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kamaitachi

331 karma · joined October 26, 2020

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kamaitachi··on Chaos and confusion bring US no closer to resolution on Strait of Hormuz
This is Trump’s legacy in the Gulf:

>The debate about the strait is becoming a wider one about security in the Gulf. Writing in Le Monde, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, the Oman foreign minister, argued that the whole premise of Washington’s Iran policy was flawed.

>“The combination of excessive local defence spending, the expansion of US bases in the Gulf and an over-the-horizon protective presence was developed and maintained at great cost but to very little real purpose.

>“The war has revealed that containment was a myth, a reality acknowledged now even by those who had previously been persuaded that more than 45 years of costly containment was a necessary evil. The gravest threats to the security of the Gulf come not from within the Gulf itself but from decisions and actions taken outside it, above all in Tel Aviv.”

kamaitachi··on The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party
Hi Fredrik

I’m a long time Mullvad customer, likely paid Mullvad upward of 400€ in the past number of years, as well as recommended it to friends and family members.

What you seem to be missing in your comment, is that some of that money I paid, found its way to support an organisation that has extreme racist views.

I’ve reached out to support and requested a refund of my outstanding credit.

I’ll be moving on.

kamaitachi··on You need to stop using Google now
Oh the irony.

A YouTube video.

kamaitachi··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
I think I was lucky enough to start out in the 80’s.

But seriously, didn’t really start making big money until about 25 years ago, and bailed heavily into my pension fund.

The tech industry is constant change, but the change in the last 10 years or so has been fairly shitty to be frank.

Hopefully, this AI bubble bursts and maybe there’s a few years of sanity in the tech industry.

kamaitachi··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
It was being pushed hard by mgmt. Constant pushing, emails with “league tables” of most active users, “why is this taking so long?”.

Hard to not use it

kamaitachi··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
You’re right - it’s me.

I used to code at home - chess engines mostly.

Maybe once the novelty of retirement wears off (and the autumn approaches), I’ll start coding again

kamaitachi··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
Thanks! I’m one of the lucky ones who really loved my career. I was lucky enough to avoid roles or companies that would suck the life out of me:-)

5/5 would recommend :-)

kamaitachi··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
I just retired after 40 years writing code.

The last year or so wasn’t fun - battling with AI, trying to get it do what I wanted.

For a long time, I thought I’d do a lot of hobby or open source coding when I retired.

I haven’t even tried. I’m not burned out, but find I’ve lost the passion for coding I once had.

Is that AI? Or is it me?

Maybe as my retirement progresses, I can rekindle that passion, but as of now, I don’t miss tech.

Sorry, got to go - my garden needs me :-)

kamaitachi··on Why Visiting the USA Feels Obsolete in 2025
It’s more than that.

I lived in Boston for a few years back in the 90’s (legal, green card holder) but moved back to Ireland.

My kids wanted to visit NYC this year, but it was a hard no from me.

What Trump has done to the US really puts me off wanting to spend time or money in that country.

Many Europeans (including myself) have been moving away from US companies for online services (in my case, moving from Apple Music to Spotify, and now seriously looking at a FreePhone as my iPhone 11 Pro starts to age). I don’t think I’ve ever seen this broad level of anti-US sentiment before in Europe.

Trump has shown that the US isn’t a trusted ally of Europe and must be considered in the same vein as China. Which is crazy.

It’s a trust issue and it’ll take years to resolve.

On the upside, finally Europe is starting to stand up and fund its own defence.

kamaitachi··on Mozilla to shut down Pocket on July 8
Have been using FF since early 2000's. Tried using Pocket but never really got the hang of it. Just never felt that it fixed a problem was having.

Still a FF fanboi, but fully behind shutting anything down that detracts from core FF.

Maybe old school, but would much prefer a focus on a browser focused on privecy.

kamaitachi··on OpenAI Pushes for Deepseek Ban, Says Company Is 'State Controlled'
> In the proposal, the company proposed to ban AI models and equipment produced in China that “endanger user privacy and pose security threats, including the risk of intellectual property (IP) theft,”

Said without even a hint of irony.

kamaitachi··on In the Footsteps of 45 Commando: 60 Miles Across the Falklands
There’s a fantastic book about this - The Yompers [1]

Follows the troops, covers the night battles, the blisters, the soggy terrain…a great read.

[1] https://amzn.eu/d/gArUDh0

kamaitachi··on Is Iceland getting ready to join the EU?
It varies, as you’d expect but the number is about right

Here are 2 recent reports

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/24/people-br...

https://encompass-europe.com/comment/clear-support-for-eu-me...

kamaitachi··on Goodbye Google. Hello Ecosia
Agreed. I’ve tried Ecosia and this was the first thing that hit me. Pity.
kamaitachi··on Ask HN: Mid-Career Crisis – leave with no job?
I had similar challenges in my past (see my comment history for details).

In summary, I found myself in senior management positions twice in my career, and hated the role. It was an effort to get back into a hands-on role, but I was lucky to be able to use my network of previous employers for a freelancing role (at least as a stepping stone).

I’m now in my late 50’s and still coding professionally (and still coding at home to relax).

You clearly loathe your current role and you tried to become an IC but was that because you wanted to? Or were you just looking for an escape route out of your current predicament (ie, management, but not really management)?

