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cowvin

148 karma · joined May 7, 2021

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cowvin··on Self-Hosted 110: Google Photos Replacement [audio]
No kidding, it seems more like a plug for the podcast than the app.
cowvin··on Tell HN: The ratio of wants-to-be-hired to is-hiring is at a record high 0.94
The interview is a two-way interview. You can also identify crappy companies you don't want to work for by crappy interview processes.
cowvin··on Ask HN: Google spam filter getting worse?
Yeah, close to the November election, it felt like Google stopped filtering election spam email suddenly.
cowvin··on Tell HN: Sometimes you don't realise how bad something is until you leave
I was a summer intern at a big defense company for one of my first summer jobs. They gave me some fairly simple work but not enough to fill my day. I ended up reading a lot of books for a large chunk of my day. =/
cowvin··on Analog Chess
Hmmm from testing it on the replit site someone posted, you can actually move through the first point of contact. I set up a case where my queen was protected by a pawn and used a bishop to take both pieces.
cowvin··on Hans Niemann Suing Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com, and Hikaru Nakamura
Mostly things like illegal equipment (besides blatantly breaking rules).

https://golfguidebook.com/best-illegal-golf-clubs/

cowvin··on The Full Chess Cheating Report of Hans Neiman
One of the most interesting (but inconclusive) points they found was how Hans' evaluated strength dropped after they introduced the 15 minute broadcast delay.
cowvin··on Ask HN: Email sent via work email (Outlook) replied to personal Gmail
Where is your personal gmail available on the internet? Maybe it's on your resume and the person checked out your resume before responding to you?
cowvin··on Ask HN: Why do software engineers hate technology?
I don't hate technology. I'm hesitant to adopt a lot of cutting edge technology because I don't like how intrusive it is, though.
cowvin··on Ask HN: What was life like before and after a baby
It's really tough.

"I'm told that I'm going to have no time any more and good sleep is a thing of the past."

This is accurate, but you won't really get it until you're in the midst of it and you realize there is no way out. Your life will be very different from now on.

The most important advice I have for you right now is make sure you and your partner know you are a team. You will both be going through a difficult transition. Forgive them for everything you can and hopefully they can forgive you for everything they can.

cowvin··on Tell HN: You can't hire because you don't post salary ranges
That's true, but you could also just work the 500k job for 5 years and then possibly (semi) retire. 2.5 million before taxes is a pretty nice chunk to have before your late 20s. It's just delayed gratification.
cowvin··on Detecting unauthorized physical access with beans, lentils and colored rice (2021)
Exactly. I would imagine any sort of substantial impact (common in shipping) would shift around some of the pieces.
cowvin··on How Bungie identified a mass sender of fake DMCA notices
wow 57% and 37% are awful. it's almost as if the system shouldn't be automated.
cowvin··on Ask HN: I failed FAANG interview because I didn't know Binary tree?
Yeah, that's rough, but you really should know what a binary tree is if you want to be a software engineer. It's probably a good idea to study data structures and algorithms a bit more.
cowvin··on The Coin That Could Wreck Crypto
Yep, I'm with you. I'm generally pretty loose on letting people enjoy their vices, but I think it's also reasonable for society to protect people who might be preyed upon by others through their vices.

For example, heroin is notoriously destructive and addictive. I'm cool with outlawing it. But something like marijuana is not nearly as destructive and addictive, so I'd rather legalize it.

Gambling can be addictive, but people enjoy it, so it should be legal. However, I think it's appropriate to ban certain predatory gambling practices.

cowvin··on Crypto Crashed So Hard It May No Longer Be Profitable to Mine Ethereum
How long does it take for the difficulty to adjust to the current prices? Something like weeks, right?
cowvin··on Welcome to 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy and Life Has Never Been Better
LOL yeah, lack of personal living space is not realistic in the slightest. I think it's meant to just inspire people to question things, though.
cowvin··on U.S. court rejects Tether’s bid to conceal reserve records from the public
Well technically they proved that that WAS true. We don't know how much money they have backing it now after spending $8B.
cowvin··on Dutch companies pledge to not avoid taxes
It's hard to write laws to outlaw them. I mean you can't really outlaw a company shuffling money around to meet their business needs. You also can't write laws governing another country.

So unless there's a big international effort to get all countries to adopt some consistent tax laws, and cut off trade with the ones who don't sign on, there will be some countries who profit from keeping their laws favorable to being tax havens.

cowvin··on Ask HN: Any other self taught devs terrified of interviewing these days?
If you feel a degree is that important to your confidence level, you could go get one.

I will say that when we interview people, for senior positions, we hardly look at their education. You have 10 years of experience, so your interview would most likely depend on that.

cowvin··on The Apple GPU and the impossible bug
No need to be depressed. It's not a competition between you. You can find inspiration in what others achieve and try to achieve more yourself.
cowvin··on Coinbase's 10-Q update: users' crypto asset could be subject to bankruptcy claim
Yes, but it's not as weird as it sounds. It says the users are creditors as well so using the users' accounts to pay the users is not particularly strange.
cowvin··on Ask HN: How well do you convey the technical aspects of your work to your SO?
Some things can be hard to explain, sure, but I don't expect my wife to understand the technical aspects of my work, so no, no strain or dissatisfaction.
cowvin··on The Curious Case of August Engelhardt, Leader of a Coconut-Obsessed Cult (2017)
Out of curiosity, are you somehow forgetting about QAnon, the incel movement, etc?
cowvin··on Show HN: Sqwok – A social chat alternative to Twitter and Reddit
Pretty cool, but without some clear plan for moderation, the site will be overrun with bots and misinformation very quickly as it catches on. There's already a post spreading vaccine misinformation.

Also as the user count increases and the number of active conversations increases, the first page is going to become extremely chaotic to the point that it will be hard to find conversations you are interested in. Is there a plan for adding some sort of filtering?

Additionally, the actual conversation screen seems to be using screen real estate extremely inefficiently. The left part of the screen is largely empty and wasted space. It seems like it would be a lot more efficient to put the two panes vertically.

cowvin··on Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal
17% is not a majority. I think you just mean he is the largest shareholder.
cowvin··on I'm a security engineer and I still almost got scammed
Yeah, you can tell a lot by the attitude of the caller. A person once called my wife telling us about a potential fraudulent transaction on one of our credit cards. She was a bit worried so she came over and got me. The person started asking her about whether she made a purchase at this time, etc. I jumped in and told her to stop talking to the guy and call the credit card company back. The person chuckled and said "okay, sounds good."

We called the credit card company and there was indeed a fraudulent purchase, so yeah the real companies don't pressure you into unsafe things.

cowvin··on If founders treated investors the way they treat employees
Isn't it normal to have some doubts about what a total stranger tells you?
cowvin··on Wealthiest Americans pay just 3.4% of income in taxes, investigation reveals
One thing to note is that the wealthy will never pay any capital gains tax on their stock holdings.

While they are alive, they simply take out low interest loans against their stocks.

When they die, they pass on their stocks to their children taking advantage of the step up in basis: (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stepupinbasis.asp)

So now their kids possess a ridiculous amount of stocks and will never need to pay any capital gains on them.

So yes, rich people who make a lot of money in unrealized capital gains are vastly underpaying taxes on their income. We should close the step up in basis tax loophole.

cowvin··on Tell HN: Turned 44 today and I'm lost
It sounds like you've accomplished a lot already and are financially stable. You can always just buy health insurance yourself if you don't want to work anymore.

Is there anything that you want to accomplish still? What do you want to be the mark you leave on the world?

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