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peregren

101 karma · joined July 22, 2020

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peregren··on Ask HN: If you can't find a job(in tech), why not create one
I think you should link the YouTune video!
peregren··on AirPods Pro case converted from Lightning to USB-C with open-source PCB
You mean you get different earphones entirely that are clones of Airpods Pro from china?
peregren··on Lionel Messi Is Impossible (2014)
Can you explain the relationship between the penalty and geopolitics?
peregren··on Xbox Series X|S Has Outsold PS5 in Japan Again
The weekly figures are also much much better for switch, so the gap in cumulative scales is only growing right now.
peregren··on Wild turtles age slowly, and some basically don’t age at all
Yes the coin of death remembers how lucky you were in your eighties and skews towards tails in your 90s. Still 50/50 as its a coin.
peregren··on I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone
That’s splitting hairs. Premium ≠ Best in all components. And the iPhone 12 and 13 have sold pretty well by all reports so the screen size is the only differentiator feature wise. (And battery which is unavoidable)
peregren··on Europe Is Building an International Facial Recognition System
In Ireland the legislation enabling government restrictions for covid expired, and the government who enacted that legislation have to desire to renew it. So it's not always extended ad infinitum.
peregren··on The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy VII in 1996
You also get to live in the house which is a pretty good return.
peregren··on Does the EU's ban on RT also ban Tor?
Do you think Russia are being unfairly demonised by western countries right now? Is the invasion of Ukraine, + war crimes in some way just?
peregren··on Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B
Couple of possible factors (with speculation)

— Most apps nudge you to accept tracking before the dialog comes up. Probably influences some users - A lot of people probably don’t even read the dialog properly. - a lot of people who have apps like facebook installed are either unaware of the tracking stuff or don’t care

peregren··on Apple Reports First Quarter Results
Does your hope have any foundation in reality?
peregren··on Adding unusable RAM for tax reasons
Too cheap for who?

There are carbon taxes being implemented and on the whole i think they are good. But combined with the current spike in energy prices, they are hammering some people.

peregren··on BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen
You are giving this Conservative government far to much credit. Their entire track record in government is full of poorly thought out sweeping changes. (See the entire Brexit process)
peregren··on More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’
The vaccine may have kept you out of ICU. It doesn't seem logical to change to a "let the chips fall where they may" based on this experience.
peregren··on Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test
If the other party is 100% at fault, why should they not pay for the damage they caused?

And its not “cheap” to not get comprehensive insurance. Its a calculated risk.

peregren··on Covid-19: Runny nose, headache, and fatigue are commonest symptoms of omicron
What matters is how much pressure it puts on the health system. There are 3 things to consider here:

1. how many people end up in ICU (which for Omicron we don't know yet), and at what point ICU becomes overwhelmed in a given region. Once the ICU capacity is exceeded, the mortality rates for bad cases goes way up.

2. How many illnesses unrelated to Covid go untreated due to load on the health system, and subsequently how many excess deaths this causes.

3. After 5-6 months, a lot of vaccine immunity starts dropping off. A regions capacity to get booster doses delivered makes a difference here.

peregren··on What a progressive utopia does to outdoor dining
The chances are, if it's inhospitable to dining outside, it's a road[1] or a stroad[2], not a street[3]. And its not snobbish to want places that are a little more friendly to people.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroad [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street

peregren··on How do you fix a stroad?
I used to agree that these things take a long time, but since the pandemic my local council in Ireland has acted very quickly to build excellent bike infrastructure and curtail car access to village spaces [1]. Many roads got changed to one-way, to make way for segregated bike lanes. Pre-pandemic, there was dallying for years over building this stuff, but now its there, and the world hasn't imploded for motorists, and local businesses and residents are 99% very happy.

Of course when local government doesn't have the will it won't happen, but if they do, it can happen very quickly.

[1] https://www.dlrcoco.ie/en/civic-amenities-urban-design/dlr-c...

peregren··on Renault Zoe NCAP crash rating: zero stars [pdf]
Bough appliances this summer and there was a mix between the old and the new system all over the appliance stores!
peregren··on Ask HN: How can leave my comfortable old job for a new one?
Thanks. I would have thought this also, but then when my team was hiring this year, the interview questions were quite closely linked to our tech stack (which wouldn't have been my preference). Even though we also can end up moving tech stack entirely, between projects.
peregren··on Ask HN: How can leave my comfortable old job for a new one?
Thanks for this.

In terms of a new Job, I am looking for work I find engaging, with a mission that I think is worthwhile (Which for me could be anything from useful business enabling tech like Stripe. Uni / Training websites like Udacity / Coursera, or a non-profit. I don't particularly care about tech stack as long as its in some way used across the industry.

I am worried that my tech skills have atrophied mostly because I find the projects that I have been working on for the last 3 years have been very low velocity due to a massive development team (1000+) and a lot of bureaucracy. I have written <1000 SLOC this year. A lot of time is spent doing devops work (which i never wanted but thats how my position evolved) and documentation/process design and execution.

Regarding paycheck - for me personally that't not a motivation. Tech salaries where I live are universally more than enough.

peregren··on TDD from the Factorio Team
Even if it's only rare, the test also shows clearly to a reviewer that the bug has been fixed.

In my opinion, as soon as a test suite finds a bug it has added a lot of value, even if it's rare.

peregren··on Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max
You can say something is heavier than something else, and feels more premium without contradicting yourself.

He says they are not meant for use as wired headphones primarily, so recommends against them if thats what you want. Seems reasonable.

Regarding the Switch he says: "I’m not saying they should, but it’s very Apple-like that they don’t." To me it seems like he is staying neutral on the need for an off Switch right now - just commenting that he's not surprised.

I don't think they are bad takes. They are tepid takes at worst!

peregren··on Apple’s “Extended Dynamic Range” Brings HDR to Non-HDR Displays
No sure about bleeding edge, because for the most part their products work but at different times they have defined:

- Phones, (Original iPhone way ahead of competitors)

- MP3 players (Original iPods)

- Tablets, (Pretty much the only serious tablet as far as I can see)

- Smart Watches, (Apple Watch still defines the category)

- Ultra Books, (First MacBook Air)

- All in One Desktop (iMac)

- Mobile CPUs (Apple silicon has been way ahead for years)

- Laptop CPUs (M1)

This doesn't just all happen by making existing things more "User Friendly". This takes real innovation to pull off.