Hacker News Reader

r0flson Red Hat to Acquire CoreOS

I think Google being able to buy Oracle is a bit of a stretch at this point. Oracle is 1/4 the market cap of Google. So, it seems unlikely they would have the capital available.

r0flson Why would anyone choose Docker over fat binaries?

I think the author's retort would be that PHP is one of these "outdated" languages like Python and Ruby. I tend to disagree, but overall enjoyed their opinion anyway. I came to criticize the article, but I think this comment already does that well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15578147

r0flson Orchid: a new surveillance-free layer on top of the existing Internet

Are you talking about https://www.torproject.org? We have different standards for websites it seems. That looks like it jumped out of the mid 90s to me.

r0flson Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

I know the OP is not the author, and this edit is about 30 years late. However, the quote "With stupidity and sound digestion, man may front much" should apparently be attributed to Thomas Carlyle, not Dickens: https://quotefancy.com/quote/917262/Thomas-Carlyle-With-stup...

r0flson Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

That's a good point, but "better" is a subjective word. If an individual is capable of enjoying life while using cocaine, without regrets that outweigh their experience, then cocaine has enriched their life. Drugs are always a mixed bag, and the bad generally outweighs the good, in my opinion. Others may feel differently though, so I don't want to deprive them of their definition of life enrichment. Enrichment is not enlightenment: If anyone claims these glasses will make a person's life more enlightened, I would then be skeptical. Enriched though, I can accept. Let's first imagine some of the less valuable things people may be doing with their time, specifically in the targeted age range.

r0flson Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

"Enrichment" isn't as strong of a word as you're thinking. If it makes life better or more enjoyable for someone, it's life enriching for them.

r0flson Japan adding mandatory programming education to all elementary schools

Well I tried to teach myself during high school and college but mostly learned after graduating. I always wanted to learn but my HS didn't have the resources and I felt behind by college. So I got a degree in math and have been struggling to play catch up still :) it's going good anyway but I surely would have enjoyed having something deeper than Excel back then. In middle school and high school I did have basic tech stuff like that.

r0flson Japan adding mandatory programming education to all elementary schools

You say you started learning at 9 -- I started much later and regret it -- why not get others started sooner?

r0flson 'Boaty McBoatface' polar ship named after David Attenborough

>> Debunking conspiracies is not science >Why not?

In the general sense of the word, it does qualify. However, my personal definition of doing science requires devotion toward advancement in a specific scientific field. I don't think that definition is actually uncommon. Specifically, few scientists (physicists, chemists, astronomers, biologists, etc...) will ever reference the work of the Mythbusters in their studies or attempts at explaining the universe or aspects of it. Bill Nye would be more likely to be referenced (at least by an aeronautical engineer), in my opinion, but like I said I don't imagine that's either's main focus; that is education. Mythbusters is specifically devoted to applying the scientific method to debunking myths, and that's awesome, but since they're not devoted to advancing a scientific field, I don't see what they do as science. As a far fetched analogy: if I apply the scientific method to blogging, it doesn't mean I'm doing science.

r0flson 'Boaty McBoatface' polar ship named after David Attenborough

Debunking conspiracies is not science, although surely it uses similar methods. Few scientists question whether we landed on the moon. Being a scientist relies on the ability to see true from false accurately -- Einstein and other great scientists questioned scientific phenomena and developed hypothesis to explain them. Whether some people believe we landed on the moon is a social phenomenon, and lies entirely outside the realm of science.

Also, before you start hating on Bill Nye so hard, please compare his reported scientific contributions[1] to Jamie Hyneman's and Adam Savage's (spoiler, theirs don't seem to exist). Last point about Nye: bow ties are ok. Seriously though, people don't hate on Feynman for having long hair or being a supposed sex swinger. I know Nye doesn't have the same prestige, but it's just a bow tie; I think you should give him a break.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nye#Scientific_work

Note: Bill Nye also engineered a part that was used in the 747 while he worked at Boeing

r0flson 'Boaty McBoatface' polar ship named after David Attenborough

>Mythbusters tremendously advanced the cause of science, and they did it in no small part by not taking themselves too seriously.