Would you be happy in a management role in a different organisation?

Personally, I spent a lot of my career in smaller companies (<100 employees) as IC and management but it was when I was in management in larger companies, that I hated the role. Company size matters when it comes to your role.

So maybe a management role in a smaller company might suit?

Also, at some stage, your age starts to be a factor when looking for a job, especially as an IC, competing with lower paid and more up to date junior developers. I’m not sure where the tipping point is, but you might start to see that when in the job market. Bring an IC in your 20’s or 30’s isn’t the same as being one in your 40’s (or 50’s!).

So my advice….

If you like management, seek out that role in smaller companies. There’s less BS and more focus on getting things done. And you’re closer to the tech.

If you want to revert to an IC, start a personal coding project at home. I started writing a chess engine in C as a means to get back into coding (C was my main language in my early career). Put it on GitHub along with any other utilities you code.

If you’ve no ties to NYC, why not relocate within the US? Easier than Europe (no visa required) and likely a lot cheaper.

kamaitachi··on Survey: Growing number of U.S. adults lack literacy skills
A non-US citizen, I have so many questions but the article lacks details:

>>Asked what could be causing the adult literacy decline in the U.S., Carr said, “It is difficult to say.”

Great.

kamaitachi··on The Nursery of the Mac – Apple Computer factory in Cork, Ireland (1996)
This takes me back to my days in college. I studied Electrical Engineering in Dublin, and in 1983, we organised a tour of the facility. My hazy memories of it were it being just another factory. The real purpose of the trip to Cork was much more alcohol related.
kamaitachi··on The Rest Is Not Even Close: Inside Gary Lineker's Goalhanger Revolution
IMO these are top-notch, no BS podcasts.

I regularly listen to The Rest is History, The Rest is Politics (U.K. and US) and The Rest is Money.

Very informative and very entertaining. Would recommend.

kamaitachi··on Ask HN: Best Podcasts of 2024?
In no particular order:

Unhedged

The Rest is Politics

Witness History (BBC)

The Rachman Review

Late Night Linux

The Foreign Desk (Monocle)

Behind the Lines with Arthur Snell

[edit : reformat]

kamaitachi··on RTEMS: Open-source real time operating system
This takes me back to the mid 1990’s. Glad to see it’s still going.

Back then, I worked on porting it to some proprietary hardware. Was definitely an adventure!

I’d previously ported pSOS to a proprietary 68k board (different company) and that was a walk in the park by comparison.

kamaitachi··on Please do not write below the line
It’s not just a U.K. thing. Many European countries have something similar, although it might be called something else.

It’s a form of tax that pays for public service broadcasting, including radio stations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#

kamaitachi··on Blackhouses of Scotland
Scotland and Ireland are intimately linked by a common language (Gaelic). As an Irish person who speaks English (for obvious historical reasons), visiting Scotland blew my mind because of the common language.

Here’s an example of a simple stone house from the south west of Ireland:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloch%C3%A1n

Note that these are some houses from Skellig Michael, used as a film location for one of the Star Wars movies Edit: typo

kamaitachi··on Programming Language for Ternary Computing
Not quite the same thing, but some industries use 4 state “booleans” to describe the state of machinery.

For example, in power stations, the position of switch gear would use 10 and 01 for on/off, 00 for “switch gear in motion” (ie, transiting from on to off or vice versa) and 11 to represent an error state. The in transit condition can persist for several minutes.

kamaitachi··on [dead]
This isn’t an answer to the questions posed.
kamaitachi··on Ask HN: Who would be a programming God if they were alive today?
Clearly a titan of engineering and innovation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

kamaitachi··on Oldest Fortresses in the World Discovered
Very valid point - Doggerland comes to mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

kamaitachi··on Ask HN: Are you going back to Reddit post-blackout?
Last week, I nuked my Reddit account of 6 years, and uninstalled Apollo. Won’t be going back.

I’d be on Reddit several times a day - it was a complete time waste. I just needed a reason to leave, and this is it.

I was already on Mastodon but now find myself there a lot more.

kamaitachi··on Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89
RIP.

I grew up watching the original Star Trek, not appreciating (at that young age) what a wonderful role model she was.

kamaitachi··on My worst tech interview experience
This is a very good question.

I work in a Wall Street trading company. Up til about 6 years ago, I was actively involved in recruiting tech staff and defining our tech recruitment process.

I’ve since changed roles, but was recently asked to sit in on an interview.

Wow, how things have changed. I seriously doubt I would be successful going through the current recruitment process.

Any why? Focus on whiteboard programming with questions that far exceed the requirements for the day-to-day job.

Somewhere along the line, egos took over and we have a bunch of devs on an ego trip to prove how smart they are.

kamaitachi··on The high-frequency trading arms race: frequent batch auctions (2015)
Moved into a small company that does process control (SCADA) systems development. Took a fairly large drop in salary but the work/life balance improved and job satisfaction increased.

I'd previously done a lot of work in embedded SCADA systems (hence the fit for working with with FPGAs in HFT).

I left mainly because I genuinely felt that there was a certain futility with ultra low latency trading...it's less about trading and more an arms race between quants and techies of different companies, all with deep pockets.

I guess embedded SCADA systems are my comfort blanket :-)

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