Hacker News Reader

pmulardon What 81,000 people want from AI

Consistent users of ~~product~~ AI find it favorable. Color me shocked.

I'm much more curious about the results of 80k people who don't use AI regularly.

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2025)

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid/onsite in the Bay Area 
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: Rust, JavaScript, React, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, GCP
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.64febd55.pdf
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

Hi, I'm Peter, and I have 5 years of experience as a software engineer, spanning both frontend and backend. For the past year and a half, I've been working as a Founding Engineer; primarily building distributed systems in Rust. Building software that positively contributes to society is a passion of mine, and I'm always happy to meet new people too. Even if it isn't related to work, feel free to reach out!

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2024)

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid/onsite in the Bay Area 
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: Rust, JavaScript, React, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, GCP
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.64febd55.pdf
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

Hi, I'm Peter, and I have 4 years of experience as a software engineer, spanning both frontend and backend. For the past year, I've been working as a Founding Engineer; primarily building distributed systems in Rust. I'd love to continue creating backend systems with Rust (and am giving high priority to these roles) but am open to other tech stacks as well. Building software that positively contributes to society is a passion of mine, and I'm always happy to meet new people too. Even if it isn't related to work, feel free to reach out!

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2024)

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid in the Bay Area 
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: Rust, JavaScript, React, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, GCP
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.64febd55.pdf
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

pmulardon Generating Fantasy Maps (2016)

Really well done, this is so fun to play with.

pmulardon SEC has not approved Bitcoin ETFs [fixed]

Ask someone in Turkey or Venezuela, who's had their currency devalue 50%+ overnight, which one is more important.

pmulardon SEC charges Kraken for operating as an unregistered securities exchange

The FDA has no place in a free market. If people trust a company which poisons their food, they should be punished for misplacing their trust. Both the scammer and the scammed deserve a share of the punishment. Life naturally punishes the scammed already and teaches them a lesson at the same time... Without the help of the FDA... How good is that?!

I'd much rather pool our money into a commission that does this for the population than spend every waking moment personally auditing companies for breaking the rules. Oh, and I have to set them too. No thanks.

pmulardon Meta's Mandatory Return to Office Is 'A Mess'

There are plenty of factory/labor jobs that don’t require people to wreck their bodies. Many of them provide workstations where people have the option to sit/stand or they are walking around most of the time. Occasionally bending over, not too much heavily lifting. Many of my ex coworkers who did these jobs were in fantastic shape. It’s disingenuous to pick out an extreme example.

pmulardon DJI Virtual Flight (iOS) has been broken for five months

I used to have a mavic mini, that is, up until it disconnected 500 ft from me, never to return again. I tried chasing it down to where I believed it was, but I was never able to reconnect. There is a return to home feature, where the drone is supposed to fly back to its launch spot, in case something like this happens, but that never happened.

Well I contacted DJI to see if they would replace it, due to clearly a software error on their side, and they basically told me to pound sand. I sent them a video recording of the drone’s final moments (it synced to my phone), and they wanted me to pay for their “free data analysis” because the drone was out of warranty; even though I had only flown it a handful of times. (This is data I know they can see, along with the rest of the flight data).

They ended up offering me a 40% coupon, which is just a joke, and I told them I will keep publicly shaming them unless they can offer a replacement. (So here I am). They also randomly called me at 11am on a workday, twice in a row, and didn’t leave a message; about a week after my emails with cs. Just a really weird experience. Highly don’t recommend DJI.

pmulardon We bailed out the banks but we’re not prepared to bail out the planet

I keep thinking about what a people’s mega-PAC could look like, but I get stumped every time. The US is designed for corporations to easily be the best way of organizing people together, due to the incentives (make profit).

We need to figure out a way to organize people together in different ways, so they can get a seat at the table. The closest I can come up with are unions, but they struggle enough just to exist. Non profits and charities work (they make money), but they are corporation adjacent.

Hopefully technology can make this possible. Imagine a people’s PAC, where participants pool $10 a month to fund it.

pmulardon The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

Ok let me rephrase this - the people I referenced aren’t good - they’re amazing. They have the credentials (Juilliard, S.I. Newhouse, etc.) and the work experience (lead role on broadway, ESPN and sports illustrated) and it’s still a massive struggle in their industries.

