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bootloadon Paying to Work: Australian Startup Offers “Learning Platform of the Future”

"instead of sitting in lectures we get you working on projects with real companies to learn the right skills and build a portfolio of work. "

Paper Plane explaining ^how it works^: https://www.paperplaneprojects.com.au/how-it-works/ and another "Re-thinking Traditional Education" ~ https://www.paperplaneprojects.com.au/blog/rethinking-tradit...

Is replacing "one 4 year course to a series of 6-8 week projects" enough?

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"I think projector is talking about how a team-drinks-together-outside-of-work culture can still be healthy."

@mst fair enough point.

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"I don't think having a drinking culture means drinking while programming."

What is the union of work, drinking culture and SRE (the job the article refers)?

bootloadon Has There Been a Nuclear Incident in the Arctic?

update on this article ~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13676570

bootloadon Detection of radioactive iodine at trace levels in Europe in January 2017

looks like the US "WC-135 Constant Phoenix" atmospheric testing aircraft is being deployed. ~ http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7758/has-there-been-a-n... and https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/832716747035680768

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"That does not mean we are drunk when coding. As for team dynamics, it means we know each other better and bond more frequently. Not a problem, I think. The downside is that for people who don't want to engage in this or can't (have to look after family, etc.), it can feel exclusionary, so we spend some time making sure we do things with those people too."

Sounds like a more balanced view of what I've seen at some companies. Implies grown-ups are in charge.

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"it's conflating drinking and misogyny."

Good point @metafunctor, didn't even think of that.

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

Are you really supporting drinking at work? Tell me about the great experiences through the eyes of other people.

"talking about what sounds very much like events or after work happy hours"

The number of engineers bleeding from uber suggests, drinking isn't ^the problem^ but one part of a bigger culture problem. Do you work at Uber?

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

duty calls hey?

https://www.xkcd.com/386/

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"When I joined Uber, the organization I was part of was over 25% women. By the time I was trying to transfer to another eng organization, this number had dropped down to less than 6%. Women were transferring out of the organization, and those who couldn't transfer were quitting or preparing to quit."

Uber is bleeding engineers to other startups. Will the replacements be of the same calibre?

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"We have a pro-drinking culture at my company due to the nature of the business and I haven't found that it's causing any problems."

Anecdotal.

If drinking is done outside work/events this isn't what is being described in the article. What about the personal who a) don't drink or b) harassed by those who do? Drinking at work tells me the place isn't interested in performance or their customers.

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"Why is this getting down voted? Am I missing something in boatload's post?"

@luckeydude, it's a sort of reaction test for brogrammers who work in toxic environments. I can't think of any job (not after hours) where alcohol improves your performance and output.

bootloadon Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

"Culture was extremely heavy on the drinking;"

For me this is a red flag.

    Booze + programming == pissed programming

This leads to bad code also bad team dynamics. Ultimately this will reflect on the product and bottom line. For individuals this reads like a culture where the barrel is creating ^bad apples^. Not a good look on a resume.

bootloadon Detection of radioactive iodine at trace levels in Europe in January 2017

"Iodine-131 is a radionuclide with a short half-life (T1/2 = 8.04 day)."

Short half life, a nuclear event of some sort happened recently and nothing has been reported. I-131 is an isotope of Iodine and the source could be natural gas related, medical diagnostic OR a product of uranium and plutonium used in nuclear fission. [0]

Which countries have access to plutonium?

"only particulate iodine was reported."

What is the source of the particles?

"first found during week 2 of January 2017 in northern Norway."

What countries have access to plutonium that are active near Norway?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131

bootloadon 10 most influential personal computers – in pictures

I'd argue that the Alto and Mac are the most visionary, it's the beige IBM PC that allowed the market to explode. And the keyboard on that Thinkpad. Why can't a laptop have these kinds of keyboards?

bootloadon Mark Zuckerberg: Building Global Community

"In times like these, the most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of ^us^."

'Us' includes: Three letter agencies, marketeers and other data gathering companies.

bootloadon I started a one-man biz that's beating VC-backed startups

Having quickly looked at the audience for DistroKid, then see what happens with artists by major labels, no wonder the product is sought after by upcoming artists. [0] Bandcamp is another company that uses technology to squeeze out the middle man. [1] The first page is really well designed. You can easily see what the product does, "let artists make music, then distribute it for a fixed cost".

