jimmies

I am under no illusion that among people who dropped out, the number of people who end up next to the dumpsters is going to be more than ones who become billionaires. Same to state universities vs private universities. One shouldn't drop out a good university when they have a choice. One shouldn't choose a no-name public university over Stanford when they have a choice.

I didn't have a choice not to attend a cheap public school.

I just want to tell my story to share the story that good teachers are everywhere, even in cheap public schools.

That's the maximum number of hours that international students could work outside of normal class hours. Basically, that makes attending classes+work an 8-to-5 job. And then I had to come home and study and do homework. Since I had no choices, I didn't have a problem with it.

I used to do IT support for a whole building when I was a undergrad student. One of the professors once had a quote stuck on her door:

"People may forget what you say. They may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

I was a drop-out college student who attended that small, cheap public university in the middle of nowhere as a last resort because I ran out of options in my country. Studying there was nothing short of life-changing. Long story short, 11 years later, I just earned my doctorate degree not so long ago and working my dream job.

By the way, after graduating from the small state school, I got accepted in a much larger research university that gave me a free ride. But it was that little school that I had to work my ass 20 hours a week for 4 years that feel I owe my big gratitude for. That little school was the one that gave me hope that I could change my life and had professors and faculties that went out of their way to help a no-name international student. The other day, I was offered an internship in a very good place. The international student office told me I couldn't accept it because of the laws or whatever. There came a professor whom I barely talked to. She was then the head of the business school - one of the departments I did IT support for. She offered to go with me to that office to argue with the director of the international office on behalf of me. And she did. And she won. I didn't have to say a word.

I think it was how you make them feel that makes them remember what you did, not the other way around.

>why don't you just use Windows or Mac laptop?

Linux tooling support is still very important to me. I want to be able to enjoy Konsole and Sublime text.

Windows Subsystem for Linux is getting there, but I don't think it's as advanced as ChromeOS' yet. Besides, I don't like the Metro interface and Windows 10 in general.

Mac means tying to Apple hardware. Apple hardware means crappy keyboard, heavy laptop, and no touch screen.

Absolutely. Same reason I stopped doing custom ROM for my phone. Growing up is hard :(

No, the "real" ChromeOS has had acceleration all along. It is about the Chromebooks getting HW acceleration for its virtualized Linux environment when you want to run real Linux apps on it.

I am a hardcore Linux user. I went so far as buying Chromebooks to wipe ChromeOS and run Linux on them in the last 5 years. As of late, I have decided to leave ChromeOS alone on my new Pixelbook.

There are two reasons for that decision:

- I just love having the ability to have a pen to draw when I needed to share the screen to explain something for my friends when we talk about technical crap. ChromeOS supports the pen reasonably well with its ability to run Android apps.

- The Linux emulation layer on ChromeOS is actually very good. I can run app-get, gcc, Sublime text, Konsole and most of the apps I want to run.

I figured it is a good tradeoff between convenience and utility. I still have to do my embedded work on my desktop which has a real distro. I am very glad they are bringing the upcoming usb redirection support, so I can do embedded work on my laptop. With GPU acceleration I can play games too, fantastic!

Hardware-wise, the Chromebook Pixel has been a disaster. Every once in a while, the USB-C port just craps out completely and I had to do the SMC reset procedure for it to work again. The other day, I left the laptop battery run dry and when I plugged in to charge and tried to turn it on, the keyboard would flicker like a discotheque with nothing on the screen for like 20 minutes when it was charging up. The hardware is just inconsistent and feels flaky as heck.

But all in all, I am actually quite happy with my Pixelbook purchase. If the hardware/firmware experience could improve a bit, then it would have been a very, very good purchase despite all the hates from Youtube reviewers.

Anyone remembers just 5 years ago, Microsoft had a huge campaign about how everyone got "scroogled" by Google? Especially this ad about Google reading your mail to devliver you ads? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1ominSL_c

Oh, how the time has changed!

