Hacker News Reader

jguston Boeing software under scrutiny as Ethiopia prepares crash report

I've been saying that software engineering as an industry is in the caveman state of development. The amount of scrutiny that production software gets at _most_ companies is hilariously lacking compared to say, a civil engineering blueprint and there are virtually zero repercussions for failure or negligence. Compare the education & certification required to be called a civil engineer vs. a software engineer and you'll notice that the industry is basically the wild west. You could also argue that computer science isn't yet a "hard science" like mechanical, civil, chemical, etc. engineering are.

I predict that there will be a split in the industry between "software engineer" and "software laborer" where there are specific certifications you need to have before being called an "engineer". "Software engineers" will be held responsible, like civil engineers are, for mistakes that result in accidents. Companies that write safety critical software like auto, air, and space industries where human lives or huge $$$ are on the line will hire engineers, e-commerce companies will continue to hire "code laborers".

Maybe they will even give you a fancy ring to wear?

jguston How Discord Went Mainstream

These types of arguments tickle me. Why isn't instagram just a shiny web frontend to a newsgroup?

jguston The Planned Obsolescence of Old Coders

This is what I meant, apologies for being cryptic. Web/JS development was absolute chaos, it just so happened that Facebook & Google won the day and we've converged on some "standards" in React/Vue/Angular, and I use that term very loosely.

The things I've seen. shudders

jguston California governor proposes data dividend

> really not a huge bar to entry

Critical mass is a huge bar to entry.

jguston The Planned Obsolescence of Old Coders

> And honestly, I would be more concerned about hiring someone who built their own bespoke framework from scratch than someone who used an existing one

It's almost like you're pretending the years between 2008-2012 never happened, but I'm sure that's not the case.

jguston A backyard mechanic who is taking on Tesla

It's a fine line between

> bet $30k on a broken car

and spending $30k on your "hobby". I think it's just a shift in mindset.

jguston America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

I agree with your point, but not necessarily the execution. We deserve a better religion, one that skips the hand-wavey-guy-in-the-sky implausibility but can still serve as a mental shortcut for whatever society agrees morality is ~currently~.

jguston How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

I wouldn't be surprised if this was an intentional hack to get around some regulatory bullshit.

>if we don't report whole number cap-ex hours on our return, we'll avoid an audit!

jguston If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

When people refer to intermittent fasting, they generally mean a water fast which means you're not eating anything and only drinking water for your fasting session.

jguston DOJ: Hackers broke into an SEC database and made millions from inside info

When you think about it that way & then combine it with some type of 2FA, it starts to make a lot of sense.

jguston Comcast rejected by small town, residents vote for municipal fiber instead

The last mile infrastructure isn't maintenance free and doesn't last forever, so it has to be paid for somehow be it taxes or commercially. Users (in the above situation) paying an ISP are essentially agreeing to a "maintenance contract".

jguston The Matrix Cookbook (2012) [pdf]

The author's email address is in there and it sounds like they were soliciting for comments... who knows if they are still maintaining this or not.

jguston Marriott hack hits 500M Starwood guests

I'm willing to bet that they haven't calculated _anything at all_ and they are scrambling to put out the fire.

jguston Successful second round of fusion experiments with Wendelstein 7-X

Not that long ago (1980's?) it was said that no one really needed a personal computer, and that no one would buy one.

jguston Taking lessons from the rise and fall of divinity in online games (2014)

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/player/fame-and-karma... https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/player/the-murder-sys...

It's been years, so I'm having trouble remembering the exact mechanics, but I recall it being non-trivial to continually murder PCs while maintaining a positive reputation. The most efficient way to do this would have been to kill dragons, and you needed to be a "tamer class" to do that efficiently. Most PKs weren't tamers. Also, having 5+ long term murders and a "red" name floating above your character was a dead giveaway that your character was up to no good.

jguston Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry

I'm afraid you're in a minority if you consider a sysadmin "blue collar", not to say that will always be the case.

jguston Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry

I don't know how to word this without sounding condescending, but how did you end up on hacker news given your profession? I get the impression that the majority demographic here is involved with software in some fashion, so seeing someone with a "blue collar" job stuck out to me. I tend to spend my free time tinkering with engines, so my thought is that you may spend your free time tinkering with software? Anyways, glad to see non-software people here to make discussions a bit less homogenous.

jguston Commuting by Bicycle is down?

I've found the added benefits of 1) not buying stuff I shouldn't eat because it takes up precious space and 2) I waste less food because I buy what I need that day/tomorrow instead of what I think I need 6 days from now.

jguston Commuting by Bicycle is down?

And in some cases is actually faster than driving/ride-share/public transit door to door.

jguston 3 huge new studies of 0.5MM people are casting major doubts on the keto diet

> Nutrition experts say that besides their potential for harm, these popular diets are really hard to follow

You can probably attribute this more to the current food environment and less so the diet. If you only have access to food that agrees with your diet, it's pretty easy to follow. Restrictive food diets are difficult because all the restricted food (generally the restricted foods are ones that are full of "empty calories" or contribute to overeating) surrounds us. It's everywhere. Restaurants. Commercials. Grocery stores. Convenient stores. The break room. Your S.O.'s pantry. If you can manage to escape it, your diet is smooth sailing. Good luck over eating spinach and hard boiled eggs, your stomach will revolt.

jguston Why startups are leaving Silicon Valley

If Big Tech wanted to fix it, they could. They have the capital to purchase new governance in California & the Bay to effectively change the laws to foster growth.

jguston GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

Not to mention that the majority of modern pharmaceuticals are focused on treating symptoms instead of causes. Insert argument about sick people being more profitable, etc.

jguston Making an emperor bed

> a community of mattress enthusiasts

This got a hearty chuckle out of me, nice work.

jguston Inventing a Language, from the Guy Who Made Dothraki (2015)

I found it amusing that "you" translated to "tu" (or tú) which is "you" in Spanish.

jguston LIDL cancels SAP introduction after spending 500M Euro

Something I learned in ERP 101: Don't customize software to your process unless the process is your competitive advantage.

jguston The rise and fall of Apple's Swift

A quick google search for "taylor swift programming" tells me... maybe.

jguston The rise and fall of Apple's Swift

https://tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programming-languages-definiti...

They are anchoring their argument about the past and future of Swift as a popular programming language based on... how many hits it has on a Google search? Okay.

jguston AMD Ryzen 7 2700X gets overclocked to break the 6GHz barrier

And shortly after, sustainable fusion was achieved.

jguston Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

Or if you work with mobile apps, unable to do your job.

jguston Bus Lane Blocked, He Trained His Computer to Catch Scofflaws

In your example, double parking sounds like a symptom of a larger problem: too many vehicles on the street and not enough parking.

Reform & enforcement should be focused on the root of the issue: more temporary parking & to make it more expensive & less convenient to own and store a vehicle in the city.