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random42_

258 karma · joined May 26, 2017

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random42_··on Pro chefs debate cooking tips and tricks
Myself, I use a stainless steel frying pan on medium high, steaks stay on each side for about 4-5 minutes and that’s it. Perfect medium rare all the time with a great sear on the outside. That’s for 1” steaks by the way.
random42_··on The Roll-Out of Windows 11 Is the Perfect Time to Decide to Switch to Linux
That’s really interesting and I’ll see if I can try it. Thanks for posting.
random42_··on The Roll-Out of Windows 11 Is the Perfect Time to Decide to Switch to Linux
I have been using Linux as my primary OS for years now, and while it does 99% of what I need, there’s still the 1% that requires me to have dual boot.

Photoshop and another art software (Clip Studio Paint, for example) require Windows (or a Mac). I could probably get away with using Krita instead (and I do use it on Windows as well) but my drawing tablet (Huion display tablet) doesn’t work on Linux. Somebody wrote a set of scripts for it and it kinda works but you loose some functionality.

There is also the guitar amp & fx modeling software, plus a bunch of other audio softwares that may or may not have a counterpart on Linux. And I did try Wine with mixed results.

So, if you’re just browsing the internet or doing software development, you’re probably good and can migrate, otherwise, that article is maybe too miopic.

random42_··on When new seat belt laws drew fire as a violation of personal freedom (2020)
In that case I think enforcing it was necessary to break the status quo. If it should no longer be a law and let people decide is up to each one’s personal opinions. Myself, I think if someone wants to take risk and maybe get killed there are more efficient ways of doing it and in a way that wouldn’t potentially cause damage to others.
random42_··on When new seat belt laws drew fire as a violation of personal freedom (2020)
Where I come from, people did not have the habit of wearing seat belts, even though, at the time, it was proven to help in case of accidents. The media was all over it but people still not wore them. Government then decided to make it a law to wear it and those not wearing would be fined. The law was really enforced and, eventually, everyone was wearing it and it’s a no brainer today.

If not for the law and the fines, the behavior of not wearing it wouldn’t have changed or, if it did, it would take much longer.

Edit: typo

random42_··on Ask HN: Do any discussion boards that aren't Facebook/Reddit still exist?
Discourse is closer to IRC than forums IMHO.
random42_··on The role of high-skilled foreign labor in startup performance
Oh I got that you meant H1B transfer. But the thing is that it was never a transfer, it was just a new application. I did it in 2011 and it was exactly the same process (I got no RFEs but a friend that got an RFE in his first application got another one when doing his second). It was indeed harder during Trump’s administration, and I even know a person that got his second application denied and couldn’t change jobs.
random42_··on The role of high-skilled foreign labor in startup performance
There is no such thing as visa transfer process. When you’re switching jobs on an H1B you follow the same process as if it were a new application, with the exception it can be done any time in the year and the visa cap doesn’t apply.
random42_··on Simone Biles Makes History as First Woman to Ever Land Yurchenko Double Pike
What makes an event exciting is seeing someone bringing it to the next level and doing stuff nobody has ever done before. The competition can’t keep up? Their problem. Let the next generation train twice as they do so they can get to that level one day.
random42_··on Amazon Prime inflates prices, using the false promise of ‘free shipping’
I guess they bought in bulk and repackaged?

I know somebody who sells stuff at Amazon as a third-party seller. It’s a common strategy to do exactly that: find items that are selling for more than the local store, buy it from the local store and sell it on Amazon. There’s more to it for selecting which products to sell but this is basically how it works. There are people selling courses teaching these things.

random42_··on Ask HN: Did preparing for LeetCode type of interviews improve your skills?
it doesn’t matter that you can solve them, you need to be able to solve them in under a minute while your interviewer is constantly distracting you. so basically, it has nothing to do with being able to build software.

I realized that my issue with this style of interview are not the questions, but this exactly. I can solve lots of Leetcode problems, some just take me longer than others.

It’s even worse when the interviewers behave like you described. Most I’ve met, luckily, were cool and just followed what I was doing eventually asking some questions and sometimes giving me pointers; the worse I’ve found would not accept any solution I proposed and would keep asking “how about not using extra space or how about solving in O(1) or how about you solve this in 5 seconds”. So freaking annoying.

random42_··on Java's records, Lombok's data, and Kotlin's data classes
You have to scroll the page reeeeeally slow to let the text load where it’s supposed to.
random42_··on Apple Watch Likely to Gain BP, Blood Glucose, and Blood Alcohol Monitoring
From the linked article: Apple has been revealed to be the largest customer of the British electronics start-up Rockley Photonics, The Telegraph reports.

