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lewdev

116 karma · joined September 30, 2013

Software engineer. twitter: lewdev
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lewdev··on "Not Medically Necessary": Helping America's Health Insurers Deny Coverage
If insurance companies are for profit then they are incentivized to deny coverage. This fucking sucks.
lewdev··on The dangers of California's legislation to censor 3D printing
"regulate guns" does not equate to "gun free."
lewdev··on Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events
Is it fair to say that they can just compete in the men's division?
lewdev··on Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI face recognition error links her to fraud
There was a case where someone's finger prints matched someone who was later found to have an alibi and not be there.

So even finger prints are unreliable.

lewdev··on Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI face recognition error links her to fraud
How was she saved by her bank records when they already arrested her like she was proven to have done it? How little evidence do cops need to go arrest a woman 1,200 miles away and fuck up her life? And then not even apologize for it? That's fucked up.
lewdev··on Why Do They Want to Get Rid of Software Engineers?
Yup, that's why stock prices increase in value when companies announce massive layoffs because they know their operating costs got much lower.

And software engineers and IT staff are notoriously expensive, so hearing about a way to get rid of them would excite any investor.

lewdev··on Why Do They Want to Get Rid of Software Engineers?
This tweet succinctly encompasses my thoughts on AI coding:

"thank god programming is solved, I hated writing code...

anyway, off to issue statements to a computer in a way it can interpret"

https://x.com/iamdevloper/status/2021883924595593300

lewdev··on US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
> It will make very little difference in the end.

I feel like there will be a difference between a handful of large corporations owning a majority of properties vs thousands of dentists and software engineers. Are you saying that all of these property owners are also soulless profit-optimizers?

I remember watching some video of tenants being priced out of their rental apartments so when they tried to contact the property owner, they found layers upon layers of managers and companies. It just seems better when there are more thousands of owners than just a handful of corporations.

lewdev··on Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes
Regardless of the pay, I just can't imagine people really being excited to drive all day alone. I hate driving and I do it as little as possible. People like to be around other people when they work too.
lewdev··on Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes
This reminds me of how ATMs created more banking jobs because people started to use the bank more along with ATMs. ATMs handled the simple transactions and tellers dealt with the more complex tasks.

We'll see. There will be a loss of little industries that depended on truckers though, like truck stops and inns.

I also hope that this results in more jobs that are fulfilling.

lewdev··on IT Unemployment Rises to 5.7% as AI Hits Tech Jobs
AI is causing the unemployment or big tech is still downsizing after the influx of hiring done during and after the pandemic?
lewdev··on Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data
It's okay when large corporations download cars. But when you do it, you'll be in trouble.
lewdev··on CEO of AI Music Company Says People Don't Like Making Music
People who use AI to make music don't like making music.
lewdev··on Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion
He lead a mob of his audience to threaten families that just had a child in their family murdered based on lies. There's no price on how horrible that is. Argue all you want, it went through a long process to get to that number so good luck with that.
lewdev··on Google turns Android into a desktop OS in 5 steps
Project Linda looks pretty cool and relatively practical since it lets you keep everything in one device. I have a PC, laptop, and mobile phone. This might bring it my devices to two.

Phones are getting so powerful that it seems like the logical next step.

lewdev··on Ask HN: What is it with this hate and disdain for interns/junior engineers?
I can imagine that training only leads to bearing fruit in other companies if the junior/intern decides to leave.
lewdev··on Ask HN: Did you personal website help you get hired? Tell about it
What blogging platform did you use?

That's an amazing story! I feel motivated to start blogging myself.

lewdev··on Amazon employees: 'I'd rather go back to school than work in an office again'
It's 100% a scheme to do mass layoffs without having to pay severance.

WFH is so awesome and everybody loves it. Take that away and you know people will leave on their own.

lewdev··on First water car is already a reality: 1000km of autonomy and the end of gasoline
Can you use any kind of water? Or filtered and treated special water? The article says that we can use the "most abundant substance on earth", which would be the case if we can use sea water straight from the ocean. If it is the case, that'd be amazing.