Very smart people can believe in and say very not-so-smart things. To make the output equal when the input isn't, you're skewing other factors.

I remember watching a video about communism the other day that talks about equality. When trying to make everyone's pay "equal" while each person works a different number of hours, what ends up happening is that you don't pay equal hourly rates. If you pay everyone one equal hourly rate, then you can't make the total pay equal. It's important to see what factor we want to make equal for everyone.

Here he makes an elementary mistake when the input ratio probably isn't equal and somehow magically the output ratio is equal. What could possibly go wrong?

I used to watch "Nathan for you" which is the somewhat comedic version of the business hacking theme. The difference is that the main protagonist did not always succeed. But when he got lucky and it worked, it was funny as shit.

My favorite episode is the best buy tv episode.

I got introduced to pot when I entered grad school to do a STEM Ph.D. I was cool with it - I was never an addict. I smoked a couple of times a year at most. It had to be a quite special occasion for me to smoke marijuana, drink, or do other drugs. Like the author, drugs gave me the courage to do things I would regret later. I did things to hurt my very best girlfriend I could have when I was high. She later left me.

Drugs are the demon that I thought I'm good enough to control -- I have a fucking Ph.D. after all. I know the answer for myself now, that is doing marijuana or any other drug is a losing battle. Most of the times when I am sober, I can hide the asshole person I really am. But when I'm high, all hell breaks loose.

Or you can `/s/doi.org/sci-hub.tw/` the doi URL. ;-)

I've never had a relationship until 25. I had all the bad luck when it comes to genetics and upbringing.

At the time of 25, I just learned to drive and had my first beater 15-year-old car. I made lots of great friends when giving rides to Wal-mart to friends who are fellow international graduate students on that shitty car. I just made up bullshit reasons for me to go to Wal-mart every weekend and asked them if they want to tag along. Many were too shy to bother others, and would totally appreciate someone who would offer them a ride. I sort of became the go-to person when people needed a ride (friendship came with a cost, who would have guessed right?). One day, I was asked to give a student a ride from the airport two hours away because she couldn't ask anyone else to help. We became good friends after the ride I gave her and we developed a great relationship two years after.

There is a lot of stuff like that you can do to help others and maybe help yourself. You can volunteer in a place if you don't know where to begin. When you find yourself to be useful and kind to others, oh strangely, people will see that too.

>less willing to make contact because I always have that thought of what if you are a doing something wrong, you will be accused of something etc.

While some people are a pain in the ass, you will find most to be friendly and understanding when you're genuine. Don't be afraid of stories you read online of judgments and lawsuits. I found myself in a strange situation when I just had nothing to lose and I did many things against the advice to protect myself from being vulnerable and potentially receiving the short end of the stick. I have turned my life around doing just that. While I did indeed occasionally receive the short end of the stick, I have gained so many great friends and stories that totally made it worth it.

I have several Netgear R6100 routers and I'm very happy with their performance and functionality. They are easily available on Amazon for $20 or so. The only shortcoming with them is that they have 100mbps ethernet ports, which I don't use.

If you're into hardware hacking, almost all big camera brands (Canon, Nikon, Sony) have (unofficial) custom firmwares [1] that enhance the functionality of the original ones.

I have a Sony mirrorless one that is locked to Japanese language and I can't be happier to have it unlocked with the custom firmware.

1: https://github.com/htruong/hackable-consumer-hardware

Hey, I just graduated with a Ph.D. degree and I feel the same way you do. The process did leave a lot of scars in my mind. I just can't imagine how hard it is for you to not have received a degree.

I totally would share it. I do write my blog at my profile. It will take a while for me to organize my thoughts to write this down (in a month maybe?), but it is coming :)

One thing I'd love to add is that is to make friends with people: People who are older than you, people that don't do stuff you do, people with radically different ideas and lifestyles, people in different countries/cultural backgrounds, people who are successful and unsuccessful.

If it is possible, you should find ways to talk to people you adore. Many people will spend the time to talk back to you. They will be the fuel in your life when you need advice, help, inspirations.

