours to meet the team and see the office. When I arrived I was taken to a room where I was interviewed for 3 hours, by 3 different interview teams. Two of them were whiteboard interviews, then an interview with management.

Needless to say I rejected the offer, I was so unimpressed with the hiring process. Disgusted actually.