Rockley Photonics has developed non-invasive optical sensors for detecting multiple blood-related health metrics, including blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood alcohol levels, many of which are only normally detectable with more invasive dedicated medical equipment. Rockley's sensors beam infrared light through a user's skin, much like the existing sensors on the back of the Apple Watch for detecting heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

Edit: formatting

random42_··on Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?
There are a lot of great resources mentioned here so I won’t repeat them. I will add (although it might be obvious) that receiving feedback on your work is as important as following lessons and tutorials. So, finding a group of artists to exchange honest and constructive criticism will speed up your progress.
random42_··on Browsers eating RAM
Off topic: a bit hard to read on iOS Safari because left margin is 0 (or close to).

Back to the subject at hand: Chrome is a memory hog and there’s nothing new here, but nice to see the comparison with Safari. Too bad Firefox wasn’t part of the test.

random42_··on Final Calvin and Hobbes Strip
There was also 2 official 16-month calendars that were released. I believe for 1988-1989 and for 1989-1990. Each month contains a Calvin and Hobbes strip.
random42_··on Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
I've seem this kind of reaction coming from my friends and colleagues here in US, because they are still using SMS (or Apple's Messages when they have an iPhone) for messaging. And there is rarely a thing like "I'll text that store to place an order for delivery" or many of the other uses WhatsApp get in other countries.

I wouldn't say this is on purpose but they are unaware of how WhatsApp is used everywhere else.

random42_··on WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update Allows User Data to Be Shared with Facebook
In some countries SMS is not free and might get quite expensive. This is one of the reasons WhatsApp became so popular in these places.
random42_··on Scientists studying why gamers invert their controls
Well, I did spend hours playing on flying simulators with the default inverted axis (yoke down to climb up, yoke up to climb down) and I do not invert the axis when playing other types of games. Anecdotal but this is true for my friends that play/played the same type of games.
random42_··on Microsoft's CEO is tired of working from home and he's not alone
> Remote meetings are great. They tend to be shorter, get to the point

My team loves meetings. Every question asked was an excuse to gather a bunch of people around a desk and talk for almost an hour. Precious hours wasted in useless meetings. The best thing that happened with remote work was that my team realized that a single message or email was more than enough 99% of the time and now we don’t waste so many hours in those useless meetings anymore.

random42_··on Ask HN: What is a better approach to interviewing?
A thing that happens to me is that, even though the problem is not hard, the interviewer attitude puts me off. More often than not the interviewers are arrogant and act like they don’t want to be there - and the make sure I am aware of that. That is enough to make me get things wrong and fail.
random42_··on Firefox 80
Same with me. I jumped to Chrome as soon as it came out because FF was sluggish and pretty much impossible to use. Ironically Chrome was a memory hog although performance didn’t really suffer. When Quantum came out, I switched back to FF and never looked back. Nowadays FF is my primary browser and I use Safari as a secondary browser. Luckily I’ve never experienced the performance issues that come up every time that there is a thread about FF on HN (although I’m starting to suspect that my habit of keeping just a few tabs open might be the reason).
random42_··on I’m Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
Anecdata: I have a couple of friends that switched companies as soon as they got their green cards that are US Citizens now.
random42_··on Reopening Bars Is Easy. Schools Are Difficult
It’s really hard to believe it when you have parents saying crap like “my daughter will never wear a mask and will hug her teachers and friends!”. That was one of the comments made by a parent in a survey my school district sent to help them understand how to proceed for the upcoming school year (we had access to the answers; anonymized, of course). And there were a lot with the same tone.

I don’t know, I’m afraid that even with all measures in place there are too many people that don’t believe the pandemics is real and don’t try even a bit to make their part as a member of the community.

Edit: typos.

random42_··on Charter staff told to report to offices despite positive coronavirus tests
“This will all come back to bite them in the ass eventually,” the employee said.“

Considering they are pretty much a monopoly, I doubt it. Unfortunately.

random42_··on Ask HN: Have you been laid off?
My understanding (I’m a former H1B myself) is that if you lose your current job and sponsor you have some time (don’t remember exactly how many months) to find a new sponsor otherwise you need to leave. Didn’t happen with me, but I had a couple of coworkers that came to work for the same company and were let go and had to leave the country because they didn’t find another sponsor.
random42_··on South Korea Preserved the Open Society and Now Infection Rates Are Falling
> What about contact tracing? Have you hear South Korea let confirmed cases leave the hospital with fake name + addresses? U.S. has. [1]

Not trying to defend their actions but I’d bet they were trying to avoid being put on quarentine in the hospital to later receive a hefty bill to pay.

random42_··on H-1B in 2020: Immigration Visa Faces Further Restrictions
I went through a transfer of sponsors and I can tell you that the process and cost was the same as getting my H1B the first time. The only difference was that I wasn’t restricted by the yearly cap and the transfer could happen at any time - unlike the first H1B which needs to be filed starting in April and the visa stamped in October.
random42_··on Ask HN: Best Static Site Builder?
I am also a Hugo user - and I love it - but also find the documentation pretty bad. Not only hard to find stuff I need but also pretty basic sometimes.
random42_··on Man Who Hired Deadly Swatting Gets 15 Months
The person who actually made the call was sentenced to 20 years: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/03/man-behind-fatal-swattin...
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