If you're a person in STEM, you should listen carefully to/date people studying arts, literature, social studies, education, politics... Never ever look them down as not as smart as you are. Think of people who don't think the way you do as being different rather than inferior to you. This is easier said then done, if you have a good job and in general, probably have a higher position in the food chain compared to them.

After being trapped in a rut at 30, I decided to rethink many aspects of my life just 4 months ago. I made a major overhaul of myself, and it worked out so well I couldn't imagine.

It's never ever too late to do anything, the important thing is whether someone's willing to admit they didn't know as much as they thought.

They exist but they are quite limited. Even installing fonts on iOS seems like a hack, so I can't imagine doing advanced stuff such as inserting videos into a presentation being easy on it.

Yeah, this illustration is what can be done in PPT in 5 minutes to explain how adding more layers/data can filter noise from signal, when I don't think it will take 5 minutes for me to write a LaTEX code that does the same. That's not counting Powerpoint does allow me to draw lines and stuff easily on a canvas. If I want to do it in LaTEX, I probably will need to draw that diagram on a separate program and import it back.

https://giphy.com/gifs/4GXOwrfX1p9SuzbGzS/fullscreen

Sorry, the slide is clipped for some reason, but that's because I don't know how to configure OBS. It's not the best illustration ever, but you probably get the idea.

Here is an animation that isn't mine and I think it's really well done to explain a hard idea (not necessarily in PPT):

https://youtu.be/Tfh0ytz8S0k?t=123

I've been a LaTEX/Markdown person for years before converting to Powerpoint/Keynote.

If you want your slides to be minimal and clean and you don't have a lot of time to do, then Markdown works. To me, over time I am convinced that having the ability to do animations to explain technical ideas is great. While it's not impossible to do fly in/out/moving animations in LaTEX, presentation software makes it ten times easier to maintain.

I think that not everything is best explained in code. Sometimes you need pictures/animations to convey the ideas.

Recently I have been contemplating getting an Apple machine at home just for Keynote, Pages, iMovie, Counter-Strike, iMessage/Facetime (and Photoshop, perhaps?), which I don't get on my low-powered Linux laptop. I've been using a Hackintosh-on-KVM kinda solution and it works OK for the most part even with my dedicated GPU, but not ideal and I'd be happy to convert to the light side to enjoy seamless upgrades and stuff.

I don't want to shell out like $1200 for a dumb macbook that I don't use, but I would be happy to shell out $500 for a Keynote machine.

For me, Keynote/Pages are the killer apps that only macOS has. iMessage/FT is the killer app that the Apple ecosystem has. Having a cheap entry to them is a great idea.

Literally, win a Nobel prize, or you have to "tick" several boxes for "extraordinary ability." I don't think a good professor in an American university will even qualify. It's pretty legit.

Note that that "extraordinary ability" green card is not employer-sponsored. You don't have to have anyone sponsoring you to get it - that means you can be unemployed and Uncle Sam will be happy to pick you up as a permanent resident.

>people shouldn't buy phones from the manufacturers they don't trust.

People shouldn't put their pictures , and relationship status, and whom they know, and what they think, and where they go, and what they talk in private about, to a private company's service that they don't trust.

Oh, except for, they do.

>Mr. Koum, a San Jose State University dropout, grew up in Soviet-era Ukraine, where the government could track communication, and talked frequently about his commitment to privacy.

Someone said that the people who love America the most are the immigrants who has to endure the crap back in their home country. I can totally relate to this. I have lived in a country where my privacy and personal judgment didn't mean anything. The government could do whatever with your life, and people can ruin your life and kill your whole family by accusing you of a story they hear from the vines [1, 2]. Maybe [3] - not from the same country, but it is the same story.

