Hacker News Reader

senthil_rajasekon Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose

I want my produce wrapped in this plastic not the forever plastic. Maybe the bio-degradable plastic has it's use cases for other special purpose packaging with a very short self life.

senthil_rajasekon 996

"Burning out on twelve-hour days, six days a week, has no prize at the end. It’s unsustainable, it shouldn’t be the standard and it sure as hell should not be seen as a positive sign of a company."

This

I've worked long hours back in the 2000's. I went home at 4:00AM no one asked me to but because I read somewhere that a certain CEO worked 20hrs a day.

My boss noticed and told me that there was nothing she could offer me for the extra hours.

I still continued to do it only to learn much later what the author posted in the article (see quote).

Working long hours is not a badge of honor, what you produce (in software atleast) is what matters.

senthil_rajasekon Why insurers worry the world could soon become uninsurable

States like Florida in the U.S already have "state backed" insurers of last resort.

Home insurance is definitely skyrocketing, I live in Minnesota and my premium tripled in 2024.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Property_Insurance_...

senthil_rajasekon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2025)

PSA: link is a pdf.

senthil_rajasekon The Many Sides of Erik Satie

My introduction to Erik Satie was through the Piano theme played in Beat Takeshi's [1] directorial debut Violent Cop[2].

I was hooked.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kitano 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Cop

senthil_rajasekon The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles

I am contrasting how instagram filters gave users some control and increased user base and how today editing photos with LLMs is doing the same and pulling in a wider user base.

senthil_rajasekon The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles

"My wife is using ChatGPT to change photos (still is to this day), she didn’t use it or any other LLM until that feature hit."

This is deja vu, except instead of ChatGPT to edit photos it was instagram a decade ago.

senthil_rajasekon I started with a SQL question. He said "that's a dumb question."

Moral of the story, you can be a star but still have to "work with" your managers.

senthil_rajasekon Systems Correctness Practices at Amazon Web Services

It would also be nice to list some "best practices" on how to handle non-fatal errors. I would be definitely interested to know of any sources.

senthil_rajasekon Run a C# file directly using dotnet run app.cs

I am an old hat. I've been in dotnet dev land for decades and still use bash (git bash).

Pros:

Syntax + access to familiar shell commands

Cons:

Bash scripts are not easy to maintain.

senthil_rajasekon How a Forgotten Battle Created a More Peaceful World

Based on the title, I thought this was an article about The Kalinga War, a war so bloody it moved the Emperor Ashoka to embrace non-violence and spread Buddhism throughout Asia.

senthil_rajasekon Dinner for One: British comedy Germans have been laughing at for years (2018)

Speaking of little known shows in their own country becoming iconic outside,

Are Germans aware how popular the "Didi's Comedy Show" was in India during the 80s?

I grew up with that show and still crack up at Didi's antics.

senthil_rajasekon Developing Developers (2015)

"... blunt, vigorously contrarian, uncompromising perfectionist and extremely honest."

Or what HR would call as "not a team player".

senthil_rajasekon The Problem of Thinking Too Much (2002)

Scene from Board Walk Empire Season 2 that uses the coin flip trick.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYsM1nIbKs&t=55s&pp=2AE3kAIB

senthil_rajasekon The Simple Algorithm That Ants Use to Build Bridges (2018)

If you find Ants interesting you would probably like E.O. Wilson's works. That's all he did his entire life, study ants.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_Ants

senthil_rajasekon The Right Kind of Stubborn

There are certain areas where the popular opinion is irrelevant. Warren Buffet said this in a more folksy way,

“It’s very important to live your life by an internal yardstick,” he told us, noting that one way to gauge whether or not you do so is to ask the following question: “Would you rather be considered the best lover in the world and know privately that you’re the worst — or would you prefer to know privately that you’re the best lover in the world, but be considered the worst?”

source: https://time.com/archive/6904425/my-650100-lunch-with-warren...

senthil_rajasekon Car dealerships revert to pens and paper after cyberattacks on software provider

>Name 1 or 2 other things you buy "sight unseen" that are remotely close to the cost of a new vehicle

That question cannot be answered, we all know that nothing is comparable to that price in an average household's shopping list.

But a few years ago a shoe purchase was in store only but a month ago I bought a new pair online. Because I knew that I could try it and return it easily.

Luckily, I didn't have to return.

I wish I could do the same with cars.

senthil_rajasekon Car dealerships revert to pens and paper after cyberattacks on software provider

We buy so many things "sight unseen" because of the quality and reliability.

As an average car consumer, I have done many test drives and gotten nothing out of it except the car salesman looking like he did something.

I will buy a reliable car sight unseen like I bought my big screen t.v.

senthil_rajasekon A humble Indian fabric became a symbol of luxury in 1960s America

I can tell Madras or not Madras easily but not so much plaid or tartan.

Disclaimer: I am from the region and know the pattern very well.BTW Madras is also the British name for the city of Chennai.

senthil_rajasekon An intuitive guide to Maxwell's equations (2020)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23700295

(Link from 2020 w/ 93 comments)

senthil_rajasekon Show HN: Use Go's HTML/template to write React-like code

This is nice. Thanks for sharing.

When I heard "react" I immediately thought SPA and Event handling in the browser.

This is more close to ASP .NET ( organizing views on the server side).

This is very useful but this is not for handling events on the client.

Thanks again for sharing.

senthil_rajasekon Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

If you can relax requirement #3 then stand up comedy comes close.

p.s : professional stand up comic here, been trying to quit my day job for 14 years :-)

senthil_rajasekon Stress reduction techniques for high stress operations (2023)

"while the majority of the crew fight a fire underneath the kerosene filled cable spools (with kilometers of microphone cables) during a monsoon storm."

That reads like a scene from a distater movie. I am talking regular people with day jobs!

Also, your use of India / Pakistan while you could have used any other nuclear power smells of prejudice.

senthil_rajasekon Stress reduction techniques for high stress operations (2023)

My comment was specifically about people stuck in a toxic work environment in a civilian establishment and I made no claims about other situations.

senthil_rajasekon Stress reduction techniques for high stress operations (2023)

Also, if you are not fighting a war and your workplace is so toxic that you have to take military grade advice on stress reduction then you should look for a new job.

senthil_rajasekon Pleasures by Aldous Huxley (1920)

"But I would rather put in eight hours a day at a Government office than be condemned to lead a life of "pleasure" "

I would like to hear that from a real government employee or any employee who has no other choice but to HAVE a job...

senthil_rajasekon Falsehoods junior developers believe about becoming senior

Comparing programming to Medicine is not a apples to apples comparison.

Atleast, in the U.S there is huge shortage of medical doctors.

Besides programming is ideal for a try/fail/learn approach on your own.

A well known perl wisdom is "what you don't know won't hurt you"

I am happy programming is an "open" profession.

senthil_rajasekon J.G. Ballard: My Favorite Books

'My copy of the Los Angeles “Yellow Pages” I stole from the Beverly Hilton Hotel three years ago; ....'

Hah. This man gets a kick out of reading the phone book.

senthil_rajasekon Why is machine learning 'hard'? (2016)

I have always thought of ML (not DL) as phenomena that can be modelled mathematically.

It turns out that not all problems have a great mathematical model like self driving cars for instance and so the search continues...

senthil_rajasekon The Inner Ring (1944)

While primate studies are useful to understand some of the human behavior I question their use to explain all human behavior.

I would like to think that we have evolved new ways to live in complex societies.

We have non-primitive languages for instance.