Compare that to being a warm body at a landscaping job, where the bar is “I showed up to work today” and it’s not even a comparison.

It’s the laws of supply and demand. Simple as that. Everyone wants to be a movie star.

pmulardon The Long History of Nobody Wants to Work Anymore

I disagree with your premise - just because someone doesn’t make money on their work doesn’t mean it’s not good. We live in a capitalistic society, where the laws of supply and demand rule.

You’re able to make good money in carpentry by simply showing up, because there aren’t many carpenters left. Just like my cousin is able to do the same with landscaping. It’s all work fewer people are doing.

Other friends of mine, some of the most talented and hardworking people I know, have tried their stints on broadway, television, journalism, etc. and are struggling massively. Is it because they aren’t good? Of course not. It’s because there are 1,000 people lined up behind them who are just as good. And there’s another 1,000 behind that group who aren’t quite as good but are willing to do it for poverty wages.

pmulardon Ask HN: Is crypto an unviable, tech-bubble delusion?

Bitcoin and Ethereum, at a minimum, are decentralized digital gold. They are hedges against fiat currencies, which have their own set of problems and risks.

pmulardon ChatGPT: The end of new programming languages?

I’ve been in the camp of chatGPT being just a layer on top of google search - but I like your idea way more. A structured prompt language is a really interesting perspective.

pmulardon Important Coding Habits

I’ve been dealing with a herniated disc for almost a year now. It’s completely changed how I view my body, and it’s made me forever grateful for my health - along with complete respect for those dealing with chronic medical issues. For the first few months I could barely get out of bed. Nine months later and I can only walk a mile or two a day. Unfortunately, I was laid off right before it happened and haven’t been table to get surgery. Talk about bad luck. This experience has accentuated how horrible the American healthcare system is to me. Even if I wanted take another turn in the service industry until I get back into engineering, I can’t, because I need my body fixed first.

pmulardon Teaching Programming in the Age of ChatGPT

I see ChatGPT as the next “layer” on top of google search in the greater scheme of information. Before google, one had to spend a lot of time perusing the internet manually. And before that, people had to read physical books or call someone up and have a conversation over the phone. Google drastically sped up that process by giving you the information in 2 seconds, for what would normally take a few hours.

ChatGPT is a game changer for this same process. It speeds up the googling that would normally take a few hours and gives me my information in a few queries.

There have been so many times where I’m reading a book and need to research a bunch of technical terms it throws at me; which then consists of wading through blog posts or documentation, with varying levels of difficulty and quality.

This process is sped up 100x because of chat GPT, because I can followup with questions and customize them to my specific application. Sometimes I need things explained like I’m five; others, a deep technical deep dive.

Point is, it allows for dynamic interaction with content; it helps when I’m struggling with a bug, documentation, a book I’m reading, or pieces of code myself or someone else has written. It’s been an absolute game changer.

pmulardon Val, a high-level systems programming language

There's more of an explanation further down:

   To better understand, notice that longer_of is not a function; it’s a subscript. A subscript does not return a value, it projects one, granting the caller temporary read and/or write access to it.

I'm not really sure how this doesn't fall under a move? Regarding the string, they could also place it on the heap to allow for the variable sizing, which is what Rust does.

pmulardon Shopify elevated the non-manager career path and ditched meetings

I’m curious how many opportunities the IC path has to lead and conduct “managerial” duties. I’m sure it varies by company, but I’d like to believe it’s like how most research teams operate - leaders lead and organize meetings when necessary, but they are primarily responsible for the research at the end of the day.

I’ve only been a low level IC, so I don’t know what it looks like. Anyone care to share their experience?

pmulardon Stanford A.I. Courses

I recently completed the specialization with Andrew Ng and think it’s a fantastic introduction to ML. It has a good blend of theory, practical tips, and coding.