Reference

[0] "52 Ways to Screw an Artist, by Warner Bros. Records" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13648245

[1] "Is Bandcamp the Holy Grail of Online Record Stores?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12324350

bootloadon Algorithms

EdX as well,

- 6-00-1x https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-mit... (started)

- 6.00.2x https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computational-thinki... (March)

All are good and are pitched at various levels of complexity. The Princeton course uses Java. Okay if you're into that sort of language/thinking. MIT is using Python. Found one using lisp, "Systematic Program Design" ~ https://www.edx.org/xseries/how-code-systematic-program-desi...

bootloadon Ask HN: Laid off. Now what?

"I could easily spend $200 bucks a week on lunch and dinner alone."

You can easily feed four people per week for the same amount.

bootloadon Ask HN: Laid off. Now what?

"For some of you that may have experienced being laid off before, what were some of the first things you decided to do afterward? Do you have any advice or share any lessons learned?"

Minimise expenses.

Remember your worth is not to be measured by work alone. It will be easy to discouraged and spiral down. Don't. You are in survival mode now. Be flexible. If you have no choice, take jobs you might not like. The way you mentally approach this will give you an edge. In startup land, you are ahead of the curve if the economy tanks and more layoffs occur. Work hard. Luck favours the prepared.

bootloadon Should the Web Have DRM?

references "A battle rages for the future of the Web": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13637435

bootloadon Ask HN: Did you find it hard to date if you immigrated to US?

"This sort of post is not what HN is for."

If the poster finds this ^interesting^, why not? Within the bounds of HN. Not interested? don't read it.

bootloadon Extraordinary levels of organic pollutants in the deepest ocean trenches

"Polychlorinated biphenyls were once widely deployed as dielectric and coolant fluids in electrical apparatus, carbonless copy paper and in heat transfer fluids.[1] Because of their longevity, PCBs are still widely in use, even though their manufacture has declined drastically since the 1960s"

Hydrophobic, highly soluble in organic solvents, oils & fats. How long ago were these pollutants (PCBs) deposited? A quick check shows toxicity was known and acted on in the 70s. [1] Is this a concentration by old pollution or is it still happening? The article seems to suggest both.

A higher level article is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13639274

Reference

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

bootloadon Inside the bizarre 1960s cult, the Family: LSD, yoga and UFOs

“The really interesting thing about this group is that it wasn’t a bunch of hippies with flowers in their hair: they were middle class; they were highly intelligent; they were successful in their careers,”

To understand Assange, you have to understand his early years exposed to this cult. [0]

[0] "Christine Assange then became involved with Leif Meynell, also known as Leif Hamilton, a member of Australian cult THE FAMILY, with whom she had a son before the couple broke up in 1982. Assange had a nomadic childhood, and had lived in over thirty different Australian towns by the time he reached his mid-teens, when he settled with his mother and half-brother in Melbourne, Victoria."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Early_life

bootloadon The Curse of Smart People (2014)

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=meme+particular+skills+taken&aiar=...

bootloadon The Curse of Smart People (2014)

"benefit the most from this comment"

This idea matters if you want to lead, rather than be the "go-to" expert, subservient to a boss. Smart people with people skills probably get this. Smart, smart people may fundamentally not understand this and remain pigeon holed in their areas of expertise.

Inside the Twin Trade Buildings during 9/11/01, rooms full of smart (and scared) people were killed following rules. [0] Blue collar workers reacted better. I use these extreme examples to show where "it pays not to be too stuck in your head" and develop other skills often seen as the antithesis of being smart.

I offer Rick Rescorla (Morgan Stanly Security officer, World Trade Centre) as a counter-example. [1]

[0] Martha T. Moore, Dennis Cauchon "Delay meant death on 9/11" http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-09-02-choice...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla

bootloadon The Curse of Smart People (2014)

" In _The Righteous Mind_, Jonathan Haidt argues that emotion-processing is critical to decision making (and that we use emotion-processing to guide reason), citing some work that people with damaged emotion processing suffer analysis paralysis on simple tasks."

The balance between logic, emotion and decisiveness is a theme explored in Star Trek S1E16, "The Galileo Seven" [0], [1] Spock taking command and following ^flawlewss logic^ almost gets them marooned and killed. I have a theory smart people who assume a rigid logical mindset make the worst leaders.

Reference

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

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708465/

bootloadon Change at Buffer: The Next Phase, and Why Our Co-Founder and CTO Are Moving On

" For him this blog post probably isn't just a public announcement. It cements in the fact that it's actually happening."

Excellent observation.

bootloadon The Curse of Smart People (2014)

"Curse of Smart People"

Gallileo. Politics is a curse for smart people. Another example, "New people" in "Year Zero". [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(political_notion)