I make a point to not have Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp (now) - basically anything that Zuckerberg and co. laid their hands on. I fucking hate the whole idea of any entity blatantly time and again disrespecting my privacy and judgments to advance their agenda and make money. The truth is I really have no control over what it collects from me, what it shows me, what it tells me, what it advertises to me, what it hides from me. I know if I go with it, the decision of foregoing my privacy will go back and bite me when I need it the most. It doesn't matter what they say they stand for; it doesn't matter how many of my peers are using; it doesn't matter what I miss out; it doesn't matter how weird people think I am; it doesn't matter what opportunities I will lose. I have made a decision two years ago to never consider using Facebook, and I will do my damnest to stay away from Facebook and their products and I will try my damnest to convince people to do the same.

That's how much distaste I have for Facebook and their platform as a person who had a taste of injustice. Zuck might be on top of the laws and the world and has a lot of allies, but it's not like I have not seen that and I have to fear that. And that's probably the most beautiful thing about America.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nh%C3%A2n_V%C4%83n%E2%80%93Gia...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform_in_North_Vietnam

3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

>But minorities always just "ignore it" - but that doesn't mean it doesn't affect them.

Everyone has to go to school, the park, etc, and I pay the same tax so having an environment that is pleasant for everyone is a required property. I can't ignore someone shouting to me insulting slurs for who I am. But no one has to go to 4chan, if someone feels offended they can just not visit it.

I would quote "Shit my dad says" on this: "Don't focus on the one guy who hates you. You don't go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit."

Although I am not black, I am Asian, and can be described by a word started with C (/csg/ if you lurk /g/), and more accurately G. I would be offended if someone calls me that in real life.

On 4chan though, I myself really don't get offended in any way. Someone explained it this way: you're only supposed to be offended if someone calls you a n* f* in a setting that not everyone is. On 4chan, everyone is already a n* f* so it kinda levels the playing field.

I get it that others minority people might not share the same view.

I am a grad student and writing and maintaining a blog has done me wonders over the years. So:

1. "I'd like to write to help understand how deep my understanding of the subject" -- You need to find the frequency you need to tune in so that your readers find you interesting. Things that require a deep understanding might not make a good story and appeal to the mass, and vice versa.

What I learned is that despite me doing an advanced degree, I only know very little that others don't: https://twitter.com/lolmythesis

To me, when I blog, I tell a story. When I write a paper, I tell how deep my understanding is on that subject. My knowledge of the subject matter is just a catalyst, not the cause, for me to tell my story.

Don't be shy about what you know, but I think the idea is you shouldn't assume that your readers are dumber than you unless you're Peter Norvig. But there are angles that you see things that are interesting to others.

2. No person I know or follow ever publish their homework to their blog and be successful. You need to add a whole narrative on top of that to be interesting, so I doubt anyone will have a problem with it. If you're worried about the legality, you're counting the eggs before they hatch.

I have recently created a software package and wanted a forum to have my users post "fun" stuff that is not strictly technical since it's sort of a hobby. I have decided that it is way too tedious to host my own forums, so I chose a middle ground that is to create a subreddit. It is working out pretty well.

There are be several reasons that hosting a forum/fanclub on Reddit is better than on Facebook. Facebook mandates real name use, one username for everything that not everyone is comfortable with, I'm sure everyone on HN is already aware of that. But I think there is another subtle reason.

In the past, I have relied on Facebook to host another hobbyist project, and it was super active. I thought what is more convenient than having one place to notify users about the ongoings and stuff and plus having a mobile app that kicks ass, right? It turned out, after a while, the group died. No one would interact with our news anymore, even when we don't spam them with junk news. I think the subtle reasons is that Facebook is way too aggressive on interaction. Maybe something exciting is happening and many people flock to comment on it, and so Facebook spams everyone with notifications and emails about the current ongoing that many of the users don't care about. If a user gets annoyed and decides to mute the group, then I will lose a good, caring person forever. Reddit has no such jealous nudging mechanism, the user has to explicitly check that subreddit to know. So the participation becomes much more passive and the user can choose to update about the ongoings at their own convenience.

It turns out being more gentle for hobbyist groups wins over being aggressive. Not that I only have those two choices, though...