If anyone is interested, I’ve published detailed notes and my submissions for the lab assignments:

https://github.com/pmulard/machine-learning-specialization-a...

pmulardon Wall Street scooped up a third of Texas single family homes sold last year (2022)

Just curious, but what exactly do you mean by the appearance of low inflation?

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2023)

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid in the Bay Area
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: JavaScript, React, Python, Rust, Azure, Docker, SQL
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.82d415d6.pdf
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

Hi, I'm Peter and I have 3 years of experience as a software engineer, with 4 years previously as a mechanical engineer. I'm passionate about building software that contribute positively to society. I'm also highly curious and love to learn from others. I'm actively looking for full/part time roles in full-stack, back-end and front-end positions. Even if it isn't work related, feel free to reach out - I'm always happy to meet new people!

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2023)

Full Stack Software Engineer

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid/in-person in the Bay Area
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: JavaScript, React, Python, Azure, Docker, CI/CD, REST, SQL, NoSQL
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.9ca78d12.pdf
             https://linkedin.com/in/petermulard
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

pmulardon Intuit pouring money into lobbying amid push for free government-run tax filing

For anyone looking for alternatives, freetaxusa and CashApp are both great. I used the former for one year after I couldn’t get TurboTax for free anymore. Federal is free and state is $15 per.

Switched to cashapp for the past two years because it is completely free. Both are a smooth experience.

pmulardon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2023)

Full Stack Software Engineer

  Location: San Francisco
  Remote: Happy to work remotely or hybrid in the Bay Area
  Willing to relocate: Not at this time
  Technologies: JavaScript, React, Python, Azure, Docker, CI/CD, REST, SQL, NoSQL
  Résumé/CV: https://petermulard.me/static/media/resume.9ca78d12.pdf
             https://linkedin.com/in/petermulard
  Website:  https://petermulard.me

I'm actively looking for full/part time roles in full-stack, back-end and front-end positions. Even if it isn't work related, feel free to reach out - I'm always happy to meet new people!

pmulardon Walgreens Executive Says Shoplifting Threat in San Francisco Was Overstated

You pay $4 for a Gatorade because of how expensive the labor (store staff) and rent are. San Francisco would be much cheaper if it didn’t cost 5 grand a month to rent a tiny store front.

pmulardon The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America

One thing the post didn’t touch on with regards to health care - it’s tied to employment.

On one hand, we have tech companies covering all out of pocket expenses, and on the other, we have service industry people who can’t even get health care from their employer.

The same can be said for childcare, free meals at work, etc.

pmulardon Why is Booz Allen renting us back our own national parks?

Slightly off topic, but I feel like there are so many conflicting parties involved with the US national parks system. On one hand, we have groups of people who want to preserve the land as much as possible. But often these same people have no problems building new roads and swanky new amenities like hotels and restaurants in the middle of these parks. Yellowstone has some of the most wild and rugged terrain in the lower 48, yet some parts of it feel like DisneyWorld.

Which is it? Do we actually care about having natural land we can all enjoy, or are we just trying to add a few extra billion in our national budget? It all just comes off like a huge grift and way to exploit the land.

Then there are parks like Glacier, home to some of the most stunning natural beauty in the country, right next to Tribal Land with some of the most rampant poverty in the country. Suburban families cruise around in their brand new Subarus, while eating $30 bison burgers. They barely notice indigenous people, and the results of the land exploitation, on the way out.

pmulardon Apple blocks Coinbase Wallet

Strawman.

Besides, I can go gamble my money on stock options via Robinhood, but Apple doesn’t take a cut of that.

pmulardon Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware and liver cancer

I cook eggs on cast iron without them sticking, but it requires maintenance on the seasoning. The trick is to use some butter when cooking with eggs, and they slide right off. A quick wipe with a paper towel and the pan is clean (leaving butter residue helps keep it oiled for next time).

Cast iron is a pain to clean if you burn food and the burnt pieces stick, but the investment into learning how to cook with it is worth the reward imo.

pmulardon What I learned trying to classify abortion access across the rich world

Just because pregnancy is a possibility of sex does not mean it is a choice. By that logic, getting an STD is a “choice” because its a possibility of sex too, even if the other person lied about having one, broke the condom, etc.