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3,237 karma · joined May 3, 2018

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docker_up··on U.S. cancels $929M in California high speed rail funds after appeal rejected
No, Newsom killed that plan.

It's insane to think that this would actually be completed. It's more like the stealth fighter project that should never have gotten funding, or should have had its funding cut decades previous at this point.

docker_up··on U.S. cancels $929M in California high speed rail funds after appeal rejected
A train between Merced and Bakersfield? The talks of Bridges to Nowhere dwarf the ridiculousness of this Train To and From Nowhere. Who the hell would use this to make it profitable enough to justify?
docker_up··on Incognito no more: Publishers close loopholes as paywall blockers emerge
Is there a way to remove publications from Google News sources? If I can't read the article for free, then I don't want to see their links ever.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
No, you are wrong. The OP was talking about his experiences in Silicon Valley. I was also talking about my experiences in Silicon Valley not about yours outside of it. I can guarantee if you are in Silicon Valley, this is par for the course.
docker_up··on I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
During the early days of "intranets", I worked at a very large company akin to a government organization. I thought we could save paper by putting our reports on the intranet instead of printing it out. There was one particularly important report that had needed to be printed every week, and it seemed like a good candidate.

I called the person who needed the report, but they said they didn't need it, and passed me to the person who requested it from them. I called the next person, and they passed me onto another person. I followed this about 5 people deep until I found one person who told me that they didn't need that report at all.

I left that company within 2 months of joining.

docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
Low-end L4 vs High-end L5 probably is like that.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I've been employed since the 1990s, and I've seen the world pre-Internet. I'm exactly one of the people that have seen the changes in the industry, including in hiring practices and have been forced to adapt.

I've interviewed at Microsoft when they asked me how to find the fake coin based on N number of weighings. I've gone to Silicon Valley Brass Ring job fairs during the Dotcom Boom where they interviewed onsite and I was asked to code on the spot. During that era, various companies asked me things like what the largest number was for a 2^64 number or what the current Linux kernel version was, or what the default TCP timeout was.

And since Google came on the scene with their focus on algos, the entire industry has changed again. Every year the interview process in Silicon Valley has gotten harder and harder. That's the reality. Crying about it won't change it.

If I had the power to change it, I would hire fast and fire fast, like Netflix. But that comes with its own problems as well, so there is no best solution. All you can do is adapt and change with the industry. I know I'm not smart or ambitious enough to ever make it to the highest echelons of a company to affect culture so I'm happy getting paid as much as I can until I retire.

Some of my former co-workers are STILL stuck in the same company 16 years later. I still have lunch with them at least once a year, and they are petrified to change companies even though this current company keeps laying people off and replacing them with offshore workers. They don't have the guts to buckle down and study and adapt, so they're waiting to get laid off, which is sad to me.

docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
Yes, 400k is easily attainable as an L5/E5 at FANG. That's 200k base salary, 30k annual bonus, and $175k yearly RSU vesting (or about 750k initial grant). Those are definitely possible. Staff-level (L6) is about $250-300k, $50k bonus and $300k yearly vest at FANG. Senior engineers at Netflix make $600k or more per year in base salary only.

I'm not smart enough or ambitious enough anymore for staff but L5 is definitely doable.

docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I'm totally okay with you not wanting to hire me. Even at my age, I get about a 50% acceptance rate from my onsites. I would rather take a coding job that pays me well than start from the beginning in any other industry. If all it takes is a few months of studying, I'll take it.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
Just one. I'm in SV and I can often get onsites skipped because I know someone and get a direct referral.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I wish I had other options, but the only thing I've ever done in my life is code. I can't even put together IKEA furniture very well, so I'm effectively useless everywhere else.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I've had over 10 jobs in my career so starting over, making new friends, learning new code bases from scratch etc is old hat to me. I wish interviews would test for that instead of leetcode.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
400k TC is about average (if not low) these days for staff-level positions in SV. Getting those jobs requires studying hard, though.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I've done phone screens with coderpad/hackerrank if that's what you're talking about. That's the industry norm for several years now.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
My point is that it's the reality. Change and adapt or die along with the COBOL programmers. I watched the COBOL programmers get laid off in droves after Y2K and the dotcom bust so it's a lesson I won't forget. Sure there are some COBOL programmers making mint as consultants but the total number were laid off with prejudice.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
More power to you. I personally haven't not seen a leetcode-style interview in at least 15 years in Silicon Valley. There's also system design questions these days and I was told Google does "Computer Science Fundamentals" and Facebook does "Distributed Systems Design" specifically.
docker_up··on Senior Developers Are Getting Rejected for Jobs
I'm so tired of hearing programmers complain about how useless programming interviews are.

I'm currently in the process of preparing for interviews. I'm almost 50. I'm currently talking with FANG and other well-known Silicon Valley unicorn startups so I don't feel any ageism yet. I hate it, though. But it's the reality of the industry right now. I don't pretend I'm above it, so I will do whatever I need to get a new job.

Yes, I hate them with a passion. Today I had a phone screen with a company and I was so nervous, I think I'm suffering from PTSD from how completely random the question will be, and how random the evaluator's perception of me will be based on said question. But I accept it for what it is. I'm auditioning for a role as "senior programmer", just like an actor would. That's the reality, and if I'm going to get myself a job that pays ~$400,000/yr in total comp, I will jump through whatever hoops I need to.