Personally I think that's a bit of a stretch, but I'm not trying to say the show isn't great. While scientists could learn from their format (providing videos of their experiments, for instance) I wouldn't say that the mythbusters have advanced the cause of science at all. Would you say that the TV show Bill Nye the science guy advanced the cause of science? Science education he has definitely advanced the cause of, but science: not from the TV show. Similarly, I think the mythbusters have advanced engineering education tremendously, specifically television engineering education.

If you think they have actually advanced the cause of science, I would love to hear why. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm just speaking from having watched a few episodes, so I definitely could be wrong.

r0flson Peer Street

This is reminding me of the Big Short. Hopefully it's a false alarm.

Anecdotal hypothesis: I found it very easy to be approved for a house I could hardly afford, so if there is another recession on the job market, I could see a lot of mortgages defaulting again. On the flip side, that's why Mortgage insurance is there. However, will we bail out the insurers next time, instead of the banks?

r0flson Count me as a systemd convert

Where does upstart stand in this? That's what I've used so far.

r0flson One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

From my limited understanding of economics: yes. The reason is that lower income people spend more of their money on necessities, whereas richer people spend more money on luxury goods (things they don't need), and they could hence respond more to an increase in sales tax (that is, spend less as a fraction of their income). To reiterate, the lower income people can't spend less (they're buying necessities), so the increase will cause them to spend a greater total fraction of their wages. So, when compared to an increase in income tax, an increase in sales tax is theoretically far more regressive.

r0flson I'm Writing a Book on Security

Daniel J. Bernstein would probably be a good candidate. Then again it looks like he has written a couple books already (disclaimer: no referral).

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%...

r0flson The End of Numeric Error: An interview with John L. Gustafson

How is dec64 different from Floating Point (IEEE 754)? It seems IEEE 754 allows for using base 10. What else do they do differently, do you know?

r0flson The End of Numeric Error: An interview with John L. Gustafson

Is that in the article? Or else, how do you know? I would like to write an implementation for fun in another language, but unum is getting mixed reviews here. Hence, it would be nice to see your source for it being incorporated into hardware.

r0flson GCE down in all regions

It seems to be working fine, I just tested.

r0flson Swift vs. Go

Is Swift a general purpose language? I thought it was for iOS and Mac development. I understand it is open source, but so is C#, and I don't see a lot of people using that outside of Windows (I could be wrong though).

r0flson Legalize It All

Technically I believe we are a Democratic Republic, as we directly vote on laws within our states. Legal Marijuana, for instance, was chosen by the Citizens of my state, Oregon; not by elected politicians.

r0flson If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly

While this isn't about MVPs or programming, this is Hacker News, so it's destined to be interpreted in that light once once posted here. I sympathize with your overall point, but reinterpretation contributes to timelessness.

r0flson Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2015)

Location: Portland, OR

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: some places Technologies: Python, SQL, JavaScript, C, Mongo (have played with a few other NoSQL databases like cassandra too), etc...

Resume: https://goo.gl/zIEiAa

Email: ubitquitous@gmail.com

GitHub: https://github.com/r0fls and https://github.com/r0f1s (commits to r0f1s are to private repos though so you can't see anything)

r0flson Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2014)

Location: Portland, OR

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: yes

Technologies: Python, Javascript, SQL

Resume: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9TGStTHY5p1N0p6V3dGQXkzOWs...

Email: raphael dot deem at gmail dot com

r0flson Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2014)

SEEKING WORK - Remote, Freelance, Portland, OR I live in Portland, Oregon, but am also happy to work remotely. I'm looking for full-time, programming, full-stack, or tech-lead opportunities. Links to my social profiles and resume are below. Please contact me for more information: raphael dot deem at gmail dot com.

[GitHub](https://github.com/r0fls)

[Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1318734/rofls)

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/raphael-deem/31/7ba/575)

[Resume](https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9TGStTHY5p1N0p6V3dGQXkzOWs/...)

r0flson Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2014)

Portland, OR Remote/Relocation, Full Time

Stack: Linux, Django, PostgreSQL, Python, Node.js, Socket.io, Apache, Nginx, R

Resume:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9TGStTHY5p1QzMyV0xtbnAzaFU....

Contact: raphael [at] thugrobot.com

I graduated with a math degree 4 years ago and have been realizing my career aspirations since then. My salary history encapsulates my success (feel free to ask), but I want to do what I enjoy: program computers. I am specifically looking for a position as a full stack developer, but am excited to hear about other positions as well.

Thanks! r0fls