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lowken

12 karma · joined March 18, 2022

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lowken··on Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
I recently purged my cable box. I had 8 HDMI cables... 8. What do I need 8 HDMI cables for?

I tossed them in the garbage with a ton of other use less cables. I kept one HDMI cable (not 8) and a few odds and ends. I kept one rj45 Ethernet cable and tossed the rest. I even tossed my rj45 crimping tool kit. Why? Because I don't see the need to crimp Ethernet cables anytime soon and should the need arise I can buy a kit for $30.

So at the end my cable box when from being overflowing to half full.

Onto the next project.

lowken··on I'm OK being left behind, thanks
There’s a lot of truth to this post. I’m very pro AI, and I believe everyone should get comfortable with it because it’s not just the future, it’s already the present. If you want to stay competitive in today’s workforce, AI is going to be part of your toolkit.

But on the other hand... I also only learned git when I needed it at a new job... So we can pump the breaks a bit.

lowken··on Interviewing my mother, a mainframe COBOL programmer (2016)
100% true. The value is not knowing COBOL the value is hard core banking or insurance knowledge.
lowken··on Ignoring boys' emotional needs fuels public health risks
This is not true. The reason men tend to rule things is because men tend to lift each other up in life to a higher degree than women do.
lowken··on [dead]
Keep voting for democrats.
lowken··on Teach at a Community College
I want to community college for two years. Then I transferred to the University of Florida. Many of my community college professors were worlds better than their University of Florida counterparts.

I don’t put Palm Beach Community College on my resume but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the community college path to a young person.

lowken··on Postman Flows: the next generation of software development
Postman is the most amazing software development tool I have used in my 20+ year career.
lowken··on Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?
If you live in any medium to large city there are countless young professional organizations available. Join one or two and get involved. Be willing to volunteer for committees and participate in events and you will quickly have a full social calendar. Junior Achievement is one great organization. Jaycees is another organization.

Young Republicans or young Democrats are a couple of great organization. Want to meet young people who are going places in their life? You will meet them in these organizations.

Do you like exercise and fitness. Look into Team in Training. This is a fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Sign up for one of their races Go through the training and fundraising process. You will me lots of other like minded people. After your race consider becoming a Team in Training coach.

The possibilities are endless. If you are lonely it’s by choice.

lowken··on Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography
It’s called climate change because it’s a marketing term and not a scientific one.
lowken··on Did the Music Business Just Kill the Vinyl Revival?
I just don’t understand people who still want to play music from huge plastic disks.
lowken··on IBM shifts remaining US-based AIX dev jobs to India – source
I’ve worked on AIX (Mohegan Sun Casino in the late 90s). Switching between AIX and Linux as a developer is not difficult. They are are both just different flavors of Unix.
lowken··on Anki SRS Algorithm : Spaced repetition explained with code
I use Anki every day and it helps in the following ways...

1. It's rare that I have to use Google figure out how to do basic tasks in my Programming Languages of choice (C#, & TSQL). Don't get me wrong I, and everyone on the planet, looks up code on the internet. It's just a more rare scenario for me.

2. I write much quicker then your average developer. Of course most of software development is design and requirements gathering/clarification but when I do get down to writing code I'm very fast.

3. I spot bugs almost immediately because when I go through my Anki deck I get repeated exposure do different error scenarios. In fact I can often simply think about the scenario and it will occur to me where the bug is and what is going on. I attribute this to using Anki on a daily basis.

4. I can read code much better then before I started using Anki. I know at a glance what code is part of the language/framework vs what is custom code for the application.

lowken··on Ask HN: How to get better at writing?
This technique helped me become a better writer.

Get a cheep spiral notebook and a nice pen.

Then collect some example writings that represent the best writing style you aspire to. I prefer short stories and essays, but for larger examples (novels) you can focus on single chapters.

Every day spend about 1/2 hour copying the example writing by hand into the spiral notebook. When you are done copying about two pages into your spiral notebook review the pages and identify different writing techniques. I used this technique to learn copywriting so I identified different persuasion techniques including what’s the catch addresses or Promise.

However, you could also use this same technique to become a better novelist. So maybe you identify alliteration, irony, foreshadowing, etc.