This sounds too good to be true so what's the catch? I'm all for advances towards being independent of oil, but I don't see the draw back here. What's holding this back from mass production and adoption?

lewdev··on A Jenga tower about to collapse: Software erosion is happening all around us
This article is capitalizing on the Crowdstrike incident. It was costly but a mistake. As a software engineer, I just know that's all it is. I don't think there is a upward trend of these mistakes because they are always trying to be careful and sometimes they also get careless. Some additional processes might be added to avoid it, but years later it may happen again somewhere else in another company. I don't think it's because of "software erosion." And the recovery was a costly day or two but it was fixed and we all went back to normal.
lewdev··on Sam Altman doesn't care about you
I think it's because he pretended to care.

> Altman pulled from science fiction stories, he told the journalists he’s not trying to achieve immortality, but rather wants to “give people another 10 years of healthy, vigorous life.”

I get that CEOs don't actually care, but this one promised that the advances in AI was going to help us. Which he had me already fooled with the "Open" part of OpenAI. It honestly gave me hope that AI was going to make a positive difference for the moral good and not for greed, but shrugs it is what it is.

As a software engineer, OpenAI did not help me much. I tried it out but I just went back to using Google and StackOverflow.

lewdev··on 'The DOJ's Assault on Apple Will Harm Consumers'
Remember when Apple sued Samsung for copying basic UI designs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electron...
lewdev··on Company Missions Are Bullshit
The first company I joined had all of these amazing core values and talked about how each employee must exemplify these things. I totally ate it up and noted times that demonstrated these values so I could use them on my annual review.

In my first 2-3 years I always hoped for raises and promotions, but nothing came of it. When I stopped caring, a role opened and I was promoted and got my raise. It was then I realized that it wasn't because I "demonstrated core values," it's because I fit the role and it opened up which made the company more money.

The best advice I got from this experience is to make your boss look good. Whatever that is, make more money and build great things, and you will be rewarded with your raises and promotions. Otherwise, go find better opportunities on your own if they won't give it to you. As for following company values, don't take it too seriously but pretend you do and play along.

lewdev··on Some Americans have stopped tipping. Should you do the same?
Should I? I tip out of guilt and conforming to social norms. I don't want to look like an asshole too.

I'm getting annoyed by these apps that don't give 15% as an option. They put 22% as the first option, which is insane. And it's no fault to the waiter, it's the default setting that was configured by the store. I had to calculate roughly what 15% was quickly and accept the payment. At that point, maybe I should have just put 0% but then I'd be an asshole, right?

lewdev··on Ask HN: Can Devin genuinely replace the roles of developers?
The way I see AI programming assistants is that it would help juniors be a bit more productive, but senior developers can do with out the assistant.

I've used Cody and Copilot and it just gets in the way because I know exactly what I need to write and neither really helped me.

lewdev··on Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
I had a different problem: my college professor was not helpful at all. When I visited him during his open office hours he just said, "Did you take notes? Study your notes!" He was about to retire that year, so that might be why but it was a garbage experience.
lewdev··on Apple's decision to drop iPhone web apps comes under scrutiny in the EU
Solution: stop using apple products. I don't understand why people love them so much when Apple time and again pulls this kind of crap.
lewdev··on Oxide reimagines private cloud as a 3k-pound blade server
3000lbs to KG Mental Math

/2 = 1500 .1 = 150 = 1500 - 150 = 1350kg

Google's result: 1360.777kg

lewdev··on Top workers more likely to want to quit when companies have strict RTO mandates
As a software engineer, I'm doing 1-day a week in office. I feels like a decent balance. Any more than a day seems ridiculous because I would have no reason to be there. I could be in the office by myself at times because the others are in meetings and I just need to code.

It does help to have face-to-face conversations with co-workers because simply the easiest way to share ideas and thoughts. The 1-day a week feels a little more than enough to do this, but I can deal with it.

And because of the environment I don't feel very productive coding, but I suppose it was productive to have face-to-face conversations, which helps us stay connected with each other.

lewdev··on Top workers more likely to want to quit when companies have strict RTO mandates
I believe some of the reasons for RTO was for that reason. It makes sense because at this point, everyone agrees WFH is much preferred overall and would probably leave over it, so I agree with you. I just don't see how well this will play out for these companies. I guess they predict that they'll come out on top at the end. Top-performers probably cost more than others too.
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