The OP was saying he was doing one programming question per week. Really? I'm doing 5 per night, and even more on the weekends. As I get closer to onsites, I'm going to be studying 8 hrs a day on weekends and leaving my kids to my wife.

docker_up··on Americans can opt out of airport facial recognition
I understand the need to exercise freedom, and I do this when in line for TSA. I opt for hand-screening usually.

But I don't see what the point is in not answering where you visited. I'm pretty sure they already have this information so there's no point in hiding it, in my opinion. Plane tickets, hotel bookings, credit card usage, etc all will tell an easy tale as to where you were and what you did.

docker_up··on MDS: Microarchitectural Data Sampling side-channel vulnerabilities in Intel CPUs
Didn't they already have a proof of concept Spectre or Meltdown exploit via a web page? Malicious ads seem like the best way to spread ransomware, etc.
docker_up··on Ask HN: Asking to sign an agreement claiming work I do after term of employment
Don't join. You will be making a huge mistake if you do.
docker_up··on Ask HN: Asking to sign an agreement claiming work I do after term of employment
I've been in Silicon Valley for ~25 years and held 10 jobs.

I've never seen this before and I would NEVER ever sign something like this.

This sounds like indentured servitude. The manager is lying to you when she says that it's "common". Run away from this company, fast. No job is worth signing an indefinite contract like that.

docker_up··on Supreme Court rules antitrust lawsuit against Apple can proceed
It really does prove it. If they were completely aligned with politics, they would have ALWAYS voted in a predictable way.

They may have more conservative or liberal tendencies, but to think that that all Justices will vote the way that people want to pigeonhole them into is ridiculous.

docker_up··on Amazon to employees: Quit your job, we’ll help you start a delivery business
This is most certainly a trap.

They're going to start their business, and then Amazon is going to drop the prices they pay them, and the employees will be trapped because of investment of their own money and sunk costs.

DO NOT DO THIS!

docker_up··on Supreme Court rules antitrust lawsuit against Apple can proceed
I think this proves that Supreme court justices are not aligned with any political parties. They take their roles very seriously. Kavanaugh looks to be very much a worthy Supreme Court Justice, same as Roberts who was elected by Bush (whom I hate more than Trump). I'm glad he was able to survive the ridiculous antics he went through and I think he will be a good justice regardless of what people think his allegiance was.
docker_up··on Amazon must remove toxic school supplies, kids’ jewelry from US marketplace
FFS now we have to worry about this too? I guess I'm naive but I trusted Amazon but it makes sense that they just sold whatever they wanted without testing.

They should have dedicated 10X the $700,000 and have been fined, my God I'm upset right now.

docker_up··on Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as teens become young adults
Israel is a small country. Small countries can do things like universal health care. Canada is only 1/10 the size of the US. Large countries like the US have a much harder time as can be seen today.
docker_up··on We Can Do Better Than SQL
I think "ease of use" over SQL is not the hill I would die over if I were trying to displace SQL.

It's far too embedded throughout the entire industry and as a data analyst, learning EdgeQL vs SQL and then being locked into a new startup database that could disappear in a year doesn't seem like a high probability strategy.

I wish the people all the luck but unfortunately SQL is "good enough", pretty standardized (I can use just about any relational database and get useful data by knowing the basics). The inconsistencies may be mathematically "ugly" but it's not hard to wrap your head around and overcome.

docker_up··on Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as teens become young adults
I don't think you've been in a Kaiser facility if you believe this.
docker_up··on Ask HN: Why are phone numbers considered a secure personal identifier?
Short answer: it's not. It's the lazy personal identifier.
docker_up··on Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as teens become young adults
Having employer-sponsored medical insurance is generally better than Canadian health care. I'm Canadian living in the US. Of course, having Canadian public health care is better when you don't have much money.

I needed an MRI. I got one the next day through Kaiser. My friend had a suspected gallstone. It took her 4 months to get an MRI scheduled. She had to live with pain during those 4 months.

Her children are both diagnosed with autism. It took 2.5 years to get therapy paid for by the government. The only other option besides waiting was to pay for therapy herself which was $80,000/year. She couldn't afford it so her children had to wait without therapy during the most crucial times for therapy. Recently, the Ford government decided upon spending cuts that will limit her youngest son with severe autism to 2 more years of care and then they get nothing.

With Kaiser, they have a top standard autism program where children get instantly put into. My friend is a medical doctor specializing in this and he said the Kaiser program was great. When I told him that my friend had to wait 2.5 years in Canada, he was shocked and saddened for the children.

Before the younger son could get diagnosed with autism, he had to undergo an MRI to ensure there wasn't anything specifically wrong with his brain. They waited 3.5 months, and then when they got to the MRI appointment, they were told their appointment was cancelled, and they had to wait another month.

My aunt was scheduled for gall stone surgery in Toronto but it was also months in advance. One weekend she went to emergency because was vomiting from pain. They put her in a bed and scheduled her for surgery at the hospital. If she left, she would have to wait for the scheduled surgery but if she took an emergency room spot, she could get surgery sooner. She had occupy that bed for 1.5 weeks until they finally scheduled her for surgery, taking the place of other patients. We asked if we could move her to another hospital that didn't have the wait and they said no, she had to stay in that hospital otherwise she would lose her place.

These are experiences just with people I know. I've lived much of my life with Canadian health care and I trust it. But what you don't pay with money you pay with time.

I've found that most people in the US want government health care, but they also want a private option, which is untenable for such a large country, and illegal in Canada. They have a 2 party health care system in Australia but the quality difference is vast. With public and private, you can criticism that only rich people get the best health care but with a single public system, everyone waits. So there's no great way.

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