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ninjaroar

48 karma · joined June 21, 2015

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ninjaroar··on “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
600k base salary? What type of position is that?

Developer salaries in the big four (I assume you mean Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple) are high but that is still twice what I normally hear (and have gotten offers for), and that's assuming you're talking about total comp. I'm not doubting you, i'm just curious what type of experience you need to get that.

ninjaroar··on Chinese umbrella-sharing startup loses most of its 300,000 umbrellas in 3 months
I used to think that, but AirBnb's success seems to be a huge counterexample.

There are occasional problems caused by that subset of people taking advantage, but that hasn't stopped AirBnb's growth.

ninjaroar··on Anonymized list of engineering salaries from bootcamp grads
is that after conversion?

e.g.: 200k USD would equal (200 * 0.79 USD/GBP * 0.8) = 126k GBP?

I wonder if it is because salaries were set before the pound plummetted due to brexit.

For most companies, you at least get more vacation days in London, but i think facebook US already provides 21 business days, I would imagine facebook UK is the standard 5 weeks?

ninjaroar··on London Rent vs. London Salaries
You have to add in state tax if you comparing against the US. (Not all states have an income tax, but California does have one)
ninjaroar··on London Rent vs. London Salaries
How did you find that kind of deal on airbnb? I tried it myself during winter months in London, most airbnb properties don't give any discount or a fairly nominal one (e.g.: 10%) on multi-month rentals, so I found it much more expensive. I found eventually went with a serviced apartment.
ninjaroar··on The Hotel Industry’s Plan to Combat Airbnb
Hostels are also a way to meet other travellers though - that is a lot harder to do in a hotel. I find travelling alone for extended periods can become a bit lonely
ninjaroar··on Amicus brief on behalf of 97 tech companies
As a Canadian, i've actually never thought of Iran as any more 'adventurous' of a place to visit than somewhere like Peru or India or Cambodia. Lots of mainstream adventure tourism companies have tours there (e.g.: G adventures, exodus, etc) It has a reputation of being a very friendly place full of hospitable people. It's always been on my 'bucket list' of places to visit one day.

However, if a visit means i'll get grilled more than usual every time I visit the US, then I'll likely refrain from visiting. So, yes, the order will reduce tourism.

ninjaroar··on New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr
So you can get a green card and thus aren't tied to the company?
ninjaroar··on Go vs. Swift [pdf]
Checked exceptions also forces thinking critically about failure modes, but they seem to be an unpopular language feature, and few new libraries seem to use them. No other popular language has adopted them.

Why are optionals good and checked exceptions bad? (I'm certainly not implying that one replaces the other - i'm just saying that it they both have an origin of forcing programmers to think about errors)

ninjaroar··on GIMP – 2016 in review
Do product owners really work in open source projects where developers aren't getting paid?

I know personally, as an developer and an open source contributor, I'm going to work on something which either scratches my own itch or something which interests me. I certainly wouldn't be spending my own time working on the roadmap of a product owner if it doesn't fall into one of the two categories anyways.

ninjaroar··on Bitcoin slides as China's central bank launches checks on exchanges
Do you really think China has a bigger impact on bay area housing than overpaid tech workers funded by venture capital?
ninjaroar··on Show HN: The Road to learn React – Build a Hacker News App on the Way
Part of me thinks that Redux is going to end up being the next Java EJB - really great and important concepts at the heart, but over-adopted in scenarios which don't need it. And in a few years, there will be a backlash about it due to too much code and complexity needed to do simple things.
ninjaroar··on Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2016?
That is true in the US, even in NYC. However, furnished apartments are the norm in London, for long rentals.
ninjaroar··on Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
Yes. My goal is to reach $10 million net worth (so I am no longer dependant on income to survive - yes, I can live more cheaply, but my favorite cities happen to be the most expensive).

Then, I would retire from the industry and focus on doing computer generated art and sculpture.

That would let me stay in software, but let me be creative (I don't want 'creatives' to design thing, as if they were a different species - I'm creative myself!). No scrums (aka micromanagement), no testing, no bureaucratic processes or anything like that - I would just spend all my time creating.

ninjaroar··on Employee benefits at Basecamp
the flexibility is pretty important though... I'd rather just take the 17 days off all at once and go travel somewhere.
ninjaroar··on Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
Odd decision.

If they were willing to pay silicon-valley level salaries in Toronto, they would have no trouble getting senior talent.

But they will be forced to pay silicon-valley level salaries in San Francisco anyways.

ninjaroar··on If You’re Building a Startup You Need to Move to Phoenix (Not Silicon Valley)
It might make sense if you are bootstrapping and Phoenix is a place you want to live. (It is too hot, too conservative, and too suburban for my taste)

But if you try to raise money, you suffer from a valuation penalty for not being in Silicon Valley - just from the fact that there will be fewer interested investors. That valuation penalty is probably going to far exceed the cost savings of being outside Silicon Valley.

ninjaroar··on Ask HN: Average Salary for PHP Dev in London?
I've only ever heard of salaries being quoted before taxes in the UK - same as the US.
ninjaroar··on London vs San Francisco – back and forth
Can anyone comment on the dating scene for heterosexual males in SF vs London? I've been considering moving to SF, but the male-female ratio makes me think dating will be hard and I do want to find someone to settle down with at some point...
ninjaroar··on London, it’s over, and it’s not me, it’s you
And San Francisco is even more expensive...

This is just supply and demand - there are a lot of people who want to live in world cities like London, but a limited supply of housing.

ninjaroar··on Quake in your browser
Quake in the browser via javascript was done 5 years ago using GWT. I recall seeing that port at Google I/O years ago.

https://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/

ninjaroar··on A persistent key-value server in 40 lines and a sad fact (2014)
ChronicleMap looks really cool, i didn't know about it, but it seems like exactly what i've been looking for.

I've been keeping an eye on apache directmemory, but that project seems to have little activity.

does anyone here have real world experience with ChronicleMap in production systems?

ninjaroar··on Apple's Cash Dilemma
I don't see how it makes sense at all to offer a tax holiday. If the IRS is going to give Apple a tax holiday, can they give me a tax holiday too?