Why does this work? This have been studies on the powerful learning effect of writing notes by hand. The technique I described follows the same principals. By copying great writing by hand you are engaging multiple senses at one time. You are feeding your conscious and subconscious mind rich example writing that will help you improve your own writing.

Anyway, this worked for me. Good luck.

lowken··on Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?
I was going to give a flavor of the same advice. This is solid Slack guidance and if followed will work.
lowken··on The school that grants your PhD thinks it’s too good to hire you
It amazes me how far down a dark road folks will travel without taking the time to look around and evaluate if they are indeed heading in the correct direction.
lowken··on The Child Is the Teacher: A Life of Maria Montessori
I love Montessori and I had both of my kids in Montessori schools...

However, it's not for every kid. My son did basically nothing and they wanted to have him repeat 2nd grade. My daughter, on the other hand, thrived in the same school.

There is no single fix for education except for choice (in my opinion). Parent's should be free to choose the school for their children and line up the unique characteristics of their child with the different education options available.

lowken··on Ask HN: Why is there so little info on the web about IBM mainframe programming?
The software stack is very similar...
lowken··on Ask HN: Why is there so little info on the web about IBM mainframe programming?
I don't know if iSeries (AS/400) counts as Mainframe... But the software stack is similar and I know that hundreds (if not thousands) of casinos run old Main Frame era software.
lowken··on Writing by hand is still the best way to retain information
I skyrocketed up the ladder at my current company in about 18 months using the following technique.

I take crude sloppy notes on a topic or project. I listen for concepts it words I don’t understand. This includes the jargon in my field (FinTech).

For projects I take my sloppy notes and format them in a Google Docs that serves as a design/QA testing document. I add technical notes and other details to this document.

If I come across concepts or terms that I don’t know and I determine are important I add these to an Anki deck. Then I review this Anki deck daily and commit this information to my long term memory.

I can’t describe how having critical information at my disposal has changed my life. I’ve gone from zero to one of the top individuals at my company in a few months and I credit this success to my little system.

As a side benefit Anki has an amazing search feature for times can’t recall something.

lowken··on Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs
Toyota has looked at the tea leaves and feels Hydrogen is the future. I think they are correct.
lowken··on Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years
This is a core tenet of Montessori and my kids have experienced this their entire school career (currently in 9th and 6th grade).
lowken··on Inside an IBM AS/400 eSeries Factory [video]
About three years id my software development career were detonated to AS/400 RPG programming. It was fun but I’m glad I moved on.
lowken··on Does communication matter in technical interviews? Here's the data
I reject candidates if I can’t understand them. They don’t have to speak perfect but if we can’t communicate then no thanks.
lowken··on I tried to buy something with ETH and it was a pain in the ass
I’m working on a project involving Visa Tokenization Services where nonce is used. However, the no replay aspect is not there in Visa’s use of nonce. Instead there is just a signed expiring token (nonce) that must be verified.
lowken··on Typing.io: Typing Practice for Programmers
Learning to touch type frees up your mind to focus on coding problems.

I agree that speed is not important, but I believe every dev would benefit from learning how to type properly.

lowken··on Typing.io: Typing Practice for Programmers
Can someone recommend a good typing tool to teach my daughter touch typing over the summer (5th grade going into Middle School).
lowken··on Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel
I don’t understand the hate for w3schools. I found this site super useful when I was first learning web development.
lowken··on What were interviews for programming positions like in the 70s and 80s?
Wow a rare rpg reference. Everyone mentions COBOL (still rare) but you almost never see a reference to rpg anymore.

I spent a few years early in my career (early 2000s) coding in rpg for a casino and a major bank. I’m still impressed with myself that I was able to get my mind wrapped around the column nature of rpg.

lowken··on Ask HN: I'm changing my job after a 15-year tenure. How should I proceed?
I just went through this in July of 2020. I worked at a company for 15 years as a software developer and switched. At my new company I'm now one of the domain experts and I was just promoted.

The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to use Anki. As you learn new pieces of domain knowledge throw the info into Anki. Then review your Anki deck daily. No one does and you will be shocked at how quickly you move up the domain knowledge ladder.

Good Luck